Products vs. Projects
When a company develops a software application with its own budget, the application is called a software product. The application is then sold in the market as a ‘ready to use product’.
Customers can buy the product off- the-shelf with licenses.
Common examples of software products include Windows (Microsoft), Tally (TCS), Acrobat reader/writer (Adobe) etc.
When a company develops a software application with a customer’s budget, it is called a software project. The application is customized based on the customer’s requirements and specifications.
An example of a software project would be a software application ordered by an automobile company to maintain its office inventory, purchase details, supplier details etc. It is important to note that this application would be used only by this company and no one else.
Testing a Product vs Testing a Project
From the testing perspective, there is not much difference between the testing of a software product or a software project. However, given below are a few of the notable differences.
- In a software project, once the test plan and test cases are created, they need to be sent to the customer for approval and sign-off. In software products this is not necessary.
- In a software project, during the testing phase the tester may need to directly interact with the customer. However, in software products, the tester may only need to communicate with the business analysts.
- The testing timelines are usually stringent in software projects as compared to software products where they are more flexible.
- In software projects, the ultimate authority of the developed program lies with the customer. This is not so in case of software products.
- In software projects, the customer gives the budget for the development, whereas in software products the budget is given by the company that develops it.
- Every software project is unique with new features and functionality. But the basic functionality always remains the same in a software product. Existing features are updated or modified.
- In software products, licensing is a very important feature. The license registration dates, expiry dates, types of licenses etc need to be tested for a particular product. However, licensing is not required for software projects.
