5 Ideas to Keep SaaS Bugs Out of Sight

In 2024 the SaaS market started the year showing signs of recovery, with growth coming back, churn slowing down, businesses adapting to the new realities. The market is expected to reach $462 billion by 2028. As the market expands, competition is fierce. Some firms are shelling out more than 90% of their revenue just to attract new customers.

If you're pouring that much into customer acquisition, the last thing you want is to lose them due to bugs or poor user experience. Keeping bugs in check isn't just about quick fixes; it's about building a reputation that keeps customers loyal.

Let's get straight to the best practices in software quality management that ensure your bug-hunting process is top-notch.

1. Involve Testers as Quick as Possible  

The sooner you bring QA into the picture, the more control you gain over your development process. By integrating quality assurance right from the idea and requirements stage, you're not just checking boxes—you’re aligning your software with your business goals and vision from the get-go.

Imagine having your testers review requirements before a single line of code is written. They scrutinize everything for testability, completeness, and clarity. They might ask, "Does this feature really solve the user’s problem?" or "Are these requirements realistic?" This early involvement helps you avoid costly detours by catching potential issues before they turn into major setbacks.

In the SaaS world, where time and resources are everything, validating your concept early with QA onboard is a smart move. It keeps everyone aligned, nips problems in the bud, and ensures you're building a product that truly resonates with your users.

2. Choose Devices your Audience Actively Uses 

In 2023, almost 96% of internet users were browsing on mobile devices, but the types of devices vary widely. Older users might favor larger screens or accessibility features, while younger users tend to go for the latest models.

To make sure your SaaS is tested on the right devices, here’s what you can do:

• Pinpoint the most popular devices and operating systems among your customers

• Leverage cloud services to access various device configurations

• Set up feedback loops from day one to catch device-specific issues directly from your users

Let’s zoom out for a moment—take Spotify, for example. How do they deliver a seamless experience to millions of users? Even they don’t go it alone. They combine internal testing labs with cloud platforms to simulate real-world usage across different devices.

It’s not just about emulating hardware—think connection speeds, battery life, and beyond. By replicating the world in their labs, they catch and fix issues before they reach the end-user, ensuring a top-notch experience every time.

3. Use Nighttime Testing to Boost your SaaS 

Time is money, but everyone’s got a schedule. Why not optimize your SaaS development by catching bugs while you sleep? Nighttime testing can accelerate your development cycle and keep you ahead in a competitive market.

If your team is based in North America, Australia, or New Zealand, consider running tests overnight in Eastern Europe. It doesn’t matter where your team is—you can use nighttime testing in regions where it’s daytime while your team is off the clock.

Imagine your developers starting their day with a fresh QA report, packed with actionable feedback. Bugs get fixed first thing, ensuring your users have the best experience. When QAwerk teamed up with Arctype, a Palo Alto-based SQL client and database management tool, we leveraged time zone differences to speed up their releases by 20%.

Look how it usually works: 

And how overnight QA magic looks like: 

Images source: QAwerk

4. Use Automation Only Where It Needed

Automation can give your SaaS testing a serious boost, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Think of it as a tool to streamline the repetitive, time-consuming tasks, freeing up your team to focus on what really matters.

So, how do you use automation smartly?

• Prioritize critical user actions: Picture a mobile banking app that thousands of customers rely on daily. Automating tests for crucial functions like login, password recovery, and money transfers ensures both speed and reliability—essential for maintaining your reputation and keeping customers happy.

• Set realistic expectations: In the quest for efficiency, it’s easy to overlook the limitations. If parts of your product are constantly evolving, hold off on automating those areas. Frequent updates can render automated tests unreliable, wasting time instead of saving it.

• Know what to keep manual: Not everything is suited for automation. Complex third-party interactions or scenarios involving multiple stakeholders can be too unpredictable, leading to inaccurate results. Keep these tests manual to avoid headaches down the line.

5. The Critical Role of Early Test Documentation

When working on your SaaS project, it is a winning strategy to create test documentation early. From checklists to complex test scripts later, you can get a clear picture of what works well and what does not in your product. 

From the start, your testing team should use checklists, like those created by QAwerk, that cover user steps like signing up and trying out basic and the most popular functions. With these checklists, you can be sure that your SaaS meets the customer requirements for simple tasks and help to avoid product churn. 

With the project’s growth, checklists develop into more complicated test scripts and cover larger scope of user actions and scenarios. Use this structured approach to test documentation and help your developers and testers stay on the same page, where everyone knows exactly what needs to be tested and why. This leads to fewer questions, fewer mistakes, and prevents cost losses in the future. 

In Conclusion 

Pay attention to these quality assurance best practices if you want to build a successful SaaS in the competitive market. By implementing effective software testing strategies, you can save time and money and attract more customers. Remember that every step of this journey  plays a vital role in delivering high-quality SaaS products that meet user expectations, from choosing  test devices to developing testing strategies.