What is comparison testing?

Testing a software is a vital part of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). Different types of testing take place to ensure different measures of quality.

In comparison testing, we compare the software in development to similar softwares already available in the market. It helps to assess our software compared to the existing products. This can help us figure out how to improve our software and make it stand out in the market.

Testing criteria

There are no fixed criteria for comparison testing. The criteria entirely depend on the kind of software that is being produced, but there can be two phases, for our ease and for more chances of finding areas of improvement:

1. Comparing our software with the standard benchmarks, which are generally accepted.
2. Comparing our software with other products available in the market.

Mostly, the use-cases for comparison testing are built with business requirements in mind. The ultimate goal of this kind of testing is to create a software that will capture attention in the market. To ensure that this happens, we compare our software to similar existing products, identify areas of improvement, and work on them to build an improved version of our software.

When is it done?

There is no specific time to perform comparison testing. It can be performed at any point in time while the software is being developed.

Mostly, it is done after a certain set of functionalities is developed and ready.

Advantages of comparison testing

A few advantages of comparison testing are listed below:

• It can help to identify areas of improvement in our software before it is released.
• It helps us gain an understanding of our product’s position in the market and define further strategies accordingly.
• It helps in creating a product that can ultimately generate profits. It can help the marketing team make certain claims about our product compared to its competition and advertise the product better. However, the focus of comparison testing is not to capture the market, but to improve the quality of our software.

Disadvantages of comparison testing

A few disadvantages of comparison testing are listed below:

• As the software passes a series of development stages and tests to reach a stage where we can compare it to other software, it becomes challenging to introduce any changes.
• If the clients or end-users can identify the deficiencies in our product more easily, this may make the client reluctant in using the software.

Example

Let’s imagine that we’re making an inventory management program.

In Phase 1, we will ensure that all the standard accounting and finance rules are applied correctly in our software. There must be no loopholes when it comes to generally accepted practices of accounting and finance.

In Phase 2, we will compare our software with existing products for factors like ease of use, speed, security, etc.