KLM, ProRail, KAS BANK and Rabobank presented with TÜV certificates for good software quality
2 June 2009
The first four TÜV certificates were presented to KLM, ProRail, KAS BANK and Rabobank at KLM head office on 28 May. The Amsterdam-based Software Improvement Group (SIG) is the driving force behind this initiative.
The first four TÜV certificates were presented to KLM, ProRail, KAS BANK and Rabobank at KLM head office on 28 May. The Amsterdam-based Software Improvement Group (SIG) is the driving force behind this initiative.
The certificate has been developed in collaboration with TÜV Informationstechnik GmbH (TÜViT) and will grow to be a new global standard. The recipients believe that the start of certification represents an important milestone for the software industry. Every industry benefits from clear quality standards and the software development industry now also has a broadly accepted certificate. The fact that four major leading Dutch software buyers want to receive their first certificate gives an indication of the market need that apparently exists.
The certificate is specifically aimed at improving the technical quality of software systems, driving down costs of ownership, managing risks and helping to create clear agreements between buyers and suppliers in the IT industry.
Ms Marjan Oudeman, Executive Director of Corus Strip Products Division and a member of the Dutch Innovation Platform, presented the first certificates to Mr Van den Eede of KLM (Director Business Analytics BDO Commercial & Ground Services), Mr Bothof of ProRail (IT director), Mr Van der Horst of KAS BANK (CIO) and Mr Van den Hengel of Rabobank (Manager ICT architecture). Certificates were presented in the presence of Mr Antonius Sommer, director of TÜViT.
When she presented the certificates Ms Oudeman stressed that the current economic climate is a good time to implement innovations in order thus to emerge from the crisis stronger. Innovation is something you need to do together.
Mr Borst, hosting on behalf of KLM, emphasised that innovative ICT has already offered KLM a lot of benefits, and that an independent assessment of ICT is important. For KLM innovation means that it can provide a better customer performance. In this case it involved a Webkiosk system developed by Accenture.
Henk Bothof, director of ICT Services at ProRail, said about the certification:
"For ProRail ICT Services it is important always to be able to give an account of the performance achieved. That also applies to the quality of our software systems. A certificate which says something about the quality of software systems and which is issued by an independent party helps with that. The certificate will help us to build and commission systems which are highly maintainable. That is important in view of the long-term strategy that we are pursuing at ProRail." The certified system has been supplied by Sogeti.
Mr Van der Horst, CIO of KAS BANK, said that he saw a clear link better risk management processes and certification of software. He also made no secret of the fact that he was proud that it is possible to develop state-of-the-art systems using in-house staff (who previously still programmed in outdated languages).
Mr Van den Hengel of Rabobank said that he was proud of the team that had built the software. That team consisted of both in-house staff and staff from Cognizant Technology Solution in India.
Mr Wildvank, CEO of the Software Improvement Group, said that the quality of KLM’s software which had been certified by SIG greatly surpassed the open source software of ESA (European Space Association) which was continuity-tested by SIG and announced SIG’s new initiative: benchmarking of software systems.
The certificate
The world is full of certificates. The purpose of a certificate is to give a written assurance that the product has been tested by a qualified party in a neutral and repeatable way, and that it has been shown that the product meets the relevant evaluation criteria. A certificate is trusted evidence of quality and provides an objective basis for the agreement and comparison. This is precisely what SIG has created in collaboration with TÜViT.
The TÜViT certificate shows that the maintainability of the product is reliable. This means that software systems can be modified in line with future change requirements, such as statutory requirements or new commercial scenarios. Large and medium-sized organisations can incorporate this certificate into their contracts with other parties. This will enable them to specify their expectations to their supplier more clearly.
Many of SIG’s clients in both the public sector and the financial sector have already stated that they want to include this certificate in the Service Level Agreements, Acceptance Protocols or the General Terms and Conditions.
The certificate is intended to supplement generally accepted industry standards such as CMMI, ASL BiSL, ITIL and CobiT. Where CMMI focuses on repeated production processes, the TÜViT certificate focuses on the product’s sustainable and transparent quality.
The certificates awarded can be viewed using the following link:
http://www.tuvit.de/69055.asp
Working
The certificate is based on ISO/IEC 9126, which draws on extensive worldwide scientific research. It has been developed by SIG and widely validated in practice. SIG itself has been accredited as an organisation by TÜViT in accordance with ISO/17025. This accreditation was needed in order to be able to carry out certification.
The certification approach is based measuring the measurable properties of software systems at source code level. The measurements are aggregated into quality profiles. A matching with the ISO/IEC 9126 quality characteristics is carried out using two intermediate steps. This ultimately results in a five star rating system for software products. The inspiration for this comes from the five star NCAP rating system for the safety of car occupants.
SIG foresees a future where software product quality will be transparent for all interested parties. Every interested party can make informed decisions as a result of this transparency. Willingness to invest in IT will increase further, since clients will know that suppliers understand their expectations better. Systems will remain in use for longer with reduced costs and risks. Suppliers can show that the quality of their system has been optimised. All parties will benefit.
TÜViT
TÜV Informationstechnik GmbH (TÜViT) is part of the TÜV NORD Group and a worldwide player in the area of information and communications technology. As a provider of trust in quality and security, TÜViT focuses on assessing, testing and certifying all kinds of IT products, IT systems, IT processes and IT management.
The Software Improvement Group
The Software Improvement Group (SIG) provides insight into the quality of software systems. We ensure that our clients retain control of their IT landscape. Our analysis software enables us to measure quality, to expose the underlying architecture and to assess the quality.
All this is done on the basis of automated source code analysis. SIG's origins lie in the CWI: Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science). We service clients throughout Europe from Amsterdam and Bern (CH).
SIG works for leading companies in Europe, including major banks, public and semi-public bodies, and large logistics businesses.