BANGALORE, INDIA: It was a most common conception among all young engineering graduates to opt for software testing, in case of an inability to pursue a career in software development.

In recent days, I had a chance to meet some software testers, where I learnt that they were more open to software development, rather than software testing. This led to an interaction with some of the technical gurus in the software-testing domain.

Recent trends and surveys conducted by many companies predict that India has a huge potential market for software testing.

Karthik Gopalakrishnan, Senior Consultant, Zinnov feels that software testing offers a lucrative career option for freshers, as well as experienced professionals. However, most companies prefer inducting test engineers with some years of development experience.

 “Most software testers aim for the top position of a quality head, but before that, they need to gain the expertise on all of the quality processes in an organization,” he says.

Excerpts from an interview with Gopalakrishnan:

CIOL: How do you see the global market for software testing?

Karthik Gopalakrishnan: The global software testing market is estimated at $13 billion, with the global market size of outsourced testing services at around $6.1 billion.

A study reveals that the software testing market in India will touch $800 million to $1.1 billion million by 2008. The top 10 IT firms in India, including Infosys, Wipro, MindTree, Polaris, Cognizant and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have been quick off the blocks in creating independent testing practices in-house.

The IT companies have started positioning themselves as independent software testing (IST) services providers, offering software testing as a standalone service. There are roughly 10 IST players in India of a reasonable size with a combined turnover of around Rs.. 200-300 crores.

While the traditional Indian software service players have concentrated on the BFSI domain, companies such as Mercury and Polaris have gone way ahead to address multiple segments such as wireless, mobile and embedded systems, respectively.

CIOL: What are the benefits for a software tester if he/she opts for software testing industry?

Karthik Gopalakrishnan: Software testing offers a lucrative career option for both freshers, as well as experienced professionals, although most companies prefer to induct test engineers with a few years of development experience.

A career in software testing can follow both: a highly technical career path (e.g., developing the expertise in the use of specialist tools) or a strongly business focused route, which could lead to a prominent role within the business.

An individual in a trainee role can rapidly progress through the levels of a test engineer, senior test engineer, team lead, test manager, and then into other management roles within the organization.

Most software testers aim for the top position of a quality head. However, they need to gain the expertise on all of the quality processes in the organization, before attaining such a position.