Centre4 Testing provides a quarterly report called MarketWatch that summarizes the current state of the software testing market. In the latest edition, a survey of over 7,000 testers found that 29% feel more confident about the job market outlook over the next 3 months, while 53% feel the same and 18% feel less confident. Average pay rates for contract test analysts and managers increased. The use of smartphones to access the internet doubled over the last year, highlighting the need for mobile testing. Open source test automation tools are becoming more popular due to lower costs and the availability of domain experts.

1. Centre4 Testing
Testers as a Service
MarketWatch Spring 2012
Welcome to the latest edition of MarketWatch from Centre4 Testing, an objective look at the
current mood, pay rates, trends and hot topics in the software testing market.
We’ve recently launched a new format to the quarterly reports, but don’t worry it includes all the data we know you’ve grown to love, such
as rate trends and market sentiment from our On-Site solutions (covering contract & permanent recruitment of testers). In addition,
what’s happening in the sectors covered by our On-Demand Cloud Testers and finally some thoughts from On-Track, our test
consultancy teams.
For the first time, we’ve supplemented our usual market intel by using an automated survey tool, SurveyGizmo. Throughout January and
February the survey was sent to our database of over 7,000 professional testers in the UK, all with more than 3 years experience of
testing. A huge thank you to the many hundreds who invested their time to share their valuable insights with us.
Market Sentiment Outlook for the next 3 months
The Christmas period and the weeks since then, have marked an Adding meat to the bones, we asked professional testers to rank
interesting time in economic confidence. Some retailers reported the reasons for feeling positive about their prospects in software
healthy sales, others went out of business. The media heralded testing.
a double dip recession as Eurozone members struggled with a
testing is integral to the success of the business
raft of challenges and the British Retail Consortium pointed to
the second most feeble growth in January over its 17 year analysis. higher quality applications are being demanded
But during 2011, demand for IT professionals topped 8 categories
QA is well respected by the business
of workers according to Markit Economics, the provider of the
Purchasing Manager Indices and to which Centre4 Testing is a more applications are needed to support different devices
contributor. the business sector I work in is buoyant
offshore testing has failed to meet expectations
29% more confident
than last quarter the pipeline of new applications is full
53% same confidence
as last quarter An option to include a statement of “I have little confidence”
18% less confident came last in our rankings.
than last quarter
We also asked testers to rank the reasons why they might feel
uncertain about their future and included an option to state “I
Last time, we noted that confidence in the IT market was generally have no uncertainties”.
ticking upwards and there was no difference in the specialist
IT budgets are being reduced and QA is to suffer
software testing sector. Whilst it slipped back a little as we
moved into winter, with 25% less of our survey respondents in there is a move to offshore testing
the ‘confidence’ camp, a sizable majority with 51% of the vote
there is a move to outsource testing to UK service providers
still felt more confident about the prospects for the months
ahead, versus the previous months. However, we seem to have there is a desire to automate more testing
reached a plateau, with this number dipping noticeably in recent the business sector I work in is not buoyant
months to just 29% believing the outlook to be rosier. The number
I have no uncertainties
of survey respondents sitting on the fence about the future has
jumped from 31% to 53% this time around. Perhaps we should be better quality applications are reducing the need for testing
relieved that those who are forecasting a downward trend have
applications are being developed with higher quality
remained exactly the same, at 18%.
E : marketwatch@centre4testing.com T : 01273 666 799

2. we captured data telling us that 45% of our testers clicked
through on our survey email using their smartphone. “While
ON-SITE internet usage through mobiles is still under 10%, the pace of
growth is remarkable” comments Aodhan Cullen, CEO of web
analytics firm StatCounter. In fact, over the last 12 months the use
Data for this section of MarketWatch is provided by Centre4
of smartphones to access the internet has doubled. Nokia is still
Testing On-Site services, which provides specialist contract &
the global leader but Apple is top of the pile in the UK and USA.
permanent recruitment services.
