The Unpopularity of the Software Tester Role among Software Practitioners: A Case Study

TL;DR

This study investigates why software practitioners are generally reluctant to pursue testing careers, highlighting social perceptions and motivational factors through a survey of Cuban software professionals.

Contribution

It explores the human factors influencing the unpopularity of testing roles, filling a gap in understanding the motivation and demotivation of practitioners.

Findings

Identified 9 main pros motivating testing careers.

Identified 8 main cons deterring testing careers.

Testers are perceived mainly as holding a social role.

Abstract

As software systems are becoming more pervasive, they are also becoming more susceptible to failures, resulting in potentially lethal combinations. Software test-ing is critical to preventing software failures but is, arguably, the least understood part of the software life cycle and the toughest to perform correctly. Adequate re-search has been carried out in both the process and technology dimensions of testing, but not in the human dimensions. This work attempts to fill in the gap by exploring the human dimension, i.e., trying to understand the motivation/de-motivation of software practitioners to take up and sustain testing careers. One hundred and forty four software practitioners from several Cuban software insti-tutes were surveyed. Individuals were asked the PROs (advantages or motiva-tors) and CONs (disadvantages or de-motivators) of taking up a career in soft-ware testing and their chances of doing so. The results of this investigation identi-fied 9 main PROs and 8 main CONs for taking up a testing career showing that the role of tester is perceived as a social role.