October 3rd, 2008
Stop brain-dead software testing!
Lousy software testing damages many IT projects. When testing doesn’t uncover obvious problems that prevent software from operating as users expect, then failed projects are inevitable.
The consequences of brain-dead testing can be severe. For example, clothing retailer J.Crew recently had serious customer relationship problems when it deployed poorly tested software:
J.Crew reported weaker than expected second-quarter earnings due to severe problems following a website and call center upgrade. The fiasco caused cost the company $3 million in addition to lost sales and dissatisfied customers.
- Related: J.Crew: Failed upgrade hits financial performance
Last April’s massive IT failure at Heathrow Airport’s terminal T5 was also caused by brain-dead testing. In a moment of understatement adding insult to injury, British Airways CEO, Willie Walsh, commented:
We are working hard to tackle the difficulties we have had with the terminal’s baggage system. From time to time problems have developed that were not encountered during the extensive trials.
For another example of testing madness, look no further than Georgia Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Last August, the company wrongly released 200,000 medical records into the wild because of poor testing. A spokesperson told me:
There was a system change that was not comprehensively tested. We have already made changes to prevent it from happening in the future.
Click for five important tips to improve implementation testing. –>
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Michael Krigsman is CEO of Asuret, Inc., a software and consulting company dedicated to reducing software implementation failures. Click here to discuss this post with him on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 10/03/08
