The high stakes of E-business mean it's no longer a question of whether to test but how. Consider the experiences of those companies that have suffered high-profile site failures. In October 1997, with a market rally in process, E-Trade Securities Inc., the Palo Alto, Calif., pioneer in online stock trading, suffered a lengthy and embarrassing service outage when trading volumes got too high for its system to handle. And in order to repair its customer relations, the company felt compelled to issue discounts to those who claimed to have been unable to access the site during the shutdown. These three examples of Web-site failures are indicative of what companies can expect as they put their most critical operations on the Web.
Customers have little tolerance for failure.
Taylor says companies in the first group are the ones taking the biggest risks and therefore are most in need of testing. Companies in the second category also must test their applications, but they at least have some existing metrics and experience to build upon. Industry experts agree that Web testing is a good investment. Testing in general has achieved a lot more visibility lately, aided in part by the focus on the year 2000 remediation efforts. And, given the visibility of Web sites, it's fairly easy to argue for testing, says Liz Barnett, a VP at Giga Information Group.