Attitude towards testing: a key contributor to software quality

Increasing emphasis placed on high quality and customer (user) satisfaction of software calls for rethinking on the objectives and management of testing. Test and evaluation methods and tools, in themselves, do not guarantee effective testing and ensure high quality of software. The key to improving the effectiveness of testing is to improve the attitude of software developers towards testing and the nature and culture of the organisation. Also, testing has to be seen in a broader perspective of maximising 'customer satisfaction' and providing feedback for process refinement, rather than just detecting and correcting errors in the software. The paper addresses software testing from these perspectives. It highlights human factor and management issues in current software testing practices and offers suggestions for improvement.