NDLI: Who tested my software? Testing as an organizationally cross-cutting activity

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Who tested my software? Testing as an organizationally cross-cutting activity

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Mäntylä, Mika V. Itkonen, Juha Iivonen, Joonas
Copyright Year	2011
Abstract	There is a recognized disconnect between testing research and industry practice, and more studies are needed on understanding how testing is conducted in real-world circumstances instead of demonstrating the superiority of specific methods. Recent literature indicates that testing is a cross-cutting activity that involves various organizational roles rather than the sole involvement of specialized testers. This research empirically investigates how testing involves employees in varying organizational roles in software product companies. We studied the organization and values of testing using an exploratory case study methodology through interviews, defect database analysis, workshops, analyses of documentation, and informal communications at three software product companies. We analyzed which employee groups test software in the case companies, and how many defects they find. Two companies organized testing as a team effort, and one company had a specialized testing group because of its different development model. We found evidence that testing was not an action conducted only by testing specialists. Testing by individuals with customer contact and domain expertise was an important validation method. We discovered that defects found by developers had the highest fix rates while those revealed by specialized testers had the lowest. The defect importance was susceptible to organizational competition of resources (i.e., overvaluing defects of reporter’s own products or projects). We conclude that it is important to understand the diversity of individuals participating in software testing and the relevance of validation from the end users’ viewpoint. Future research is required to evaluate testing approaches for diverse organizational roles. Finally, to improve defect information, we suggest increasing automation in defect data collection.
Starting Page	145
Ending Page	172
Page Count	28
File Format	PDF
ISSN	09639314
Journal	Software Quality Journal
Volume Number	20
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	15731367
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2011-08-21
Publisher Place	Boston
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Industrial case study Testing Roles Testers Defect reporters Values Defect fix rate Defect data analysis Interviews Data Structures, Cryptology and Information Theory Operating Systems Programming Languages, Compilers, Interpreters Software Engineering/Programming and Operating Systems
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality Media Technology Software

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
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4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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