Centre4 Testing Market Watch Spring 2010
- 1. MarketWatch Spring 2010 Welcome to the latest edition of MarketWatch from Centre4 remain unchanged. In our last report we noted the comments of Testing, an objective look at the current mood, trends and hot business leaders who have suggested that we might experience topics in the software testing marketplace. Our report is formed a dead cat bounce, thats to say a second downturn following a from the results of an extensive survey of our clients, contractors short period of recovery. Soothsayers with a negative outlook are and consultants during January/February 2010. always part of our furniture but this time that community is limited Whilst weve experienced some of the coldest weather on record, to a tiny 2% of the census and these views are therefore is the economic climate now beginning to thaw? For this issue we dismissed for the second quarter running by the software testing asked our survey respondents to comment on prospects for the fraternity at least. year ahead and to specifically compare the outlook for 2010 with, Outlook for year ahead what was for many, a very difficult 2009. We think youll take some comfort from our report. 88% more confident than last quarter Marking the start of a new decade, we also take a flying visit at the changing buying pattern of testing services over the last ten 10% same confidence as last quarter years. It seems that a phenomenon called Managed Services is leading the charge for your budget today. 2% less confident than last quarter Market Sentiment Our barometer has become something of a talisman in the testing industry and over the last 12 months or so its reflected the mood Rate of pay of our sector as we seemingly plunged into the abyss a year ago Towards the end of 2009 we reported that rates for Test Analysts only to recover in the months leading up to the year end. had slipped from 贈323 to 贈301 per day over the 3 month period between issues of MarketWatch. In fact this has recovered a little Looking back, we can see how the story unfolds - how the green to 贈306 today, in line with what 25% of you told us last time. The shoots of recovery were planted and may well now have germinated. general feeling is that rates will continue to creep up a little and Last summer we used the phrase bi-polarised to describe 贈313 seems to be the target day rate. As we say time and again, market sentiment, when an equal number of you expressed optimism please bear in mind that there are still plenty of highly qualified for the Autumn months ahead versus the same number who and experienced testers more than willing to work for far less were bracing themselves for even tougher times. The majority of than 贈300 and this is a pragmatic position that we condone. you at that time, at 43% of the vote, were sitting on the fence and Indeed, the range of rates for Test Analysts in our survey starts were clearly ambivalent about the future. at 贈225 per day and tops out at 贈400, the message being that so a staggering 88% feel more long as youre at 贈225 or more then youre in the mix. confident about the year ahead Intriguingly, our analysis shows that day rates for Test Managers have edged downwards a fraction from 贈425 last time to 贈420 By the time Autumn came around, perhaps helped by the glorious today. This may partly be explained by the increasing number of Indian summer, there was a growing consensus on the street test professionals who classify themselves as a Test Team that wed turned a corner and that things were on the up. Almost Leader, who we include in this category. Conjecture suggests double the number of respondents, a notable 49%, stuck their that this reclassification may be a cute move on the part of our head above the parapet to suggest the outlook was getting team leaders to secure rate rises that previously werent on offer warmer. This is one of the most affirmative responses weve when they were known as Senior Test Analysts! Whatever the recorded in 6 years of MarketWatch. Healthily perhaps, the case, this canny group of more experienced testers tell us that doom-mongers were still in evidence at 11% of respondents. they expect rates to stabilise now and tick up a little to 贈424 in The warmth that nurtured the green shoots has been turned the next few months. right up today. The number of optimists has grown exponentially and now stands at 69% - those who believe that prospects for the Pay rates for Test Managers next 3 months are better than the last quarter. 28% believe that 450 were entering a holding pattern for the next few months and an 440 insignificant 3% tell us that were on the decline again in the 贈440 430 贈432 Rate per day 贈 weeks ahead. 贈429 420 贈422 贈424 These are some of the strongest views that weve recorded but 贈420 410 even so they pale away when compared to what youve been telling us about the prospects for the year as a whole. A staggering 400 贈400 88% are confident that the outlook for this next year is better 390 than the last 12 months. We normally witness a sizeable proportion 380 贈384 of those survey respondents who sit on the fence - its 370 understandably easier to buy-in to the status quo than to stick 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 your neck out, but this time only 10% believe that the outlook will Year
- 2. We can see from the graph overleaf how rates have followed the Wells is now a Director at Centre4 Testing, an example of a new economic fortunes of the country as a whole. Not surprisingly, breed of testing services provider. These niche providers have confidence in our sector arguably peaked in the summer of 2007 identified a gap in the market to blend their own consultancy - at about the same time that the housing market was topping expertise with contract resource, the logic being that clients are out. Notably, only 4% of those of you surveyed at that time willing to pay consulting rates for advice and management but expressed any doubt about the period ahead which is on a par especially in recessionary times resist paying over the odds for with the 3% in that camp today. That blip of confidence continued contractors available on the open market. The label used for this into 2008 when in the Autumn of that year the world, or at