The rise of low-code and no-code app development has revolutionized the software industry, making it easier for companies to create and deploy applications without needing to write complex code.
However, in their eagerness to get their products to market quickly and reduce costs, many organizations overlook the importance of proper testing while using such platforms. This is risky in any development project, but especially for apps developed on no/low-code platforms which require just as much, if not more testing compared to traditional custom software development.
In this blog, we will dive deeper into why any software development company should include Quality Assurance in their business processes when using a low-code environment, leading to the delivery of better products and greater end-user satisfaction.
Prebaked Modules are Not Immune to Bugs
The first reason to use QA when building apps on a low-code platform is that the prebaked modules provided may well contain bugs.
The functional testing of low-code applications is critical to discovering these bugs. You might not be able to find them within prebuilt components that were not developed internally, but you can at least determine whether they cause problems and find ways to work around them, avoid them or have them rectified.
Data Security
As these platforms become more sophisticated, they enable your development team, as well as non-developers, to create complex and secure applications with ease.
However, the expanded capabilities also bring increased risk to enterprise security. For example, a logic error that allows unauthorized access to sensitive data or posts confidential information publicly could have severe consequences.
To mitigate these risks, it is essential to apply the same level of security testing to low-code and no-code apps as for traditionally developed software.
Applications Built by Less-Skilled Software Developers
QA teams can be the last line of defence between a non-professional app creator and end-users; this is especially true of situations where employees with little or no programming experience are building applications.
In these cases, the Quality Assurance team plays a critical role in reviewing the overall quality of the application before it is released to the public.
It can be easy to overlook important areas such as error handling and validation, especially when moving quickly from design to development and deployment - and with low-code solutions, the underlying code is hidden from the application creator, leaving the user interface as the primary entry point for testing. Testing is therefore a crucial step in ensuring a quality product is delivered.
External Resources
Low-code applications do not exist in isolation; they are often part of broader workflows and must integrate with external systems and resources. Typically, low-code apps rely on APIs to facilitate these integrations, and ensuring that these APIs can be used as required is critical when testing the app's functionality.
Furthermore, it is essential to verify that any external storage, networks, or other resources that the application depends on can be utilized in ways that enable it to behave as intended.
Engaging QA as early as possible in the development process is thus vital to achieving this goal. End-to-end testing, integration testing across modules, and regression testing is also necessary in order to verify all functionalities and flows are working correctly across the application’s interactions with external resources.
Conclusion
While low-code development platforms have revolutionized the software industry and made it easier for businesses to create and deploy applications, the importance of QA cannot be overstated. Whether you are building an application for internal use or for public release, its success depends on rigorous testing to ensure that it performs as intended and meets the needs of your users.
At Unipro, we understand the critical role that QA plays within the software development process which is why we provide robust testing services. If you are interested in discussing QA, our low-code platform or any of our digital consulting services in more detail, please do not hesitate to contact our team today – we would be more than happy to assist.
