Sep 29

Written by: Steve Gray
9/29/2010 7:26 AM 

Dear <state your name>

I’ve completed the work on your web site (application, dental appliance, retirement account, whatever).

There are several ways that we can approach testing the work that was done:

• Belief in the “I’ve been a good person so my web site will be fine” fairy
• Pay a professional tester to test through the application. This is the approach taken by larger development concerns, the industry standard is to employ 3 testers for every 4 coders. But this approach has it’s costs… extra payroll. I’ve found that my clients would generally like to avoid that.
• Use due diligence and test through the web site carefully yourself. It’s not that hard, it won’t take that long, and there is no one better qualified to do it. The developer is actually a bad person to do it, he won’t make the assumptions that a user would.

What should you test?

1. Proof read any new text for spelling and grammatical errors. Remember the old adage: It’s better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you a fool than to put it in writing and remove all doubt.
2. Test all functionality. If the web site sends email (it does, check the ‘contact us’ page) send an email to yourself. If there is eCommerce functionality, test through it (you generally don’t have to go as far as buying something… but look it over)

You get the idea. Be careful, be diligent. Don’t assume it’s perfect. There’s only been one guy like that. If you don’t know him, click on the ‘God’s Plan’ link on the menu above.