Testing time for Solent company pays off
Solent Enterprise Hub client TestIT has won a significant new client with their appointment by to a major contract by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).
Solent Enterprise Hub Company Test IT has been awarded the testing and assurance contract in a software development programme that has implications on shipping and coastguard activity throughout Europe. Responding to the The European Commission's Vessel Traffic Monitoring Directive 2002/59EC (VTMD) the MCA has developed the Consolidated European Reporting System/Single Vessel Database (CERS/SVD) to provide a single source of information relating to shipping in UK waters and ports.
The MCA recognised from hard-won experience that it had to build in software assurance to the project from the very beginning, and asked Test IT to get involved because of their previous experience of Test IT’s excellent quality and competitive pricing.
“We knew that the testing strategy we needed to adopt must involve partners who were capable of doing much more than following a testing schedule,” said the MCA’s programme manager John Morphew. “We had experience of working with TestIT on an earlier project so we knew its quality was excellent, but also its scale of charges were more attractive than its competitors.”
TestIT's input has played a part in enabling MCA to take control of how the SafeSeaNet server has been developed. “MCA has taken a strong, careful approach to ensuring that the legislative framework is correct before carrying out the technical side,” says John Morphew. “By testing these requirements, TestIT helped us to raise issues in anticipation of their causing expensive problems at a later stage of development.”
“Too many testing processes look only superficially at the cosmetic front-end; they are not rigorous about anticipating issues within the back-end,” says TestIT's Managing Director Bob Evans.“The process we have developed with MCA is infinitely more valuable because it tests from top to bottom against the detailed and structured project requirements.”
In a climate where software development is under the microscope, particularly in the public sector, and global competitiveness relies heavily on reputation, it is critical that UK government departments such as the MCA are able to deliver software that works. The MCA has selected TestIT as the most economically viable and cost effective solution to provide quality assurance on the system development, and shown that UK plc is willing and able to trust in an SME team with the right knowledge and experience.
Bob Evans said, "The Solent Enterprise Hub has been a great help in acting as a sounding board and connecting us to other firms and contacts: it has saved us a lot of time."
Arthur Monks, Solent Enterprise Hub Director, added, "TestIT have been very focused and made good use of the Hub and its network of contacts"
For more information contact
Solent Enterprise Hub
0 2392 658 208
www.solenthub.co.uk
Publish Date: 22nd April 2008
