Understanding the importance of reliability – Understanding Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Your Production Service-1

Developing software is one thing, and running it in production is another. The reason behind such a disparity is that most development teams cannot simulate production conditions in non-production environments. Therefore, many bugs are uncovered when the software is already running in production. Most issues encountered are non-functional – for example, the services could not scale properly with additional traffic, the amount of resources assigned to the application was suboptimal, thereby crashing the site, and many more. These issues need to be managed to make the software more reliable.

To understand the importance of software reliability, let’s look at an example retail banking application. Software reliability is critically important for several reasons:

• User satisfaction: Reliable software ensures a positive user experience. Users expect software to work as intended, and when it doesn’t, it can lead to frustration, loss of trust, and a poor reputation for the software or the organization behind it. For a bank’s retail customer, it might mean customers cannot do essential transactions and, therefore, may face hassles in payments and receipts, leading to a loss in user satisfaction.

• Business reputation: Software failures can tarnish a company’s reputation and brand image. For our bank, if the issues are frequent, customers will look for other options, resulting in considerable churn and loss of business.

• Financial impact: Software failures can be costly. They can result in lost sales, customer support expenses, and even legal liabilities in cases where software failures cause harm or financial losses to users. This becomes especially critical for banking applications as customers’ money is involved. If transactions don’t happen in time, it can result in a loss of customer business, which will hurt the bank in the long run.

• Competitive advantage: Reliable software can provide a competitive edge. Users are more likely to choose and stick with a bank with robust online banking software that consistently meets their needs and expectations.

• Productivity and efficiency: Within organizations, reliable software is essential for maintaining productivity. Imagine the pain that the customer support and front office staff would have in such a disruption! You would also need more resources to manage these issues, which can disrupt operations, leading to wasted time and resources.

• Security: Reliable software is often more secure. Attackers can exploit vulnerabilities and bugs in unreliable software. In the case of a bank, security is of prime importance because any breach can result in direct financial impact and loss. Ensuring reliability is a fundamental part of cybersecurity.

• Compliance: In some industries, especially banking, there are regulatory requirements related to software reliability. Failing to meet these requirements can result in legal and financial penalties.
  • Customer trust: Trust is a critical factor in software usage, especially in the case of a banking application. Users must trust that their money and data will be handled securely and that the software will perform as expected. Software reliability is a key factor in building and maintaining this trust.

• Maintainability: Reliable software is typically easier to maintain. When software is unreliable, fixing bugs and updating becomes more challenging, potentially leading to a downward spiral of increasing unreliability.

• Scaling and growth: As software usage grows, reliability becomes even more critical. Software that works well for a small user base may struggle to meet the demands of a larger user base without proper reliability measures in place.