AZESQR_2015_2016

FOREWORD

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

QUESTIONS

3

5

6

FOREWORD

Azerbaijan Testing Board (AZTB) is pleased to

bring you the first Azerbaijan Software Quality

Report (AZESQR 2015-2016). This report aims to

show the importance given to software quality in

Azerbaijan and contribute positively to the image

of Azerbaijan IT industry throughout the World.

The report not only draws a clear picture of

the current situation in the Local market but

also sets the de facto standards and trends for

future information technology (IT) projects. As

IT projects begin to fail more frequently in our

market, this kind of a report will be a reference

point for all decision makers.

With the help of AZESQR, we are trying to lay

down the foundations of a healthy discussion

platform for the development of Azerbaijan

IT market. AZESQR has been presented at the

TestBaku 2015 conference on December 8th.

We would like to thank all AZTB members and

professionals who took the time to complete the

survey and contribute to this report.

EXECUTIVE

SUMMARY

The awareness level of market about testing

is still in the early stages. For this reason test

maturity levels of companies are very low. Most

of companies do not have test teams or have

recently established their test teams. Lack of

test teams in organizations pushes test efforts to

the developers, business analysts and even end

users. This is not a good operating model as test

activities will increase workload for developers,

business analysts or project managers and

decrease the efficiency of main responsibilities.

Companies are not investing on increasing

the competency level of testers and tester

certifications in general. But in fact, certification

creates a career pathway model for testers and

will drive awareness about testing. With the

acceptance of testing as a separate profession and

tester’s role as an independent role, companies

will be able to deliver successful IT projects.

Q1

Which industry does your organization belong to?

Q3

Which software development technologies do you use in your

organization?

IT Software / Hardware

58%

Telecommunication

12%

Other

12%

Banking

8%

Government

7%

E-Commerce

3%

47% 46% 31% 22% 10% 7%

Java .Net PHP C++ Other Python

Q2

Which SDLC Model do you use in your organization?

Analysis of Current Situation

Java and .Net clearly dominating the other

software development technologies in the

market.

51% 46% 37%

Q4

Which type of projects does your organization spend time &

resource?

Waterfall

Agile

V-Model

61% 44% 37%


Future Prediction

According to the survey results, about 50% of

respondents substantially believe that most

of the development processes are still being

carried out by using Traditional Waterfall

Model in Azerbaijan. Results also show that

respondents believe Agile Development model

come after waterfall model in local companies.

But in this situation understanding of agile

methodology might be confused with minimizing

documentation within the small scale projects.

However agile methodology also require cross

functional teams and customer collaboration

during the development processes.

The importance of competitive advantage is

increasing in local market, which will initiate

the penetration of agile software development

methodologies significantly. It will bring customer

involvement to the development processes which

means customer will involve not only at the final

stage of projects.

New Software

Development


About 60% of respondents think that their

organization spend time & resource on new

software development projects. This result shows

that Azerbaijan is on the go to become a country,

which is producing software products.

Transformation Projects

Future Prediction

Maintenance Projects

Continuation of this process will initiate the export

of software products to the foreign markets.

6 Azerbaijan Software Quality Report 2015-2016 | www.azertestingboard.org

Azerbaijan Software Quality Report 2015-2016 | www.azertestingboard.org

7

Q5

Which percent of your project timeline is dedicated for software

testing phase?

Q7

Who is responsible for testing activities in your organization?

41%

Less than 30 %

Developer

Test Specialist

49%

44%

20%

Less than 20 %

24%

More than 30 %

Business Analyst

Project Manager

20%

19%

15%

Less than 10 %

Customer

17%

More Test specialists than Developers

14%

Other

2%


Future Prediction

Q6

Almost 24% of survey respondents indicate that

the time allocated for software testing is more

than 30 % of their total project timeline.

The latencies in analysis, design and development

stages are compensated by reducing the time

allocated for testing. This results in customer

dissatisfaction and large number of defects found

in production.

