When to Release

 

Deciding when to release software is a tough decision. There are drawbacks to both shipping too early and too late, and unless you have a strategy for determining when software is ready to be released, you could be damaging your company's bottom line and reputation.

Shipping software that still contains major defects will not only harm your relationship with existing customers but also significantly impact your operating costs. Studies suggest that fixing a bug in the field costs as much as 10 times more than fixing it during the development phase. It's therefore critical that your release is of high quality before it goes out to customers.

Then again, if you're a start up, your main priority is not future operational costs. It's being able to survive another quarter. And the only way to achieve that is by getting the product out the door and in the hands of customers--now!

So the question remains: When should you release your product?

Understand What You're Shipping
While it's not necessary to reach the zero-defect mark before releasing your software, it is necessary to understand how many defects it contains. The only way to get a feel for the quality of the product is to test it appropriately.

People often think of Quality Assurance as a phase where testers verify the functionality of the product. While this is true, functionality is only a subset of what needs to be …

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