Week in Review: Malaysian govt gets serious about software quality

• Lead IT agency, Mampu drives push for quality deliverables
• DNA gets into gaming with Malaysia’s largest eGames festival, HotShotz

It is safe to say that top tier technical software talent has no interest to join the public sector, and probably not even mid-tier talent. This leaves governments having to upskill the talent that they have or continue relying on external IT vendors. That’s not a good idea.

External vendors will do a good job if they are monitored closely but often when it comes to software projects, project management and quality oversight on the part of the government is average at best and vendors will take advantage.

For instance, when it comes to software testing, often times the vendor delivering the project will assure their government client that they are best equipped to find flaws/bugs in their software. You can see the results when projects that have not gone through third party software testing go live – angry users, embarrassed government and finger pointing.

Led by its ICT lead agency, Mampu, which is responsible for the government’s digital push as well, the Malaysian government has actually been taking steps since 2009 to sharpen the skills of its technical talent and build a core team that can advice its various agencies on smart and cost effective ways to get the best out of their IT projects. With the government being the biggest buyer of IT in the country, tax payers should be applauding this.

And it seems to be working with some case studies in hand. And the game changer comes by the end of the year, when it will be mandatory for all IT projects deemed high impact and strategic to have third party testing done on the software. In industry lingo it’s called IVV or Independent Verification and Validation.

Mampu is dead serious about pushing for top quality deliverables from IT projects with a software testing centre of excellence launched in Jan, a comprehensive guideline published last year on IVV to help the various government agencies better understand what is expected.

And then there is also the requirement that all public agencies that embark on IT projects must follow a project methodology and templates issued by Mampu and which it has been practicing as well. If they don’t, their projects don’t get approved.

It has not made them popular but Mampu is unconcerned.

Switching tacks, if I can beg your indulgence to highlight the latest event from DNA, we are getting into the gaming ecosystem through organising what I believe will be the largest eGames festival in Malaysia, HotShotz.

While there are plenty of eSports events for gamers, we are wrapping five components around HotShotz – PC Modding, Cosplay, Publishers Showcase, Indie Games pavilion and eSports with seven games.

It’s exciting for us. Mark down the weekend of July 22-23 for when HotShotz happens and do register your interest at www.hotshotz.asia if you fancy yourself a hot shot and want to take part in the tournament as well, that is open only for amateurs.

With that, I wish you a restful weekend and have a productive week after.

Editor’s Picks:

Mampu drives software testing to raise public sector IT quality

Samsung’s Galaxy S8 aims to break smartphone conventions 

Culture shift imperative in cloud adoption: HSBC CIO

Tinggal pivots to online managed services for budget hotels

Catcha-backed co-working space Common Ground opens in Kuala Lumpur 

Astro Malaysia expects subscribers and advertisers to spend more this year 

DNA is getting in on the gaming action – with HotShotz

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