Software Quality New Zealand President's Report 2008/2009
The main industry event over the past year has been the credit crisis and the resulting downturn in the economy. This has had a flow-on effect on the IT industry with IT projects being put on hold, postponed or cancelled altogether. The belt has been tightened on IT budgets of most companies.
The question is "What is the right response for the IT industry to react
to the credit crisis"? In project management we all know the triple constraints
of Scope, Cost and Time, although I would like to see it, as Derrick Davis
has suggested 1, as a tetrahedron shape where the 4th element is Quality.
With the pressure on to deliver with reduced budget, I urge anyone in the IT industry to reject any proposals to cut corners and deliver projects with less effort on quality, by reducing efforts in peer reviews, testing, standards etc. In my view it is much better to deliver less of a good quality, then the complete scope at poor quality.
In many ways this could be a good time for companies to re-invent themselves and think seriously on their key business drivers, their market position and their business model and use this to prioritise IT effort.
As a committee we can look back on another successful year with well attended sessions on a variety of topics and a continued focus on making the sessions more interactive. I believe it is working and have enjoyed the lively discussions following the presentations from our speakers.
I would like to thank all committee members for all their hard work to keep the society running and I look forward to another successful year.
Marien de Wilde
President SQNZ
1 http://www.maxwideman.com/musings/triangles.htm