GOVIS Events - 2024
GOVIS Test Professionals Meetup: Data Privacy and Security in Test Data Management
Thursday 11th July 2024, Ministry of Social Development, 55 The Terrace, Wellington
For many organisations, test data management is the Achillies Heel of Data Privacy and Security. Testing often requires the use of production-like data to validate not just functionality, but also that the functionality will work with the data as it exists in the production systems (clean and unclean data). Anecdotally though, many test environments don’t have that same level of data control that production environments have.
On Thursday 11th July, the GOVIS Test Professionals Meetup were honoured to have the presence of Liz MacPherson from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC), together with Data Domain’s Phil Judd. The focus of the session was the ‘why’ and ‘how of Data Privacy and Data Security in Test Data Management.
From the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Liz gave a clear and articulate presentation (link to the attached PDF) on the “why” - the dangers of not having a high level (production-like) level of data privacy and security with test data. From news articles to legislation, Liz provided clear and compelling evidence of why production-like treatment of test data isn’t just a ‘nice to have’ – an organisation can face compliance and enforcement action if it does not exist, and a data privacy breach occurs. This is on top of the obvious reputational damage that inevitably happens as well. One clear point made by Liz was that ‘as soon as a member of the organisation becomes aware that there is a problem with their data privacy and security – at that point the organisation is liable’. This places a considerable onus on those in the testing profession to ensure that production-like data security and data privacy measures do exist in the testing environment – to safeguard their organisation. With this in mind, Liz referred the meetup to brand new “Poupou Matatapu: Doing Privacy Well” guidance which has just been released on OPC’s website.
Understanding the “why” of handling data well isn’t enough though, it is important to know “how” to properly handle data. So, Data Domain followed Liz’s presentation with the ‘how’ for treatment of production data in the test environment. Phil’s presentation (Link to presentation PDF) covered the range from Data Governance and the importance of Data Polices for the organisation, through to actual techniques such as Cloning, Synthetic Data, Sub-Setting and Data Virtualisation. Simple and Advanced Masking approaches were presented, as well as implementation options.
The realisation that as soon as an individual within an agency is aware of a data security or privacy problem, that the organisation is now obligated to act was the key takeaway for me. The role that the Government Test Professional has to play in preventing test data management from becoming an Agency’s Data Privacy and Security Achilles heel is a key one – and one that is at the forefront or protecting their organisation and their client data.
A huge thanks to our presenters – Liz MacPherson from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and Phil Judd from Data Domain. A great GOVIS Test Professionals event and one that is very relevant. A huge thanks too, to the Ministry of Social Development, our host venue for the meetup. And TTC – our event sponsor and facilitator.
Navigating your career with SFIA
Tue, 9th July 2024, 12 - 1pm, MBIE Head Office, 15 Stout Street, Wellington
It's that time of year again, where we review the past 12 months and set our skills development objectives for the year to come. And spare a thought for those among us who are now of uncertain employment, and will be trying to communicate skills and experiences to potential employers...
There are a huge range of complicated job titles in the digital world, and they are constantly changing. At best, this makes it difficult to understand what key skills and capabilities you need for your career, and at worst it can make performance reviews with your manager a grueling experience.
So, wouldn't it be great if there was a comprehensive international framework that you could use to assess and communicate your skills?
The good news is that there is just such a framework! Skills for the Information Age (SFIA) is a tool that people can use to check the skills that they currently possess and how they can level up in their careers. Even better, DIA and MBIE have purchased a country license so that it is free to use for everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand.
But what is the strategic picture for the adoption of SFIA in this country? What can you be doing now to further your career in technology, information and data? And most importantly, can this make explaining your job to friends and family any easier?
Come along and learn from our excellent speakers:
Vic MacLennan is the CEO of IT Professionals New Zealand, and (among other things) is a member of the SFIA Global Council. She has been supporting work by DIA and MBIE to make SFIA available in New Zealand.
Professor Elizabeth Valentine is an expert in Digital Transformation Leadership Capabilities & Governance. She has been using SFIA to help her clients and students since 2016.
GOVIS thanks TTC Global for providing the catering for this event. TTC Global are great advocates for the professionalisation of testing in New Zealand.
Post-event resources:
Recording of the event on YouTube - see here
Presentation slides from Vic - see here
Presentation slides from Elizabeth - see here
Work by the Australian Public Service Commission to define SFIA skills profiles for around 200 Australian public service roles - see here
Research paper (June 2024): Digital Leadership Competencies for Digital Government: Insights and Implications from New Zealand Government Agencies - see here
Questions asked on Slido - see here
GOVIS Test Meetup
Tue, 27th February 2024, 4:30pm - 6:30pm, Ministry of Social Development, 55 The Terrace, Wellington
Wellington Government Test Community meets again – with some interesting results.
It has been a while between meetups for the Wellington Government Software Testing community. But that does not mean that it has stood still during that timeframe. In fact – there has been quite a lot developing away in the Wellington Government Software Testing community.
Our local Wellington testing community met at the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) to share ideas, information, knowledge – as well as stories over drinks and nibbles. Facilitated by TTC in partnership with GOVIS, this was the first testing-specific government meetup for just over five years. The focus was on getting the community back together and engaging.
And it worked. With just on 55 registrations, there was proof that the community is keen to collaborate.
Over the one and a half hours of the meetup, those present:
Saw the results of the pre-meetup informal survey, created to get a sense of workloads and testing team growth from 2023 through to 2024 across the Government Testing Community. Some real insights gained into forecasted workloads, team size and focus on automation.
Participated in a collaborative Lean Coffee workshop to identify and prioritise (via voting) on those topics that would be of most interest for discussion and information sharing. Interestingly, Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) was the most popular topic – and was our first group discussion.
Had plenty of time for networking over drinks, nibbles and good conversation.
It was a successful first meet for the GOVIS Software Test Meetup community. Our focus is now on planning our next event, using themes and topics from the Lean Coffee to guide us in searching for and selecting our next event speakers. And who knows – thanks to this event there might even be something about testing or SFIA at the GOVIS conference in August!
