The Nigerian Software Testing Qualification Board (NGSTQB) has slated to hold the first Software Testing Conference in Nigeria in Lagos on November 22 and 23 this year
Announcing the event, NGSTQB President, Mr. Boye Dare, the event tagged ‘TestNigeria Conference 1.0’, with its theme as, ‘Impact of Software Quality Assurance in the Nigerian Digital Economy’, will feature a networking cocktail, keynote presentations, panel sessions and fireside chat including special sessions on Software Test Improvement in Organisations; Growing Software Testing Ecosystem in Nigeria’s Educational Sector, and Need for Certified Test Professionals in Organisations.
“It is vital for Nigeria to be identified as a country with high-quality software. Testing is necessary because we all make mistakes. Some of those mistakes are unimportant, but some are expensive and dangerous,” Boye said in the statement.
He argued that software failures can be devastating to company value and reputation, citing example of a UK-based loan company, Provident Financial, which lost 1.7 billion pounds (about 2.4 billion American dollars) of market value in 2017 after a bug in their newly developed scheduling software, such that barely half of their loan debts were collected when due. This bug cost the company 120 million pounds (170 million American dollars) in profit loss, and the fiasco is considered a record-breaking loss.
In a recent report by Synopsys, Inc., in conjunction with Consortium for Information & Software Quality (CISQ), the cost of poor software quality in the US in 2020 was approximately $2.08 trillion.
The NGSTQB President noted that achieving Nigeria’s Digital Economy strategy is the collective responsibility of all individuals and businesses.
“It is in view of the foregoing that the NGSTQB has conceived the TestNigeria Conference 1.0, the first Software Testing Conference in Nigeria that is wholly dedicated to all things software testing and quality assurance. An array of experts and authorities in the national and global fields of software testing have been lined up to speak at the event which will take place on November 22-23, 2022 in Lagos,” he announced.
Designed as a platform for software professionals to discuss how the Nigerian IT ecosystem can start developing quality software that meets international standards and help achieve Nigeria’s Digital Economy Strategy, the conference is targeted at software developers, banks, government institutions, telcos, fintech companies, industry regulators and major users of sensitive software among others.
NGSTQB is a member of the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB), the world’s leading organisation for certification of professionals in software testing. NGSTQB was officially registered as a Board with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in Nigeria on August 21, 2021, after formal approval from the office of the Attorney General of the Federation.
