Software quality & business performance: the guide to boosting productivity

Today, your business performance depends directly on the reliability of your tools. Whether you're a retail giant, a tech company, a manufacturer, or a bank, your business relies on code.

However, a paradox remains. Software quality is still too often perceived as a cost center, or even an obstacle to innovation.

And that is a major strategic error. In reality, quality is the primary driver of your profitability.

A critical bug during Black Friday? That's revenue going up in smoke. An unstable internal application? That's employees being held back on a daily basis. A slow interface? That's brand image immediately taking a hit. A bug? That's dissatisfied, or even lost, customers.

This guide aims to reconcile Business and QA.

We will look at how to transform quality management into a driver of growth. Automation, ROI, performance indicators, No-Code, Agility... Discover how to secure your revenue while increasing productivity.

CIOs, Digital Managers, Product Owners: take back control of your performance.

What is software quality and why is it strategic for business?

Software quality is not just about the absence of bugs. It is the ability of a product (website, mobile application, business software) to perfectly meet the explicit and implicit needs of its users, while being reliable, secure, and maintainable over time.

For a company, it is based on a rigorous QA (Quality Assurance) process. Unlike simple quality control, which takes place at the end, quality assurance is a preventive approach that covers the entire project lifecycle.

It is based on structural documents such as the recipe book, which lists all the test cases to be validated (nominal scenarios, boundary cases, error handling) before going into production.

Why is this strategic? Because software has become the engine of value.

• For the CIO: It guarantees maintainability and reduces technical debt.
• For the Marketing Director: It's the assurance that the customer journey converts without friction.
• For the CEO: It's about protecting the brand image and securing revenue in the face of competition.

In short, investing in software quality means transforming a technical obligation into a real business asset.

Software quality: direct impact on revenue and conversion

There is a direct and brutal link between the quality of your user experience and your bottom line. In this age of digital infidelity, users are unforgiving.

What is the real cost of software non-quality?

We often think about the cost of implementing tests. But have we calculated the cost of not having them? Bugs in production are silent destroyers of value.

• Direct loss of revenue: A checkout process that freezes at the payment stage? A promo code that doesn't work? This leads to immediate abandonment. On mobile, where conversion rates are already a challenge, the slightest friction point is fatal.
  
• Brand image: An app that crashes generates negative reviews. Whether on app stores or social media, this deters potential customers.
• The cost of fixing bugs: Do you know how much it costs to fix a bug? Up to 30 times more expensive than if it had been detected during the design phase. That's time your developers spend fixing problems instead of creating value.
  

User experience (UX) and performance: a sustainable competitive advantage

Standing out from competitors is no longer just about price or product, but about the fluidity of the customer journey.

• Omnichannel retailing: The purchasing journey involves several stages. Your customers start their purchase on their mobile phone while on the bus. They continue it on their desktop computer at the office. Finally, they sometimes complete it in-store. This experience must be completely seamless. An automated test must validate these cross-channel journeys to avoid data gaps.
• Loading speed: This is a technical criterion, but above all it is a business criterion. Web performance is an integral part of QA.

What ROI can you expect from test automation?

Automation is not an expense, it is an investment with a measurable return.

• Freeing up time : A testing campaign that would take three people two days to complete can be carried out by a robot in two hours.
• Increased coverage. Automation allows you to cover 100% of the terminals used by your customers. This allows you to secure 100% of your revenue potential.
  

Productivity and agility: deliver faster without compromising quality

In a world where time-to-market is king, technical teams are under pressure. They need to deliver faster and more often. How can this speed be reconciled with stability?

Continuous

Continuous Testing, DevOps, and CI/CD: Securing Team Velocity

Agile Agile and DevOps have broken down the silos between development (Dev) and operations (Ops). Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) allow updates to be made several times a day. However, this acceleration carries a risk: introducing regressions (bugs) at a rapid pace.

• The bottleneck of manual QA: You develop in two days, but it takes three days to test manually? Your agility is artificial.
• The answer: Continuous Testing. Automated testing must be integrated directly into the deployment pipeline. The code is verified instantly. This is the only way to maintain a steady pace without sacrificing quality.

Test automation: Freeing up teams to add value

One of the myths about automation is that it replaces humans. This is false. It frees humans from alienating tasks.

• Automate repetitive tasks: There is no point in checking 500 times that a contact form is working. Leave that to the robots.
• Empowering employees: Testers can focus on meaningful tasks. Designing new features, improving usability, or analyzing customer feedback. That's where true productivity lies.

Should QA be outsourced to gain flexibility and productivity?

For companies, maintaining a QA team and managing the testing infrastructure is burdensome.

• Why outsource ? For flexibility. You gain access to experts who are proficient in the tools and methodologies. All this without having to manage recruitment or training.
• The hybrid model: More and more companies are keeping test design in-house. However, they are outsourcing script execution and maintenance to partners. This allows them to vary costs and absorb peak loads.
  

Digital transformation: quality challenges by industry sector

While quality principles are universal, their application varies depending on your industry. Each sector faces its own productivity and compliance challenges.

Retail & E-commerce: the race for performance

Retail retail and e-commerce are the most mature sectors, but also the most ruthless.

• The challenge: Extreme seasonality (sales, Black Friday, Christmas). Infrastructure must be able to handle loads that are 50 times greater than usual.
• The QA approach: Priority is given to load testing and conversion paths. Optimizing Salesforce or Magento environments is crucial. This allows for the management of complex catalogs and dynamic pricing rules.
• The 2026 trend: Click & Collect requires testing that connects the web to stores.
  

Healthcare and MedTech: Vital Reliability

For the healthcare sector, a bug is not just a loss of money. It is a risk to the patient or to data confidentiality.

