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Thursday, August 14, 2003
Toral: Software process improvement a must
By JANETTE TORAL
TARGET: WORLD The Philippines has been able to make a great impression on the international market, showing its decisiveness in becoming an outsourcing location of choice, especially in call centers and business process outsourcing.
However, in the software development field, it is a reality that most outsourcers have opted for India more than any other country for their software development outsourcing, especially for high-end mission critical projects. That is due to their adoption of global standards such as the Capability Maturity Model in the early ‘90s.
The Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model® for Software (SW-CMM) describes a framework that organizations can use to determine their ability to develop and maintain software; it is a model for organizational improvement.
As CMM is about to sunset by the end of the year, SEI released the Capability
Maturity Model Integrated® (CMMI) that builds on and extends the best practices of the SW-CMM and other models. Organizations now, instead of undergoing training, implementation and assessment on various models, can just look into one with CMMI.
The CMMI is used as a benchmark by large organizations in evaluating the competitiveness of suppliers. It also serves as a guide for software process improvement initiatives by various industries that see their IT (information technology) systems as a critical component for the achievement of business goals.
WAY BEHIND. It is a known fact that the Philippines’ software development industry is now way behind that of India compared to how it was 10 years ago. However, China, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, among others, are looking into CMMI to boost their software development competitiveness as well.
This puts the Philippines’ software development sector in a delicate condition. It can be overtaken by nearby neighbors if it doesn’t embrace globally recognized and respected models right from the start. We must get our act together if we still desire to catch up with the big players, and get more than just maintenance and small projects.
For CMMI to be advocated and grow in this country, the government, nongovernment organizations and the private sector must take the lead and put matters into their own hands. Getting government support is a natural option, but it is something that can’t be solely relied upon. With so many programs struggling for prioritization in the agency budget, getting the necessary resources is not easy.
Among other things, CMMI certification should help software companies here to compete more effectively and to stand a better chance at getting business in the international market.
There are five levels in CMMI. Five is the highest and translates to mature processes in an organization. There are eight CMMI Level 5 companies in the world: six in India, one in the USA, and one in the Philippines. RCG Information Technology (http://www.rcgit.com) is the said Philippine company. From a CMM Level 2, RCG was able to move to CMMI Level 5 in three years’ time.
Having a CMMI Level 5 company in the country means so much to us for it is a demonstration that Filipinos can also work and adopt global standards.
The academe, government and the private sector should start looking into CMMI and use it as a guide in evaluating current processes and curricula.
(Janette welcomes comments at janette@digitalfilipino.com.) |
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