Survey reveals issues faced by s/w testers, QA pros

LONDON, UK: A Sogeti survey has found that the pressure to meet deadlines, incomplete testing requirements and budgets are the top sources of stress for today’s application testing organizations.

Conducted at TestExpo Winter 2010, the survey of 102 testers and Quality Assurance professionals examined the most widely used software testing methods and pressures facing today’s software testing teams.

Also read: Trends in software testing for 2011

When asked about the biggest pressures and sources of stress faced by their QA or software testing teams, three quarters (73 percent) of respondents said the pressure to meet deadlines was the leading cause of stress.

This was followed by the completeness of test requirements provided (52 percent), followed by budget pressures (38 percent), then lack of standardised processes and methodologies (37 percent).

Also read: Survey highlights the need for investment in testing

The survey also revealed that while cloud and Agile-based testing methods are gaining interest and use, manual and end-to-end testing are the most widely used methodologies. Almost all (96 percent) of respondents said their organisation used manual testing processes, 79 percent used end-to-end testing, 64 percent used automated regression testing and 63 percent used performance management testing methods. Half (50 percent) of respondents said their organisation currently used Agile testing methods, and 19 percent used cloud-based testing.

Richard Terry, deputy CEO of Sogeti, said: "Software testing is the cornerstone of the software development lifecycle, but there remains a huge source of stress for testers, as they battle budgets, timelines and poorly represented testing requirements."

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Terry added that the market is also changing and evolving to meet the needs of new application development trends, with organisations looking into how cloud and Agile-based testing methods can be added to their QA armoury. This presents a huge opportunity for vendors and organisations to advise and guide the market.

When asked about their plans for new, as yet unused, testing methodologies over the next twelve months, a fifth (19 percent) of respondents revealed plans for implementing cloud-based testing and 14 percent said had plans to implement Agile testing in the next twelve months.

Respondents were also asked about their organisation's approach to testing training, revealing that the majority were fully certified (55 percent), 43 percent said they had been self-taught, 34 percent said they’d received informal training and 28 percent said they’d undergone formal training. The majority of respondents had a combination of these.

When asked about personal attitudes to testing training and formal certification, More than two fifths of the testers surveyed (41 percent) felt that certification was 'nice to have', a quarter (25 percent) said it was vital, and 34 percent said it had made a big difference to the effectiveness of their day-to-day testing capabilities.

Though almost a third (31 percent) said that certification was 'not an indication of ability'. More than a third (35 percent) agreed that certification made a big difference when testers were looking for new jobs.

When asked about examples of software testing failures catching the eye of the public and the UK press, respondents named several high-profile cases where the press had questioned software testing including HMRC, Heathrow Terminal Five and the iPhone 4.