The most efficient way of allocating more time for

testing is applying early testing principle. With this

principle in place, test cases will be documented

as the requirements are baselined and defects

will be found early at the requirements definition

phase. This prevents high costs due to large

number of regression cycles and unexpected

failures in production.

In which phase of the project, testers start to involve for the test

activities in your organization?


Azerbaijan Market perceives software testing still

as a support function that may be carried out

at the end of a software development project.

This approach is still accepted by most of the

companies due to the popularity of the waterfall

methodology and short term cost cutting

initiatives. AZESQR survey results shows that

mostly developers and some percentage business

analysts, project managers even customers are

dominating more than half of the testing efforts.

Future Prediction

We expect software testing efforts will be carried

out by software testers whose only responsibility

is testing in upcoming 5 years. Evaluation of those

dedicated teams that will control and supervise

testing efforts will take years. We also expect the

growth of test outsourcing that also will be feeding

in-house test teams’ recruitments in long run.

Q8

What is the test engineer / developer ratio in your organization?

51% 39% 34% 34%

UAT Integration Phase Development Phase Analysis Phase

19%

1/12

24%

1/5

20%

1/10

24%

No Test Specialists


Future Prediction


Future Prediction

51% of survey respondents indicate that testing

activities starts only at UAT phase of the projects.

This situation predicts that most of the test

activities are being done by customer or together

with customer at the final stage of the projects.

For customer satisfaction and facing less defects

on UAT and on production the most efficient way

is applying early testing principle. With the help

of early testing, test cases will be documented as

the requirements are baselined and defects will

be found early at the requirements definition

phase. This prevents unexpected failures in

production and customer dissatisfaction.

About 24% of the respondents say that they

do not allocate any tester for their projects,

test efforts mostly carried out by developers,

business analysts or most probably end user. This

ratio gives clue that these organizations do not

consider testing as an item during the budget

planning and do not allocate any budget for test

activities.

Companies pay attention on the investment

metrics by focusing to the return. Recently

wrong KPI practices seems the root cause of

current situation. In time, increasing the total

cost of ownership (TCO) in IT projects will force

organizations to set proper and quality related

KPIs. As a result of this process, testing efforts

and testers will gain more importance.



9

Q9

Which skill sets are expected from your testers?

Q11

Which of the following processes are managed by a tool in your

organization?

64% 48% 36% 36%

26% 3%

Defect Management

Test Execution (Automation)

41%

34%

Domain /

Business

Knowledge

Database

Skills

Programming /

Scripting Skills

Communication

and Soft Skills

Language

Skills

Other

Performance Test

Unit Test

Security Test

27%

25%

24%

Test Management

22%


Future Prediction

Static Analysis

10%

Answers clearly shows that employers expect

understanding of domain and business processes

from the testers. This is because of the testing

approach is expected to be from customer point

of view. The result gives clue that organizations

mostly pay attention to the functionality of their

products. Furthermore, respondents attached

importance to the technical skills as database and

programming skills.

Testing is beyond any doubt a technical discipline,

and it requires having both technical and soft skills.

However, testers should also have business mind

to understand any business processes and feel as a

customer, independent from any domain. Testers

are adding great value to projects, as a result in

near future employers are expected to be quiet

more selective and demanding about filling their

test related positions. To be competent in this area,

testers should pay more than enough attention to

develop themselves and try to get more involved

in technical & complex test activities.


Defect Management [41%]? Test Execution [34%]

and Performance Test [27%] processes are most

commonly managed by a tool among the test teams.

Virtualization

Usability Testing

We do not use any tool

Test Data Management

Future Prediction

10%

7%

5%

5%

Adoption of testing tools will become

commonplace.

Q10

Which of the test activities is your company carrying out?

Q12

What are the challenges and obstacles in your test processes?

