Nasscom and Microsoft announce quality certification programme

BANGALORE: While Indian ISVs have established a mark for themselves in the services arena, a same kind of quality standard is also required in the emerging product development space. To enable this, NASSCOM in association with Microsoft and QAI is offering a certification to assess the quality of the software development process undertaken by Indian software product companies.

The certification has been developed on the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) and would help companies follow the requirements as per SEI CMMI Level 3. Elaborating on this unique initiative to encourage product companies, Kiran Karnik, president, NASSCOM said, "India's contribution in the software product space is just 0.3% out of the global $180 billion market. It is extremely critical to ensure quality of the development process."

He added that that training would precede the certification component. Sheila Gulati, director-developer and platform evangelism, Microsoft said that the certification was a fisrt of its kind being offered by Microsoft. " India ranks number two in terms of the professional developer market in the world. While India is well known for its services expertise, it has to be known for product quality and innovation."

She emphasized that the certification is a platform-agnostic one. Karnik added that the certification is not a binding exclusive arrangement with Microsoft. QAI would provide the certification which would take around six months to complete.

Navyug Mohnot, CEO, QAI, said, "The certification would look at the software development process and not at the product quality. We believe that good processes make good products." He said that apart from product companies, the certification would also be relevant to the outsourced product development services companies in India. Some of the companies presently piloting this certification are Talisma, PacSoft and Skelta.