Exploring human factors of the agile software tester

Abstract Although extensive research has been conducted on the characteristics of agile developer, little attention given to features software-testing role. This paper explores human factors software testers working in projects through a qualitative study focusing how these are perceived. We interviewed 22 practitioners three international companies: 14 testers, five developers, and designers. Additionally, we observed 11 meetings daily work 13 participants one companies. Our findings show that views shaping tester’s role were crystallized into seven traits, which team members saw as central for role: ability see whole picture, good communication skills, detail-orientation, structuredness, creativeness, curiosity, adaptability. The spent half their day communicating learned mitigate fact they had bring bad news other project members. They also facilitated between business side development. Based our results, propose traits dimensions consider organizations recruiting well reference IT non-IT professionals considering career.