The State of QA in Georgia Tatia Getia Head of Communications at GeoSTQB

Content 2 ▸ What are GeoSTQB and ISTQB? ▸ GeoSTQB’s Main Achievements & Mission ▸ QA Market Before & After ▸ Future Plans

Hello! Tatia Getia ▸ Head of Communication at GeoSTQB ▸ Project Communications Officer at CARE Caucasus ▸ Co-founder “Women for Changes” 3

What’s GeoSTQB? 1

GeoSTQB History at a glance ▸ Since 18, October, 2019 GeoSTQB became Official Representative of ISTQB ▸ Since 16th January, 2020 there was officially launched ability to take exam via Exactpro Tbilisi Office in Georgia. Since COVID-19 appeared, supporting remote examination. ▸ Initiating training existence around Software Testing with GITA for the project “Education 3000 specialist in IT” ▸ Provided a varaiety of workshops, webinars, meetups around Software Testing topics. Started the celebration of Software Tester’s day and have been keeping the tradition since 9th September 2020. ▸ Established relations with several universities in order to support proper IT education according to the ISTQB sullabys. ▸ Conducted a QA survey for 2021, based on the first quarter. ▸ Initiating the process of accreditation training centers as an official ISQTB training provider since 9th September, 2021. 5

GeoSTQB History at a glance ▸ In cooperation with Digital Camp Georgia, we supported idea of QA hackathon and motivated participants. ▸ Participated in World Congress - orginized by A4Q - twice; Particpated in several events aimed at increasing the awarenes of Software Testing among our target audience. ▸ Supporting gender equity, signed WEPs with UN Women Georgia and participated in the project “Educate 500 women in Tech”. ▸ Supporting training centers. ▸ Supporting QA community Tbilisi, which has grown up to 2.6k users. ▸ Participatin in several social, media or digital channel programs in order to promote the area and profession itself. 6

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“ MISSION: ▸ Promoting professional excellence in Software Testing. ▸ Increasing the awareness of ISTQB among software testers within different companies. 8

Natia Sirbiladze President The Team Tinatin Tsirekidze Tatia Getia Anano Amiranashvili Tamar Baratashvili Vice President Darejan Usanetashvili Davit Danelia Beka Sazuashvili Davit Mnatobishvili Head of Communications Manager of Innovations Direction Head of Trainings Direction Head of Examinations Head of University Relations Head of Innovations Direction Manager of Innovations Direction

QA Market BEFORE 2

“ ▸ Monthly Demand of QA Specialist was 5-6 including all companies ▸ No understanding of necessity this area for Business ▸ No career development path for a Software Tester ▸ Low Salaries ▸ Deemed as the least desirable profession in technologies ▸ No understanding of ISTQB 11

QA Market AFTER 3

Demand for QA specialists on the market 13 ➢ Around 18-19 specialists on average on different HR recturing platforms ➢ Lack of professionals on the market, and companies are searching desperately ➢ International companies recognize ISTQB standards and have higher requirements

Education & Trainings ▸ Due to the high demand, we have several training centers on the market: ▹ Softfan, Smart Academy, TBC IT Academy, GITA ‘’ Educate 3000 specialists in IT”, Electronic Academy. ▹ Companies which do training beside their main activities and provide internship & employment opportunities: Exactpro, Epam, Exadel, Webiz, TBC Bank. ▹ “Educate 500 women in Tech” orginized by UN Women and BTU, has additional Software Testing courses for beginners. ▹ Several other centres are underway. ▸ Lack of Lecturers on the market ▸ Couple of Universities have launched the Software Testing course based the on ISTQB Foundation Level sillabus for their students. The demand has increased from 1 group to 4 parallel ones. 14

ISTQB Exams 15

ISTQB Exams 16 ➢ The majority of exams taken are Certified Tester Foundation Level ○ Very few Test Automation Engineer, Agile Tester, etc.

After Market Survey 2021 Q1 17 ➢ Around 60% work as a manual testers, 13% as automation engineers and 27 % have mixed responsibilities. ➢ 90% work in the private sector, 6% in the public sector and 4% in other types of ogranizations. ➢ 62% are women

After Market Survey 2021 Q1 18 ➢ Majority Net Salary ranges was varying between 1000-1500 GEL. ➢ Summary Average Net Salary is 2500 GEL

Plans 4

“ ▸ Tester’s Days 9-10 September, 2022. To include international speakers, new-trends-based topics. ▸ QA Talks series about test automation topics ▸ Increased participation in regional events/webinars and doing knowledge sharing ▸ Creating new product/products trainings & examinations (Surprise!)... 20

21 Thank you! [email protected] https://www.linkedin.com/company/geostqb/ 🔗 Facebook GeoSTQB Community Group https://www.facebook.com/geostqb/