Most software written is not in production due to requirements deficiencies, functional shortcomings, high maintenance costs or general quality issues.
So says Markus J"ager, a director of Blue Sphere Technology, one of the SMEs taking part in the JCSE`s "Bringing Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) to South Africa" pilot programme.
Blue Sphere, GijimaAst Group subsidiary GMSI, and BSG Africa have joined the pilot programme after being chosen by the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) and the City of Johannesburg (COJ).
Commencing in November 2006, the pilot programme aimed at assisting a small number of local companies that wanted to better their project management and software development processes.
The COJ says it gave funds to allow the three Johannesburg-based SMEs to join the pilot programme as part of its strategy to stimulate growth within the city`s ICT sector.
Professor Barry Dwolatzky, JCSE CEO and director, says only 35% of software development projects globally are delivered on time, within budget and to specification.
"This means revenue is lost while software is worked and reworked, and time and money wasted as customers and developers miscommunicate during the course of poorly-managed IT projects," he adds.
He says software development is not subject to checks and balances to ensure process and product quality, and that CMMI seeks to address this.
"Improving software development life cycle processes is of fundamental importance for both development companies and organisations that commission large software applications and systems," adds Dwotlatzky.
The CMMI model is used in the US and Europe to provide assurance of process maturity when awarding tenders, he notes.
"The Department of Trade and Industry has gone on record as saying it recognises that CMMI is not only beneficial for the private sector, but can assist with improving processes in the public sector as well. CMMI could become a requirement for government tenders by 2009."
The advantages
According to WH Janse van Vuuren, GMSI service manager, the benefits to users of the CMMI model are apparent: "It increases productivity, reduces rework wasted time and assists in delivering software that hits the mark and meets the clients` expectations."
He estimates that according to CMMI benchmark benefits, GMSI can expect to realise a 42% improvement in productivity.
Blue Sphere`s J"ager says his company has felt the benefit of using CMMI: "There was chaos beforehand. Everything is now better managed, with greater accountability; processes are a lot more transparent, which means customers are more comfortable with us than before because we are managing projects better."
CMMI`s project manager for BSG Africa, Lungile Mdletshe, says SMEs must establish their operations as reputable and reliable deliverers of quality solutions to their customers, and that CMMI will give the necessary grounding to achieve this.
Janse van Vuuren adds that having a CMMI maturity rating will help local software development SMEs to grow in maturity as they grow in size.
The benefits to the South African economy of employing CMMI are clear, he adds: "If we can achieve just 30% to 50% of the benefits claimed to be possible through CMMI on the basis of international experience, the South African economy can be much more competitive, produce more goods and services and go much further with the funds available, resulting in greater margins on capital invested."
Share