How are we doing? that was the subject of a discussion
about testers I had with Tim Koomen on EuroSTAR 2009. Do we have
any figures on where we stand as testers? Are we really challenged
as testers? Are we working to our full potential? The conclusion of
our discussion was that there are no figures available that can be
linked to testing, so we could not answer the question: how are we
doing? I asked Tim, if he would help me when I would start a survey
to find data to help us answer our question. He didn't have the
time, but he promised me that he was willing to review a concept
survey. For me, this was reason enough to start with the
preparations.
One year later, just before
EuroSTAR 2010, the preparations of the survey are finished and the
Software Testers Benchmark is launched. A pilot will be done in The
Netherlands and the survey will be done by TestNet (the
organization for testers in the Netherlands). A committee is
formed, consisting of Tim, myself and two other experienced test
consultants, Huib Schoots of Rabobank International and Henk van
Merode of the Air France/KLM alliance.
What is the survey about? The
motto of survey is simple and covers much of the contents: Tester @
work. The results will tell us more about what a tester is really
doing at his job: for example what kind of test techniques does he
use of what are the test deliverables in a project? Besides the
information about our job, we want to collect data about the
profile of a tester as well, for example, how many testers are
there, what is their gender, age, how many years of experience in
the testing field do they have, etc. Finally information is asked
about the organization where the tester is working, to complete the
survey. The survey uses ISTQB definitions so it will be possible to
make an international comparison.
On October
11th at the TestNet autumn
congress, the Dutch testers have the opportunity to fill in the
survey first, using the website www.softwaretesten.nl
. This website will be open the coming months, where we aim to get
at least 300 respondents, for our survey to be representative.
(Calling all Dutch testers to fill in the survey!)
In the spring of 2011 the first
results will be published in TestNews and presented at the TestNet
Spring congress.
I am convinced that the survey
will provide us with interesting information on what we are really
doing as testers (in Holland). I hope to get the opportunity to
present the results at EuroSTAR 2011. And more important, if it
were up to me, let EurosSTAR 2011 be the start of an European
Survey. This was my ambition from the start and that is why I
already named it:
EUROPEAN
SOFTWARE TESTERS BENCHMARK.