Convincing your client on investing in continuous, real-device testing can be quite tedious. 'What do you mean we need testing budget; can't you just code it right?' is a common perception on the paying end of the table. This produces a ton of resulting problems, to name a few:
- client doesn't realize the scope of testing nor that it takes time to do the job right
- client doesn't want to pay for that precious time you are investing into quality assurance
- you feel it's hard to convince your client about something totally tech and far from his business
- since they are not paying, and you are not working for free, you just don't test (enough)
- your output and the resulting UX is suboptimal.
:(
You might say it's impossible to explain the problem to a total development noob, who is looking for a bargain… but it's not! And if we don't get around this fucking problem soon, the web and our work will continue to suffer; or, we will continue to give in and do the important part in our free time.
Help yourself and the greater good and join me in sharing and completing the ultimate assets to convince the uninformed. This is about fixing one of the root problems of our industry.
There are two things I believe that could be of great help:
- a viral video comparable to this one here (which explains a comparably complex technical scenario to total noobs)
- a website every dev could just point clients to, saying "hey look, you don't have to believe me but checkout how the world believes things should be done) - avoiding a conflict, not trying to educate somebody, just referring to best practice demoed by a neutral party.
Besides that, I don't know (it all), yet. This is an early stage of the project, where I run interviews and try to get together the big picture, to find out what is needed. Since yte.st aims to find an answer on a global scale, not only functioning for a specific geo, research is mandatory and your help is very valuable.
I've created a conference talk on the topic which I aim to present to as many people as possible. I am talking way more in deep about the above in this talk. You can watch a(n english) recording of the premiere of that talk and also take a look at the slides, held at Take Off Conf in Lille, France, Jan 30, 2014, here.
Great you're with us! Here is what you can do (for now):
- Check out the Trello board
- Comment and vote to the board on stuff you think is true and has happened to you already, or whatever comes to your mind on these topics. Be verbose!
- Add your input to the board. (I need to add you to the board to give you edit rights so just ping me with your @trelloid on Twitter or via E-mail at hi at yte dot st). If you're unfamiliar with Trello you can also just file an issue in this repo or E-Mail me your input.
- Spread the word about this project!
Thanks!