Testing for MVP: Does It Make a Difference?

What Is a Minimum Viable Product

An MVP is a “proof of concept” version of a new product. As a rule, it introduces the basic functionality that will make the core of the product and be significant for potential users. The purpose of an MVP is to generate user feedback and show whether the product will be in-demand.

The Advantages of MVP Tests

When speaking about MVP testing strategies, people can mean testing from the marketing perspective or QA activities. Let’s start with the latter and the benefits it brings.

Minimum Viable Product Testing: Marketing Perspective

When we talk about the marketing perspective, authors of the idea and investors are the first to come to mind. Here are some benefits they will get:

1. Proof of the concept validity. You can receive feedback from potential users and understand whether they are interested in the product at the initial stages.
2. Cost-efficiency. MVP requires considerably lower investments compared to a full-scale product. Thus, creators can check the viability of their idea with minimum expenses.
3. Time-efficiency. It takes less time to develop an MVP product. Therefore, you will receive the feedback early.

Starting a product with an MVP also helps to boost developers’ efficiency, in particular:

1. It takes less time to create a product.
2. Bug fixes are quick thanks to having basic functionality only.
3. There is a solid background for implementing new features.
4. The team can think thoroughly about product architecture.

As for the customers, access to the initial version of a product gives them a chance to influence the development process. There are many enthusiasts who will gladly accept an offer to participate in something like this. That brings us to the next point: QA activities and software testing.

Minimum Viable Product Testing: QA Perspective

To win users’ attention, interest, and approval, you will need to offer them a decent product from the very beginning. It should be easy to use and with minimum defects. While these two things are more or less clear, some don’t fully understand what exactly to focus on when developing an MVP.

While you create a product for the sake of functionality, the features aren’t the only important aspect. It is essential to make sure that the product is reliable and usable. You cannot neglect emotional design either. Instead of investing in the functionality only, present the core features but in an appealing way. Users will appreciate this option more than rich functionality that lacks intuitiveness or has many defects. Proper QA expertise will help to achieve this.

Remember that quality assurance is more than just testing. For example, you can involve a BA specialist to advise on what to include in the initial version of the product and help to create the strategy for further development. You can learn about the role of a Business Analyst in QA in one of our previous posts.

Software Testing for MVP: What to Check?

As you’ve already understood, an MVP is not just a mockup. It has to be functional and perform well. Therefore, it is best to entrust testing to professionals. It may be unreasonable to hire in-house QA engineers straight away. In this case, you can engage an outsourced testing company.

As for the types of testing, an exact list will vary depending on the product. Here’s an approximate list of the required QA activities:

• Unit tests. This is a task for a development team, so you will be able to cover it with internal resources. Unit tests help to determine defects in the smallest pieces of code so that bugs don’t pile up in the future.
• Smoke tests. This set of activities helps to make sure that the core functionality works, and users can access an MVP. In other words, a QA team is to check whether a user can install software, create an account, log in, etc.
• Functional tests. QA engineers are to verify that an MVP features as supposed and specified in the documentation. Of course, the requirements may change after the MVP stage. But for now, it is essential to align the actual functionality with the idea.
• UI (user interface) tests. Another aspect that catches users’ attention from the very beginning is product design. Therefore, a team checks visual layout, consistency, and verifies the correct functioning of the graphical elements.
• Usability tests. It may be reasonable to pay attention to usability and emotional design. The latter may not be the issue of the greatest priority, they may be a significant bonus for users.
• User acceptance tests (UAT). It is the final step before MVP release. The purpose of UAT is to verify end-to-end business flow and make sure the team can hand the product over to stakeholders and users.

As you can see, the list of the essential testing activities doesn’t get very long at this stage. The team will probably need to run regression tests, too. It helps to verify that changes in the last build haven’t affected the overall functionality that has been working correctly.

As for the test automation services that can be a game-changer for a startup, an MVP doesn’t need those. There is a high probability that requirements will change in the future. Hence, there is no need to invest in automated testing this early.

To Sum Up

An MVP often becomes the basis for the future compromise between an idea, investors, and users. Learning how a product resonates with real users comes with valuable insights that help to determine the direction for further development. Then why is quality essential for a product that may not even continue its existence? It is pretty simple: quality gives you an advantage from the very beginning. Without having a stable, functional, and visually appealing MVP, you may not be able to receive those insights because there would be too few people eager to use a poorly designed product. So don’t rush to release software without testing it properly, even if it is just a minimum viable product.