Quality VS. Cost – Does this debate still exist in testing?

[Ronan Healy]

I came across a recent blog post highlighting the fact that when not enough time or budget is put into testing there can be huge costs (e.g. F-35 Fighter jet, Starbuck cash register shutdown across the U.S, Nissan car recall), the list could go on.

I wanted to ask though if you think that this argument is still relevant. Is there still a quality Vs Cost payoff in testing.

Can you only have high quality testing at a expensive cost. Or with the rise of processes like Agile and DevOps and the greater integration of development teams, does this argument become less important?

[Archana]

I think there still a quality Vs Cost payoff in testing. But cost in terms of time more than in terms of money.

[Alin]

Hi Ronan,

The examples in the blog post are a bit surprisingly especially because in industries like automotive and avionics testing is very important and a large part of the budget is invested in testing; the testing process consists of many stages including audits, inspections from regulators, certifications from various authorities etc.

Regarding the debate about quality vs. costs, nowadays time is the main factor in this equation. Also, DevOps changed the development process and now testers are focused on automation, continuous deployment / continuous integration, containers etc. The current trend is to have faster deployments. Thus, deliveries are very frequent and this is mainly the target: to have more and more releases in a shorter time. In this context, testing is integrated in the development process; everything is automated in the deployment flow and faster delivered. Therefore, the debate is changed to quality vs. release time.

Regards,
Alin

[Samantha]

I read through your question and all the answer here. I still agree that the debate between quality and cost still exists, the difference partly depends on the scale of business.  For example, for SMEs with the limited budget, the cost is both about testing services maintenance fees in particular and production cost in general. For big ones, there might not the concern in maintenance fees but the opportunity cost, production costs are really considerable instead. In common sense, to have good quality products, we have to spend much money in the production process. However, in my viewpoint, there are still ways for us to avoid or at least reduce the battle between quality and cost in testing.
In my case, our company is not a big one, we have the limited budget and was frustrated to find a solution to balance cost and quality. We thought of trying some commercial tools but the problem is the ones with high price is excellent while the ones with low price cannot satisfy our expectation. We were searching for a cost effective solution, but need to be good enough and we chose to check out SoapUI OpenSource (developed by Smartbear) and Katalon Studio (developed by KMS Technology). Both are great and meet our requirement, but we chose the second option for our project since the features are not limited as the first one. If your projects have a larger amount of money, give it a try and you might enhance the Pro one. In our situation, thinking about long-term, Katalon Studio, which is totally free (except somethings like test consulting, testers providing) is a better choice. At least until now, our quality vs cost problem solved significantly. In the long run, if there is any other tool better, they possibly become our alternative. But now, the customer service and the quality of Katalon Studio keep making me feel right when choosing it.
More details about the recommended free tools here:

1. SoapUI OpenSource: https://www.soapui.org/

2. Katalon Studio: https://www.katalon.com/?utm_source=quora&utm_campaign=Lan&utm_medium=QnA

No matter which tool or open source you choose, the human resource is the most important. Have to understand their ability to choose the suitable solutions besides the financial situation of the project. This is, you all know, just an issue of the production process, many other things need to be discuss. It would be so good if we can discuss more solutions to balance quality and cost in a larger prospect.

[Samantha]

I read through your question and all the answer here. I still agree that the debate between quality and cost still exists, the difference partly depends on the scale of business.  For example, for SMEs with the limited budget, the cost is both about testing services maintenance fees in particular and production cost in general. For big ones, there might not the concern in maintenance fees but the opportunity cost, production costs are really considerable instead. In common sense, to have good quality products, we have to spend much money in the production process. However, in my viewpoint, there are still ways for us to avoid or at least reduce the battle between quality and cost in testing. In my case, our company is not a big one, we have the limited budget and was frustrated to find a solution to balance cost and quality. We thought of trying some commercial tools but the problem is the ones with high price is excellent while the ones with low price cannot satisfy our expectation. We were searching for a cost effective solution, but need to be good enough and we chose to check out SoapUI OpenSource (developed by Smartbear) and Katalon Studio (developed by KMS Technology). Both are great and meet our requirement, but we chose the second option for our project since the features are not limited as the first one. If your projects have a larger amount of money, give it a try and you might enhance the Pro one. In our situation, thinking about long-term, Katalon Studio, which is totally free (except somethings like test consulting, testers providing) is a better choice. At least until now, our quality vs cost problem solved significantly. In the long run, if there is any other tool better, they possibly become our alternative. But now, the customer service and the quality of Katalon Studio keep making me feel right when choosing it. More details about the recommended free tools here:

SoapUI OpenSource: https://www.soapui.org/
Katalon Studio: https://www.katalon.com/

No matter which tool or open source you choose, the human resource is the most important. Have to understand their ability to choose the suitable solutions besides the financial situation of the project. This is, you all know, just an issue of the production process, many other things need to be discuss. It would be so good if we can discuss more solutions to balance quality and cost in a larger prospect.

[Samantha]

I read through your question and all the answer here. I still agree that the debate between quality and cost still exists, the difference partly depends on the scale of business.  For example, for SMEs with the limited budget, the cost is both about testing services maintenance fees in particular and production cost in general. For big ones, there might not the concern in maintenance fees but the opportunity cost, production costs are really considerable instead. In common sense, to have good quality products, we have to spend much money in the production process. However, in my viewpoint, there are still ways for us to avoid or at least reduce the battle between quality and cost in testing.

In my case, our company is not a big one, we have the limited budget and was frustrated to find a solution to balance cost and quality. We thought of trying some commercial tools but the problem is the ones with high price is excellent while the ones with low price cannot satisfy our expectation. We were searching for a cost effective solution, but need to be good enough and we chose to check out SoapUI OpenSource (developed by Smartbear) and Katalon Studio (developed by KMS Technology). Both are great and meet our requirement, but we chose the second option for our project since the features are not limited as the first one. If your projects have a larger amount of money, give it a try and you might enhance the Pro one. In our situation, thinking about long-term, Katalon Studio, which is totally free (except somethings like test consulting, testers providing) is a better choice. At least until now, our quality vs cost problem solved significantly. In the long run, if there is any other tool better, they possibly become our alternative. But now, the customer service and the quality of Katalon Studio keep making me feel right when choosing it. More details about the recommended free tools here:

SoapUI OpenSource: https://www.soapui.org/
Katalon Studio: https://www.katalon.com/

No matter which tool or open source you choose, the human resource is the most important. Have to understand their ability to choose the suitable solutions besides the financial situation of the project. This is, you all know, just an issue of the production process, many other things need to be discuss. It would be so good if we can discuss more solutions to balance quality and cost in a larger prospect.

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