Training: Finally Making the Grade

When Vipul Kocher, president of the Indian Testing Board (ITB) started his
career in software testing after completing his masters in Computer Technology,
most people told him he was on the wrong bus. But, open the recruitment pages of
any newspaper today and the message comes in loud and clear-"Software
testing engineers are finally making the grade".

Software testing has assumed tremendous importance in both software solution
and services domain, and also as an independent market segment.

Says Sridhar Kulasekharan, Chief Operating Officer, ReadyTestGo,
"Testing accounts for 30% of the software development market. The global
testing market is estimated to be a $13 bn industry. With the boom of third
party software testing business, the need for quality and trained manpower has
become a critical issue in the industry."

“Testing as a career is not seen as sexy enough. There is a lack of availability of the right skill sets. Testing goes hand in hand with product development and we cannot separate the developer and tester” -Anand Deshpande, MD, Persistent Systems

A Gartner report estimates that IT organizations will outsource 85% of
application testing and there will continue to be a shortage of professional
testers through 2005.

Training

A booming software testing industry has spurred the growth of the education
industry with a number of companies cashing in on the need for qualified testing
professionals.

Since software testing is fundamental to delivering quality software on time
and within budget, software testing professionals have great career growth
opportunities.

There are many international institutes like QAI and IIST, which provide
training & certification in software testing (see table, The Educators....)

Unfortunately, none of the universities in India has seen this as an
opportunity to develop a course in software testing. Usually, it is the local
institute that takes up this opportunity and develops a curriculum based on
their work experience.

While Gireendra Kasmalkar, managing director and CEO of Verisoft InfoServices
is surprised that educational institutes of the likes of NIIT and Aptech have
not capitalized on this market segment, Anand Deshpande, managing director,
Persistent Systems thinks there is a perception problem involved here.
"Testing as a career is not seen as sexy enough. Therefore there is lack of
availability of the right skill sets. People need to realize that testing goes
hand in hand with product development and we cannot separate the developer and
the tester."

Vandana Dandekar and Meena Sane, joint CEOs of Quexst Associates claim to be
among the first in the country to have realized the need to offer courses in
software testing. In the past two years, Quexst has trained 600 students. A
batch of 24 students gets trained from their facility in Pune every month.

Vyom SQTL Labs has tied up with the Computer Society of India (CSI) to bring
Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) accredited courses in software
testing in the country. The Indian Testing Board is responsible for the "ISTQB-Certified-Tester"
Certification in India. Founded in February 2004, the board has been recognized
as the national board of India by ISTQB in April 2004.

“The scenario is changing in India. The total number of development jobs is reducing as more maintenance work is undertaken” -Vandana Dandekar, director, Quexst Associates

Officially founded as a non-profit organization in 2002, ISTQB is the parent
body responsible for approving various national boards and also for the "ISTQB
Certified Tester", an international certification. Currently there are 17
national boards approved by ISTQB and others are in the process of formation.

"We are the first in the country to have brought ISTQB certification to
India," says Uday Birasdar, director, Vyom STQL Labs. So far they have
trained over 3000 professionals-over 300 students are trained every month.

Seed Infotech, on the other hand, is offering courses in software testing for
the past three years, offering the US-based QAI certification. Narendra Barhate,
director, claims to be receiving at least 300 enquiries every month. Seed has
trained over 1500 professionals for software quality and testing including CSQA
and CSTE certification. Seed has also tied up with Softest Lab, the value added
sales partner of Mercury in India. Mercury has come up with a Certified training
partner program in India for all its educational services. Beginning this
December, Seed will offer four courses - Mercury Quick Test Professional,
Mercury Load Runner and Wind Runner.

Ipeople, on the other hand, has not tied up with any international agency for
offering certified courses. Managing director Rahul Jain says his company is
performing pretty well. It is setting up training centers in Mumbai and
Chandigarh next month and already has one center in Pune and one in Delhi.

Educational institutes of the likes of SCIT have begun offering a module on
software testing as part of their curriculum.

Issues on Certification

Currently there are three international certification standards that govern
the software-testing segment-QAI of USA, ISTQB of Germany and ISEB from UK.

However, a single international syllabus and certification for software
testing professionals is being developed by the International ISTQB, working
with the BCS Information Systems Examinations Board (ISEB), a German
certification and accreditation body, ASQF and other national boards.

Is it the new opportunity?

Yes, to an extent. Even as the software testing industry is amidst a boom,
training software testing professionals is unlikely to become a mass-market
industry. For the simple reason that testing is a niche market and requires
specific domain skills. Unlike other training, testing training requires real
world testing experience in order to make the training meaningful. "I see a
lot of individuals as well as training companies gobbling up material from some
books and presenting it as training. This means there is a need in the market
that is not being met by good players. Moreover, a lack of consensus on the
standards and a commonly agreed upon body of knowledge in the testing world,
does not help either. ISO/IEEE/BS standards are available but are not widely
used since not everybody agrees with these. Efforts are, however, on by SPIN
(Software Process Improvement Network) in Mumbai to take up this issue. The
Software Process Improvement Network is comprised of individuals who want to
improve software-engineering practice.

Nanda Kasabe With Inputs from Sunitha Natti in Hyderabad and Priya
Padmanabhan in Bangalore.