Thoughts On Testing Trends in Software and Webpage Development

By: Dorian J. Burnette

Disclaimer: These opinions are my own and in no way whatsoever do they represent the opinions of my employers.

Introduction:

Every piece of computer software no matter how "bug-free" the developers say it is contains bugs. It is a simple fact of programming computers, and statements saying otherwise are full of hogwash. However, it seems thorough testing of software and webpages has taken a back seat to launching the end product. This trend is pathetic from a business standpoint not to mention from a commonsense standpoint.

Software Development:

The trend I have noticed is the concept of rushing software out the door to make the dollar. I ask what does this achieve? It seems very logical that it would make things worse for the company in the longrun. If software is rushed out the door, then chances are it will contain a considerable amount of bugs because it does not undergo a thorough testing phase. This turns what should be a promising new release into an absolutely worthless product. A fact that is even more annoying is that some companies will later release their debugged program in the form of a "major upgrade" and require another payment in order for customers to receive it. This makes the customers pay for the company's mistakes. One word comes to mind--absurd!

I am also not a fan of quick fixes. Any updates that are done to a program should be tested regardless of how trivial the modifications are. I have seen way too many times where minor fixes have crashed computers. I do not care what type of release schedule the program is under. Releasing a quick fix is an unwise business practice period. Please folks, let's test those programs before we release them.

Webpage Development:

There seems to be more webpages on the Internet that contain serious programming flaws. This is especially the case in the realm of Javascript programming. I have become seriously excerised by the amount of Javascript errors I observe out on the Internet everyday and nothing makes me leave a website faster. This is inexcusable! All a webpage designer needs to do is pull up the webpage in a browser to make certain it works. This takes a whopping 10 seconds. It should also be noted that statements like "we only design our webpage for a particular browser" will not suffice. If a certain piece of code (Javascript or whatever) is going to be used and certain browsers do not support it, then add a simple "if statement" (just a couple of lines of code) that blasts the other browsers past the incompatible code. I like programming cool stuff too, but the simple fact of the matter is that you cannot just leave the bulk of your customers out to dry. This support for one specific web browser some websites do is pointless. All that does is lower the potential number of customers to the website. Now that said, end users need to keep up with new technology to some extent. Not everyone needs the latest and greatest thing, but the old notion of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" will not suffice either in areas of technology. There is more I could say on that topic, but that is beyond the scope of this essay.

Final Comments:

As is clear throughout this essay, I am not happy with some of the software and webpage development trends. Some of this is due a programmer's desire to place everything including the kitchen sink into a piece of software or webpage (also known as "bloatware"). There is no need to take things to pointless complexity when simple things will suffice. In other areas it is pressure from upper management to get the program out the door by a specific deadline. Clearly some companies need to take a step backward and ask themselves this question: Do we want a topnotch piece of software or webpage with plenty of customers that we can be proud of or do we want to botch the job and loose customers? I have sincere doubts that the latter will suffice with any company.

Last Update: 17 January 2006