Software Audits Explained: The Importance, Benefits and Challenges

Audits of software products are crucial for ensuring their quality, security, and compliance. Whether you are preparing to take your product to the next level, enter new markets, enhance performance, or sell your business, it is vital to consider at least a basic audit of your software product. A study by the Consortium for Information and Software Quality (CISQ) estimates that software quality issues cost the U.S. economy $2.41 trillion USD.

This article will explore the fundamentals of a software audit, focusing on the benefits and challenges of audits, as well as underlining the crucial role of software auditing services.

What is a software audit?

A software audit is a thorough assessment of an organization’s software systems and practices to ensure they are efficient, secure, and compliant. It covers aspects such as architecture, user experience, infrastructure, security, frontend, backend, storage, quality assurance, work organization, and mobile components. In general, a software audit provides valuable insights into an organization’s software systems, identifies areas for improvement, and helps ensure that the software aligns with business objectives and best practices. Additionally, a software audit can help organizations optimize resource allocation, enhance productivity, and mitigate potential risks. Moreover, the findings from a software audit can be instrumental in informing future software development strategies and ensuring ongoing alignment with industry standards and regulatory requirements.

Why is it important to do software audits?

• Pragmatic software quality assurance: Software audits assess the overall quality of a product and ensures that it meets its required standards and functions as intended. An audit helps identify bugs, performance issues, and usability problems that might have been overlooked during development.
• Security and vulnerability detection: Audits focus on identifying security vulnerabilities, such as potential threats or breaches that could compromise a system or sensitive data. Regular security audits ensure that software is resilient against evolving cyber threats.

The role of software audits after the product is finished

Following its public release, every product must be evaluated in a number of ways. Properly conducted software audits will ensure that the released and finished product will exceed expectations. Here’s how this can happen.

Managing risks

An audit will help you identify the risks associated with software, such as data loss or system failures (time to recover) and related costs. By detecting these risks early, organizations can take proactive measures to address them and, as a result, mitigate risks significantly. Early detection of issues during audits helps reduce the cost of fixing them later in the development lifecycle – when it becomes more expensive and time-consuming to address problems.

Improving maintainability

Software engineers who review the maintainability of code check for best practices in design, documentation, and architecture, to ensure that software can be easily updated or modified in the future without causing major disruptions. Establishing software maintainability is a key focus in software audits because it directly impacts software’s long-term efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and usability. Well-maintained software is easier to modify, update, and debug. If code is structured properly from the beginning, future changes (like adding new features or fixing bugs) require less time and effort. Poor maintainability can lead to “technical debt,” where the cost of future modifications grows over time. Developers or teams might leave, but well-maintained code ensures continuity. New engineers can be onboarded quickly with minimal disruption if the software is easy to understand and navigate. Furthermore, good documentation, modular design, and coding standards make handovers smoother.

Optimizing performance

Evaluate whether software is running efficiently and optimally, by checking for memory leaks, excessive resource consumption, or other performance bottlenecks. This helps ensure that software performs well in real-world environments. Performance is not always a top priority, but even the best UX & UI cannot compensate for long loading times.

Confidence-building

Regular software audits provide clients and stakeholders with confidence that the product is reliable, secure, and of the expected quality. It may enhance the organization’s reputation and foster trust in the software.

The challenges of auditing software products and how to overcome them?

Audits, just like any other software development endeavor, usually come with some challenges. However, If an experienced team is running an audit, these obstacles can be overcome.

Lack of up-to-date documentation

The absence of proper IT documentation makes it difficult to comprehend the decisions made during product design and development. Without precise system requirements, architecture, or process records, an audit technical team must take a deep dive approach to understanding the rationale behind certain decisions.

Opposition from team

Auditees may sometimes view an audit as a critique of their work, which can lead to a lack of cooperation or withholding of information. Teams may fear blame or repercussions, causing them to be defensive or overly cautious.

It is essential to communicate the purpose of an audit as many times as necessary. An audit’s focus should not be on assigning blame but rather on identifying areas for improvement that can enhance a team’s effectiveness and aspects of quality, compliance, security, and more.

The ideal scenario is collaborating closely with business and leadership teams to ensure they understand and support the audit process and scope. Being transparent about the intended outcomes from the beginning is essential.

Undefined audit scope

Another challenge that an auditing team needs to cope with is a poorly defined or overly broad scope that can lead to unfocused work, wasted time and missed opportunities. Communication between stakeholders and auditors about an audit team’s goals remains crucial to overcoming such challenges.

Ensure the document signed between auditor and auditee details the audit scope, boundaries, objectives, and deliverables. Then, the documentation should be reviewed together with the audited entity and, finally, signed by stakeholders from the audited side. Include provisions for scope changes but also define a straightforward process for making adjustments.

Furthermore, auditors need to allocate resources wisely. Focus the team’s time on the most valuable aspects of the defined audit outcomes. Ensure that your team possesses the necessary expertise for the chosen scope; if not, consider bringing in new specialists.

One of the best investments you can make.

More than ever, with every aspect of our daily lives running on software solutions, audits remain a critical step in maintaining the integrity, security, and functionality of a software product throughout its lifecycle. Providing a detailed examination of software systems, auditing services ensure integrity, security, and compliance.

If you want to deliver reliable software that provides a competitive edge, contact one of our auditing experts using this form, who can verify your software and help you provide high-quality products.