Autify, Inc. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan; CEO: Ryo Chikazawa), which develops and provides Autify, a platform that comprehensively supports software development and testing by combining the power of AI and humans, surveyed 104 managers overseeing software development, product development, or software testing at large software development organizations (over 3,000 employees) to uncover the actual cost of software testing.

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Background

According to a report by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the IT staff shortage in Japan is expected to accelerate, with up to approximately 800,000 people in short supply by 2030. Japan's competitiveness in IT development continues to stagnate. The country ranked 32nd in the Global Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2023 (IMD), an all-time low.

Given this backdrop, an increasing number of companies are optimizing how they allocate development staff and funds in an effort to improve development capabilities and increase profits. In software development, testing takes up a significant amount of time and financial resources, and the fact that improving testing could yield substantial results has attracted much attention. This is why we decided to survey the current state of testing and what companies are doing to improve it.

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■Survey Overview

• Survey Title: Survey on the Cost of Software Testing
• Survey method: Internet survey conducted by Research PR “Research+P®︎” by IDEATECH
• Survey period: June 18, 2024 - June 19, 2024
• Valid responses: 104 managers responsible for software development, product development, or software testing at large companies (3,000 or more employees) that perform software testing.

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*Composition ratios are rounded to the first decimal place, so the total may not add up to 100.

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Click here to download the complete survey data

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■Most respondents (34.6%) spend "20-30% of the total development cost" on software testing

　To the first question, “How much does your company spend on software testing?” (n=104), 34.6% of respondents answered “20-30% of total development cost,” and 26.0% answered “30-40% of total development cost”. These results were not significantly different from the 2008 survey, which showed that companies generally spend 30% to 50% of their budget on software testing.

Reference: Information-technology Promotion Agency, Software Engineering Center edition, “Software Testing Estimation Guidebook - What does it mean to estimate according to quality requirements?” (Japanese article)

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