Global Delivery and Sourcing
Globalization, outsourcing, service management: the information technology lexicon is one of buzzwords. But just because buzzwords are trendy doesn’t make them any less true. Companies and institutions everywhere are finding that they must adopt broader and deeper global perspectives and rethink how best to manage their IT infrastructure. New regions around the world – such as India and China – are springing up as IT hotbeds when just a few years ago they were considered technology backwaters. Carnegie Mellon researchers are exploring the impact of this on companies, on people, on the IT workforce and on society. Ashish Arora looks at the growth of the software industry abroad, while faculty from Carnegie Mellon’s IT Services Qualification Center look at ways to develop capability models and qualification methods to improve sourcing relationships.
Can software development inspire a new model for economic development?
For two years Carnegie Mellon researcher Ashish Arora and his colleague from Bocconi University, Alfonso Gambardella, studied the software industry in five emerging economies: Brazil, China, India, Ireland and Israel. Their observations and collaborations with in-country colleagues have resulted in the book, “From Underdogs to Tigers:The 
Rise and Growth of the Software Industry in Brazil, China, India, Ireland and Israel.”
The book examines the growth of the software industry in each country and probes what accounts for the spectacular growth each has enjoyed. India’s software industry, for example, has grown from being essentially non-existent in the 1980s to accounting for three percent of the country’s GDP and one-fifth of its exports. And while India is perhaps the most generally-known success story of the group, the results in the other four countries are, in their own ways, no less dramatic.
Arora, Gambardella and their associates have detailed the elements of each country’s success stories, and look at cross-boundary best practices. Importantly, they look at whether or not the rise of the software industry in these countries might represent the development of a new model for economic development.
|
IMPACT: Understanding the drivers of success of the software industry in developing economies can teach good lessons, inspire other entrepreneurs, and demonstrate that success is not reserved only for those in established economies or the elite. The triumph of the software industry in these countries can act as exemplar to the rest of the economy, especially for other sectors that rely on skilled workers, as well as to other developing nations. |
Improving software quality through disciplined process
Understanding the factors that influence software quality is crucial to the continuing maturation of the software industry. In addition, this information enables software engineers and managers to make more informed decisions in controlling and improving the software development process. Carnegie Mellon researcher Mark Paulk is particularly interested in the role that disciplined process plays in software quality, he has found that disciplined processes significantly improve the quality of the work of competent professionals by a factor of about five, although individual differences remain even when disciplined processes were used. Paulk also found that the programmer’s ability significantly affects software quality when empirically measured – disciplined processes enabled top-quartile performers to improve software quality by a factor of two or more; bottom-quartile performers improved by a factor of four or more.
A “how to” for managing sourcing relationships
Two recent publications by Carnegie Mellon’s IT Services Qualification Center aim to help companies develop high quality sourcing relationships. Mark Paulk is co-author of the “eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers” (eSCM-SP), which guides improvement in IT service providers and is being used globally for certification of providers of IT-enabled services. “The People Capability Maturity Model: Guidelines for Improving the Workforce”, written by Bill Hefley, is now in print in four global editions (U.S., India, China and Japan) and focuses on best practices for organizations that are involved in managing sourcing activities. It is widely used by leading IT organizations, and has recently begun to see adoption in the business process outsourcing (BPO) and hospitality industries. A third publication, the “eSourcing Capability Model for Client Organizations” (eSCM-CL), is scheduled for release in early 2006.
