Paths to Testing: Why Women Enter and Remain in Software Testing?
- URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2404.13464v1
- Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2024 20:43:29 GMT
- Title: Paths to Testing: Why Women Enter and Remain in Software Testing?
- Authors: Kleice Silva, Ann Barcomb, Ronnie de Souza Santos,
- Abstract summary: This study investigates the motivations behind women choosing careers in software testing.
The findings reveal that women enter software testing due to increased entry-level job opportunities, work-life balance, and even fewer gender stereotypes.
However, inclusiveness and career development in the field need improvement for sustained diversity.
- Score: 0.8602553195689511
- License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Abstract: Background. Women bring unique problem-solving skills to software development, often favoring a holistic approach and attention to detail. In software testing, precision and attention to detail are essential as professionals explore system functionalities to identify defects. Recognizing the alignment between these skills and women's strengths can derive strategies for enhancing diversity in software engineering. Goal. This study investigates the motivations behind women choosing careers in software testing, aiming to provide insights into their reasons for entering and remaining in the field. Method. This study used a cross-sectional survey methodology following established software engineering guidelines, collecting data from women in software testing to explore their motivations, experiences, and perspectives. Findings. The findings reveal that women enter software testing due to increased entry-level job opportunities, work-life balance, and even fewer gender stereotypes. Their motivations to stay include the impact of delivering high-quality software, continuous learning opportunities, and the challenges the activities bring to them. However, inclusiveness and career development in the field need improvement for sustained diversity. Conclusion. Preliminary yet significant, these findings offer interesting insights for researchers and practitioners towards the understanding of women's diverse motivations in software testing and how this understanding is important for fostering professional growth and creating a more inclusive and equitable industry landscape.
Related papers
- Breaking Barriers: Investigating the Sense of Belonging Among Women and Non-Binary Students in Software Engineering [1.9075820340282934]
Women are far less likely to pursue a career in the software engineering industry.
Reasons for women and other underrepresented minorities to leave the industry are a lack of opportunities for growth and advancement.
This research explores how the potential to cultivate or uphold an industry unfavourable to women and non-binary individuals in software engineering education.
arXiv Detail & Related papers (2024-05-06T20:07:45Z) - Bridging Gaps, Building Futures: Advancing Software Developer Diversity and Inclusion Through Future-Oriented Research [50.545824691484796]
We present insights from SE researchers and practitioners on challenges and solutions regarding diversity and inclusion in SE.
We share potential utopian and dystopian visions of the future and provide future research directions and implications for academia and industry.
arXiv Detail & Related papers (2024-04-10T16:18:11Z) - Charting a Path to Efficient Onboarding: The Role of Software
Visualization [49.1574468325115]
The present study aims to explore the familiarity of managers, leaders, and developers with software visualization tools.
This approach incorporated quantitative and qualitative analyses of data collected from practitioners using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.
arXiv Detail & Related papers (2024-01-17T21:30:45Z) - Navigating the Path of Women in Software Engineering: From Academia to
Industry [2.2732417897161934]
We focus on Brazilian women to extend existing research, which has largely focused on North American and European contexts.
Our findings highlight persistent challenges faced by women in software engineering, including gender bias, harassment, work-life imbalance, undervaluation, low sense of belonging, and impostor syndrome.
arXiv Detail & Related papers (2023-12-08T02:58:26Z) - Machine Unlearning: A Survey [56.79152190680552]
A special need has arisen where, due to privacy, usability, and/or the right to be forgotten, information about some specific samples needs to be removed from a model, called machine unlearning.
This emerging technology has drawn significant interest from both academics and industry due to its innovation and practicality.
No study has analyzed this complex topic or compared the feasibility of existing unlearning solutions in different kinds of scenarios.
The survey concludes by highlighting some of the outstanding issues with unlearning techniques, along with some feasible directions for new research opportunities.
arXiv Detail & Related papers (2023-06-06T10:18:36Z) - "STILL AROUND": Experiences and Survival Strategies of Veteran Women
Software Developers [53.5211430148752]
We conducted 14 interviews to examine the experiences of people at the intersection of ageism and sexism.
We identified 283 codes, which fell into three main categories: Strategies, Experiences, and Perception.
Several strategies we identified, such as (Deliberately) Not Trying to Look Younger, were not previously described in the software engineering literature.
arXiv Detail & Related papers (2023-02-07T19:26:15Z) - Towards Informed Design and Validation Assistance in Computer Games
Using Imitation Learning [65.12226891589592]
This paper proposes a new approach to automated game validation and testing.
Our method leverages a data-driven imitation learning technique, which requires little effort and time and no knowledge of machine learning or programming.
arXiv Detail & Related papers (2022-08-15T11:08:44Z) - Please Don't Go -- A Comprehensive Approach to Increase Women's
Participation in Open Source Software [11.326760036768068]
Women represent less than 24% of employees in the software development industry.
Despite efforts to increase diversity and multi-gendered participation, women are even more underrepresented in Open Source Software (OSS) projects.
I will identify different OSS career pathways and develop a holistic view of women's motivations to join or leave OSS.
arXiv Detail & Related papers (2021-03-15T23:23:15Z) - Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOPS) Workshop White Paper [50.25428141435537]
Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) is an emerging interdisciplinary field arising in the intersection between machine learning, big data, streaming analytics, and the management of IT operations.
Main aim of the AIOPS workshop is to bring together researchers from both academia and industry to present their experiences, results, and work in progress in this field.
arXiv Detail & Related papers (2021-01-15T10:43:10Z) - What prevents Finnish women from applying to software engineering roles?
A preliminary analysis of survey data [9.781973111840552]
Finland is considered a country with a good track record in gender equality.
This paper focuses on the problems that some women face in obtaining software engineering roles.
arXiv Detail & Related papers (2020-02-05T16:03:25Z)
This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.
This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.