Software testing has become one of the fastest-growing areas of corporate IT expenditure, and major changes are taking place in the commercial and delivery models, tool sets and skills requirements as the sector reaches a new level of maturity.

London – August 25, 2010 - Software testing has emerged as one of the fastest-growing areas of the IT market, according to a new report from Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC).

The report found that global spending on testing software and services is currently out-stripping overall IT expenditure, and will continue to grow at a CAGR of 5.2% over the next four years.

Worldwide spending on testing (including both internal and external testing skills, tools and related hardware and systems) will reach approximately b[1],79bn in 2010, and will near the b[1],100bn mark in 2014. Testing is also becoming one of the strongest areas of recruitment in the IT sector, and PAC estimates that there are now more than 100,000 professional testers worldwide.

In the past, testing has often been overlooked in terms of its importance to the business as well as its contribution to annual IT costs.  At many organizations it has often been the developers that perform testing over the course of a project, which meant that the true cost of testing is often buried within the overall development budget, and testing rigour is sacrificed in order to meet release deadlines. 

But two factors have helped drive it up the list of priorities for IT decision-makers: the renewed pressure on IT to contribute to company-wide cost reduction programs in the shadow of the economic slowdown, and a greater appreciation of what the cost of unsuccessful, insufficient or misdirected testing can be to their business. This has been highlighted by recent high-profile system failures at the London Stock Exchange, the US Aviation Commission and the State of Queensland.

Nick Mayes, Senior Analyst at PAC, said: “Businesses are increasingly looking to use external skills, in order to leverage suppliers’ greater economies of scale, gain access to lower-cost offshore skills and investment in tools and processes, and to support their increasingly complex technology landscapes.”

The report also identifies a number of high-growth niches within the testing market, including SAP and Oracle testing, managed testing services, application security testing and cloud-based testing.

PAC latest report on that topic: PAC Global Views report “Worldwide Testing Services Market 2010-2014: Key Growth opportunities & Sector Trends”, August 2010

About Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC): PAC is a global market research and strategic consulting firm for the Software and IT Services Industry (SITSI). PAC helps IT vendors, CIOs, consultancies and investment firms by delivering analysis and advice to address a range of growth, technology, financial and operational issues.

Our 30+-year heritage in Europe – combined with our US presence and worldwide resources – forms the foundation of our ability to deliver in-depth knowledge of local IT markets, anywhere. We employ structured methodologies – undertaking thousands of annual face-to-face interviews on both the buy and sell side of the market, as well as a bottom-up, top-down approach – to leverage our research effectively.

PAC publishes a wide range of off-the-shelf and customized market reports -including our best-selling SITSI® program – in addition to our suite of strategic consulting and market planning services. Over 160 professionals in 16 offices -across all continents – are delivering the insight that can make a difference to your business.