Roadblocks to Attracting Students to Software Testing Careers: Comparisons of Replicated Studies

TL;DR

This study replicates international research on students' perceptions of software testing careers in Brazil, revealing similar disinterest due to lack of visibility and perceived challenges, highlighting the need for increased focus on software quality education.

Contribution

It provides a cross-cultural comparison of student perceptions regarding software testing careers, emphasizing the importance of educational strategies to improve visibility and attractiveness of the field.

Findings

Students are interested in learning about testing but lack motivation to pursue it as a career.

Limited coursework on software quality reduces testing career visibility.

Students perceive testing as lacking challenges and opportunities for growth.

Abstract

Context. Recently, a family of studies highlighted the unpopularity of software testing careers among undergraduate students in software engineering and computer science courses. The original study and its replications explored the perception of students in universities in four countries (Cana-da, China, India, and Malaysia), and indicated that most students do not consider a career in software testing as an option after graduation. This scenario represents a problem for the software industry since the lack of skilled testing professionals might decrease the quality of software projects and increase the number of unsuccessful projects. Goal. The present study aims to replicate, in Brazil, the studies conducted in the other four countries to establish comparisons and support the development of strategies to improve the visibility and importance of software testing among undergraduate students across the globe. Method. We followed the same protocol in the original study to collect data using a questionnaire and analyzed the answers using descriptive statistics and qualitative data analysis. Results. Our findings indicate similarities among the results obtained in Brazil in comparison to those obtained from other countries. We observed that students are not motivated to follow a testing career in the software industry based on a belief that testing activities lack challenges and opportunities for continuous learning. Conclusions. In summary, students seem to be interested in learning more about software testing. However, the lack of discussions about the theme in software development courses, as well as the limited offer of courses focused on software quality at the university level reduce the visibility of this area, which causes a decrease in the interest in this career.