Circular No. 16/2014/TT-BTTTT on determining software production activities

CIRCULAR

Regulations on Determining Software Product Manufacturing Activities

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Pursuant to the Law on Information Technology dated June 29, 2006;

The Minister of Information and Communications promulgates this Circular amending and supplementing Circular No. 09/2013/TT-BTTTT dated April 8, 2013 of the Minister of Information and Communications on the List of software and hardware, electronic products.

Based on Decree No. 132/2013/ND-CP dated October 16, 2013 of the Government on the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Information and Communications;

Article 1. Amending and supplementing Circular No. 09/2013/TT-BTTTT dated April 8, 2013 of the Minister of Information and Communications on the List of software and hardware, electronic products as follows:

The Minister of Information and Communications issues this Circular to regulate the determination of software product manufacturing activities.

Article 1. Scope of Regulation

This Circular unifies the software production process, requirements, and criteria for determining software product manufacturing activities.

Article 2. Applicability

This Circular applies to management agencies, organizations, enterprises, and individuals involved in software product manufacturing activities.

Article 3. Explanation of Terms

Some terms in this Circular are understood as follows:

1. Software (or software products) is a set of instructions or commands written in one or more programming languages, arranged in a specific order, and related data or documentation aimed at performing certain tasks or functions or solving a specific problem. Types of software products are specified in the List of Software Products issued together with Circular No. 09/2013/TT-BTTTT dated April 8, 2013, of the Minister of Information and Communications.

2. The software product manufacturing process is a set of stages, each stage comprising one or more operations to produce a software product. The software product manufacturing process is detailed in Article 5 of this Circular.

3. Software product manufacturing activities that comply with the process are the activities of organizations, enterprises, and individuals with legal personality under the law, participating in implementing one or more stages in the software product manufacturing process to create new or upgrade, modify, and perfect software products.

Article 4. Principles and Purpose of Applying this Circular

1. This Circular unifies the software product manufacturing process and principles for determining software product manufacturing activities that comply with the process to serve state management of the software industry, and serves as a basis for competent authorities to consider the application of tax policies and other preferential policies.

2. Based on actual conditions and development policies in each period, the Ministry of Information and Communications will review and adjust the process and principles for determining software product manufacturing activities that comply with the process as appropriate.

Article 5. Software Product Manufacturing Process

The software product manufacturing process includes seven stages as follows:

1. Requirement definition, including one or more of the following operations: customer requirement survey, business analysis; requirement collection and establishment; consulting and adjusting procedures; requirement unification and approval.

2. Analysis and design, including one or more of the following operations: requirement specification; setting up the development problem; data modeling; functional modeling; information flow modeling; software solution determination; system software design; software module unit design.

3. Programming and code writing, including one or more of the following operations: software program writing; software module unit programming; software modification, customization, fine-tuning; software module integration; system software integration.

4. Software testing and verification, including one or more of the following operations: building test scenarios for software modules; software testing; system software testing; software function testing; quality assessment; fault tolerance evaluation; customer requirement satisfaction determination; software acceptance.

5. Software completion and packaging, including one or more of the following operations: software description document and user guide preparation; software packaging; code registration; intellectual property rights registration.

6. Installation, transfer, user guidance, maintenance, and warranty, including one or more of the following operations: user installation guidance; software deployment; user training and guidance; post-transfer software inspection; post-transfer software bug fixing; post-transfer support and software warranty; software maintenance.

7. Software product release and distribution, including one or more of the following operations: marketing, promotion, sale, and distribution of software products; software product release.

Article 6. Determination of Software Product Production Activities

1. General requirements for organizations, enterprises, and individuals producing software products:

a) For organizations and enterprises: have a business registration certificate, investment certificate, or document specifying functions and tasks issued by the competent authority. For individuals: have an individual taxpayer code; declare taxes, clearly stating income from software production activities;

b) The software product produced by individuals, organizations, or enterprises must be one of the types of software products specified in the List of Software Products issued pursuant to Circular No. 09/2013/TT-BTTTT dated April 8, 2013, of the Minister of Information and Communications.

2. The activities of organizations, enterprises, and individuals shall be determined as software product production activities and comply with the process when such organizations, enterprises, and individuals meet the requirements set out in Clause 1 of this Article, and such activities fall under one or more of the following cases:

a) Activities involving one or more stages from stage 2 to stage 4 of the software product production process stipulated in Clauses 2, 3, and 4 of Article 5 of this Circular for the software product mentioned in Point b, Clause 1 of this Article.

b) Activities at stage 1 and stage 5 of the software product production process stipulated in Clause 1 and Clause 5 of Article 5 of this Circular, when such organizations, enterprises, or individuals engage in activities that satisfy the provisions of Point a of this Clause for the same software product.

c) Activities at stage 6 of the software product production process stipulated in Clause 6 of Article 5 of this Circular, when such organizations, enterprises, or individuals conduct all five stages from stage 1 to stage 5 of the software product production process stipulated from Clause 1 to Clause 5 of Article 5 of this Circular for the same software product.

Article 7. Implementation Organization

1. The Department of Information Technology shall be responsible for:

a) Guide and organize the implementation of this Circular.

b) Summarize comments, issues arising during implementation, and report to the Minister for consideration and adjustment of this Circular if deemed necessary.

2. Organizations, enterprises, and individuals participating in software product production activities as prescribed in this Circular shall be responsible for:

a) Bearing full responsibility for the authenticity of information in the declaration forms related to their software production activities.

b) Submitting annual reports on their software production activities to the Ministry of Information and Communications (Department of Information Technology) before March 15 each year in accordance with current regulations.

c) Ensuring that their software product production activities and software products do not violate intellectual property laws and other relevant legal provisions.

Article 8. Implementation clause

1. This Circular takes effect from January 5, 2014.

2. During implementation, if any difficulties arise, organizations and enterprises shall submit written documents to the Ministry of Information and Communications (Department of Information Technology) for resolution, guidance, or amendment and supplementation as appropriate.

3. The Director of the Office, the Head of the Department of Information Technology, the Heads of agencies and units under the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Directors of Provincial Departments of Information and Communications, and organizations, enterprises, and individuals are responsible for implementing this Circular.