'Forfeiting quality magnifies recession': Study

OHIO, USA: According to Quality-Centric ALM in a Down Economy, a new white paper released by Seapine Software, companies can survive an economic downturn by increasing their focus on quality.

Seapine’s research shows that many organizations cut back on testing and QA activities in the rush to develop and release products. Releasing products regularly helps maintain mindshare, but ignoring quality to push software out the door results in:

• Avoidable labor costs
• Increased baseline costs
• Delayed sales and lost revenue
• Diminished reputation and market share
• Regulatory non-compliance 

 Findings indicate that software quality often suffers because of one or more of the following:

• Organizations assume that testing will find the problems.
• Time to market is the key measurement for success.
• QA is not involved from the beginning.
• Developers only want to work on new features and leave quality up to the QA department.

The white paper includes research from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Gartner Group, and the Seapine Software Quality-Ready Assessment. Along with that data, it provides ways to overcome the issues threatening software quality and thrive during a recession.