Quality Practitioners’ Differing Perspectives on Future Software Quality Assurance Practices

Altti Lagstedt,Päivi Williams,Amir Dirin

doi:10.3991/ijim.v15i24.20123

Altti Lagstedt, Päivi Williams + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v15i24.20123

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Abstract

Constant changes in a business context and software development make it important to understand how software quality assurance (SQA) should respond. Examining SQA from supplier and client perspectives, this study explores how different groups of SQA practitioners perceive future needs. A survey (n = 93) conducted in fall 2017 explored the views of SQA organizations on future trends. The results indicate that SQA organizations differ slightly in their attitudes to quality categories, as do different groups of SQA practitioners. It is argued that these differences should be taken into account when developing and implementing future SQA strategy. It is further argued that the found basic enables SQA management, evaluation of new practices, and allocation of resources to ensure that all quality categories remain balanced in the future.

Highlights

Software quality assurance (SQA) is changing [1, 2]—not because quality itself has changed but because the world has changed irreversibly
RQ1.1: How do predictions of future practice vary among SQA practitioner groups? We looked at two broad groups: SQA organizations and SQA practitioner groups (Testers, SQA Professionals, SQA Managers, Software Developers, Other IT Management and Business Developers)
To our overall research question (Do SQA groups differ in how they view the future of SQA?), we found that SQA supplier and client organizations place differing emphases on quality categories when discussing future SQA trends and practices, as do the six SQA practitioner groups

Summary

Introduction

Software quality assurance (SQA) is changing [1, 2]—not because quality itself has changed but because the world has changed irreversibly. Information systems (IS) and software (SW) are of strategic importance even in business areas not traditionally considered IT-oriented In these circumstances, the quality of SW is crucial, and social media makes this transparent, as the global audience is immediately alerted to any failure [2, 3]. The three Likert scale questions related to future expectations about the attributes of QA experts, the future software development process and the likely importance of test automation. This was done by importing the data to Microsoft Excel worksheets and using Excel graphics and other features to create figures. The data from the open questions were used to supplement and enrich the answers to the Likert scale questions

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