South Africa moves towards process improvement

The Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) process improvement product suite, which was developed at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, is becoming increasingly accepted in South Africa.

In 2006, the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) at Wits University launched a programme to bring CMMI into the South Africa. The JCSE began by training local resources to be able to offer CMMI consulting and launched a CMMI pilot.

Professor Barry Dwolatzky, JCSE director, says the pilot began with six companies including the State IT Agency (SITA), First National Bank (FNB), Psybergate, Wits University's Computing Services, IBM and Nedbank.

"The pilot has since been enlarged to include a number or large organisations like Fujitsu Services, African Defence Systems (ADS), Cell C and Comsec, along with a number of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) like Blue Sphere, BSG Africa, and GMSI (a subsidiary of GijimaAst)," he says.

"The pilot has two important elements. Firstly, it will be used to build a strong case to present to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) requesting government's support for the mass adoption of CMMI as a tool to improve business processes within local companies. Secondly, the pilot will form part of a broader international research project being conducted by the SEI aimed at exploring the role of CMMI in small organisations," he says.

A number of the organisations on the pilot have started having their first SCAMPI (Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement) appraisals and the JCSE has also taken a number of the companies on international study trips to see how CMMI is being used in other countries.

Dwolatzky says representatives from Cell C, GMSI, ADS and BSG Africa along with staff from the DTI visited India earlier this year to meet with level five CMMI rated companies.

The JCSE also leads a fact-finding mission to Mexico and the United States, visiting various universities and companies. The delegation included representatives from the DTI, the Central University of Technology, Nedbank and UCS Software Manufacturing and went to the two countries to find out more about Team Software Process (TSP) and whether it is a methodology that could be brought to South Africa.

Along with the participation of SITA in the CMMI pilot and the DTI participating in a number of the international trips, government also invested almost R1.5 million into the JCSE for the training of local resources.

Government has also acknowledged the importance of CMMI for South Africa. The Minister of Trade and Industry (DTI), Mandisi Mpahlwa has thrown government's support behind CMMI, saying process improvement would be critical in assisting local software development companies in becoming more competitive internationally.

According to the minister, the growth of the local software development market will depend on strong domestic demand, skills within the sector, a supportive infrastructure environment and international standards.

"South Africa's software development sector is lagging behind other countries which are using CMMI to position themselves internationally," he said. "We should see this as an opportunity to grow our own software development sector which currently has an estimated value of around R13 billion. CMMI will be a critical success factor to increase exports and thereby assist in growing the industry. To do this, we will have to create an environment that produces CMMI rated companies," the Minister says.

In 2007, the JCSE and Dimension Data hosted the CoMMIt Symposium focusing on CMMI and how it assists with process maturation in the software development lifecycle.

The symposium was well attended and included presentations from a number of representatives from the SEI in the USA, along with a strong speaker support from Indian-based companies and a valuable local input as well.

This year, the second CoMMIt Symposium will again be hosted by the JCSE and Dimension Data in September.

International speakers will include Dr Paul Nielsen, Director and CEO of the SEI; Palma Buttles-Valdez, from the SEI's People CMM programme; Chuck Myers, President and CEO of the Integrated Process Solutions in the USA and more.

Locally, Mandisi Mpahlwa, Minister of Trade and Industry; Dimension Data Chairman, Andile Ngcaba; and Professor Barry Dwolatzky, JCSE director will again be speaking at the conference along with a number of other speakers from the CMMI pilot.

The symposium will not only have a number of plenary sessions but break away sessions where delegates will be able to delve deeper into CMMI and the benefits of process improvement.