The contemporary industrial trend towards agile software development brings forth new concerns, challenges as well as opportunities. One of the main issues concerns the quality of the final product, for which testing is the well-known assurance mechanism. However, how to perform testing using existing expertise in an agile environment presents a challenging issue for the software industry. This can potentially create confusion and contra productivity which can lead to a situation where testing teams and their practices are considered obstacles for the full implementation of agile processes within an organisation.This thesis identifies and addresses test-related organisational and technological challenges in an agile environment. In this context, we propose a new role for traditional testers which enables them to integrate with the agile team as well as fully exploit their knowledge in the new context. We have conducted an elaborate industrial survey on the preferences and practices with respect to the contemporary aspects of software testing, and identified test-driven development as an important technological area for improvement. A subsequently performed systematic review on empirical evidence related to test-driven development revealed a list of factors which may limit its widespread industrial acceptance and usage. Knowledge of testing was identified as one of those factors and we further attempted to confirm its significance through a controlled experiment performed with master students.Our future works aim to confirm these research findings in wider as well as industrial settings, and investigate other limiting factors in detail, with the aim of providing guidelines for achieving better utilisation of testers and testing practices.
Main Supervisor: Prof. Sasikumar Punnekkat
Assistant Supervisors: Dr. Daniel Sundmark and Prof. Ivica Crnkovic
Opponent: Asso. Prof.
Robert Feldt, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
Examiner: Prof. Hans Hansson, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden