The software testing community and IT stereotypes: a study with industry professionals

Abstract Testing is essential for successful delivery of software development and maintenance cycles and is performed by specialist testers, developers, and other team members. Our earlier studies of testers found a wide diversity in the participants. The intention for this study was to understand more about the characteristics, backgrounds, and work experiences of testers, as well as the approaches they take to the activities of testing, with the research question ‘Who is testing?’ In a qualitative survey of over 70 industry participants, covering testers from multiple countries and domains, the study uncovered information about their wide range of backgrounds, hobbies, roles, and characteristics, with differing work styles and problem-solving preferences. The people contributing to testing during software projects have varied backgrounds, academic qualifications, hobbies, and interests. Examination of their job titles and aspirations showed the actual and potential scope of the role. Their responsibilities, approaches to testing activities, and the problems they described showed their work requires a high cognitive skill level. We contribute findings that testers do not meet the stereotypes for IT workers, and the role does not meet the stereotype of boring, repetitive work. This matters for tester recruitment, retention, and career paths. There are also implications for the representation within IT teams of people using software, and potentially for society. Breaking the stereotyping and supporting diversity in testers’ backgrounds and characteristics might be supported by using tester personas to support aspects of testers’ work life. We demonstrate that a simple set of personas would not reflect the rich heterogeneity of the software tester community and instead introduce our current work to build a framework of heuristics that aids test tool designers and those acquiring tools to address building personas for their context.