| In this thesis, two related streams of research are presented: the empirical evaluation stream and the organizational readiness stream. In the empirical evaluation steam, we describe the results of an experiment comparing traditional test-last development to test-driven development. Test-driven development is an approach for designing software that involves using tests to guide the design effort. In the organizational readiness stream of the research we report on the results of a regional survey of software testing practices and present the contents of a brief analysis of risks facing those organizations that are in the process of adopting test-driven development. The common thread between the two streams is software testing specifically characterizing the testing-related skills that both developers and organizations require in order to continue to compete in the global software market. We conclude that there is a need for increased testing knowledge and ability; especially at the system and acceptance test levels. This increased knowledge would also decrease the risk the organization faces when migrating from a traditional test-last development process to a test-driven development process. |
