The proposed South African model takes the broad roles recognised in the USA and separates further gradations of skill and experience into the job titles of Figure 1.
The ISTQB Foundation Certificate in Software Testing is an internationally recognised software testing accreditation. In the career model, junior test analysts would complete this or equivalent training before they can become test analysts. Figure 2 indicates the minimum proposed training requirements for testers in South Africa.
The Information Systems Examination Board (ISEB) of the British Computer Society uses the internationally recognised Test Practitioner Certificate to denote a high testing competence. Figure 2 clearly shows that senior test analysts, candidate test managers and above, as well as test consultants will require this or equivalent qualification if the proposed career model is accepted.
These two international certifications provide objective measures of competence; as such they can reduce the recruitment workload of employers with the certification of the technical skills of the individuals. The testing industry in the United Kingdom is leading the way for the proportion of employers insisting on these competencies from testing job applicants.
Initial training for persons entering testing caters largely to test execution skills, but also provides a brief overview of testing. Receiving practical, structured software testing training is an ideal way for new testing candidates to learn testing principles, the business domain, and to provide value by releasing more experienced (and more expensive) resources to design, plan, and manage tests. It is desirable to mix this training with at least a few months of on-the-job experience in a mentored environment. Qualified test analysts should receive advanced practical testing skills training to gain the necessary practical skills and knowledge in the period between the international certification courses.
Testers require still further training courses; however, to prevent over-crowding these are not in Figure 2. To the right of the diagram, other skills such as formal project management, negotiation skills, or specialist certifications (for example test automation, usability, security skills) become particularly important.
Pilots get their credentials by attaining certain skills; however, they must also log certain minimum hours in order to progress or be eligible to do certain assignments. They must complete a minimum of forty hours for a private pilot’s licence, two hundred hours for a commercial pilot’s licence, and two thousand hours to fly for certain commercial airlines (am grateful for such a careful scheme to ‘measure’ experience as re-lated to hours on the job).
In the same way, testers should not only have certain skills, they ought to have minimum measured time in each job role in order to gain the necessary experience and exposure for advancement (See Table 1). Qualification in some job categories (such as Test Analyst or Test Consultant as examples) may also call for exposure to different testing techniques, testing types, technologies, industries, software development, and software testing approaches.
| Job Title or Role | Suggested Time in the Role | Shortest Time in the Role |
|---|---|---|
| Tester | 12+ Months | 6 Months |
| Junior Test Analyst | 22+ Months | 14 Months |
| Test Analyst | 48+ Months | 24 Months |
| Senior Test Analyst | 36+ Months | 12 Months |
| Test Specialist | 48+ Months | 18 Months |
| Candidate Test Manager | 36+ Months | 12 Months |
| Test Manager | 48+ Months | 18 Months |
| Program Test Manager | Ongoing | |
| Consultant | Ongoing |
Pay scales increase from the left to the right of Figures 1 and 2, and relate to individual experience measured in time, testing skills derived from training and certification, as well as audited or recognised prior learning. Experienced employers decide the actual remuneration amounts from the testing skills and experience of the individual and from complementary skills (such as communication, project management, and team and leadership skills), employer affordability, market supply and demand, and the perceived value added by a supplying company in some cases.
The testing roles and their progressions, as detailed, represent an idealised career path from school-leaving age. The South African industry would require two to three years from July 2006 to discuss, modify, and adopt this proposed career model, as well as to allow testers to acquire the requisite training and certifications to meet the demands of the model. The various titles and their requisite skills and experience are listed on pages 22 to 27. Candidate Tester on page 22 lists the entry requirement into software testing as a career.
This article does not cater for persons entering testing by cross-training from a parallel career, for example development or business analysis. It is thought that if the essential (albeit idealised) career path for testers is clearly delineated, line managers - with some help from human resource departments - would be able to see where and how late comers into software testing might be accommodated.
A discussion forum is available on www.testfocusweb.com - your inputs are vital to the process of making the South African software testing career model and related training, certification, experience, job titles and roles and remuneration scales relevant, fair, and balanced.
Software testing is a growing specialisation currently receiving avid interest worldwide and undergoing growing pains in South Africa and around the globe.
Software testing, like any new occupational sector in its early days, will benefit from more standardised job titles and associated skills, certifications, experience ranges, and common roles and responsibilities.
Current uncertainty in the South African Industry leads to unfair expectations and pay practices - where employers can easily underpay qualified candidates or overpay testers who lack the necessary skills, experience, or qualifications.
Presently, the Foundation Certificate in Software Testing of the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) and the Test Practitioner Certificate of the British Computer Society (BCS) only distinguish between ‘Tester’ and ‘Test Manager/Test Lead’. Clearly, this lack of variety in testing titles does not offer employers clear, concise insight into individual skills, competencies, or experience.
The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) has issued a single (level 4) unit standard for software testing (Standard ID: 14908, ‘Demonstrate an understanding of testing IT systems against given specifications’).
Knowledge competencies are identified and minimum experience parameters are provided by the above certifications and - to a limited extent - the unit standard. To link these certifications and unit standards to job titles and a career path will reduce ambiguity in the industry and improve recruitment-oriented decision-making.
Until this proposal, no South African model has existed from which testers and employers could get the details they need to plan detailed software testing career paths. Nor could they accurately equate differing experiences and skills to pay scales in the industry.
One result of a missing career model for testers is that one company may choose to call a tester a ‘Test Consultant’ if - and only if - they have a minimum of six years experience and specific skills; whereas another company may choose to call a tester with merely 18 months of self-taught experience a ‘Test Consultant’.
Inexperienced employers will frequently choose to pay lower rates for the same job title if (when?) these are on offer. This results from them not understanding the capabilities and experience of the person who has been bestowed the title. In such a game, titles such as ‘Testing Vice President’ could be good currency, particular if it is for a company of two - perhaps even a husband and wife team!
In reality, each recruitment stakeholder must understand the real value of each tester on offer and spend huge effort to make good decisions in the absence of a common industry understanding. The choice of the same job title, where job titles disconnect from skills and experience, does not guarantee the same professionalism, experience, or capability (read value) from the employed tester.
Work for the employer increases where test personnel are from service providing companies. Here, not only must there be consistency of value at the level of the individual tester, but consideration of the different value each supply company provides must also take place.
Suppliers are not all equal! Qualified testing professionals - working for the employer - should have a say in preferred testing supplier selection.
Employer procurement or human resources departments must answer the following qualifying questions of a testing supplier:
Line managers who are qualified in software testing must ask the following extra questions of the testing services company under consideration:
I am proposing that in South Africa we standardise a set of job titles related to specific minimum criteria (skills, certifications, periods of experience, and variety of exposure). This will help employers, testers, and testing service providers to make better-informed decisions.
Figure 1 below sets out the proposed core job categories for ‘Testers’. ‘Tester’ refers to all of the testing categories in a generic sense. This includes the specific job category ‘Tester’, which as an individual job title has a very specific meaning.
| Key | Tester | = | Tester |
| JTA | = | Junior Test Analyst | |
| TA | = | Test Analyst | |
| STA | = | Senior Test Analyst | |
| Specialist | = | Test Specialist | |
| CTM | = | Candidate Test Manager | |
| TM | = | Test Manager | |
| PTM | = | Program Test Manager | |
| Consultant | = | Test Consultant |