least new compelling blend of resource is Managed Services and the financial sector of our planet, fell off a cliff edge. specialist organisations, such as Centre4 Testing, are also able to secure permanent staff and ad hoc contractors for preferred Testing services - a decade of change clients. All too often, traditional consultancies have been tempted The last ten years have seen marked changes in how we buy to shoe-horn onto site a junior consultant from the bench with products and services across the whole spectrum of business little regard for the skills requirement. The credit crunch has and in our personal lives. No surprise, then, that the way in highlighted more than ever the need to control costs and drive which testing services are procured today has moved on from the value for money. Its no longer acceptable to sign-off a Purchase late Nineties. Although not with the same seismic shift perhaps, Order and assume that the job has been done today, that the financial pressures of recession have accelerated change in signatory is accountable for delivery. Managed services is the the last 12 months or so. trend that is bridging the gap between consultancy and resource When we reflect back on the period leading up to Year 2000, when and in certain instances offshore, or more likely near-shore, testing came into the spotlight riding on the back of the capability can also be introduced into the equation. Clients would Millennium Bug, its clear how testing or at least how it is be advised to insist that knowledge transfer features highly on packaged, has evolved. At that time very few organisations had a the agenda and for some organisations the longer- term panacea particularly strong contingent of permanent software testing is that their own staff build an organic centre of excellence. So it personnel. So in order to combat Year 2000 testing they hired is that the lifecyle for testing resources is completed. rafts of contractors. Those of us in the profession never doubted Summary that testing was here to stay but to many onlookers it seemed In recent weeks weve been told that were coming out of the that testing came of age at that time and offered IT professionals deepest and longest post-war recessions. Testers with grey hairs a genuine career alternative to software development. Happily, will recall the recession of the early 1970s so whether our the dot com boom helped take up any slack in demand for testers current recession has in fact been the deepest or longest is in the aftermath of the Year 2000 anti-climax and so contract and contentious but the statistics confirm that weve suffered 6 permanent testers resided happily side-by-side. continuous quarters of falling GDP. And whilst a 0.1% return to The next fad to bolster testing was the spotlight on risk quarterly GDP growth announced in January is hardly cause to management. All of a sudden quoted companies and others had celebrate its timing does seem to support a radically improved return to confidence. to be seen to be taking their approach to risk seriously and, in the case of those operating in the financial markets in particular, It seems unlikely that were shooting rapidly up the right-hand had to comply with a raft of new regulations. UK plc was earning side of a V shaped recovery and the path to recovery will be fat profits and so the easy Board-room option was to engage fraught with plenty of macro-economic potholes such as inflation. consulting firms to address testing and help underpin a new era Cynics will point to indicators such as falling stock markets and of risk mitigation. the likelihood of interest rate rises. But confidence in our sector has undeniably returned and so long as consumer spending is testing about quality control, quality holds firm and organisations are increasingly prepared to invest in technology to gain competitive advantage then we should assurance or risk management? begin to enjoy a period of improved prospects and perhaps even At this point in time its clear that the testing community a return to growth. But whilst corporations, just like individuals, comprised of permanent testing staff working alongside have short memories for the time being at least youll simply contractors and then consulting firms - both specialists and general have to continue delivering more for less. integrators - providing yet another layer of skilled resource. By Take part in MarketWatch now the trend to offshore was taking hold and whilst testing The information in MarketWatch is based upon the hundreds of lagged behind commoditised offshore software development it conversations that we have with testing professionals each week. invariably attracted the eye of company finance directors who You can also complete the MarketWatch survey online and needed to get to grips with run-away IT budgets. Yet for many download this survey and others going back to 2003 in PDF organisations, finding a solution for offshoring testing has proved format, at www.centre4testing.com Our thanks as always to to be a rocky road. Maybe it goes right back to understanding the everyone who is contributing and a special thanks to those rationale for testing at an organisational level. Is testing about quoted in this issue. quality control, quality assurance or risk management - or all If you have any thoughts or feedback, including ideas for questions three? And what exactly is our approach to risk? Are we simply we should ask or analysis we should undertake, please contact transferring the burden of risk to someone else and what are the us on 01273 666 799 or via marketwatch@centre4testing.com consequences? For many years, pioneers of testing services such as Tony Wells, founder of the UKs fastest growing test consultancy and the first to float on the London stock market, have argued that integrators and software developers simply cannot be both game-keeper and poacher. Its a fair point and one that organisations have wrestled with, with many now embarking on a strategy of taking their own responsibility at least for systems which impact reputational risk. So it is that a new phase of sophisticated acceptance testing and performance testing have come back in-house. Setting the standard in software testing services