Shak Schiff 
Communication in software development is everything. Without clear, concise communication between the stakeholders, development teams and the testing teams software bugs remain hidden. Communication failures in software development lead to additional defects and increase the software development time to market. Engineering leadership remains focused on speed but overlooking communication issues leads to slower application development, increased rework, frustrated teams and wasted budgets. In this blog post, you’ll learn how a breakdown in communication between stakeholders, development teams and testers results in software defects.
The Impact of Communication Failures on Software Development
Unclear Requirements
Often, poor communication from stakeholders about their needs also plays a large role in software bugs. Engineers can build out requirements that are too vague or incomplete, resulting in teams making the wrong assumptions or interpretations of what was asked of them.
Suppose a client comes to you and says: ‘We really need a feature, and here’s a description, but I’m not going to tell you exactly what that feature should look like – you figure it out. Okay?’ The developers might go off and, based on their concept of what the feature should be like, they create it, only to have the client respond with something like: ‘That is not what we were thinking at all!’ Now you have to redo some of the work, and worse, you might have cut it too close – you get rigid and inflexible, digging in, and then eventually you’ve missed your deadline altogether.
Misinterpretation of Requirements
Even in those cases where every single requirement has been carefully written down, misunderstandings can creep in. Two different people can have a completely different mental picture of the same requirement when they write the code for it. This risk grows with every new person added to the team.
For instance, a requirement such as ‘the application should support multiple languages’ may be interpreted differently among developers. Some may think of implementing UI to indicate available languages to users, while some will think of translating text from English to other languages. In the worst case, their implementation is ongoing, but in fact, it could create a conflict and lead to bugs.
QA is an important part of any development effort to ensure quality, security, compliance, and proper functionality. BadTesting delivered.
Development Stage Defects
Defects get introduced in development when things don’t get communicated exactly as they need to – a line of code gets added with the best of intentions, but it brings in an error that can spread through the system.
Imagine a developer tasked with editing code written by a colleague on the same project. Without knowing why the code was written in the first place, making any changes becomes much harder than it needs to be, and they risk introducing new bugs, or failing to fix any bugs that had existed before – while rewriting code that’s already there, and wasting time.
Client Feedback and Changing Requirements
Client requirements could change during development: users’ desires and needs might evolve, markets could shift and cause alterations. Sometimes, user requirements can become clearer once the initial development stages are completed. For instance, a client who wants to hire a team offshore might change the requirements while the product is being developed.
Without proper documentation and communication throughout the changes, team members may not know what they already have and may go to implement changes that they believe they need, only to find out that someone else was working on the same feature. The end result might be that the product doesn’t match the client’s expectations, or these surprises will delay delivery.
Importance of Clear and Consistent Communication
Clear communication and consistent terminology are crucial for minimizing defects and the timely delivery of a product. One strategy is to apply standardized documentation templates that describe requirements, design specifications, and test plans, allowing the entire team to be on the same page in terms of goals and consistency.
Scheduled meetings and status updates can keep the stakeholders on the same page regarding any changes in requirement or issues and concerns. Along with that, using project management tools to disseminate the tasks, and track their progress can ensure consistent communication and collaboration among the team.
Conclusion
In software development, robust communication channels are key. Issues arise due to communication failures in software development, and stakeholders could benefit the use of collaborative tools to facilitate communication. Don’t let costly communication breakdowns impact your product delivery, contact us today.
Communication is everything. Our understanding of both design and development allow us to become the translator between all parties. We know human-centered design means quality cannot be measured by a robot which is why intention, meaning, and interpretation are always put at our forefront.
