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Quality assurance is a core element of any implementation–and the pros who do it play as integral a role as the developers themselves. Software testing in all its various incarnations boasts a higher profile than it once did, maybe because IT managers have figured out that the chaos of a development project–a chaos which has become increasingly common due to the protracted lack of high-skill labor–can be averted somewhat by putting more QA people on the job. This lowers the pressure on developers as it increases the focus on testing and revision. Scott Ames, of Autotester, Inc., a software quality assurance firm in Dallas, has a different point of view. He contends that not a lack of skilled labor, “but rather tighter development schedules [are] causing the increased need for QA professionals.”
In July 2000, employers were offering quality assurance pros an average salary of $69,000 per year and an average contract rate of $48 per hour, according to dice.com, EarthWeb’s online job board for IT professionals. Lowest salaries hovered just above $30,000 per year; and at the other end of the spectrum, SQA managers and directors could bring down as much as $130,000.
Wages are based on 712 listings for this type of professional, with cities bearing fewer than 10 listings excluded from mention. Silicon Valley hosts by far the greatest demand for this type of worker, with 38% of the total listings. The highest salaries were in Silicon Valley, where QA pros make $77,000 per year on average. And the highest average contract wage offerings were in Philadelphia, at $68 per hour.
Data came from available jobs listed during July 2000 on dice.com. Results are based on averages or totals from the following information on dice.com: salary, job type, job skills, and location.
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Highest salary by city:
Silicon Valley, $77,000 yearly salary
Highest contract rate by city:
Philadelphia, $68 per hour
Most jobs per city:
Silicon Valley, 38% of total
| Datamation/dice.com IT Salary Tracker Quality assurance pros/Software testers: average salaries by city
Source: Datamation/dice.com IT Salary Tracker/July 2000 |
| Datamation/dice.com IT Salary Tracker Quality assurance pros/Software testers: average contract rates by city
Source: Datamation/dice.com IT Salary Tracker/July 2000 |
| Datamation/dice.com IT Salary Tracker Quality assurance pros/Software testers: distribution of jobs by city
Source: Datamation/dice.com IT Salary Tracker/July 2000 |
Chart data compiled by Laurie Souza.
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