Test Early, Test Often

Quality Assurance. Testing. No matter what you call it – and of course, there are subtle distinctions between testing and QA – the discipline is essential for successfully creating professional-grade software.

Sure, a one-person shop or a small consultancy might get away without having formal test teams or serious QA policies. Most of us can’t afford to work that way. The cost of software failure, to us and to our customers, can be huge in so many ways.

SD Times and sdtimes.com recently asked readers about test and QA in a research study. Here are some of the results; how well do the answers match your organization’s profile?

Does your organization have separate development and test teams? (Please check one only)

Yes, all development teams and test/QA teams are separate 35.9%
Some development and test/QA teams are separate, some are integrated 33.4%
All test and development teams are integrated 27.4%
Don’t know 3.3%

If any of the test/QA teams in your organization are separate, where do those test teams report? (Please check all that apply)

To the development team 16.2%
To a development manager, director, or VP of development 33.8%
To an IT manager not managing development 22.2%
To a software architect or project leader on a particular project 19.7%
To the CIO/CTO 9.2%
To line of business managers 14.8%
Don’t know 8.1%

What background do your test/QA managers and directors typically have? (Please check all that apply)

Development 20.3%
Test/QA only 28.9%
Development and test/QA 48.9%
General IT background 31.7%
General management background 18.5%
No particular background – we train them from scratch 14.2%

Does your company outsource any of its software quality assurance or testing? (Please check one only)

Yes, all of it 3.7%
Yes, some of it 32.3%
No, none of it 58.1%
Don’t know 5.9%

Who is responsible for internally-developed application performance testing and monitoring in your company? (Please check all that apply)

Software/Application Developers 68.2%
Software/Application Development Management 54.2%
Testers 52.3%
Testing Management 43.9%
Systems administrators 34.9%
IT top management (development) (VP or above) 29.3%
Networking personnel 25.2%
IT top management (non-development) (VP or above) 24.6%
Line-of-business management 21.5%
Consultants 20.2%
Service providers 19.0%
Networking management 18.1%

What is the state of software security testing at your company? (Please check all that apply)

Software security is checked by the developers 41.2%
Software security is checked by the test/QA team 31.6%
Software security is tested by a separate security team 26.9%
Software security testing is done for Web applications 25.7%
Software security is checked by the IT/networking department 25.4%
Software security testing is done for in-house applications 24.1%
Software security testing is done for public-facing applications 21.7%
We don’t have a specific security testing process 20.4%
Software security is checked by contractors 9.3%
Software security testing is not our responsibility 3.1%

At what stage is your company, or companies that you consult, using the cloud for software testing? (Please check one only)

No plans to use the cloud for software testing 42.3%
We are studying the technology but have not started yet 21.2%
We are experimenting with using the cloud for software testing 16.0%
We are using the cloud for software testing on a routine basis 10.7%
Don’t know 9.8%

Lots of good data here!