IT users asked to put spotlight on software testing and quality

Staff Writers
Thursday, 17 September 2009 09:28

Business IT - Security

Australian organisations are invited to respond to an international survey which will identify the trends in software testing and provide what is claimed to be the IT industry’s first comprehensive benchmark in this area of software quality.

The survey will be conducted as part of the second annual Software and Systems Quality Conference to be held in Melbourne in October.

Conference organizer and K.J. Ross and Associates director, Dr Kelvin Ross, said the objective of the survey is to provide organizations with a benchmark for both the strategy and performance of software testing which is a key component of software quality initiatives.

The survey comprises questions to determine how testing is undertaken, as well as seeking input from CIOs and business stakeholders. Respondents will typically be people with a responsibility to ensure software quality.

Dr Ross will present the survey findings at the Melbourne conference. He will compare and contrast survey responses with those received in similar surveys conducted in Europe, as well as from feedback received at the annual Test Manager’s Forum run each year in Australia by K.J. Ross & Associates

Dr Ross, who has more than 15 years experience in software engineering and testing, says the benefits of testing are twofold:

Efficient testing accelerates the delivery time in software development projects and investing in quality through well planned testing saves money early in the software development cycle.

Dr Ross says testing in Australia appears to be less rigorous than it is in Europe and less widely adopted in certain industry sectors.

"Industry-wide awareness of testing has improved but has a way to go. This will occur more rapidly in the future as CIOs seek greater accountability from the software development process and they in turn are expected to be more accountable to their organisations," he said.

Information on the survey can be found http://www.sqs-conferences.com/au/survey.htm Those who participate will receive a copy of the survey results and also be in the running to win a Mac Book Pro.

The Software & Systems Quality Conference will be held in Melbourne on October 28-29.
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