https://www.mdu.se/

Software testing is a major source of expense in software projects and a proper testing process is a critical ingredient in the cost-efficient development of high-quality software. Contemporary aspects, such as the introduction of a more lightweight process, trends towards distributed development, and the rapid increase of software in embedded and safety-critical systems, challenge the testing process in unexpected manners. To our knowledge, there are very few studies focusing on these aspects in relation to testing as perceived by different contributors in the software development process. This paper qualitatively and quantitatively analyses data from an industrial questionnaire survey, with a focus on current practices and preferences on contemporary aspects of software testing. Specifically, the analysis focuses on perceptions of the software testing process in different categories of respondents. Categorization of respondents is based on safety-criticality, agility, distribution of development, and application domain. While confirming some of the commonly acknowledged facts, our findings also reveal notable discrepancies between preferred and actual testing practices. We believe continued research efforts are essential to provide guidelines in the adaptation of the testing process to take care of these discrepancies, thus improving the quality and efficiency of the software development.

Test driven development (TDD) is one of the basic practices of agile software development and both academia and practitioners claim that TDD, to a certain extent, improves the quality of the code produced by developers. However, recent results suggest that this practice is not followed to the extent preferred by industry. In order to pinpoint specific obstacles limiting its industrial adoption we have conducted a systematic literature review on empirical studies explicitly focusing on TDD as well as indirectly addressing TDD. Our review has identified seven limiting factors viz., increased development time, insufficient TDD experience/knowledge, lack of upfront design, domain and tool specific issues, lack of developer skill in writing test cases, insufficient adherence to TDD protocol, and legacy code. The results of this study is of special importance to the testing community, since it outlines the direction for further detailed scientific investigations as well as highlights the requirement of guidelines to overcome these limiting factors for successful industrial adoption of TDD.

Many challenges confront companies when they change their current software development process to an agile development methodology. Those challenges could be rather difficult but one that requires considerable attention is the integration of testing with development. This is because in heavyweight processes, as in the traditional waterfall approach, testing is a phase often conducted by testers as part of a quality assurance team towards the end of the development cycle whereas in the agile methodology testing is part of a continuous development activity with no specific “tester” role defined. In this paper we consider several options for testers when an organisation transit to agile methodology, and propose a new project mentor role for them. This role aims to utilize the knowledge that testers already have in both the business domain and the development technology together with their expertise in quality practices. This role will enhance the stature of testers as well as enable the company to effectively deploy the testers in the new environment. Motivations and benefits for this role are presented in this paper together with our plan for evaluation of this proposal.