Roadblocks to Attracting Students to Software Testing Careers: Comparisons of Replicated Studies

Abstract

Context. Recently, a family of studies highlighted the unpopularity of software testing careers among undergraduate students in software engineering and computer science courses. The original study and its replications explored the perception of students in universities in four countries (Canada, China, India, and Malaysia), and indicated that most students do not consider a career in software testing as an option after graduation. This scenario represents a problem for the software industry since the lack of skilled testing professionals might decrease the quality of software products and increase the number of unsuccessful projects. Goal. The present study aims to replicate, in Brazil, the studies conducted in the other four countries to establish comparisons and support the development of strategies to improve the visibility and importance of software testing among undergraduate students across the globe. Method. We followed the same protocol in the original study to collect data using a questionnaire and analyzed the answers using descriptive statistics and qualitative data analysis. Results. Our findings indicate similarities among the results obtained in Brazil in comparison to those obtained from other countries. We observed that students are not motivated to follow a testing career in the software industry based on a belief that testing activities lack challenges and opportunities for continuous learning. Conclusions. In summary, students seem to be interested in learning more about software testing. However, the lack of discussions about the theme in software development courses, as well as the limited offer of courses focused on software quality at the university level reduce the visibility of this area, which causes a decrease in the interest in this career.