Onboarding inexperienced developers: struggles and perceptions regarding automated testing
Onboarding inexperienced developers: struggles and perceptions regarding automated testing
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入职缺乏经验的开发人员：关于自动化测试的困难和看法
DOI：
10.1007/s11219-016-9333-7
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发表时间：
2016
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
K. Schneider
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Raphael Pham;Stephan Kiesling;Leif Singer;K. Schneider
先前的研究发现，缺乏经验的软件工程师可能倾向于将自动测试视为浪费时间，并且视为与编程完全无关的活动。这可能会对他们以后的职业生涯产生负面影响，并且可能表明在测试方面需要改进软件工程教育。与此同时，这种立场可能会对从业者对应届大学毕业生的看法产生负面影响。为了探讨这个问题，我们进行了一项定性研究，调查了 170 名从业者，并采访了 22 名从业者，了解他们与应届毕业生的经历，重点关注软件测试技能。我们发现，从业者确实认识到大学毕业生与行业期望之间的技能差距，并且这种看法可能已经根深蒂固，足以影响招聘实践。从业者使用不同的、有时成本高昂的策略来缩小这种技能差距，例如培训和指导工作。我们通过对 698 名专业软件开发人员的调查验证了核心发现。我们的定性见解可以帮助行业、研究和教育机构指导深入研究，探索我们发现的影响的严重性。我们发现的应对策略可以提供有价值的起点，可以改变我们教育未来软件工程师的方式。
Previous research found that inexperienced software engineers may tend to view automatic testing as a waste of time and as an activity completely separate from programming. This could have a negative impact on their later careers and could be a sign that improvements in software engineering education are needed when it comes to testing. At the same time, this stance could negatively influence the perception that practitioners have of recent university graduates. To explore this issue, we conducted a qualitative study and surveyed 170 and interviewed 22 practitioners about their experiences with recent graduates, focusing on software testing skills. We find that practitioners do recognize a skill gap between university graduates and industry expectations and that this perception could be engrained deeply enough already to influence hiring practices. Practitioners use different and at times costly strategies to alleviate this skill gap, such as training and mentoring efforts. We validated core findings in a survey with 698 professional software developers. Our qualitative insights can help industry, research, and educational institutions guide in-depth studies that explore the severity of the effects we have found. The coping strategies we have found can provide valuable starting points that can inform changes in how we educate the software engineers of the future.