Posted by Dr Serena Coetzee on 28 Apr 2010, 10:52 (last modified on 21 May 2010, 09:24)

Following an initiative by Stefan Gruner who leads the department's SSFM research group, the two IT organisations CSSA-SIGiST (Special Interest Group in Software Testing) and JCSE (Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering) have held a joint seminar about "Software Testing in Small IT Companies" on Wednesday, 21 April 2010, in the Nedbank auditorium, Sandton, Johannesburg.

Johan van Zyl spoke about software testing in small IT companies at the seminar. He is a current PhD (IT) student in the SSFM research group and has successfully completed his MIT degree last year on this topic. The SIGiST seminars are mainly industrial events visited mostly by IT practitioners, and it was a rare occasion that the SIGiST audience was addressed by a postgraduate student at such a seminar.

In his talk, Johan van Zyl accurately analysed the characteristic problems in the domain of software testing which typically inhibit the operations of small software houses in South Africa, as well as internationally. Johan then outlined possible solutions along the lines of the TMMi certification programme, and he also argued for better cooperation and exchange of information and ideas between academic software science and the IT industry.

Johan's presentation, which was thoroughly underpinned by the latest software engineering literature, was well received by the IT practitioners in the Nedbank auditorium, and a fruitful debate amongst the participants of the seminar concluded this joint SIGiST-JCSE event. The organisers of the seminar thanked the SSFM research group for their contribution to the regional IT and software testing community.