Print this article

Comments

Email this article

When Vipul Kocher, president of the Indian Testing Board (ITB) started his career in software testing after completing his masters in Computer Technology, most people told him he was on the wrong bus. But, open the recruitment pages of any newspaper today and the message comes in loud and clear-"Software testing engineers are finally making the grade".

Software testing has assumed tremendous importance in both software solution and services domain, and also as an independent market segment.

Says Sridhar Kulasekharan, Chief Operating Officer, ReadyTestGo, "Testing accounts for 30% of the software development market. The global testing market is estimated to be a $13 bn industry. With the boom of third party software testing business, the need for quality and trained manpower has become a critical issue in the industry."

“Testing as a career is not seen as sexy enough. There is a lack of availability of the right skill sets. Testing goes hand in hand with product development and we cannot separate the developer and tester” -Anand Deshpande, MD, Persistent Systems

A Gartner report estimates that IT organizations will outsource 85% of application testing and there will continue to be a shortage of professional testers through 2005.

Training
A booming software testing industry has spurred the growth of the education industry with a number of companies cashing in on the need for qualified testing professionals.

Since software testing is fundamental to delivering quality software on time and within budget, software testing professionals have great career growth opportunities.

There are many international institutes like QAI and IIST, which provide training & certification in software testing (see table, The Educators....)

Unfortunately, none of the universities in India has seen this as an opportunity to develop a course in software testing. Usually, it is the local institute that takes up this opportunity and develops a curriculum based on their work experience.

While Gireendra Kasmalkar, managing director and CEO of Verisoft InfoServices is surprised that educational institutes of the likes of NIIT and Aptech have not capitalized on this market segment, Anand Deshpande, managing director, Persistent Systems thinks there is a perception problem involved here. "Testing as a career is not seen as sexy enough. Therefore there is lack of availability of the right skill sets. People need to realize that testing goes hand in hand with product development and we cannot separate the developer and the tester."

Vandana Dandekar and Meena Sane, joint CEOs of Quexst Associates claim to be among the first in the country to have realized the need to offer courses in software testing. In the past two years, Quexst has trained 600 students. A batch of 24 students gets trained from their facility in Pune every month.

Vyom SQTL Labs has tied up with the Computer Society of India (CSI) to bring Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) accredited courses in software testing in the country. The Indian Testing Board is responsible for the "ISTQB-Certified-Tester" Certification in India. Founded in February 2004, the board has been recognized as the national board of India by ISTQB in April 2004.

“The scenario is changing in India. The total number of development jobs is reducing as more maintenance work is undertaken” -Vandana Dandekar, director, Quexst Associates

Officially founded as a non-profit organization in 2002, ISTQB is the parent body responsible for approving various national boards and also for the "ISTQB Certified Tester", an international certification. Currently there are 17 national boards approved by ISTQB and others are in the process of formation.

"We are the first in the country to have brought ISTQB certification to India," says Uday Birasdar, director, Vyom STQL Labs. So far they have trained over 3000 professionals-over 300 students are trained every month.

Seed Infotech, on the other hand, is offering courses in software testing for the past three years, offering the US-based QAI certification. Narendra Barhate, director, claims to be receiving at least 300 enquiries every month. Seed has trained over 1500 professionals for software quality and testing including CSQA and CSTE certification. Seed has also tied up with Softest Lab, the value added sales partner of Mercury in India. Mercury has come up with a Certified training partner program in India for all its educational services. Beginning this December, Seed will offer four courses - Mercury Quick Test Professional, Mercury Load Runner and Wind Runner.

Ipeople, on the other hand, has not tied up with any international agency for offering certified courses. Managing director Rahul Jain says his company is performing pretty well. It is setting up training centers in Mumbai and Chandigarh next month and already has one center in Pune and one in Delhi.

Educational institutes of the likes of SCIT have begun offering a module on software testing as part of their curriculum.

Issues on Certification
Currently there are three international certification standards that govern the software-testing segment-QAI of USA, ISTQB of Germany and ISEB from UK.

However, a single international syllabus and certification for software testing professionals is being developed by the International ISTQB, working with the BCS Information Systems Examinations Board (ISEB), a German certification and accreditation body, ASQF and other national boards.

Is it the new opportunity?
Yes, to an extent. Even as the software testing industry is amidst a boom, training software testing professionals is unlikely to become a mass-market industry. For the simple reason that testing is a niche market and requires specific domain skills. Unlike other training, testing training requires real world testing experience in order to make the training meaningful. "I see a lot of individuals as well as training companies gobbling up material from some books and presenting it as training. This means there is a need in the market that is not being met by good players. Moreover, a lack of consensus on the standards and a commonly agreed upon body of knowledge in the testing world, does not help either. ISO/IEEE/BS standards are available but are not widely used since not everybody agrees with these. Efforts are, however, on by SPIN (Software Process Improvement Network) in Mumbai to take up this issue. The Software Process Improvement Network is comprised of individuals who want to improve software-engineering practice.

Nanda Kasabe With Inputs from Sunitha Natti in Hyderabad and Priya Padmanabhan in Bangalore.

Page(s)   1