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

尽管已经对敏捷开发人员的特征进行了广泛的研究，但很少关注软件测试角色的特征。本文通过定性研究探索了敏捷项目中软件测试人员的人为因素，重点是这些因素是如何被感知的。我们采访了在 3 家国际公司工作的 22 名敏捷软件从业者：14 名测试人员、5 名开发人员和 3 名设计师。此外，我们还观察了其中一家公司的 11 次会议和 13 名参与者的日常工作。我们的研究结果表明，关于塑造敏捷软件测试员角色的人为因素的观点被具体化为七个特征，敏捷团队成员将其视为软件测试角色的核心：看清全局的能力、良好的沟通技巧、细节-方向，结构性、创造性、好奇心和适应性。测试人员花了半天时间进行交流，并学会了如何减轻他们不得不向其他项目成员带来坏消息的事实。他们还促进了业务方和开发之间的沟通。根据我们的结果，我们提出了七个特征作为招聘敏捷软件测试人员的组织考虑的维度，以及考虑从事软件测试职业的 IT 和非 IT 专业人员的参考。