How to Fill Your Software Testing Skills Gap

Hiring quality talent is becoming increasingly difficult. The Great Resignation has created a significant cross-industry talent shortage, with high attrition rates and companies vying to recruit the same talent with increasingly competitive offers and benefits packages.

According to a Gartner report, IT executives say that at present talent shortage is the biggest barrier to the adoption of 64% of emerging technologies, more than conventional challenges like security and implementation. This is up from just 4% in 2020.

It’s a candidate-driven market where recruiting and subsequently retaining skilled workers is becoming more and more difficult and coming at an increasingly large cost to companies. This is neither feasible, nor sustainable in the long run. But how do you fill your skills gap and build a talent pipeline in a way that makes sense for your business?

With the unprecedented growth in the role and scope of tech, it’s important to first take stock of the key digital skills that your business needs for success. Read: what digital skills will your business need to thrive in 2022.

Software testing is one of the top tech skills that companies need to ensure the smooth running of the software development lifecycle. Yet, there’s a growing gap in software testing skills that businesses are struggling to fill.

Daniel Horan, FDM Product Owner for Testing Services cites an interesting reason for this skills gap.

Universities do not really cover the topic of software testing in any great detail, even during IT focussed degrees, which means that graduates don’t have an understanding of how testing works in the industry so therefore don’t consider that it is a very viable career option in IT that they should pursue.

Daniel Horan, FDM Product Owner – Testing Services

In this blog we’ll cover:

• What is software testing
• Why is software testing important for your business
• How FDM can help you fill your Software Testing skills gap

What is software testing?

Software testing as the name suggests tests the functionality of a software product or application and checks for any possible defects or bugs to ensure improved product quality.

The success of any software rests on robust testing and this explains why software testing is such a critical function for businesses. The software testing market grew over USD 40 billion in 2020 and is estimated to further expand at over 7% CAGR between 2021 and 2027.

Software testers use a combination of automated and manual testing across mobile and web applications to support projects from both a functionality and user experience perspective. The final goal for a business is to deliver top quality products and services to the end-user and to remove any glitches or bugs before the product is deployed.

The aim of software testing is to prevent live incidents, which depending on the purpose of the software, could cause significant reputational damage, financial loss or even, in extreme cases, loss of life.

Why is software testing important for your business?

Testing is often not valued enough in organisations so a lot of testing talent internally comes through promotion from non-technical internal teams e.g. somebody who works in a call centre and has great knowledge of the companies systems gets some quick training in manual testing and then moves into the test team. This approach means that often test teams don’t have enough knowledge and experience to manage testing effectively or test complex systems using approaches like test automation, technical frameworks etc.

Daniel Horan, FDM Product Owner – Testing Services

The scope and impact of software testing is significant for a business. One of the most obvious uses of testing is to ensure:

Product Quality

Before launching any new product or feature, it’s imperative to test its efficacy and remove all defects to ensure optimum customer experience. According to a report by PWC, 73% of customers say that a good experience influences their brand loyalty. A key component to good customer experience is to deliver a product that provides value and functions correctly.

A software tester troubleshoots, writes bug reports, provides feedback to developers, and also communicates test outcomes with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.  

Whilst working at client- site, in addition to being a Test Analyst, I also worked as a Business Analyst, PMO and was promoted to a Test Lead. I oversaw the integration of the systems, which meant testing inputs and outputs, ensuring networks, connectivity, Data Warehouse and servers were all working correctly.

Amira Ali, FDM Alumnus

Saves Money

Testing also saves considerable time and money for a business. The cost of detecting and then having to fix bugs after a product launch is very high. In most cases, error fixes need to be borne by the development company. Late stage fixes usually involve significant changes to the product. Testing facilitates early detection and this in turn helps save money.

Security

Cybercrime is expected to cost the global economy a staggering USD 10.5 trillion by 2025. This highlights the importance of safeguarding data and product security for a business, against potential threats from hackers. Robust testing detects threats from the early stages of a product’s development lifecycle. It measures the potential vulnerabilities and risk points for a product and allows developers to build corresponding security frameworks through coding.

Customer Satisfaction

Ensuring customer satisfaction is the number one way of retaining your customers. It costs five times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one. Software testing checks a product not just for any defects but for its ease of use and value addition for the customer. A properly tested product or system that is secure will instil confidence in your brand and boost customer satisfaction – making them more likely to continue doing business with your company.

How our FDM Consultants can help you fill your software testing skills gap

I trained in the FDM Software Testing Graduate Programme and was placed onsite with a retail bank. I was brought in to help with one of the company’s biggest projects, which added great value to the business as expected. I have now been involved in a total of 10 projects across the company’s mobile app/website.

Mohammed Omar Jamaal Khalil, FDM Consultant

FDM is a market leader in the recruit, train, deploy sector. For over 30 years we have trained and placed thousands of business and IT professionals across multiple sectors including:

• Banking and finance
• Media
• Retail
• Healthcare
• Travel
• Energy and resources
• Public sector

Our experience and deep knowledge of our clients’ needs makes us the perfect partner to help you fill your skills gap with top talent that we source and train to provide value to your business from day 1 of deployment.

Find out more about How FDM’s Recruit Train Deploy Brings Top Talent to Your Business.

Our consultants are ready to hit the ground running and seamlessly integrate with your own in-house teams, helping to reduce risk and improve quality throughout the whole Software Development Lifecycle.

FDM testers also get involved in testing more bespoke applications that are specific to the client’s domain such as self-service checkout machines and software for retailers, regulatory reporting systems for global banks, advertising scheduling systems for large media organisations and vehicle diagnostic applications for the automotive industry.

Our Software Testing Consultants Services include providing continued support to our consultants whilst they are on site, as well as professional and technical support to underpin the training they receive in the FDM academy.

We are proud to have joined the Tech Industry Gold community as the first organisation to achieve accreditation for Foundation Training Programmes for our training programmes including the Software Testing Graduate Programme. Our courses are conducted by our specialist trainers and are designed to equip our trainees with the practical and professional skills that they can subsequently apply once placed at one of our prestigious client sites.

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