Risk orientation in software testing processes of small and medium enterprises: an exploratory and comparative study

Abstract

Risk orientation in testing is an important means to balance quality, time-tomarket, and cost of software. Especially for small and medium enterprises (SME) under high competitive and economic pressure, risk orientation can help to focus testing activities on critical areas of a software product. Although several risk-based approaches to testing are available, the topic has so far not been investigated in the context of SME, where risks are often associated with business critical issues. This article fills the gap and explores the state of risk orientation in the testing processes of SME. Furthermore, it compares the state of risk-based testing in SME to the situation in large enterprises. The article is based on a multiple case study conducted with five SME. A previous study on risk-based testing in large enterprises is used as reference for investigating the differences between risk orientation in SME and large enterprises. The findings of our study show that a strong business focus, the use of informal risk concepts, as well as the application of risk knowledge to reduce testing cost and time are key differences of risk-based testing in SME compared to large enterprises.

Integrating software quality models into risk-based testing

“…However, the guidance of risk-based testing by software quality models is of high practical importance. In previous studies (Felderer and Ramler 2014a, b;Felderer and Ramler 2016), we found that making testing more effective in terms of (1) detecting additional defects in testing such that fewer defects slip through to the field as well as (2) prioritization for detecting most critical defects first to reduce the overall stabilization costs and time are essential benefits of risk-based testing. Both aspects of effectiveness can be addressed by suitable software quality factors (systematically) selected from quality models.…”

Increasing product owners’ cognition and decision-making capabilities by data analysis approach

“…Although the process of debugging software during its design phase costs 4-5 times less than fixing bugs after its release (Jones and Bonsignour 2011), it is a non-trivial task that consumes a significant part of budgets and companies' effort. It could be less impactful for a big companies and software houses; however, SMEs operating often with limited budgets and resources (Felderer and Ramler 2016) are becoming more and more focused on techniques allowing automation and adequacy of the testing process, to be competitive in relation with big players in the market in terms of software quality, optimization of the development cost, and timeto-market factor.…”

Exploring Computing Environment Possibilities for Risk Oriented Testing

“…More objective oriented process are followed for risk management only for the large enterprises not for the small ones. Informed decisions can be taken if risk information is not vague in nature 10 . Risk based testing can be integrated in the industrial process 11 .…”