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Despite Risks, New Study Reveals Widespread Gaps in Web App Testing
Even as user expectations rise, there are widespread gaps in the testing, monitoring, and quality assurance of Web applications according to a major new study by Unisphere Research, conducted in partnership with Oracle.
Among the more than 500 IT executives, managers, and other business professionals surveyed, almost two-thirds report that a majority of their Web-based applications were deployed without adequate load testing.
This lack of testing extends even to a majority (55 percent) of companies conducting significant e-commerce business (more than $50 million in annual revenue).
Perhaps more troublesome, more than a third of respondents reported they do not understand critical aspects of application performance, including customer complaints and failure rates.
Yet Web application glitches occur frequently for many survey respondents, with more than 55 percent of knowledgeable respondents reporting problems occurring multiple times per month. The most common problems include slow performance (80 percent), error messages (60 percent), and unavailability (52 percent).
Barriers to Testing
Despite the lack of testing, the survey found that 70 percent of respondents believed that issues with Web applications could have been avoided during the development or testing phase.
However, in the face of increasing pressure to get applications up and running as quickly and inexpensively as possible, respondents cited lack of time and resources as the major impediments to adequate prelaunch testing.
In fact, the problem is part of a firefighting mentality on the part of management, according to one respondent, who said, “It’s not the top priority and there is a mindset of ‘we will fix it when it happens.’”
High Economic Stakes
Ironically, responses in the same survey reveal why Web application performance is so critical to bottom-line performance.
- As customers of Web apps themselves, 63 percent of respondents said they encountered issues with Web applications at least several times a month: 26 percent said they abandon the site and try a competitor site when they encounter problems.
- 11 percent said they would no longer do online business with that vendor.
- 42 percent said they give a vendor only one more chance to complete the online transaction before trying a competitor site.
Find out about the solutions Oracle offers for Web application testing and user monitoring. Read the OAUG Researchline report Performance Under Pressure.
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