Especially when you find yourself in the role of the end user, you realize how disturbing errors in the program code of a website can be. A page doesn't load or loads slowly, always delivers an error when you want to go to the shopping cart or the login doesn't work again - all things a user probably experienced once. All these errors often lead to the fact that you end up placing an order in another shop or simply leave the website and no longer visit it. Especially from a company's point of view, the website is an important interface with the customer, especially in a time when online trade is becoming more and more important and end customers prefer to visit a website instead of using the classical ways. errors in the program code of a website are more than just annoying: they make sure that customers are lost or do not convert at all. A typo in the database schema or an uncovered special case can very easily lead to customers not being able to complete the order process or not wanting to use the service as a whole. Much more dangerous, however, are so-called data mishaps: the access of unauthorized third parties to valuable and security-critical customer data, such as credit card data or passwords. A
report published in 2019 by IBM Security puts the average cost of a data breach at just under 4 million US dollars, which is the end of the road for many companies. This is because the monetary loss suffered is almost always accompanied by the much more serious loss of confidence in the company on the part of its own customers or users - damage from which a company rarely fully recovers.
Website testing consists of several types of software testing, depending on the use case and objective. To ensure the correct behaviour of a website,
functional tests are available, in which the program code is checked against predefined test cases, as well as so-called
usability tests, in which automated actions on a website can be checked for their function. To ensure the security of the website or application, both classic
code reviews, in which a software tester checks the program code line by line, and dedicated security tests are often used to ensure the security of the website or application. During these security tests the security relevant part of the application is thoroughly tested. Both the cryptographic implementation of certain algorithms and the function in special cases are validated by IT security experts. Even attack vectors by malicious third parties can be anticipated in such tests and the system can be provisionally hardened accordingly.
For the reasons mentioned above, it is strongly recommended that a website always be thoroughly tested before the end user interacts directly with it. A widespread practice of "testing by the customer" is unfortunately often accompanied by a loss of trust instead of making the result appear high-quality. Only a comprehensive and goal-oriented testing strategy can ensure that your own customers are not prevented from making a purchase or carrying out a certain action by software errors. Intensive and rigorous security testing by experts can prevent third parties from gaining access to sensitive customer data and thus prevent your company from losing not only money but also its reputation. The return on investment (ROI) of a product that delivers an excellent user experience can be enormous. For example, according to Forbes, in Amazon's first year, Jeff Bezos invested 100 times more in the usability of Amazon services than in advertising. Today, Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world.
We at ditCraft have many years of experience in developing the right QA strategy for our customers in the shortest possible time, to make the important goals of customer satisfaction and security come first again. Especially in times of agile software development, we know how important it is to automate tests as much as possible in order not to slow down the development process unnecessarily and still achieve the desired quality requirements. With our many years of experience in the development of high-performance CI/CD pipelines, we enable our customers to establish an agile and effective process that not only gets them to their goal faster, but also strengthens their self-confidence and the trust of their customers by integrating our tests. As experts in the field of cyber security and cryptography, ditCraft is the right partner when it comes to protecting a website against attacks and being perfectly prepared for incidents.
If you are interested in website testing and would like to get an overview of the possibilities for your IT company, please contact us via our
contact form or arrange a
consultation via our calendar.