The Joburg Centre for Software Engineering celebrates its first anniversary this month. Founders Rex van Olst and Barry Dwolatzky reflect on its progress and outline the coming year`s priorities. EXACTLY A YEAR AGO this month the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE), an initiative intent on growing SA`s capacity to deliver world-class software, was founded.

The centre was made possible by collaboration between the City of Johannesburg, Wits University and industry, in the form of the five original Gold Founding Partners: IBM, Microsoft, Unisys, FNB and the Meraka Institute, and 15 Silver Partners.

"Many companies took a leap of faith and kindly provided funding support in cash and kind, totalling some R4.5 million, to set us on our way. But our aim is to be a sustainable institution that is not dependent on industry or government for support. Obviously, we`re still in an embryonic stage, and we haven`t fully developed our sustainable revenue-generating activities to keep afloat as yet," explains Prof. Rex van Olst, the JCSE`s interim CEO.

"Our focus in the first year has been to lay the foundations of the JCSE. Structurally, we`re still very much a start-up," he adds. Its funding this year is expected to total some R3 million, with portions earmarked for specific projects.

In a bid to engage in more of a partnership with members, the JCSE`s board has just approved a new membership scheme for 2006, which sees a range of tangible benefits accruing to various levels of individual and corporate sponsors. These benefits take the form of `free` seats at its various educational programmes, and access to its laboratories and library of research and development publications.

Van Olst indicates that in its first year of operation, the centre focused on three key areas: promoting best practice in software engineering, building skills and capacity to feed the industry, and encouraging transformation, especially among the leadership in the industry.

RAISING THE BAR

In terms of promoting best practice in the discipline locally, JCSE academic director Prof. Barry Dwolatzky explains that there are two measures commonly used to benchmark a software development operation - ISO 9000 and Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certification.

While ISO 9000 certification tends to focus on conforming to a single set of quality measures, CMMI assesses the level of maturity of the software development process, and provides the organisation with a path for improvement.

Perhaps the JCSE`s greatest achievement to date is that it has recently become the first African partner of the Carnegie-Mellon University`s Software Engineering Institute, and is licensed to offer CMMI consulting, training and appraisal services for organisations large and small in the local software development industry.

CMMI is a set of guidelines for software engineering best practice. Companies that follow these guidelines may have their processes assessed by accredited CMMI assessors and can attain a CMMI rating, which ranges from a low level of one to a high of five.

The rating gives an indication of the maturity of the processes used by the company, and potential clients can use it to gauge the level of risk involved in a software project undertaken by the rated company.

Worth noting is that there are currently no level-four or -five software development organisations in SA, and few level-threes. "It should come as no surprise that, worldwide, half the level-five companies are based in India, which has pursued foreign outsourcing work on a large scale," observes Dwolatzky.

However, even if companies are not concerned about winning international contracts, achieving a CMMI rating is still a productivity improving exercise, he says.

"While South Africa does have good software development companies, they`ve never gone in for international benchmarking because there is this perception that it is a hugely expensive exercise," notes Dwolatzky. Reason being that companies have, until now, had to make use of expertise based abroad. In a bid to dispel the misinformation, the JCSE will be participating a large research project spearheaded by the Carnegie-Mellon University, which entails undertaking a pilot project involving the CMMI certification of five SA companies. The pilot is expected to begin shortly.

GROWING LEADERSHIP

The JCSE is already running a number of activities to build skills and capacity that is so vital to feed the industry.

It is offering three-year Continuing Professional Development programmes in telecommunications and software engineering, based on the one-year Wits Master in Engineering postgraduate programmes.

The CPD programmes have also been registered as Isett Seta learnerships to encourage companies to sponsor eligible black students to study further.

This year it will also be offering a series of master classes covering topics like agile methodologies, information security and telecommunications convergence.

The centre further offers best-of-breed technology laboratories sponsored by the likes of IBM, Microsoft and Vodacom, and will carry out applied research together with companies and organisations, aimed at finding solutions to software-related business problems.

With the appointment of a permanent CEO imminent, Van Olst envisions that this person will drive the growth of the organisation, which involves its possible relocation from the Wits campus to a venue in Braamfontein, touted as a future hub for Joburg`s IT sector.