If you wanted to survey a group of people to get a pulse on the state of QA and testing, you could do no better than the audience of the SD Times. Writer Alan Zeichick just posted a fancinating survey that’s sure to spark a conversion inside your organization. Covering everything from test teams sizes to the state of software security, the survey is a must-read for anyone in QA or development.

Here were three of the questions (and anwsers) that caught my attention:

Does your organization have separate development and test teams?

• Some  development and test/QA teams are separate, some are integrated: 34.6%
• All  test and development teams are integrated: 30.2%
• All development teams and  test/QA teams are separate: 32.7%
• Don’t know: 2.4%

How many testers or test/QA professionals do you have at your company (or the  largest company to whom you consult)?

• 5,000 or more: 2.9%
• 1,000-4,999:  3.9%
• 500-999: 2.5%
• 100-499: 5.9%
• 50-99: 7.8%
• 20-49: 11.3%
• 10-19:  9.3%
• 5-9: 15.2%
• 4 or fewer: 41.2%

What background do your test/QA managers and directors typically  have?

• Both development and test/QA: 53.9%
• General IT background:  38.2%
• Test/QA only: 23.5%
• Development only: 21.6%
• General management background: 21.1%
• No particular background—we train them from scratch:  14.7%

What suprises you most from these survey responses? Be sure to let us know in the comment section.