The global tech sector is worth trillions of dollars worldwide. Software companies represent a huge piece of that pie, routinely generating billions of dollars in sales every year.
If you’re currently in the software development and sales game, then the amount of potential the industry offers is not surprising to you. What may be surprising, especially if you’re new to the software industry, is how cumbersome the development process can be.
This is especially true when it comes to finding and squashing software issues.
To help you identify bugs that may crop up in the software that you’re producing, below, our team discusses 8 common problems many programs accidentally ship with that are worth keeping an extra eye out for.
1. Universal Slowdowns
While the hardware that’s running your software can have a large impact on your program’s ability to perform, many times, software performs well below what it should on systems of all specs. This issue is commonly the result of developers not testing their program on consumer-grade machines before shipping.
To avoid this problem, ensure that you have a good idea of what the average computer specs are in your target market. Then, test your software on a system that comes in just below those specs to ensure that performance is adequate.
2. Calculation Errors
Another software issue that’s a common occurrence is calculation errors. Chances are, your program is responsible for analyzing thousands if not hundreds of thousands of calculations in order to operate.
One wrong formula and your program could turn out incorrect results that could have a massive impact on end-users.
To weed out calculation errors, it’s important to have a stringent software QA process in place. The more eyes you get on your program’s features, the more likely people are going to be able to flag when outputs seem incorrect.
3. Conditional Data Problems
When we code software, in many cases, we set rules that data needs to follow to ensure that it remains correct despite variables that users may need to introduce. Not setting the correct rules around data or forgetting to set rules altogether can cause serious software issues.
For example, if you have an input field in your program that accepts numeric values but you forget to disallow spaces in the field, your software might read a value as “100_” as opposed to “100” if a user hits their space key, which could derail outputs.
Weeding out missed rules when dealing with data sets is a process that your QC team will need to work through.
4. Bad User Experience
If your target market can’t comfortably use your software, then you have massive problems. Remember, your software is being made for, in most cases, a non-computer educated market.
Don’t build your product with the assumption that they’ll be able to figure things out as well as your team of professionals can. Build your software with the assumption that your end-user needs things to be as simple as humanly possible.
If you do that, you’ll find that your customers are a lot happier.
5. Not Built to Scale
Business needs are always changing and your end-user wants a piece of software that not only works for them today but will work for them when they take their company in a new direction.
Many pieces of software aren’t built with pivots in mind and as such, may only work on a certain type of machine, may only accept certain sets or data, etc. Don’t fall into that trap.
While every piece of software has its limits, understanding the businesses you’re developing for and all of their possible needs will help you to create a sandbox experience for your users that will scale with them, not against them.
6. Inconsistencies in Outputs
Output inconsistencies are among the most cumbersome software issues because weeding out their cause can be very difficult. An example of an output inconsistency might be that two users put in the same inputs but for whatever reason, have received a different output from the same piece of software.
Squashing inconsistency bugs often requires isolating variable elements in calculations and seeing if any coding errors are causing them to change due to non-consequential factors (time of day, , etc.).
7. Data Capacity Limits
This common software issue is related to our fifth bullet where we talked about building to scale. If your business grows to the point where they need to be able to input figures in excess of 10 million but your fields only allow inputs up to 9.9 million, you’ve got a problem.
Make sure that any limits that you have on data ranges far exceed what the industry you’re developing for can reasonably get to.
8. Missing Commands
Missing commands is a user interface software issue that we see a lot of. Fortunately, these bugs are easy to weed out since in most cases, they halt one’s ability to interact with the program.
An example of a missing command might be a popup window that has no “x” button which renders the popup impossible to dismiss.
Wrapping Up: 8 Common Software Issues
Software issues can be a headache, especially if your program ships with issues baked in.
We recommend keeping an eye out for the issues that we’ve outlined above to give yourself the best chance of selling a tool that’s functional and truly serves its target market.
For more information on software issues, business management and more, on “At Your Business” today!
