Datasheet

What Is the Big Deal About Testing? ■ 9
The answer lies in the cost of fixing defects in various stages of
the SDLC (Figure 3).
Figure 3: The cost of correcting defects increases dramatically as
we move toward the end of the SDLC
If we are complacent, neglecting to identify defects introduced
in the requirements phase until we get to user acceptance test-
ing, we lose approximately $7,000 per defect. This quickly adds
up to significant numbers. It also results in the failure of many
IT projects when most of the budget for the project is already
spent and a huge additional monetary outlay is needed toward
the end of the project.
In our bicycle/car example, all the extra work and investment
was for something essentially useless to the business. In a busi-
ness situation, if we consider other indirect costs that crop up,
from added time-to-market and increased project risk, the cost
can really break a business.
This leads to the final question: Why can’t we make use of this
knowledge to improve the testing process?
MQM.book Page 9 Wednesday, May 7, 2008 11:29 AM