Blog

Our vision is to revolutionize and automate the loan servicing workflow of the global financial community.

How A Great Testing Strategy Improves Quality Development

testing

Shaw Systems has been developing enterprise software for over 50 years for the financial services industry. In that time, we developed multiple generations of software for loan and lease servicing, collections and recovery, and wholesale floor planning. And in that time, we have certainly learned the value of proper testing of our development. We consider ourselves experts on software development, and thus understand the true value of a great testing strategy.

Importance Of Testing

When developing new code for enterprise level software, there are potentially thousands of downstream effects of any changes or additions made. The effects of changes made to code can be well understood with proper planning, however, there is always the opportunity to miss new code’s potential impact. No matter how well new functionality is planned, there is no substitute for testing, verifying, and documenting the expected behavior of the software. Without a robust and well executed testing methodology, software development companies may find themselves fixing coding issues found by upset clients.

The Role of Manual Testing

For software development firms producing specialized software for specific, intricate industries, there may be a role for continued manual testing. To help support clients with custom code, the use of focused manual testing can help ensure the new code produces the exact result the client will expect. Executing the manual testing needed with a new release allows the testing team time to plan for the eventual automation of testing code. In other cases, when there are dependencies with other applications, manual testing scripts can be provided to the client to help facilitate their internal testing.

The Necessity Of An Automated Testing Suite

For highly configurable software, the need for automated testing is paramount for continued development. Without it, the development and testing teams' chances of success are incredibly low. Without a testing suite, manual testing requirements will continue to pile on top of each other until providing additional functionality becomes impossible.

For enterprise software development, knowing how much coverage you have in your automated testing suite will allow the development team to accurately predict how much testing can be done, how long it will take, and how much manual testing will be left. Only a robust automated testing suite allows for this level of certainty in developing new major releases.

The Results Of The Right Testing Strategy

Quality is extremely important when it comes to loan servicing software development. Automated testing provides the highest quality which means it is more reliable than only manual testing. Developers and testers want to ensure that the software is working as designed in the initial stages of development.

Testing accuracy is crucial for software development organizations and provides the best software and user experience. Having an accurate record of fixes saves time, money, and problems that could come further down the road if a bug is not found in the earlier stages. Loan account management system development teams test their products, but sometimes software still has defects. Testers try to catch every defect that they can before a product’s release but sometimes bugs sneak in. Automated testing software increases and improves the accuracy of catching bugs with its effectiveness, efficiency, and coverage of testing.

Even the best testers will make mistakes during manual testing. For example, when manually testing an extraordinarily complex use case, faults can and do occur. Human error is expected, but it can be reduced and mostly eliminated with testing automation. Automated testing can execute tests with 100 percent (or remarkably close to 100 percent) accuracy every time. Manual testing should be avoided as much as possible. By implementing an automated testing process, your organization will be able to deliver higher quality products with little to no defects. Also, your QA (Quality Assurance) team can be freed up to spend time on more valuable tasks like building new tools and new features.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to us about Shaw’s loan servicing software solutions, contact us at solutions@shawsystems.com.