September 17, 2014 (Wed): The Malaysian Software Testing Board (MSTB) has announced the winners of the inaugural Software Test Design Competition. Team Komodo Dragon from Penang wins the Open Category while Team Infinity from Kuala Lumpur wins the University Category. The winners walked away with prize money of RM10,000 and RM5,000 respectively.
Team Komodo Dragon comprises five employees from a Penang-based electronics multinational corporation while Team Infinity consists of three final-year students and a supervising lecturer from private university. The prize-giving ceremony was held today at the closing of SOFTEC 2014, the 7th annual conference on software testing organised by MSTB.
A total of five teams were in the Final Round, which was held on Tuesday (September 9, 2014). The other finalists were Team IDS from Sarawak, Team FTP from Selangor and Team Synergistic from Kuala Lumpur. The five were shortlisted from 17 teams which went through the Preliminary Round held in August.
The Judging Panel for the Final Round was headed by Dr. Yasuharu Nishi, Assistant Professor of the Department of Informatics at University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo. Other members of the panel were seasoned test professionals from the USA, Dr Mark Kiemele and Steven ‘Doc’ List; and Professor Dato’ Dr Aziz Deraman from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT).
Modelled after a similar event held annually in Japan, the Test Design Competition attracted 32 teams comprising a total of 110 individuals – 24 teams in the Open Category and 8 teams in the University Category from around the country.
Having the theme of Testing IT Right!, the competition required participants to come up with good (effective & efficient) Test Design for a Test Object, which came in the form of product specifications for a sophisticated electronic kettle designed by Japan’s Society of Embedded Software Skill Acquisition for Managers and Engineers (SESSAME).
“We are pleased that the competition attracted so many testers and budding testers. The response was definitely greater that what we had hoped for,” says MSTB President Mastura Abu Samah.
She explains that the competition has been organised with multiple objectives including increasing awareness on Software Quality Assurance (SQA) practices among organisations and individuals. Other objectives are to give industry recognition to testing skills excellence; increase visibility of software test professional practices in Malaysia; promote software tester as a viable career option; and to encourage constructive interaction among member of Malaysia’s software testing fraternity.
Mastura adds that the competition provides a platform for software test professionals to demonstrate their skills and creativity in software testing. For the students, the competition gives them exposure to the level of skills expected by the industry and hopefully, they would learn from this experience and prepare themselves better for their entry to the working world.
“We are hope that the competition will contribute towards the establishment of a Community of Practice (CoP) for software testing community in Malaysia where members willingly share experiences and learn from each other.
“The competition also puts software testing and its professionals into the limelight. We hope this will help enhance the awareness on the importance of software testing and spur interest among students and perhaps professional in other fields to take up software testing as a career option.”
Software testing services is a fast growing segment of the global ICT industry and Malaysia has a good chance to capitalise on this opportunity. A study on software testing market, commissioned by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) in 2013 revealed that Malaysia’s Total Addressable Market (TAM ) for software testing services was worth about US$26 billion in 2012, rising to US$70 billion by 2020.
Malaysia would need some 30,000 professional testers if the country were to realise its aspiration of becoming a major player in this lucrative market segment.
