Since 2009, Malaysia has been developing itself as a hub for software testing, and have been focused on successfully establishing and fostering the following:
(a) A strong cadre of testers with internationally recognized certification and technical skills.
(b) Promotion of Malaysia as a leading Asian center for software testing knowledge.
(c) Universities adopting software testing in their curriculum.
(d) Strong relationships within the international software testing industry both on the demand and supply sides.
(e) Being the nucleus of a budding local software testing industry.
The setting up of a MyTCoE in 2015/2016 to support the provision of IV&V services by the Malaysian public sector is a natural progression in the Malaysian journey to become a leading international center for the software testing industry on both the supply and demand side.
Moving forward, this is followed by the focus on sophisticated software testing best practices to ensure Malaysia leads software testing innovation for the future.
The concept of Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) represents a modern and sophisticated approach towards building a culture of quality in software and systems development.
At its core, it is centered on the principle that independence of testing services in the software development process improves the quality and integrity of system/software being developed. This is not dissimilar from the long accepted notion that independent auditors bring quality and integrity to financial processes. IV&V involves giving software testers a larger role and more authority over critical success factors that commonly lead to poor quality in system/software being developed, and worse still, failure of the ICT projects.
The larger role of software tester, among others, are:
(a) strengthening their control over project management,
(b) risk analysis and management,
(c) understanding cyber threats to critical systems as part of software testing,
(d) crafting of quality requirements in a rapid shift-left to the early stages of the systems development lifecycle,
(e) facilitating the injection of test automation tools/techniques plus sophisticated test simulation/optimization methods.
While there are many approaches to IV&V in practice worldwide in general, it is imperative to identify and document the IV&V approaches and best practices that are most suitable in the context of the Malaysian public sector’s software development.
In recognizing the importance of IV&V for Malaysian public sector, this IV&V Handbook documents the IV&V approaches and best practices in a practical and user-centric format (and can be used in a larger distribution).