100% Code Coverage Doesn’t Guarantee Happy Customers
"You’ve got to make the back of the fence — that nobody will see — just as good looking as the front of the fence. Even though nobody will see it, you will know, and that will show that you’re dedicated to making something perfect."
This quote from Walter Isaacson’s biography Steve Jobs touches on a principle that defined Apple’s philosophy. Yet, far too often, we as QA engineers get so hyper-focused on code coverage, requirement analysis, and all the ISTQB jargon tossed around the office that we lose sight of the entire point of our job.
Don't get me wrong, these artifacts exist for a reason. People smarter than me created these guidelines and terminologies for good causes. However, understanding that these are the means, not the ends is something I feel is missing from a lot of QA engineers today, both new and veteran alike.
Our test coverage is 100%, all the tests run and pass, our test cases go through every happy and unhappy paths, our BVA and EP have gone through every edge case possible. We have successfully checked that our system is free of critical bugs. Eliminating critical bugs isn't an achievement; it is the bare minimum requirement to exist on a user's device.
Zero bugs doesn't mean high quality; it just means non-broken. True quality is what comes after the bugs are gone. It’s the difference between a piece of software someone merely tolerates and one they actually love using.
I was reminded of this gap just today during a routine doctor’s visit.
We got to talking about work, and I mentioned that I work in Quality Assurance for a mobile app that virtually every Azerbaijani uses daily. Naturally, he asked me a simple question: "Do you think it's high quality?"
I paused and gave the typical engineer’s answer: "It's good enough."
That opened the floodgates. He began sharing his daily frustrations with the app, not about crashes or broken API endpoints, he could not care whether we used REST API with micro services or followed every principle of SOLID, but he had a lot to say about the clunky design, the confusing user flows, and the sheer friction of trying to accomplish simple tasks. Every single feature he complained about was technically working. The code was solid. The tests were passing. But the experience was failing him.
Sitting there, I didn't defend our test pipelines, I didn't tell him "But sir, our test coverage is above 90% and all our pipelines are green." . Instead, I took notes of his grievances, gave him my personal number and promised that the next time he had any more suggestions, I’d buy him a coffee and just listen. Because in that moment, it hit me: all our automated checks and technical rigor had successfully delivered a bug-free app and still left a user feeling unheard.
Take the steering wheel!
Here is my challenge to fellow QA engineers, especially those just starting out in their careers: Stop settling for the bare minimum.
Most companies will never ask you to sit down with a user over coffee. They won't write "evaluating UI friction" into your quarterly KPIs or test execution metrics. They will be perfectly happy if you just write your test cases, execute your regression suites, and keep your head down in Jira.
Hold yourself to a higher standard anyway.
Early in your career, aim to work on products that real people use (at scale). When you see a human being in the wild struggling to navigate an app you tested, you suddenly see the "consequences of your actions" in real time. A green build pipeline stops feeling like a victory when you watch someone sigh in frustration over a clunky form you marked as "Passed."
Stop treating your job as a passive checklist. Take the steering wheel:
- Seek out real users: Talk to your customer support team, read app store reviews, or just ask friends and family how they navigate your product.
- Identify friction, not just crashes: If a user flow takes six taps when it should take two, raise it. If an error message sounds like a database log instead of human guidance, push back.
- Trade jargon for empathy: Instead of spending hours memorizing rigid test plans or arguing over ISTQB terminology, take a free online UX course. Read books like Don't Make Me Think. Learn how humans interact with interfaces, cognitive load, and visual hierarchy.
Anyone can run a test script and check if an input field accepts 50 characters. But true Quality Assurance isn't about enforcing rules it's about advocating for the person on the other side of the screen. Don't just build bug-free software. Build software people actually enjoy using.
Resources:
— Elnur