What is the salary of a software tester?

What is the salary of a software tester?

Introduction

The success of every software in the market is testing. Along with developers, quality analysts, and project managers, a software development project must also have qualified testers to determine that the software is functioning according to expectations. It will help you release quality software into the market. Executing software testing right from the early stages of the project will ensure the project’s success at every stage of development; it will streamline the process, and make things easier for the developer team. 

What is software testing?

The primary goal of software testing is of course to ensure the software doesn’t have any bugs or errors. There are three different kinds of bugs, the tester will check during his testing process – Low-impact bugs, High-impact bugs, and Critical bugs. As the name suggests, impact bugs are fairly safer because they do not affect the functionality of the app greatly. The users might feel mild discomfort or trouble while using the app, but not any trouble with the application’s functionality. High-impact bugs affect the functionality of the app, but users might still be able to use it. Critical bugs affect the functionality and usability of the app. 

Epic software blunders

The prison release glitch

A software that was integrated into US prisons to understand the behavior of prisons turned out to have errors that caused the prisoners to get released before their declared date. Prisoners were released well before their release date for several months before the glitch was discovered. 

Yahoo’s data breach

Yahoo had a data breach in 2016, and during this time, about 500 million credentials were exposed. Some believe that it was a government-induced hack, but whatever it was it exposed so many people’s accounts. 

Nest thermostat freeze

Customers of Nest could not freeze their homes because of the thermostat’s device batteries, which followed a firmware update. 

Similarly, there had been so many such software failures that could have been avoided with proper software testing. So software testing is something you cannot compromise on, however rushed your project is. 

Duties of a software tester

A software tester takes up the huge responsibility of evaluating the functionality and usability of the software applications. They will check the software completely by identifying and reporting defects, bugs, and errors during each stage of the development process and ensure everything is on track – reliability, usability, overall performance, and so on. The software tester must work in close collaboration with the development team and must be aware of the client’s requirements and specifications while testing the product. They must be aware of the real-time usage and simulations and design the test cases and scenarios accordingly. The tester must also be competent enough to perform various testing processes to understand the software’s behaviour under different conditions. 

Testing performed by software tester:

• Integration testing 
• Unit testing
• Smoke testing
• Regression testing
• Usability testing
• Stress testing
• Security testing
• Automation
• Software performance testing

These are just a few of the testing processes that the testers normally do, but depending on the nature of the software and requirements of the project, other testing processes will include things like cross-browser testing, continuous testing, API testing, etc. 

So you see, the software tester is a very busy person with a very important job. The salary of the tester will depend on several factors which we will discuss next in the article.

Factors determining the salary of the software tester

Apart from experience and patience, the software tester must also have the following qualifications:

Educational qualifications

Having corresponding educational qualifications will make the software developer eligible for the job. Apart from an undergraduate degree or a Btech in Computer Science or Information technology, the tester must also have completed any of the following certifications – ISTQB (International Software Testing Qualifications Board), the CSTE (Certified Software Tester), and the CSTP (Certified Software Test Professional).

Experience 

It is the experience of the tester that determines their salary. We have different levels of testers:

• Beginner or entry-level
• Medium-range experience tester
• Experienced testers

The average salary for a Software Tester is €55,125 per year. A medium-range tester can earn around €38,113 per year, and the beginner tester is way below that. As the tester becomes experienced, the salary climbs higher. Beginner testers will only have a basic range while a tester with more than 10 years of experience and knowledge of various tools will earn more. 

Location

The location of the software tester is also a factor. The rates that we mentioned above are for Germany. You can also choose to hire developers from other countries like India, Ukraine, the Philippines, and Portugal. The work is good there and the rates are cheaper. The only downside is that you won’t be able to meet them in person because they will mostly be doing remote work. However, with the availability of 5G networks and other communication tools, it is also possible to get connected with your team any time of the day without any hitch. However, this does not reflect the quality of work. The testers from these countries are highly experienced, with excellent language skills and you can expect the same quality work as you get from Europe or America. 

The role defines the scope of the work

Software tester’s salary is also dependent on the responsibilities, tools, knowledge, and skills. It will also depend on the number of tests the tester has to do and the different levels of complexities involved in the project. Testers who perform regular testing programs like manual testing, black box testing, and functional testing might earn a bit less than other testers. The salary will increase when the tester has to do technical, analytical, and problem-solving skills. It will also depend on the usage of advanced tools and frameworks. 

Knowledge of programming and scripting tools

The tester will have to create and execute automated test scripts so their knowledge in programming languages like Java, C#, or Python will be an added advantage that will help them earn higher salaries. The Automation tester will earn higher salaries than the manual tester. 

Conclusion

The salary of the software tester will thus depend on several factors. If you are looking for economical rates and high-quality work, hiring testers from India, the Philippines, and Vietnam would be more feasible. Especially for startups and small-medium companies! Testers from the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands tend to command higher salaries. Testing comprises several jobs, and testers who perform security testing also command higher salaries because of the critical nature of their work. 

Interesting Links:

Check out the salaries of Software Testers

How much does a Software Tester make?

Pictures: Canva

The author: Sascha Thattil works at Software-Developer-India.com which is a part of the YUHIRO Group. YUHIRO is a German-Indian enterprise which provides programmers to IT companies, agencies and IT departments.