Is Software Testing Underrated?

I have absolutely no doubt that I have saved large sums of money for the companies I have worked for in my role as a Tester. I have highlighted assumptions, ambiguities and grey areas in projects and changes before they’ve even been fully spec’d or development has commenced. I have sat down and talked to the Business, Business Analysts, Business Users, Developers and Release Managers to ensure that there is clarity on what we are doing, how we are doing it and when we are doing it.

I’ve highlighted risks and mitigated these as much as possible along the way. I have learnt key business knowledge from the business teams and used this information as input to my test approach and strategy. I have talked to the Customer Support Teams about where our customers are experiencing problems on the customer site and used new employees Beta testers for UI changes. If customers don’t use the application in the way we expect they will certainly experience issues.

When working with very complex changes I have run workshops with key stakeholders to ensure we understood the changes and the risks and used the information correlated in these workshops as the basis of the Test Strategy but as a bonus, everyone left these workshops with a lot more information that they could use to strengthen the areas they were responsible for.

In many ways, it's very underrated. Without software testing, it's likely a lot of software would be riddled with bugs and difficult to use with problems arising from every deviation from the "happy path" of expected user behavior.

Yes, software testing is often undervalued, despite its importance to organizations. Here are some reasons why:

• Companies may overlook benefits: Companies may not recognize the advantages of testing, such as the role it plays as a quality gatekeeper.
• Testing may be seen as an unnecessary cost: Some companies may view testing as an unnecessary expense.
• Testing may be perceived as delaying product release: Companies may be concerned that testing will delay the release of a product. 

However, the demand for software testers and QA professionals is expected to grow by 25% between 2021 and 2031. This is due to the growing and evolving need for software by businesses.  

Testing can be difficult and requires careful attention to detail. Some effective communication skills for software testers include:

• Active listening - Helps testers understand requirements, gather feedback, and connect with their team  
• Clarity - Testers should communicate clearly and concisely, breaking down technical jargon into simple terms  
• Storytelling - Testers can use storytelling to explain complex scenarios and share their testing experiences

Software Testing is one of the critical elements of the development and production process.

The solution is to make the organization realize how much money they would save by investing in testing. Provide a maximum of indicators and communicate about the real added value in terms of project delivery at each phase. Force developers to include it in new projects and assign dedicated personnel to maintaining tests if possible.