Static testing is frequently overlooked as a viable option with only a quarter of the companies actually engaging in it. Many assume the time that would be spent static testing would be better spent designing or coding. They are correct that static testing is time consuming and can be costly, and it requires complete buy-in from the management team. While not always easy, static testing is not nearly as costly as fixing the defects introduced by skipping this important step. 

Introduced right after the requirements gathering phase, static testing is crucial if you want to reduce the number of defects in the system or application under test. QA Mentor has developed our own static testing methodology that can be implemented at any organization with our help. We use our proprietary checklists to validate and verify every single artifact in the SDLC. We can easily show you the potential ROI before the process begins, and then show you your exact ROI afterwards. The cost of a defect found during traditional testing is about 10-20x the cost of one found in static testing. How is this possible? It’s simple. It takes longer to fix a defect once it’s been coded into a functioning system. Finding the defect may take hours of a tester’s time, then additional hours to fix the defect that could involve more than one developer or DBA. Next, the fix must be verified by a tester once more. All totaled, a defect found during traditional testing can take 5 – 20 hours (or more) to fix and verify. Contrast that with finding that same defect in static testing. Fixing it requires no code changes and only takes 30 – 60 minutes. Sometimes even less, so the difference in cost is dramatic.

The cost of a defect found during traditional testing is about 10-20x the cost of one found in static testing. How is this possible? It’s simple. It takes longer to fix a defect once it’s been coded into a functioning system. Finding the defect may take hours of a tester’s time, then additional hours to fix the defect that could involve more than one developer or DBA. Next, the fix must be verified by a tester once more. All totaled, a defect found during traditional testing can take 5 – 20 hours (or more) to fix and verify. Contrast that with finding that same defect in static testing. Fixing it requires no code changes and only takes 30 – 60 minutes. Sometimes even less, so the difference in cost is dramatic.

Goals of Static Testing

As with any kind of testing, the ultimate goal is to reduce the number of defects in production. However, in the case of static testing, the goal goes further to attempt to reduce the number of defects in the documentation that the application code is based off of. By looking at the documentation before developers start their job, we can identify, anticipate, and correct software issues at the earliest possible time.

Static testing Methods

• Inspections – Formal software inspections involve peer reviews of parts of the application that have been fully designed and documented. This is the most formal and time-consuming method.
• Reviews – The application or module is analyzed to ensure that it meets the business needs.
• Walkthroughs – This method helps to find anomalies, consider alternative approaches, and evaluate conformance to business or industry standards.

QA Mentor Static Testing Methodology

Static Testing Methods

Static ROI Calculation

1. Calculate total # of hours spent static testing
2. Convert those hours into a dollar amount – this is the amount of money invested in static testing
3. Convert the # of defects found in static testing into the number of hours that would have been needed to fix them if they had been found in traditional testing (1 defect = 10 hours to fix/test traditionally)
4. Convert number of proposed hours fixing/testing defects into a dollar amount that would have been spent
5. Subtract the amount invested in static testing in step 2 from the proposed amount calculated in step 4 to see the amount saved by static testing