No Longer Good Enough Just To ‘Be the Best’

No Longer Good Enough Just To ‘Be the Best’ – Proof Required

22 June 2005

New Zealand software developers are amongst the best in the world but increasingly the ‘world’ needs proof that this is the case.

That’s one of the messages from visiting software development process improvement expert – Peter DuPre’. A senior executive with Borland Software and a Strategic Advisor in the Borland/TeraQuest Process Optimisation Practice, Mr DuPre’ is in New Zealand on a whistle-stop tour to present to organisations at the leading edge of software development in this country.

“Software development has moved from an organisational add-on to an indispensable part of business success and competitive advantage,” says DuPre’

“World-wide the trend is for organisations seeking software development expertise to use a standards-based approach to select a company to partner with.

“In other words – it’s no longer good enough to say you’re the best – you have to be able to prove it using recognised standards. And the standard of choice is increasingly CMMI (Capability Maturity Model – Integration),” he says.

Mr DuPre’ says countries like India have recognised the need to adopt CMMI and have invested heavily in promoting the process improvement standard. So much so that many software development houses in India are CMMI level 5 qualified – the highest possible. In China the government has also recognised the need, and is providing funding for organisations to achieve certification.

“Very few organisations in New Zealand are CMMI certified – at any level,” says DuPre’.

“The world is changing – industry data shows us that software development process improvement can deliver meaningful benefits in defect reduction, time-to-market and productivity advances, and overall risk management. CMMI is increasingly the standard used by organisations to measure the effectiveness of the development process.”

ENDS

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