The Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE), at Wits University, is conducting research into the state of the software engineering industry in SA.
Wits information engineering lecturer Estelle Trengove is to lead the research project, which will involve focus groups made up of 40 people working for small software developers, as well as large software engineering institutions like banks and government departments.
"The aim of the focus groups will be to determine what kind of software development practices are being used in the sector and to what degree they line up with best practice," says Trengove.
The research project will also examine to what degree software development projects are delivering what is required of them, and how often they come in on time and within the budget.
Rex van Olst, JCSE CEO, says the project will be crucial in helping the JCSE determine what can be done to improve local software engineering practices.
"This goal is one of the main responsibilities of the JCSE. As part of this drive, we brought Kent Beck, founder of Extreme Programming (XP) to SA last year," he says.
Professor Barry Dwolatzky, JCSE academic director, says the JCSE was recently made the first official partner in Africa of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, in the USA.
The SEI developed the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) and the JCSE will be looking at how CMMI can benefit the local software industry.
Van Olst and Dwolatzky believe the research will create a greater awareness about software development practices, which will enable the JCSE to evaluate how XP, CMMI and other projects of the JCSE can help improve software engineering in SA.
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