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What Characterizes a Good Software Tester? — A Survey in Four Norwegian Companies

Published: 23 September 2014 Publication History

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify the most favourable perceived characteristics of software testers and contrast them with the group of existing software engineers' characteristics provided by prior research. We conducted a qualitative survey among four software development companies using interviews as a main method for data collection and the thematic-analysis approach for analyzing the data. Our findings describe the characteristics which are perceived as most valuable for a tester based on the working experience accumulated by the participant testers and testing managers. The study findings suggest that there are differences between the characteristics of a software engineer and a software tester, with communication and possessing an IT background being cited as the most frequently favoured characteristics for ensuring a high performing tester.

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Cited By

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  • (2015)An empirical investigation of personality traits of software testersProceedings of the Eighth International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering10.5555/2819321.2819323(1-7)Online publication date: 16-May-2015

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Published In

cover image Guide Proceedings
ICTSS 2014: Proceedings of the 26th IFIP WG 6.1 International Conference on Testing Software and Systems - Volume 8763
September 2014
210 pages
ISBN:9783662448564
  • Editors:
  • Mercedes Merayo,
  • Edgardo Oca

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Springer-Verlag

Berlin, Heidelberg

Publication History

Published: 23 September 2014

Author Tags

  1. characteristics
  2. human factors
  3. software engineers
  4. software testers
  5. software testing

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  • (2015)An empirical investigation of personality traits of software testersProceedings of the Eighth International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering10.5555/2819321.2819323(1-7)Online publication date: 16-May-2015

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