Once considered a not-so-exciting career option compared to the more glamorous software development, software application testing, which essentially is all about ensuring that the software code created by developers is fool-proof and error-free, is rapidly gaining ground in the industry.
With more testing jobs shifting to India because of recent cost-cutting measures by the US and the UK companies, hiring activity has intensified in this segment that is finding favour among job-seekers too.
According to Ms Nirupama V.G., Managing Director, Ad Astra, a recruitment consulting firm, the requirement for testing professionals has gone up 20 per cent from last year.
More challenging
The IT landscape is getting more challenging and the need for quality control has increased. Today s software applications support millions of users at any point, making the process of testing a lot more critical than ever before.
Apart from offering back-end solutions, several IT applications run business-and-support-revenue-generating activities. They are thus crucial to business and their non-performance could severely impact a company s balance sheet. It is this combination of complexity and high business impact in today s software applications that has made the role of quality assurance important to the overall success of a company, says Mr Manish Tandon, Vice-President and Head � Independent Validation and Testing Solutions, Infosys Technologies, which employs 7,300 professionals solely for testing.
According to Mr Pradeep Bahirwani, Vice-President � Talent Acquisition, Wipro Technologies, testing has significantly matured over the years and there are enough opportunities to grow in the field.
We do not differentiate at the recruitment level for testing professionals, he says
Though there are definite signals of improvement in hiring for testing professionals, it is characteristic of the industry where new searches and trends come once in 18 months. Says Mr E. Balaji, CEO, Mafoi Consultants: The reason for a sudden spurt in hiring testing professionals could also be because more there was more software production last year and, therefore, more user-acceptance tests.
Despite the surge in hiring, there is a shortfall of 15,000 testing professionals in the country, according to a Hewlett-Packard spokesperson. To counter the shortage, the industry is picking raw talent and grooming it to suit client requirements. The process also serves another purpose � it ensures testing professionals don t see themselves playing second fiddle to programmers.
HP tie-up
HP, which provides the software for testing, has tied up with the Indian Institute of Hardware Technology to offer specialised training in software testing to students. Infosys has a testing academy where trainees are put through a very stringent training programme to keep them abreast of the latest developments in the testing space, says Mr Tandon.
The global application testing market is estimated at $13 billion. In 2008, the Asia Pacific market was at $102 million, with India alone contributing 21.3 per cent .
The India application testing market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17 per cent by 2012. According to industry sources, application testing accounts for 15-20 per cent of the business of companies such as Infosys and Wipro.
Source Link: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/03/27/stories/2010032750260400.htm
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