It is known that the cost of a defect, rises significantly the later in the process it is discovered. Find and fix problems in the lab is about  80-100 times cheaper and 50 times faster than fixing a problem after the software is released into the market. If you are using a good automated test tool and strategy, you will be able to quickly identify the defect before it  gets to production.



There are a lot of real-world examples of software failures where insufficient testing or incorrect test data have led to serious consequences.

About a year ago, after defective Takata airbags led to recalls and many fatalities, it was revealed that falsified test data was provided by the company to their largest client, Honda. The design never went to production and markets as it was experimental but Takata engineers proceeded it despite the fact that they predicted it will fail as they felt forced by their superiors to do it. Their defective bugs led to 10 deaths and 100 injuries, and recalling back the product was complex and expensive: 14 automakers have recalled 28 million airbag inflators and about 24 million of cars with potentially defective inflators still remain on the road. Takata was also fined £70m for not disclosing the defect replacements of old live grenades with new ones.

Back in 2014 a chaotic situation happened due to a glitch on software transition. A new software system at Dallas County jail misled authorities to release many inmates facing charges. The safety of the residents was threatened and hundreds of reports had to be refiled because of mistakes committed when the reports were originally entered into the system. A political effect of this malfunction was also obvious highlighting the fact that software doesn’t ever have the right of going wrong.

In the spring of 2014 as well, the Bank of England’s crucial payments system collapsed for nine hours because of defects in its design. As a result, hundreds of thousands of payments with value of hundreds of billions of pounds, including money that homebuyers have been waiting to be transferred in order to buy their new homes, froze. Nine households claimed compensation for costs related to the delays. The key reason was the fact that this bank had not sufficiently tested the strength of crucial parts of the UK’s payments system.

Also there is another case with Sainsbury’s Bank which has happened last year. Sainsbury’s Bank customers have been unable to use their credit cards for one day due to an IT failure. Cards were declined both in stores and at cash points, leaving frustrated customers in big trouble.



Testing tools and the effort to measure the return on the money they spend on these processes appeared to be surprisingly low on the agenda of many organizations whereas testing activities can easily account for more than 50% percent of the total development cost.

With the industry being as competitive as it is, it is important for both new and older banks to take note of these IT failures and ensure that they have the right working software in place to suit the demand of modern banking systems.

As surveys show, technology is a big advantage: 80% of people would trust a bank if it had reliable technology. Early and accurate testing should be an integral part of the software development lifecycle.

A malfunction in the testing process is able to damage the reputation and business relationships of an organization big time. This means that every technologically updated company has to pick the best solution after the trade-off between cost and quality of testing methods. The price of a test system is the primary cost that everyone will determine but the real cost of an insufficient test equipment overcomes all the previous thoughts. So the need of an efficient testing tool with high risk coverage and reduced QA costs shouldn’t be underestimated.

Validata Advanced Testing Suite (ATS) enables ‘Continuous Testing’ reducing the time-to-market and closing the circle to ensure a successful Continuous Delivery process.

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