Presidents report for year ending 31 June 2010 by Mark Carroll
Our Industry
As we slowly claw our way back from the recession of 2008 / 2009 we need to think about a few things related to how things have changed over that period - ' just what is the new normal'.
Those funding the development and maintenance of software are more cost focused now - they have limited often shrinking budgets and they are being forced to do more with less. Combine this with a trend that has emerged over the last ten years that has seen the operational cost of maintaining, licensing and running software take up an increasingly larger share of the IT budget and it is easy to understand how software development budgets - including the portion that can be spent on software quality focused activities - have proportionally decreased. I don't believe this is a sustainable or desirable trend. I would argue that more enlightened organisations are now starting to ask if escalating maintenance and operational costs are at least in part a result of trimming budgets for software development, including quality, back too far in the past.
Another trend that is going to tip the development versus maintenance budget proportions back again is cloud computing, especially cloud platform provisioning. Gartner and other analysts are predicting cloud computing will not be all-encompassing but its adoption will be pervasive and will drive down infrastructure and subsequently operational costs over the coming years. Despite the cloud option organisations will still seek to develop their own software, deploying an increasing amount of it to the cloud. As an industry are we ready for this new platform and do we really have a good handle on how we are going to work with it.
For our industry budget issues and the advent of the cloud computing are two key issues worth thinking about and planning for.
Our organisation
As an organisation Software Quality New Zealand remains committed to sharing knowledge and best practices to help increase the professionalism and standing of Software quality focused 'patterns and practices'. We have been around since 1992 and we see yet again that these professional 'patterns and practices' are changing. Increasing focus on 'Agile', Test driven development and the wider picture of Application Life cycle management are 'rebasing' the development & maintenance of software toward a 'leaner meaner' model that can meet budget and platform changes. Just as we have done for the last twenty years we will continue to evolve and grow to meet these challenges.
As we evolve and grow can I ask you to join us if software quality is something important to you? In this period of change, as we settle into the new normal', we need fresh ideas to drive our organisation and lots of people who are prepared to share their own lessons learned. We have vacancies on the committee this year and we expect to see an increase in the numbers attending our sessions as well as members. So, in one form or another, please join us.