TOP SOFTWARE TESTING EXPERTS TO ATTEND INAUGURAL MSTB SOFTWARE TESTING CONFERENCE 2008

KUALA LUMPUR
10 JULY 2008

The President of the International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB), Rex Black will be in Malaysia for the very first time and leading top international and national software testing experts and academician at the inaugural Software Testing Conference 2008 (SOFTEC 2008) that will be held here in Kuala Lumpur from 27 – 28 August 2008.

Organized by the Malaysian Software Testing Board (MSTB) its main features include keynote addresses on Five Testing Best Practices, Toward A Science of Software Testing: Advance & Innovations from Research and Internet – Of – Things: Tester Beware that will be delivered respectively by Rex Black, Professor Keith Osman, Director of Research for the Technology Innovation Centre at Birmingham City University and Professor Jasbir Dhaliwal, Head of System Testing Excellence Program (STEP) of University of Memphis.

A milestone event the inaugural SOFTEC 08 carries the theme Testing To The Next Level and is expected to be attended by professionals in the IT industry and academic sectors alike, as well as policy makers.

“The conference will be a significant platform for Software Testing arena where the industrial, professional and institutional sector will definitely benefit. The conference will offer participants rare insights into the Software Testing industry landscape, practices and opportunities brought by the many international and Malaysian speakers at this event. We shall also emphasize the relevance and importance of software testing towards Malaysian local capability building and national economic competitiveness” said Mastura Abu Samah, President of MSTB.

Mastura, who is also the CEO of Custommedia Sdn Bhd – founding member of MSTB, assures that Malaysian businesses and industry at large will benefit from software testing. She indicated that a study conducted by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce in 2002 (the most recent comprehensive data available) reports that software bugs cost the U.S. economy $59.5 billion annually in terms of losses such as lost businesses opportunities, failed transactions and reinvestments needed to repair damage done by such failures. More than a third of this cost could be avoided if better software testing was performed.

“Whilst Gartner Research (a world leader in information technology research and advisory) in 2007 estimates the global software testing market at US$13 billion, this represents a huge opportunity for Malaysian companies to tap this market and offer their services locally and globally.

“However, the supply of the human resources is not at par with the demand due to the small number of certified professional testers in Malaysia, and lack of awareness about software testing as a career. It is MSTB’s vision and mission to raise the awareness and promote software testing as a respectable profession throughout the ICT industry in Malaysia, and promote the growth of IT software industry by elevating

Malaysia’s profile as a leading testing outsourcing hub,” she added.

SOFTEC 08 will be the platform for Malaysian IT industry to raise the profile of software testing at national and regional level, with invitational international and national speakers who will be delivering keynote addresses as well as engaging in the MSTB Software Testing Colloquium planned as part of the conference.

The ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation course organized during the conference will be delivered by experts in the testing industry. It is an accredited training course recognized by Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad (PSMB) that has been designed to help prepare participants for the ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level examination towards gaining a world-recognized ISTQB certification.

A pool of international and national speakers will be presenting their respective papers throughout the two days conference and among them are Wonil Kwon, CEO of STA Korea who is also the President of Korea Testing Board, Daisuke Azuma from Japan Novel; Bernard Homes, Founder of TESSCO Technologies Inc and Head of R&D of Eurocopter, France; and Aditya Garg, Vice President of Pure Testing Pte Ltd, one of the leading testing companies in India.

Malaysia’s own homegrown speakers will include Fadilah Baharin, Director General from Department of Standards of Ministry of Science, Technology & Environment (MOSTE); Mohd Redzuan Abdullah, Head of MIMOS Testing Centre of Excellence; Dr Suhaimi Ibrahim of Centre for Advanced Software Engineering (CASE-UTM); and Dr Nor Adnan Yahaya, Head of IT, Malaysia University of Science & Technology (MUST).

Rex Black, Bernard Homes and Lim Poh Sze from Microsoft will also be conducting tutorials on the second day of the conference. Meanwhile fellow members from the Asian Software Testing Alliance (ASTA) including Satoshi Masuda (ASTER, JAPAN) and Qin Liu (CSTQB, China) will join Wonil Kwon to run the ASTA Test Clinic; a thematic panel discussion on software testing practices. Industry panel members that include MDeC, Scope International, CASE-UTM, Custommedia and several leaders of the IT industry.

Participation fee ranges from RM1650 per person for a Tutorial Track to RM2850 per person for the entire Conference. Registration can be directed to MSTB Secretariat at telephone numbers: 1-300-88-5539 or 03-89433480 or email to conference@mstb.org, or by visiting the conference website at www.mstb.org/conference. Specially priced fees are also available for early-bird registrations and ISTQB certified persons.

Malaysian Software Testing Board (MSTB) is incorporated as a voluntary and non-profiting organization that represents the national and industry interest and promotes the broad profession of software testing. As a member of the ISTQB (International Software Testing Qualification Board) MSTB aims to provide the leadership and regulates the accreditation process and certification regulations for Malaysian software industry through promoting the development of a common body of understanding and knowledge about testing via alignment with ISTQB's internationally recognized programs.

Members of MSTB Board and its working group members support SOFTEC 08 in their respective capacity as practitioners, academia, industry and business entity, and authority. They are Custommedia Sdn Bhd, CASE-UTM (Center for Advance Software Engineering), Mercatela Sdn Bhd, Mesiniaga Berhad, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), and Malaysian University of Science & Technology (MUST). MSTB is fully supported by Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC).