What the 2023 Software Testing Survey Reveals About Industry Trends and Careers

Survey Background

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported that China's software industry generated 12.33 trillion yuan in revenue in 2023, a 13.4% year‑over‑year increase, with the Asia‑Pacific testing market projected to grow at an 8% CAGR through 2026.

Survey Purpose

51Testing conducted a comprehensive analysis of the software testing sector using real‑world data, aiming to help companies make informed decisions and guide testers on career development at different stages.

Industry Distribution of Tested Companies

In 2023, testing professionals were most concentrated in the communications & internet sector (19.8%), followed by finance & insurance (17.8%) and application software (10.6%). Overall, 58.6% of respondents worked for companies in communications, internet, finance, insurance, application software, or military‑government sectors; basic software, PC, and education together accounted for 17.7%.

Newly added categories—automotive, AI, and gaming—represented 12.7% of the total.

Future Investment Areas

Companies plan to allocate the most resources to functional business testing and interface automation testing (both 53.1%), followed by UI automation (46.3%). Other notable areas include performance testing (32.5%), test management optimization (27.3%), mobile automation (20.7%), big‑data test analysis (18%), and AI testing (9.7%).

Salary Situation

Monthly salaries of 8,000–12,000 CNY accounted for 31.4% of respondents, while 3,000–5,000 CNY and 5,000–8,000 CNY brackets both grew (2.4% and 4.7% respectively). The 8,000–12,000 CNY segment fell 6.3% versus 2022, and the >12,000 CNY share slipped from 33.5% to 32.7%.

Despite a slight decline, testing salaries remain competitive, and the report expects gradual growth as the economy recovers.

Preferred Test Management Tools

Among surveyed companies, ZenTao (41.5%) and internally developed tools (28.2%) were the most used, followed by Jira (23.6%), ALM/QC (7.2%), and other solutions such as TFS, TAPD, Excel, WeChat Work, and DingTalk.

Career Outlook

52.7% of testers believe the testing field has a promising future but sometimes feel uncertain; 25.7% are confident, 13.4% are undecided, and 8.2% view the future as bleak. Compared with 2022, the proportion of “promising but uncertain” decreased by 4.1%, while confidence remained stable.

Desired Skill Development

Respondents most want to improve automation testing (73.7%), followed by performance testing (50.3%) and security testing (44.8%). Other skills with notable interest include API testing (43.8%), big‑data testing (39.5%), test management (37.0%), white‑box testing (33.8%), reliability testing (28.3%), and AI testing (16.5%).

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