Pay rates have increased to an average of £336 per day for a Internet Access
contract Test Analyst, up from £328 last time and £309 in the
Jan ’11 Jan ‘12
summer. That’s a significant rise of nearly 9% in six months or
so. Test Managers will also be happy with an increase in their pay Mobile 5.62% 9.39%
to £479 per day, up from £466 last time. Desktop 94.38% 90.61%
£££££££
Average pay rate for contract Test Analysts
336 per day According to research firm Canalys, smartphone shipments
topped PC’s for the first time ever last year, by 73 million units -
a total of 414.6 million PC’s, including tablets, shipped compared
to 487.7 million smartphones.
Our On-Site recruitment teams concur with the notion of a
two-speed economy, with some companies performing well and With usability and accessibility testing across browsers and devices
prepared to pay for specialist skills and experience. Whilst others growing in importance alongside functional and compatibility testing,
(per the greatest fear above) are cutting IT budgets and reacting there has never been a stronger argument to avoid the use of
with rate bashing. Confidence amongst contractors is quickly emulators and prove your system using testers in the real-world.
eroded when projects are slashed and we would counsel, as
always, the merit of accepting new or extended work on a solid
project at a rate that’s ‘good enough’. Rather than squeezing the
last few pips and being out of work or eroding existing client
ON-TRACK
goodwill.
Centre4 Testing’s test consultancy services are branded ‘On-
Track’. Test automation, performance testing and test strategy
are the core focus of the On-Track test practices.
ON-DEMAND Todays test and development teams often work closely together
in Continuous Integration environments, where automation of tests
This section of MarketWatch is produced by Cloud Testers, isn’t so much a ‘nice to have’ but a mandatory requirement. This
Centre4 Testing’s solution for On-Demand testing by teams of closer collaboration between developers and testers, plus the
professional testers working remotely, testing cross-browser, inclusion of test automation in the software acceptance process
operating system and device compatibility in the real-world. has driven automated tool support further back up the foodchain.
Whilst High Street retailers may be faltering, their online More often than not, development frameworks have automated
counterparts have pushed Britain to the top of the internet test solutions developed alongside them. By abstracting the
commerce rankings. IMRG, the trade body for internet retailers, underlying driver code behind a suitable test framework, such
is stating that 9% of sales are made online, twice the proportion as JUnit your integration options with other tools increase
of the USA – which is the next largest online-dominated market. significantly (JUnit isn’t just for Unit tests anymore!).
It’s clearly critical for any organisation with an online presence to Generous IT budgets have historically permitted substantial
know their audience and how they access the web. This section investment in vendor-based tools such as the HP, Micro Focus or
of MarketWatch is a small extract of our ongoing investment on IBM toolsets. There is no doubting the strength and depth of
behalf of clients in the analysis of the usage of browsers, operating these offerings but we are witnessing greater choice and lower
systems and devices. costs in the market today.
Desktop browser usage Historically, a major driver for test tool selection was the level of
Spring 2012 figures Summer 2011 figures support provided. Very often, freely available open source tools
40.09%
such as Selenium would be ruled out based on the fact there wasn’t
44.27%
Internet Explorer a 24/7 call centre supporting it and skills were thin on the ground.
26.82%
Chrome That has changed and there are now sufficient domain experts.
23.41%
19.78% Open source tools offer some key advantages not only on licensing
21.75%
Firefox
costs but also eliminating the need to move and manage licenses
11.36% from one testing platform to another (particularly to the cloud)
8.63%
Safari
and the developers are often fast to respond to changes in
0.88%
0.92%
Opera technology trends.
1.07%
1.02%
Others Craig Hodgson, Centre4 Testing’s Head of Automation Practice,
concludes, “our clients are asking us to help them embed
It’s evident that Internet Explorer is continuing to lose market
automation strategies much earlier in the SDLC and it needn’t
share to Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari browsers.
cost a fortune. Open source tools, coupled with other initiatives
The other big battle in the world of internet access is between such as ‘on demand’ resourcing are driving down the overall cost
mobile versus desktop. Tellingly and whilst preserving anonymity, of testing per application”.
E : marketwatch@centre4testing.com T : 01273 666 799