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What's the 'software testing' score?

By Suzanne Franco, Surveys Editorial Project Manager at ITWeb.
Johannesburg, 05 Nov 2015
Software testing is maturing rapidly in SA, to the point where we can be very competitive globally, says DVT's Mario Matthee.
Software testing is maturing rapidly in SA, to the point where we can be very competitive globally, says DVT's Mario Matthee.

Do you know what is most important to your organisation when it comes to software test automation?

On this note, DVT, in partnership with ITWeb, recently conducted an online Software Testing survey to gain valuable insight into the software testing strategies within South African organisations.

"This software testing survey will not only allow us as a company to understand testing automation within SA, but will also help us understand its maturity and the willingness of companies to outsource locally," says Mario Matthee, head: Global Testing Centre & SQA Professional Services at DVT.

Matthee advises that there are several factors that ought to be taken into consideration when embarking on software testing projects and says that when the methodology is not clearly defined it will impact testing activities negatively as test analysts struggle to define their role and timings.

Dr Jaco van der Merwe, CEO at DVT comments: "As a software development company we often see how companies struggle to release their software with confidence. The accelerated pace at which software updates need to be released makes traditional manual testing often infeasible. We have established a global test centre with a focus on testing automation in Cape Town to address this problem."

Bad business requirement is also cited by Matthee as another factor.

"This is because a test analyst's work is made much easier when high quality business requirements are in place. A negative impact can occur when the importance of testing is still seen as an after-thought even though test teams are in place."

He also believes that test analysts must attend all-important project meetings to improve coverage on risk analysis and business analysts should focus on business value to clients and users, test analysts focus on risk areas.

Another factor that can contribute to the success or failure of a software testing project is lack of communication. According to Matthee, communication is key to the success of any project, especially when it comes to test teams located off-site.

"No regression testing is another factor, with the transition from Waterfall to Agile, most teams struggle to fit regression testing into a two-week sprint. In some cases, teams stop regression testing completely."

Matthee points out that software testing in South Africa is definitely maturing at the bigger organisations, however these organisations started their journey years ago.

"In the SME space, the need for testing has been identified, but cost is a concern," he adds.

Matthee goes on to say that he believes in-house software testing is currently the most popular within South African organisations.

He adds: "the market is definitely shifting towards outsourcing certain aspects of testing, not all of it though. Regression testing is definitely an aspect that can be outsourced and DVT is assisting several clients on starting this journey. Software testing is maturing rapidly in South Africa, to the point where we can be very competitive globally."

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