Lack of Awareness and Professionalism hamper Cagayan de Oro software industry

Lack of awareness and professionalism are keeping the software development industry from riding the wave of growth now sweeping Northern Mindanao.

This was the gist of the presentation of Stephanie Rosalind P. Caragos, president of the Cagayan de Oro Software Developers Association, during the 1st Northern Mindanao Business Summit on ICT (information and communications technology) held June 9, 2006 in this city.

The most common situations we have encountered as local IT consultants, analysts and software developers in Cagayan de Oro are the lack of awareness by our market of the presence of software development companies in the city and Mindanao, and as a consequence the low professionalization of the industry; IT graduates unpreparedness for the real world and lack of investor confidence due to our location in Mindanao,” Caragos said.

Even those aware of the presence of local developers, appear to lack confidence in their capabilities to deliver what they need, she added.

A lot of the larger SMEs and corporations still opt for Manila or Cebu based companies thinking that they are more experienced and more capable than us here in Mindanao.”

And when local clients do engage local developers, many want it delivered the next day, unaware of the complexities involved in making a good system.

The time in drafting the deliverables and in making a sound agreement and contract is oftentimes skipped, leading to complications in the long run,” Caragos said. “Oftentimes, stakeholders just tell the developer “ikaw na bahala” or “it’s up to you” and end up asking more features, modules and reports after the developer has finished the system.

The stakeholder ends up believing “the developer didn’t do his job” because they don’t know what to expect from developers and are unaware of the process involved in developing a system.

Another concern of local developers is resistance from the employees who would use the system, since many feel threatened they could lose their job or their “value” in the company once a system is up and running.

Since the users do not cooperate in disclosing all needed information during development analysis, systems designed do not really address their needs or they deliberately resist using the system properly upon implementation or training.

Social preparation, or its equivalent appears to be taking care of this problem.

Before giving proposals and contracts, we brief them on the process in development, how much of their involvement is needed, and what to expect from us as developers and analysts,” Caragos said. “Of course, we emphasize that cooperation and involvement on their part is necessary to ensure the proper design and development of their system. “

Equally important, is informing the system users of its purpose, which is primarily to help them do their jobs, so they can focus on more crucial tasks instead of numbers crunching and pencil pushing most of the time, she added.

Now, in their personal capacity as professionals and as association members, they are discharging this function as resource speakers for trainings in government agencies and also aim to offer seminars and tutorials in the future.

Professionalization of the industry is also a growing concern,” Caragos said. “|There is no governing body or organization setting up mandatory standards.”

Although she admits the software industry has Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) , software process improvement, Unified Modeling Language as standards observed by successful software companies, no one is currently keeping tabs on product or service standards.

While Certified Public Accountants have the of Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) and nurses and other professionals have the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) to regulate their professions, there’s no such body monitoring IT professionals.

As officers and members of the CDO Software developers association, we have steps in educating fellow developers in sharing our knowledge and initially creating standards and awareness for our fellow developers,” Caragos said. “Through the seminars that we conduct, we are able to impress on students and professionals the need for standardization and proper steps in ensuring proper communication with the client.”

The association has also drafted a code of ethics which all members are requested to follow, not just for the protection of the profession but its clients as well.

We have already approached our Congressman also to help us with this and of course we are looking to the CICT for their support as well,” she added. “Once we have standards and ethics in place, we won’t have to worry about recommending any member for a specific project or job. “

To prepare IT graduates for the rigors of the profession, the association has actively worked at industry-academe coordination by helping local schools design curricula suited for the current needs of the industry. They have also been active in promoting the profession through career orientation talks to graduating high school students but even more important, strengthening the On-the-Job-Training (OJT) programs to include actual interviews that would help graduates land a job easier in the future.

Although most schools require IT students to undergo OJT, industry at present doesn’t have the capacity to absorb all students due to the lack of actual professionals who are willing to give time to update the students on the what is going on in the real world,” Caragos said.

Not the least, there’s the negative perception of clients and investors about Mindanao.

This concern comes out because of the fear that is instilled in them from what they read in the papers and see in the news,” Caragos said. “Because of this, we are starting to have problems outsourcing projects and lose potential partners from other places in the country.”

However, she credits the active government-business partnership which is moving to solve this image problem.

We’re just happy that the city government itself is making the move in inviting these investors to come over and ensure them that our place is safe, that there is ready pool of professionals, just waiting to be tapped, eagerly waiting for new endeavors in their field of expertise,” Caragos said.

Those who decided to invest in Mindanao, those who have decided to partner with us, to work on projects with us are now happy that they did, and realized that is perfectly safe here!” she added. “We are hoping that each of our members will be able to get the jobs they really want to succeed in their chosen field of profession.”

INDNJC -