A Recipe For Perfect Software

Although developers have been creating software for decades now it’s still fashionable, isn’t it? By “perfect software” I don’t mean zero bug-bounce only, but the brilliant feature-rich software that customers want to buy and be satisfied with throughout the years! What’s the secret, you wonder? Let me first explain where the problem comes from.

I believe it’s really simple. When you develop software for someone out there, a red line appears between you, the developer and them, the users. Your mission becomes their satisfaction. You keep working upon customer requests with a vision from your side of the barrier. There is always the “other side” though, so no matter how much you think on making the customer happy you will always miss some details and risk to fail. At least this is the common experience, correct?

To me, a key recipe for making the software perfect is simply … to use it. The more you use it, the better. Being a developer and a user at the same time helps you keep track with the product flaws, understand the customer needs and it really encourages you to improve the software. After all, if you can’t use your product, how do you expect customers to buy it?

Well, this is just to explain how happy I am with the latest release of Telerik WebUI Test Studio. Its Q1 ’09 Service Pack we published a few days after the Service Pack of RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX is another important step ahead in making this product so good. Looking at the latest release notes though, you see a dozen of additions/bug fixes in most of the translators. Check the previous releases (this is the fourth one in a row in less than two months!) and the list is getting longer and longer. As our own team is one of the key product users you will keep finding more and more improvements in all the product components: ArtOfTest’s WebAii (the test automation framework), the Automation Design Canvas (the great record & play tool) and the RadControls Translators (helping you automate your RadControls-based Web Applications).

I’m always pleased when customers submit positive feedback and I’m glad to find almost everyone that has written to us so far really likes the WebUI Test Studio! I’ll be even happier to get not only compliments but also to hear about the problems you have found. However, we don’t intend to wait for the negative feedback and we will keep improving the product as we are using it more and more internally. I believe this is the key to see our customers happy, the recipe for the perfect software!

Let me stop sharing the secrets of success with you for now. ;-) Instead, take a look at the recently added videos on Telerik TV, get the latest bits and … enjoy the test automation with WebUI Test Studio!

Yours,

Konstantin Petkov

Telerik QA Dept., WebUI Test Studio Team