Ovum highlights dangers of poor websites

Lack of application testing can lose online customers say analysts.

Failure to test e-commerce applications adequately leaves companies in danger of losing customers as they air their 'dirty laundry' in public, according to analyst Ovum.

The company's report, Software Testing Tools, indicates that e-commerce applications have increased the need for extensive testing, which can make the difference between success and failure.

Graham Titterington, an Ovum analyst, said: "The use of the web for conducting business transactions has brought a higher level of business exposure to software failure. This brings the need to apply extensive testing."

He said poorly performing sites were irritating to users. "The user's perception of a website is crucial to whether they do business with an organisation. There is little loyalty to a website," he said.

Customers "are being used as unpaid testers" he added. IT departments can detect where problems lie, but only if testing tools are used. These comprise capture/replay tools that test code functionality by capturing input and output from existing applications and using them to test future versions. They also load tools which test scripts simultaneously to determine response times under intensive use.

Titterington underlined the need to re-test web applications. "The configuration of the network is changing, and new types of software are added with little control," he said. "Users may be upgrading browsers, and other applications may be added to the web to compete for the same resources. Similarly, hardware and software on web servers is changing."

Vivek Wadhwa, chief executive of software tools developer Relativity Technologies, said: "Testing is crucial. Companies are taking an application from a mainframe and making it available to the world. They are airing their dirty laundry in public."