‘Nigeria’s software testing market exceeds N130bn’
Jonah Iboma
Software testing, an emerging segment of the Nigeria’s information technology sector, has been rated to be worth over N130bn annually.
The Principal Consultant of TC-QA Associates, Mr. Akinwale Akingbade, who revealed this, noted that globally, the practice was a big business, adding that in the United States, the market was worth about $60bn.
Akingbade, who recently led the delegation that recently secured the Nigeria’s admission into the International Software Quality Board, noted that the value of the sector was because of the growing awareness by firms in the country of the need to ensure quality of software systems used in their organisations.
According to him, the software testing market in Nigeria was still evolving and was worth around $1bn.
According to him, the rising interest in software testing is based to a great extent on the growing realisation that poor software quality and poor software development processes, are a major drain on business profitability.
He explained that the reasons for the high incidence of poor quality of software products varied according to their root causes.
These reasons, he said, include the failure of software products to properly analyse needs and requirements of organisations, adding that this could lead to unplanned and costly reworking.
He said, “Waiting until the 11th-hour to validate quality through testing, inevitably extends both the schedule and budget. And operational downtime caused by reliability or performance problems can incur opportunity costs if customers are unable to access the company’s system or the business is unable to do its work.”
Other root causes he identified included a poorly defined process with inconsistent staff buy-in; limited architectural and code question and answers and limited post-deployment monitoring and assessment.
He lamented that while in the current business climate, both “cost containment” and “reputation management” were high on boardroom agendas, testing, which was an important element in effective risk strategies and management, did not achieve the visibility that it deserved many organisations.
Meanwhile, plans are on to introduce software testing into the country’s IT curriculum for higher institutions.
Akingbade said efforts were on to establish a Nigerian Software Testers Board and that the Director-General of the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency, Prof. Cleophas Angaye, had given it institutional support.
Software testing, an emerging segment of the Nigeria’s information technology sector, has been rated to be worth over N130bn annually.
The Principal Consultant of TC-QA Associates, Mr. Akinwale Akingbade, who revealed this, noted that globally, the practice was a big business, adding that in the United States, the market was worth about $60bn.
Akingbade, who recently led the delegation that recently secured the Nigeria’s admission into the International Software Quality Board, noted that the value of the sector was because of the growing awareness by firms in the country of the need to ensure quality of software systems used in their organisations.
According to him, the software testing market in Nigeria was still evolving and was worth around $1bn.
According to him, the rising interest in software testing is based to a great extent on the growing realisation that poor software quality and poor software development processes, are a major drain on business profitability.
He explained that the reasons for the high incidence of poor quality of software products varied according to their root causes.
These reasons, he said, include the failure of software products to properly analyse needs and requirements of organisations, adding that this could lead to unplanned and costly reworking.
He said, “Waiting until the 11th-hour to validate quality through testing, inevitably extends both the schedule and budget. And operational downtime caused by reliability or performance problems can incur opportunity costs if customers are unable to access the company’s system or the business is unable to do its work.”
Other root causes he identified included a poorly defined process with inconsistent staff buy-in; limited architectural and code question and answers and limited post-deployment monitoring and assessment.
He lamented that while in the current business climate, both “cost containment” and “reputation management” were high on boardroom agendas, testing, which was an important element in effective risk strategies and management, did not achieve the visibility that it deserved many organisations.
Meanwhile, plans are on to introduce software testing into the country’s IT curriculum for higher institutions.
Akingbade said efforts were on to establish a Nigerian Software Testers Board and that the Director-General of the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency, Prof. Cleophas Angaye, had given it institutional support.
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