Especially in India’s fast-track IT (information technology) industry (aggregate revenue: Rs.262,917 crore in 2008) where change is constant, new jobs and vocations which were not on the radar screen of parents, youth and even career counselors a decade ago, have emerged as lucrative and high-potential career paths. With IT’s increasing pervasive-ness, software testing is a new and fresh option in this field, a promising career choice for today’s young and diverse workforce. The aggregate revenue of software testing companies is estimated worldwide at $13 billion (Rs.61,100 crore), of which Indian enterprises are expected to corner a major share.
“Software testing is a major business within the global BPM (business process management) industry. Almost every business process nowadays is computerised and software programmes have to be completely reliable. This makes the testing of the products/system at every stage manda-tory,” says Suman Reddy Eadunuri, managing director of the Hyderabad-based Pegasys-tems Worldwide India Pvt. Ltd. Currently the company has a headcount of 70 testing profess-ionals, and is recruiting aggres-sively to maintain its phenomenal growth rate.
According to Eadunuri, software testing is a very critical function within the software deve-lopment and service industry. It’s a fundamental component of software quality assurance and a review of specifications, design and coding. Software testers subject newly deve-loped software programmes to several stress tests to ensure they serve their intended purpose. “Some companies spend around 25 to 50 percent of their software development budgets on testing,” says Eadunuri.
To qualify as a software testing professional, an engineering degree is the minimum requirement. Additional qualifications particularly a diploma in the subject is an added advantage. Among the well-known institutions which offer training in software testing are Seed Info Tech and SQTL, Pune; Webeklabs at Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata; MindQ, Hyderabad and Qspider, Bangalore. Moreover QAL, ASQ, ISQTB and several other institutes offer certification. CQTM and PMP are additional certifications which could help testers to shinny up the executive ladder. Quick Test Professional (QTP) is a testing tool that allows the automation of user actions on a web or client-based computer application and almost every institute trains its students in using this tool. However, domain knowledge of software development is a prerequisite of a successful career in software testing.
“The rapid growth of the IT industry has created a huge demand surge for software testing professionals. While testing was hitherto incorporated into the software development process, it has now become an independent vertical. Almost all big and medium-size IT companies boast independent testing centres to maintain quality excellence. Our projections indicate that around 30,000-35,000 new software testing professionals will be required in India by 2011. To sustain this growth, software graduates are rapidly absorbed in this field, with top bracket IT companies offering start-up salaries of Rs.600,000 per year. In Pegasystems, we recruit software testers at the same salaries as software developers and there’s scope for fast progression within the organisation,” says Eadunuri, an IT industry expert who has 12 plus years of experience.
An engineering graduate of Osmania University, Hyderabad, Eadunuri pressed on to acquire a Masters in computer sciences from Illinois University, USA. Beginning his career as a software development engineer in “a leading market research company”, in 1998 he signed up with Ernst & Young — the well-known global management consultancy firm. Subsequently, during the course of his 12-year career in software programming and development, he worked with several Fortune 500 companies including GE, General Motors, and AIG among others.
In March 2004, with a consuming desire to “break the glass ceiling”, Eadunuri signed with the Cambridge, Mass-based Pegasystems Inc, a global market leader in business process management. When Pegasystems Inc initiated its Indian operations in 2008, he was the natural choice to head the company’s India operations.
“Pegasystems has been growing very steadily in India, and with this growth rate, the Indian operations of Pegasystems can grow three-fold within the next five years. And with the increasing trend of outsourcing new requirements to third parties, the future of software testing in India is very promising. Very soon we will start offering the world’s best BPM solutions to Indian industry to help automate its operations,” says Eadunuri.
For young software engineers aspiring to walk this unbeaten track, Eadunuri is bullish and visualises a challenging and exciting career. “It is a relatively unexplored field in IT. Talented youth with an aptitude to experiment with new services can make their mark pretty quickly and enjoy fast career progression,” he promises.
Indra Gidwani (Mumbai)