This paper will stress the importance of Ship Handling Simulation (SHS)-based Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship (MASS) prototype development and aligns it with the IMO Guidelines on Software Quality Assurance and Humancentered Design for e-Navigation. This is demonstrated by means of an implemented semi-autonomous ship concept. This concept envisions a periodically unmanned bridge with an advanced autonomous navigation system taking over in the absence of the officer of the watch. Thus, it is equipped with autonomous monitoring, collision avoidance as well as harsh weather applications embedded within an ECDIS environment, that require sufficient integration and testing. Based on a requirement analyses, the need for SHS-based testing is derived and a technical framework (SMARTframe) enabling connection of MASS prototypes with SHS on the basis of a message-oriented middleware is introduced. Finally, an indication is given how this set-up ensures proper MASS testing and developing for technical as well as Human-centered Design development.