A Survey on What Developers Think About Testing

TL;DR

This survey investigates developers' attitudes towards testing, revealing motivations, barriers, and potential incentives to improve testing engagement among professional developers.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into factors influencing testing motivation, highlighting the importance of recognition and personal satisfaction in encouraging testing practices.

Findings

Developers value testing for quality and satisfaction.

Testing is perceived as mundane and low-priority.

Recognition can motivate more testing.

Abstract

Software is infamous for its poor quality and frequent occurrence of bugs. While there is no doubt that thorough testing is an appropriate answer to ensure sufficient quality, the poor state of software generally suggests that developers may not always engage as thoroughly with testing as they should. This observation aligns with the prevailing belief that developers simply do not like writing tests. In order to determine the truth of this belief, we conducted a comprehensive survey with 21 questions aimed at (1) assessing developers' current engagement with testing and (2) identifying factors influencing their inclination toward testing; that is, whether they would actually like to test more but are inhibited by their work environment, or whether they would really prefer to test even less if given the choice. Drawing on 284 responses from professional software developers, we uncover reasons that positively and negatively impact developers' motivation to test. Notably, reasons for motivation to write more tests encompass not only a general pursuit of software quality but also personal satisfaction. However, developers nevertheless perceive testing as mundane and tend to prioritize other tasks. One approach emerging from the responses to mitigate these negative factors is by providing better recognition for developers' testing efforts.