Functional Test

66%

Performance Test

51%

49%

49%

37%

26%

5%

Usability Test

44%

Back-End Test

27%

Security Test

27%

Test Automation

Mobile Application Test

24%

20%

Insufficient

headcount in test

teams

Time Limit

Insufficient

experience of test

teams

Lack of Test Tools

Other


This is clear from the answers that mostly

functional test activities are carried out in these

organizations. Following the functional tests,

performance testing is the most test activity

performed as a non-functional test.

Future Prediction

We expect non-functional test activities will

become more important due to the formation

of the competitive environment in the market,

such as usability testing, performance testing and

security testing. Considering the latest systems

and interaction with mobile devices, mobile tests

are also becoming trend in upcoming years.


Insufficient headcount in testing teams is

seems to be the most challenging item in

organizations’ test processes. Perhaps this also

causes overloaded workforce in the limited time

allocated for the test activities.

Future Prediction

Organizations may try to keep the test resources

and time limited but it will not eliminate

the required testing efforts. This may trigger

improvement of test automation in next years.

But automation cannot cover all testing activities

completely and automation itself also require

testers to manage it.



11

Q13

How do you improve the competency level of your software testers?

30%

23%

21% 19%

In-house Trainings

We hire only

experienced specialists

International

recognized trainings

Conferences and

Seminars

7%

Other

ABOUT

Q14


According to the survey results, organizations

mostly prefer to train the testers in-house, during

the work process or prefer to hire experienced

testers. Improving the competency level of testers

by international recognized trainings comes after

the in-house or on the job trainings. The other

way of competency development is participation

to the software testing conferences and seminars

also has sufficient ratio which is 19%.

Future Prediction

Since software testing is an essential part of SDLC,

in coming years international recognized trainings

will become a hot topic on development of software

testers’ competency level in organizations. With

increasing number of software testers and higher

quality objectives of companies, widely recognized

technical certifications like ISTQB will also be the

most important tools for testers to differentiate

themselves from other professionals for getting

promotions or the jobs they want.

What are the trends that you are most interested in software testing industry?

Azerbaijan Testing Board (AZTB) is a non-profit

organization founded in 2014 by a group of IT

professionals and academicians. AZTB has been

submitted as a Local Member Board on June

4, 2014 during the ISTQB® General Assembly

Meeting in London and represents ISTQB® as a

Member Board in Azerbaijan Republic.

AZTB Board Members volunteer their time for

development and promotion of ISTQB® Certified

Tester program and generate the awareness of

Software Testing in Azerbaijan.

www.azertestingboard.org

66% 44%

41%

37%

17%

2%

Performance

Tests

Usability

Testing


Mobile App

Testing

Respondents consider performance test as the

hottest trend followed by usability testing and

mobile testing techniques.

Cloud Testing

Future Prediction

M2M, IoT

Testing

Other

Most of the companies especially in Finance, Telco

and IT industries have formed testing teams as

separate organizational units. This new organizational

structure brings new management issues. How

many testers should be employed, which test

design techniques to adapt and what kind of tools

to invest are some of the issues tried to be clarified

by management teams. Organizations primarily will

focus on major guidelines for management to build

their own software testing roadmap such as TMMi

assessment. Furthermore, due to the formation of

competitive environment in the market, usability

testing will remain as a hot topic in the future.

ISTQB® is the International Software Testing

Qualifications Board. ISTQB® has created the

world’s most successful scheme for certifying

software testers. It is a non-profit association,

created and developed international recognized

body of knowledge (Syllabi) for software testing

standards and has issued more than 400,000

certification globally based on this standards.

www.istqb.org


Azerbaijan

Software Quality Report

2015-2016

/Azerbaijan.Software.Testing.Board

/company/azerbaijan-testing-board---aztb

Haydar Aliyev Ave. 125 – ITC Plaza 7. Floor – 701 Baku – Azerbaijan | info@azertestingboard.org | +994 12 5660642

AZESQR_2015_2016

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