How IT professionals think about testing

Are organizations going to test more? Does acceptance testing still make sense? Is exploratory testing indispensable? Every day we speak to IT professionals who deal with software testing. This yields great conversations and insights about managing a testing process. Reason for us to present seven common topics about testing to our Testersuite fans.

Seven questions for IT professionals about testing

The Testersuite fans know what it's like to manage a testing process. How do they view questions that other IT professionals face? Here are the answers to the seven questions and statements we put to them.

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1. Within my organisation, more and more time (and money) is invested in testing systems

• Yes (63%)
• No (15%)
• Do not know (8%)
• No answer (15%)

We are becoming increasingly dependent on IT systems. A large part of our lives is now digital. Where thirty years ago automation was a convenient support, we are now largely dependent on it. This means that we need to test IT systems more and more. Fortunately, more and more organisations are realising this.

2. The time we spend on manual testing will be...

• Increasing (26%)
• Decline (33%)
• Remain the same (28%)
• No answer (13%)

Manual testing remains an important part of the testing process. Fortunately, under certain conditions test actions can be automated. Think of frequent regression testing on a stable environment. Keep in mind that automated testing is only possible on the basis of existing test scripts. Creating new test cases or 'experience based' testing remains manual work. A combination of both methods is the ideal situation.

3. I expect that we will test more and more within my organisation

• Yes (54%)
• No (17%)
• Do not know (15%)
• No answer (13%)

As indicated in the previous question, the combination of manual and automated testing is the most desirable. Automated testing is mainly a means to test more in a shorter time. It complements all your other manual testing activities. The statement that automated testing saves time, people and money is not valid.

4. I expect our way of working to shift from Waterfall to Agile/DevOps

• Yes, Waterfall will disappear (13%)
• Yes, but Waterfall will also stay (57%)
• No, we will stay with Waterfall (9%)
• No answer (22%)

This question yields surprising answers. IT professionals do not seem to be leaving the waterfall methodology behind. This is remarkable in a world where terms like scrum, agile and DevOps are much in demand. On the other hand, we should not forget that Agile/DevOps mainly adds value to software development. There are still IT projects where Waterfall (or a hybrid model) works better.

5. How important is it that users (continue to) perform acceptance tests?

• Very important (58%)
• Important (24%)
• Somewhat important (4%)
• Not important (0%)
• No answer (13%)

Acceptance testing is important. On this, Testersuite fans are clear, given the answers above. This should come as no surprise. Finally, software testing is also partly about creating happy users and about formal acceptance.

6. Exploratory testing is an indispensable test form for achieving good test coverage

• Yes (53%)
• No (16%)
• Do not know (20%)
• No answer (13%)

What is exploratory testing? According to the definition, exploratory testing is the simultaneous design and execution of tests to learn the system and to design and execute new tests using the information obtained. In this form of testing, human intuition and progressive insight is most important. This makes this form of testing very important as a supplement to automated testing.

7. I would like to share content with organisations that are testing the same applications

• Yes (51%)
• No (18%)
• Do not know (18%)
• No answer (13%)

It is only natural that our fans do not want to reinvent the wheel and want to help each other wherever possible. When we talk about sharing content, we are talking about things like test objects (applications) and test cases. It is still important to stay alert and to ensure that the content you use from another organisation matches your specific situation and application set-up. Sharing test results is less useful and even risky. It entails the risk of drawing conclusions based on the test results of other organisations. You will always have to test within your own specific situation. It is naive to think that you do not need to test (properly) because another organisation has approved something.

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Do you have any comments or reaction regarding the above that you would like to share with us? Please send an email to info@testersuite.nl. Would you like to stay informed? Then click here for the latest Testersuite news.