Seven quality attributes of successful software products
Examine the key characteristics that a software product must have to succeed in today’s highly competitive marketplace
It is said that a female turtle lays nearly a hundred eggs at a time in her beach-nest, but only about five baby-turtles make it to the sea. The story of software applications and products is not too different. While there are no raccoons or vultures to gobble up the hatchlings, the cut-throat market forces ensure that only the good ones survive in the long run.
What, then, are the attributes of a software product that qualifies as a good software product? A company, when it invests in software development, does it with the hope that it succeeds. If it manages to incorporate certain quality attributes in its software product, the chances of the product’s success may increase. Let’s explore some of these attributes.
- Functional effectiveness
Over the past few years, businesses have become so software-dependent that their products or services have software at the core. This was not the case a few years ago. Software, for instance, was not part of the products that automotive manufacturer produced. Things have changed today. For instance, the software-driven features like auto-parking, anti-collision alarm, infotainment, etc., are essential features of a car.
In effect, quality of a product directly depends on quality of the software it uses. Similar is the story in all sectors. For example, in banking, the service that a bank provides to its customers is entirely defined and driven by software. Given this scenario, software quality, which was once aspirational, has become the hygiene today. The software you build, must therefore, have a functional effectiveness.
- Robust performance
Robustness is a critical attribute if your product has to succeed. Let’s take an example of a large hotel chain that uses a comprehensive reservation system to book rooms and sell value-added services to patrons. Hotel industry experiences demand spikes during weekends and the summer and winter holidays. What would happen when a hotel has ready customers, availability of rooms, but cannot take bookings because its online reservation system fails or is too slow to respond to? The software you make, thus, must work well in all conditions and at all times—withstanding even the traffic spikes.
- Consistency
What if a fitness training app for athletes works exceptionally well on Android devices but not so well on iOS? Or what if it works well on a few select versions of Android only? Alternatively, does the user experience of the app suffer when an athlete changes her phone or upgrades the OS? What if the app fails to deliver a similar user experience when the athlete travels to a different city for tournaments? Subject to its target user-profile, the software product you build must pass the validation test for service consistency across geographies, brands, devices, network types, and operating system options. Only then it can have some stickiness with your customers.
- Ecosystem readiness
In many cases, what a customer uses is not a software product but an entire ecosystem. For instance, when a customer buys a product on an e-commerce site, she is not using only the e-commerce platform, but the entire ecosystem of services from various third party agencies. Multiple systems such as payment gateway, bank, telecom network, etc., have to function smoothly along with the e-commerce platform to make every sale happen. The software you make must be tested and ready along with the entire ecosystem.
- Protecting the user comfort-zone
In today’s digitalised world, quality of a software cannot be confined to the product itself. It has to factor in the user-specific experience as well. If an investor, while executing a trade on a brokerage firm’s app, experiences high latency due to some device-specific issues, the first thing she might blame will be the brokerage firm. Similarly, when an app, although functioning and performing well, clogs a user’s device memory or rapidly drains device battery, it fails to protect the user comfort-zone.
- Omni-channel, multi-modal capability
In today’s internet driven world, most companies have to deliver their services via multiple channels. A bank offers its services via netbanking, ATM, mobile, phone banking/IVR, and branch networks. Similarly, an insurer reaches out to customers via Web, mobile, bancassurance, and the agency channels. A customer not only expects consistent service across channels but wants to the freedom to move from one channel to another seamlessly—without a dip in service experience. For instance, a customer may want to start a transaction on her laptop, save the progress to adjourn it midway, and complete it on tab while travelling. The service provider’s software must be geared to offer such omni-channel, multi-modal experience.
- Competitiveness
This is a must-have attribute for any product, not just software. Even if your software scores well on parameters of functionality, performance, or user experience, it must not be considered inferior to other products. Benchmarking of the software, while it is being developed, is, therefore, a must to ensure it can sustain the competition in the marketplace.
Better than cure…
There has been a sea-change in the terms of engagement between brands and consumers over the years. In the past, brands used one-to-many communication to spread the word. But today, while brands spend crores to establish one-to-one communication with consumers, one disgruntled consumer can, ironically, utilize social media and damage a brand. Ensuring that your software has all the seven attributes as discussed above, besides security as another hygiene factor, can increase the chances of its success and keep you away from the consumer ire.
Authored by Maneesh Jhawar, CEO & Founder, QualityKiosk
