Abstract
Although extensive research has been conducted on the characteristics of the agile developer, little attention has been given to the features of the software-testing role. This paper explores the human factors of the software testers working in agile projects through a qualitative study focusing on how these factors are perceived. We interviewed 22 agile software practitioners working in three international companies: 14 testers, five developers, and three designers. Additionally, we observed 11 meetings and daily work of 13 participants in one of the companies. Our findings show that the views on the human factors shaping the agile software tester’s role were crystallized into seven traits, which the agile team members saw as central for the software-testing role: the ability to see the whole picture, good communication skills, detail-orientation, structuredness, creativeness, curiosity, and adaptability. The testers spent half their day communicating and learned how to mitigate the fact that they had to bring bad news to other project members. They also facilitated communication between the business side and development. Based on our results, we propose the seven traits as dimensions to consider for organizations recruiting agile software testers, as well as a reference for IT and non-IT professionals considering a software-testing career.
Highlights
Agile software development is widely adopted among companies seeking to improve their industrial competitiveness (Yang et al, 2016)
As we found limited research on the human factors of the agile software tester, we aimed to provide an overview of the human factors in software testing, regardless of development methodology
We looked to the literature to answer the research question: Which human factors are essential for the software tester?
Summary
Agile software development is widely adopted among companies seeking to improve their industrial competitiveness (Yang et al, 2016). Agile methods are based on iterative and incremental development, characterized by qualities such as short cycles and rapid customer feedback. A noticeable divergence from traditional plan-driven development methods entails involving testers from the beginning of each development increment. A noticeable difference from sequential development methods entails involving testers at the beginning of each development iteration, instead of end-of-phase testing. Two studies focused on the differences between the test activities conducted in an agile project compared to a plan-driven project (Dhir & Kumar, 2019; Kettunen et al, 2010). Their results showed an improvement in the agile project compared to the traditional one: the agile project had increased test coverage, reduced costs, and improved testing productivity
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