There is a gap between software testing research and practice. One reason is the discrepancy between how testing research is reported and how testing challenges are perceived in industry. We propose the SERP-test taxonomy to structure information on testing interventions and practical testing challenges from a common perspective and thus bridge the communication gap. To develop the taxonomy we follow a systematic incremental approach. The SERP-test taxonomy may be used by both researchers and practitioners to classify and search for testing challenges or interventions. The SERP-test taxonomy also supports comparison of testing interventions by providing an instrument for assessing the distance between them and thus identify relevant points of comparisons. © 2015 IEEE.