ORLANDO, USA: QAI Software Certifications' examinations have now announced a new manager level certification for Software Testers called Certified Manager of Software Testing (CMST).

The top ten IT firms in India, including Infosys with 10,000 testers, Wipro with 12,000, Cognizant with 9500 and Satyam with 8000 in the testing division, have created large independent testing practices in-house.

However, the challenge these companies face is in charting the growth and career paths of these employees and to be able to consistently assess and upgrade them. The entry and practitioner level certifications available till now have been very aggressively adopted by the IT majors.

Software Certifications entry level certification examination (CAST, Certified Associate in Software Testing), ISTQB Foundation, IIST series and practitioner level (CSTE, Certified Software Tester) have been very popular.

Now, with the higher certifications by QAI, large base of the existing people certified on ISTQB (Practitioner), IIST (CST) and QAI certification (CSTE) now have an avenue to upgrade and certify themselves in the managerial level with the launch of CMST.

"In the current scenario, when the organizations are watching their top and bottom line closely, there is a need to decrease induction time and improve productivity which requires skilled individuals. The IT certification market will grow, as more certification providers deploy more job role-based certifications. This managerial level certification provides us a great opportunity to help the large available pool of certified professionals to graduate to the next level "said Navyug Mohnot, CEO, QAI.

Further the release added, Software certifications are increasingly being taken up by large organizations to give their employees global recognition. Accenture has over 2000 and Infosys has over 4400 professionals certified, which is testimony to the growing trend.