The speed of software development and quality still remains a major challenge for businesses, with 77pc of users unhappy with the speed and 50pc dissatisfied with the quality of software.
This is according to a new report by IT services company Sogeti, which highlights increasingly poor track records for delivery of software on time and within budget.
“Traditional software development approaches have a poor track record when it comes to delivering working software that meets business requirements as well as on time and within budget,” Ken Brennock, director of technology and principal consultant at Sogeti Ireland, explained.
“Projects invariably fail because of lack of end-user involvement, poor requirements definition, unrealistic schedules, lack of testing and inflexible processes,” Brennock said.
The Agile software development approach offers a potential solution to these problems. “At its heart, Agile is all about quality and focusing on the customer. Testing therefore has a significant role to play within an Agile development environment in ensuring that what is delivered meets the users’ requirements with the right level of quality,” Brennock said.
The Sogeti report points out: “Testing is therefore adapting the traditional principles of a hierarchical test strategy and applying them with rigour and discipline.
But with Agile, the process is reviewed as each major step is completed so there is a tangible result for the customer each step of the way and this is all achieved without the reams of paper documentation that appeared in the past.
“Professional testers are rising to this challenge of more closely collaborating with developers, analysts and other business stakeholders, operating as fully-integrated team members. In the search for faster software development this can only be of benefit to organisations that need to keep one step ahead.”
Sogeti’s white paper, ‘Maximising the value of good testing practice in an Agile environment’ can be downloaded at www.sogeti.ie
The Sogeti report will be launched at a free Webinar on ‘Effective Use of Tools in Agile’ which takes place on 7 October at 11am.
By John Kennedy
Photo: Most users are dissatisfied with the quality of software and the speed of software development, a report by IT services company Sogeti suggests.
