The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is to invest almost R1.5 million in the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) programme, being run by the Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE), at Wits University.
The aim of the investment is to help make the South African software development community more competitive on a global scale, says Yusuf Timol of Trade and Investment SA within the DTI.
JCSE academic director Barry Dwolatzky says a pilot CMMI adoption programme is being run with a number of local organisations, including the State IT Agency, First National Bank, Psybergate, Wits University's Computing Services, IBM and Nedbank.
"The money from the DTI will go towards the training costs of JCSE staff to present CMMI training, consulting and assessment services locally," he explains.
CMMI has become a global standard and is commonly incorporated into tenders to assist overseas companies in mitigating risk when choosing suppliers. CMMI provides a benchmark to evaluate suppliers, with most large tenders requiring CMMI level four or five.
"In order to help the local software development industry become competitive on a global scale, the DTI has realised that SA has to align with international standards," Timol says.
He adds that the DTI funding will help make CMMI training and certification more accessible and affordable for South African companies, particularly those involved in the local software development industry.
The JCSE runs CMMI introductory courses on a monthly basis in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Timol says that as CMMI gains momentum in the market, local companies will in turn be positioned to become globally competitive.
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