SEOUL, KOREA - These days, software is becoming increasingly complex and applicable to a host of diverse areas. Its usage now includes extremely delicate areas such as automobiles, aircrafts, and power plants.If a software bug causes machines to malfunction in these critical industries, the damage can be irreparable. It is against this backdrop that the importance of software quality management is becoming increasingly emphasized today.
For the past few decades, Korea has significantly improved its software quality through diverse testing and certification services with the help of organizations like Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA). TTA is a non-government and non-profit organization that establishes new standards and provides testing and certification services for the ICT industry.
As the amendment of the Software Industry Promotion Act, limits the participation of large companies in informatization projects for the public sector, demands on reliability for software quality are on the rise in Korea. To cope with this trend, TTA has recently taken bold action to raise its quality assurance activities.
Earlier this year, TTA promoted its Software Testing and Certification Department to Software Testing and Certification Laboratory. This is now comprised of 3 departments and 9 teams in an effort to reinforce quality assurance activities in the ICT industry as well as handle rapidly increasing demands on Good Software(GS) testing and certification, Common Criteria(CC) Evaluation and consulting, Localization, Benchmark Test(BMT), and etc.
※ Common Criteria(CC) Evaluation : Security and Reliability assessment for IT security products based on ISO/IEC 15408/18045
Benchmark Test (BMT)
“In terms of SMEs’ software quality, TTA is aiming to strengthen its BMT service. BMT is designed to test the performance of products in an environment similar to the actual work environment. TTA has developed this scenario based on requirements from clients and has gained approval from deliberation committees comprised of experts in the field,” said Shin Seok-kyoo, Vice President of Telecommunications Technology Association.
Next, TTA holds briefing sessions where the BMT procedure can be discussed with participating companies. After the entire process is complete, the deliberation committee reviews the results once more before notification is delivered to both the software developer and the client. The whole process takes 3~5 days per product. This gives clients objective information to select quality products while offering software developers opportunities to complement their vulnerability through the quality comparison and analysis information.
Some buyers avoid having BMT on the grounds of time consumption and complex procedures, and some suppliers waive it due to the fear of disgrace to be beaten by their competitors in terms of product quality. However, it is essential to verify products in advance because software, once released to market, is not easily reversible even if it demonstrates low performance or frequent error occurrence. It is allegedly known that the cost of maintenance originally requires 100 times higher than that of development.
Globalization Center
“This year, TTA is pursuing the establishment of a globalization center to enable software sold in Korea to be effectively used overseas. One of the biggest challenges facing software exporters now is localization. As domestic software products are not able to run in the overseas computing environment, there are a multitude of steps required to modify from something as trivial as date format (YY-MM-DD) to various pop up messages. It usually takes over six months, as well as incurring huge costs.
“To reduce localization costs, companies should develop software in the local computing environment from the development phase. However, it is not easy for individual companies to do so. TTA is thus planning to establish a globalization center to lift the burden of software exporters and to heighten the effectiveness of software usage overseas,” he said.
“The center will provide bilingual engineers who are experienced in the local business process, and also be equipped with a local computing environment including PCs, Operating System, and Database Management System (DBMS). The center is expected to help to diversify the export market which is now concentrated in Japan.”
GS Certification
TTA also plans to strengthen its GS certification projects. GS is the nationally qualified certification that guarantees software quality. This became reputable as public sectors demanded GS-certified products for RFP (Request for Proposals). Since 2001, GS has certified over 2,000 software products, contributing to the enhancement of software quality over the years. “In an effort to back software exporters, TTA will heighten its efforts to promote partnerships with overseas certification agencies and also expand Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA),” Shin said.
K-Software Raises its Quality
Korea has achieved significant progress in software quality over the last few decades, but it still has a long way to go. Shin said that “The U.S. recognized the importance of software quality as early as 1980s and made a substantial investment in both the public and private sectors. This has allowed the country to develop a corporate culture that holds quality management in high esteem. Colleges provide diverse curriculums on software quality and quality management certification holders receive higher compensation. Creative talents like Steve Jobs also found success with the backing of this infrastructure.”
To date, Korea has few experts in quality management, even in large companies, and no college yet offers similar courses to their counterparts in the U.S. In order to share the know-how of testing and quality assurance experiences as well as propagate QA/QC(Quality Assurance/Quality Control) techniques, TTA has been operating the software test professional training courses and the Certified Software Test Specialist(CSTS) Certificate system for the last 10 years. The trainees return to their own company and take a pivotal role to secure the quality competitiveness at the international level. "TTA builds extensive expertise in QA/QC while running training courses and CSTS Certificate system, now we plan to develop and offer diverse curriculums and certificate systems about quality management also”, Shin said.
“I believe that Korea’s software industry has great potential. The industry relishes taking on challenges with new technologies and frequently make bold leaps. Today, more and more software companies seek TTA to take advantage of its services and to test their products at every phase of development. We will continue to heighten our efforts to back companies to improve their software quality as well as gain global competitiveness,” he said.