• The challenge: Strict compliance and system interoperability.
• The QA approach: Rigorous non-regression and compliance testing is essential. This applies to every update to ensure that medical records remain intact. Data security is the number one priority.

Tourism, Hospitality & Leisure: the emotional experience

In the tourism sector, the customer journey begins well before the trip itself.

• The challenge: The complexity of booking engines. These interact with real-time inventory and third-party partners.
• The QA approach: Test actual availability and dynamic pricing. On mobile devices, the application must function even with a poor network connection (the customer is on the move).

Industry 4.0: Operational continuity

Digital transformation is also having a significant impact on the industrial sector, factories, and the supply chain.

• The challenge: Digitizing internal processes.

The QA approach: If the ERP crashes, the trucks don't leave. Testing must cover these critical internal tools. These are often aging technologies connected to modern web interfaces.

Beyond the bug: new drivers of performance and digital responsibility

The concept of quality has broadened. It must be visible, inclusive, and sustainable. This is the new frontier of responsible productivity.

Green IT and Eco-design: Digital Sobriety

Digital technology pollutes. Companies now have strict CSR objectives. Poorly optimized code consumes more servers and more energy on the user's terminal. Make way for Green IT.

• The RGESN audit : The General Ecodesign Reference Framework for Digital Services is becoming a standard.
• The role of QA: Measuring the "footprint" of a user journey. An automated test can raise alerts if a page becomes too heavy. This helps developers optimize code for the planet (and for the hosting budget).
  

Digital accessibility: a must for 2026

Digital accessibility is no longer an option with the new European directives. Making websites usable by people with disabilities is mandatory.

• The risk: Legal (fines) and commercial (losing 20% of the population).
• The approach: Automate the verification of contrasts, image tags, and keyboard navigation. Integrating these tests early on allows for corrections to be made before going live, avoiding costly redesigns.

Technical SEO: being seen to sell

You can have the best website in the world, but if it's invisible on Google, it's useless.

• QA & SEO: Automated tests must verify the fundamentals of SEO with each release. Have the title tags been removed? Does the Robots.txt file block indexing? Are response times (Core Web Vitals) good?
• Synergy: A QA team that reports SEO bugs protects marketing traffic acquisition.

QA organization and tools: The no-code revolution at the service of business

To meet these challenges, team organization and tool selection are crucial. We are witnessing a major paradigm shift: the democratization of testing.

The rise of no-code and low-code

Initially, automation was reserved for technical profiles capable of coding scripts. This was a major obstacle to productivity.

• The revolution: No-code no-code platforms allow you to create tests. This works by simply recording a user journey. All this without writing a single line of code.
• The organizational impact: This helps to "reconcile" business and technology. Product Owners, who know the business rules, can create the tests themselves.
• New horizons: These tools open up QA jobs to non-engineers. These profiles bring a valuable "user" perspective. This helps to compensate for the shortage of developers.

Which QA organization model is right for your level of maturity?

Which KPIs should I track to measure software quality performance?

To prove the value of QA to your executive committee, you need to talk numbers. Here are the KPIs that reflect technical quality for your business.

1. The risk coverage rate

Don't measure the number of tests, measure the percentage of your secured income.

• Example: Our automated tests cover 100% of the purchase funnel and 90% of customer account features.

2. Time savings (ROI Productivity)

• Formula: (Time required for manual testing - Time required for automated testing) x Hourly cost x Frequency of execution.
• Result: We often save hundreds of man-days per year, which are then reallocated to innovation.

3. The bug leakage rate

How many bugs go undetected until they are discovered by customers in production?

• Objective: Aim for 0% critical bugs critical bugs. If this rate increases, it means that your testing strategy (or scenarios) needs to be reviewed.

4. Time to market

Does QA speed up or slow down deployment?

• With good automation, the duration of the "non-regression testing" phase should decrease. This allows features to be delivered to customers sooner.

Conclusion

Software quality is no longer an isolated technical discipline. It has become the guarantee of customer promise and the driver of internal productivity.

Budgets are scrutinized, and user demands are at an all-time high. Investing in a testing strategy is one of the most profitable decisions a company can make. It secures the present while preparing for the future (innovation, Green IT, accessibility).

Whether you choose:

• Internalize with agile no-code tools
• Outsourcing to gain flexibility

The important thing is to put quality at the heart of your business strategy. Because ultimately, software that works means a business that runs better.

FAQ – Software Quality, ROI, and Productivity

How does automation actually improve revenue?

In two ways. Defensively, it prevents bugs from reaching production. This helps save sales that would otherwise have been lost. Offensively, it allows new commercial features to be put online. By moving faster than competitors, this allows market share to be captured.

Is it profitable for an SME?

Yes, and often faster than for a large group. An SME has limited resources. If its developers spend 30% of their time doing manual testing or fixes, that's huge. Automation with no-code tools has a low entry cost. What's more, it immediately frees up these valuable resources.

Should internal tools (such as ERP, CRM, WMS, etc.) be tested?

Absolutely. If, for example, your Salesforce CRM is poorly configured after an update, your salespeople will no longer be able to sell. The company's productivity depends on these tools. They deserve the same rigorous testing as your e-commerce site.

Does automation eliminate jobs?

No, it transforms tasks. It removes the robotic part of human work (clicking 100 times in the same place). It allows teams to develop skills in:

• the analysis
• the testing strategy
• user experience
• project management

How to manage mobile testing?

Mobile is the most fragmented dominant channel. It is impossible to buy every phone on the market. You need to use solutions (such as Mr Suricate) connected to farms of real devices in the cloud. This allows you to test your website or app on an iPhone 14, a Samsung S23, or an old Xiaomi, under the real conditions of your customers.