Software firms set to apply international certification standards

The ownership of an international Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certificate should be considered as a “passport” for Vietnamese businesses to jump into the global software market, said deputy minister of Information and Technology (MIC) Nguyen Minh Hong.

Speaking at a conference to support enterprises in implementing CMMI held in Ha Noi yesterday, Hong said CMMI is an international standard that evaluates the level of skill utilised in the software production process which was developed by the US Software Engineering Institute and is widely applied in the world.

He said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung had approved a plan to support enterprises in developing and applying CMMI in the period of 2010-12 a with total investment of VND60 billion (US$3.2 million) from the State budget.

“The plan aims to improve software business capacity and competitiveness in the industry as domestic enterprises are limited in scale,” he said, adding that it would help standardise production processes.

As many as 90 domestic businesses will be supported to develop, apply and obtain a third level standard in certification.

Every participating enterprise will receive $25,000 for consulting works and attend training courses on CMMI. Training and consultancy will be provided by international firms.

“The application will help to create a national trademark for the industry,” he said.

However, he added that it was mainly larger sized software and digital content companies that had paid attention to the application of CMMI.

He said the software industry earned over $1 billion in turnover last year and asked businesses to fully tap into their potential. — VNS

Tags: CMMI, Vietnam IT, Vietnam software market