KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 15): The Malaysian Software Testing Board’s (MSTB) inaugural software test design competition was won by team ‘Komodo Dragon’ from Penang in the Open category, while team ‘Infinity’ from Kuala Lumpur won the University category.

In a statement Monday, MSTB said winners walked away with prize money of RM10,000 and RM5,000 respectively.

MSTB said team 'Komodo Dragon' comprised 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 during the closing ceremony of SOFTEC 2014 — the 7th annual conference on software testing organised by MSTB.

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.

The other members of the panel were test professionals from the USA, Dr Mark Kiemele and Steven 'Doc' List; and Professor Datuk Dr Aziz Deraman from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT).

MSTB said 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.

Themed Testing IT Right!, the competition required participants to come up with effective and efficient Test Design methods 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).

MSTB president Mastura Abu Samah said the response for the competition was greater than expected.

Mastura added that the competition provides a platform for software test professionals to demonstrate their skills and creativity in software testing.

She said for the students, the competition gives them the exposure to the level of skills expected by the industry, which 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 their experiences and learn from each other.

"The competition also puts software testing and its professionals into the limelight that will help to enhance the awareness on the importance of software testing and spur interest among students, as well as professionals in other fields to take up software testing as a career option,” she said.

Mastura said software testing services was a fast growing segment of the global ICT industry and Malaysia has a good chance to capitalise on this opportunity.

She said 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.