Software Testing Market Research (A report)
This year, along with the other brands from theICEway ecosystem, we have been running monthly social media polls. ‘Software Testing Market Research (A report)’ features some of the results from those. Using LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter), we’ve been trying to get to know our followers a little better. Whilst we include some brief notes on the findings, if you have anything to add then we’d like to hear from you.
The number of voters on both channels were fairly low, but there were enough to generate some interesting findings.
Software testers; do you feel undervalued / underappreciated?
Yes 86%
No 14%
Software testers, what is the most important quality a tester should possess?
Attention to detail 80%
Communication 0%
Critical thinking 20%
What is your best method for trying to improve your attention to detail?
Reading 100%
Pomodoro Technique 0%
Meditating 0%
Do you prefer to work alone or as part of a team?
Alone 50%
Part of a team 50%
Software companies: What do you do to ensure customer satisfaction?
Deliver a reliable service 67%
Follow customer demand 33%
Coordinate with your customers 0%
Reflect on software errors 0%
Software users: On average, how satisfied are you with software products?
Highly satisfied 0%
Satisfied 100%
Unsatisfied 0%
Highly unsatisfied 0%
Which working arrangement do you prefer?
Home 17%
Office 17%
Remote 42%
Hybrid 25%
Which software test management tool do you prefer to use?
Nitrate 0%
QuAck 67%
TestLink 33%
What learnings can we take from these results? The majority of software testers feel underappreciated. This is definitely something our experts can understand. Software testing has long been seen as something of a luxury by far too many organisations. On the contrary, testing must be seen as a crucial aspect in any software development lifecycle. Quite simply, no self-respecting development company would release an untested software application.
Attention to detail seems to be the most important quality that a software tester should possess. Critical thinking was selected by some of our voters but nobody opted for communication. That is very interesting, as the team at eTestware puts great emphasis on this in every project. What do you think? Reading was unanimously voted as being the best way for testers to improve their attention to detail. Do you concur?
Our voters were equally split on working alone versus working as part of a team, which seems fair. Each to their own! Software company representatives clearly view a reliable service as paramount. That said, following customer demand was not too far behind. All users who participated are satisfied with the software products they use. Finally, our software tester voters prefer to work remotely using QuAck – does that describe you?
Twitter*
Software testers; do you feel undervalued / underappreciated?
Yes 100%
No 0%
Software testers, what is the most important quality a tester should possess?
Attention to detail 75%
Communication 25%
Critical thinking 0%
What is your best method for trying to improve your attention to detail?
Reading 71.4%
Pomodoro Technique 14.3%
Meditating 14.3%
Do you prefer to work alone or as part of a team?
Alone 75%
Part of a team 25%
Software companies: What do you do to ensure customer satisfaction?
Deliver a reliable service 50%
Follow customer demand 0%
Coordinate with your customers 50%
Reflect on software errors 0%
Software users: On average, how satisfied are you with software products?
Highly satisfied 0%
Satisfied 100%
Unsatisfied 0%
Highly unsatisfied 0%
Which working arrangement do you prefer?
Home 57.1%
Office 0%
Remote 0%
Hybrid 42.9%
Which software test management tool do you prefer to use?
Nitrate 0%
QuAck 100%
TestLink 0%
Our Twitter participants were in complete agreement with the LinkedIn voters on feeling underappreciated. Given the potential seriousness of this, we may well produce a future article tackling the subject. Watch out for that in the months ahead, and do let us know your thoughts.
Attention to detail was once again the key quality for software testers but communication claimed some Twitter votes. Nothing for critical thinking though – can we take anything from that? With a higher vote count perhaps, but for now we’ll put it down to personal preference. Reading also won the day on Twitter for helping with attention to detail. Quite refreshing when you consider how many other platforms are available nowadays.
Most of our Twitter voters prefer to work alone, so perhaps these users are testing mavericks? Software company reps were split on a reliable service and customer coordination as being all-important to customer satisfaction. The latter is completely in line with that objective and it is certainly key in the eTestware approach. Once again, all participants are satisfied with software products. Great to hear but surely there have been some software products which have made you tear your hair out? If so, we’re all ears! Finally, our software tester voters prefer home and hybrid working models, again using QuAck. Disagree with that? Let us know.
*We’ll stick with the name Twitter for now – it is much better than ‘X’ anyway. Or is it?
Conclusion
Our aim with this software Testing Market Research piece was to gain more insight on our followers. We believe that we have achieved this to some degree. As such, we will definitely be running more polls in the future. In fact, we will keep running polls until the responses dry out – which hopefully will not happen. Follow theICEway ecosystem on social media for the chance to participate:
Enjoy ‘Software Testing Market Research (A report)’? Then you might like to read the following articles:
IT Market Research (A short report) – ICE
Cyber Security Market Research (A report) – CRIBB Cyber Security