Compliance with the description of the work functions of software testing specialists for labor market requirements
Abstract. This study is devoted to the analysis of compliance with the requirements of the labor market for software testing specialists and the provisions of the professional standard 06.004 «Information Technology Testing Specialist" for fourth-level specialists. The problem lies in the discrepancy between the actual practice of describing job functions in vacancies and the structure of job functions and qualification requirements of testing specialists in the professional standard for fourth-level specialists, which manifests itself in three key aspects: firstly, the vagueness and ambiguity of wording in job advertisements makes it difficult to adequately assess candidates` qualifications.; secondly, the stated requirements for candidates often do not correspond to the actual work functions defined in the current professional standard for fourth-level specialists, which reduces the effectiveness of the recruitment process; and thirdly, the de facto division of the labor market into manual and automated testing specialists contradicts the integrated approach of the professional standard, which contributes to the formation of incomplete and unsystematic professional training. This misalignment negatively affects the effectiveness of personnel selection, the quality of specialist training, and, ultimately, the quality of software development and maintenance. Hypothesis: a change in the structure of the description of labor functions and qualification requirements for software testing specialists in the professional standard of the fourth level of qualification will contribute to a more accurate selection of testing specialists in the labor market. Problem statement: significant discrepancies in the description of job functions in vacancies and in the requirements of the professional standard for the fourth level of qualification in software testing lead to a decrease in the effectiveness of personnel selection, a deterioration in the quality of specialist training and, as a result, to a decrease in the quality of the software being developed and maintained. The purpose of the study is to analyze the compliance of the description of the work functions of software testing specialists with the requirements of the labor market. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks: to identify discrepancies between the requirements for software testing specialists stated in vacancies on popular job sites (HH.ru, Work.ru, trudvsem.ru), and the requirements established by the professional standard, to identify causes of these discrepancies and propose recommendations for their elimination in order to improve the effectiveness of personnel selection and the quality of specialist training.
Keywords: software testing, professional standard, labor market, personnel selection, vacancies, manual testing specialist, automated testing specialist, qualifications, software development quality.
Highlights:
- the analysis of labor functions in one of the most popular professions in the field of information technology (IT), a software tester, is carried out in terms of the origin of the specialty and the reasons for its popularization and rapid development;
- the description of the work functions of software testing specialists in the labor market is compared using the example of tester vacancies on three popular job sites (HH.ru, Work.ru, trudvsem.ru) with the requirements of the professional standard for the fourth level of qualification;
- the division of software testing specialists into manual and automated testing specialists has been revealed in the labor market, which is not reflected in the description of the work functions of software testing specialists in professional standards and vacancies. This situation leads to a decrease in the quality of the selection of software testing specialists for vacant positions, reduces the quality of training of these specialists in educational institutions;
- recommendations have been developed to change the structure of the description of labor functions and qualification requirements for software testing specialists in the professional standard, which will contribute to the harmonization of the labor market and increase the efficiency of the recruitment process.
Andrey S. Uskov - Samara State University of Economics, Samara, Russia