Organisations have increased their emphasis on testing as a way to reduce the high cost of overrun software development projects, says the results of an annual study by organisation Planit. The independent software testing and training could not determine if this was because of or despite of the recession. The results did show, however, that project budgets are falling, but the proportion of the overall budget allocated to testing is on the rise.The study also showed an improvement in the attitudes towards testing, with 23% of respondents rating testing as “strategically important”, which is up from 16% in 2008 and just 13%in 2007.Chris Carter, Planit Managing Director, says the study represented a change in the perception of testing in the industry.“Software testing has reached an interesting crossroad, with an upswing in confidence on the one hand, and an increase in caution on the other,” he says. “While it’s encouraging that fewer projects than expected have been affected by the broader economy, the drop in testing resources is worrying, as is the anecdotal feedback from some of the respondents of ‘increased development stress and short-term compromises’.”