Site Under Construction!

In the current climate of the credit crunch and with so much positive press around the buoyancy of the internet, more organizations are looking to the World Wide Web to maintain or increase sales. What many are doing is realizing that their sites are perhaps not as good as they could be and are investing in updating or de-developing them. For others, the process of site maintenance is an ongoing activity with a dedicated team.

So with all of this development going on, it would be fair to assume that there must be a lot of testing as well? I would suggest that the answer is no. For some reason, when people are requesting development of web sites, it is believed that they are best placed to ensure that it is fit for purpose.

This is a bad assumption for several reasons:
1. Finding the time to thoroughly test the website is difficult to achieve. The people responsible for the new website are normally being asked to do this as one of many tasks.
2. The attention to detail required to check the entire site, is high and demands a certain type of individual. The tester has this mindset and is used to applying methodical and meticulous tests, whereas the business person may not be.
3. This may be the first time that the business person has been asked to test anything. Testers are used to testing websites, this is something that they do on a regular basis and this enables them to make better use of their time, homing in on problem areas.
4. Business resources normally check things positively, making sure that situations that are expected are dealt with. The tester introduces negative testing. Checking to understand that the site can handle abnormal activity, that which deviates from the norm.

So what is happening? Companies are employing development agencies and placing themselves in their care. They are relying on the development agency to ensure the quality of the site. The business are doing their best to make sure that the site is okay and are paying for development when they think it is finished.

In a normal IT project, the business relies on the testers to ensure that the application is to a certain standard before it comes anywhere near to them and this step is not being performed. Three problems result from a lack of in-built quality: The first is that the development agency is paid for the delivery, even though problems may not manifest until later. The second is that the development agency is held in low esteem once they have been found to have under-delivered. The third is that the organization requesting the website, find that they have a tool which does not meet their needs and therefore requires further investment to put the problems right.

The involvement of testing as part of the process ensures that the site is performing as was requested. It can be used as a means of safeguarding the payment, ensuring that the development agency have fully delivered prior to releasing funds. It also protects the development agency from losing their customer due to poor satisfaction.

The design is truly the prerogative of the business and only they can say if the look of the site is what they wanted to achieve. Other than this it should be placed in the hands of the experts. Remember that better quality, means customers are happier to use the site, more likely to find what you have to offer and therefore an increase in sales should result. I have said in many places that a poor web experience results in lost sales and that users are highly likely to leave your site for one offering a better experience or easier to find items.