Pressure to meet deadlines, incomplete testing requirements and budgets are the top sources of stress for application testing organizations, as they move towards cloud-based testing.
A survey of 102 testers and quality assurance professionals conducted at the TestExpo Winter 2010 event in London found that 73 percent cited the pressure to meet deadlines was the leading cause of stress.
The survey, conducted by professional technology services firm Sogeti, found the incompleteness of test requirements provided was the second biggest gripe (52 percent), followed by budget pressures (38 percent). In addition, a lack of standardized processes and methodologies caused stress for 37 percent.
The survey revealed that while cloud and agile-based testing methods are gaining interest and use, manual and end-to-end testing are the most widely used methodologies.
Almost all (96 percent) of respondents said their organization used manual testing processes, 79 percent used end-to-end testing, 64 percent used automated regression testing and 63 percent used performance management testing methods.
Half (50 percent) of respondents said their organization currently used agile testing methods, and 19 percent used cloud-based testing. On the cloud front, a further 19 percent said they planned to implement cloud-based testing over the next 12 months.
Richard Terry, deputy CEO of Sogeti, said, “Software testing is the cornerstone of the software development lifecycle, but there remains a huge source of stress for testers, as they battle budgets, timelines and poorly represented testing requirements.
“The market is also changing and evolving to meet the needs of new application development trends, with organizations looking into how cloud and agile-based testing methods can be added to their quality assurance armoury.”
In other testing news, Carlsberg recently signed a five year application services contract with consultancy Accenture to support standardization at its European operations. The services will support Carlsberg’s Business Standardization Programme (BSP), which aims to enable future growth through the introduction of common business processes, and an ability to share more best practices across its European operations.
