The Philippines is fast becoming an IT hub, following India, having proven its excellent capability in software development, call center, and data conversion services.
Owing to the talented Filipino IT professionals and enthusiasts, local IT firms offering competitive services at competitive prices, and the government supporting the industry by subsidizing IT parks and sponsoring IT organizations, a sizeable growth has been seen in the industry for the past three years, with robust contracts pouring in from all around the globe.
With the influx of these projects, however, came the need for the integration of software development best practices as more and more clients demand software products that meet or exceed their quality requirements. This is one aspect of software development that most budding local software companies either have not prepared for or do not have the capability to provide.
REASONS
The reasons are more logical than difficult. First of all, the competition in the industry has become tougher that companies either accept contracts with impossible deadlines or let competitors beat them to it. The latter is less likely. Once these contracts have been signed, software companies will not have the luxury to document every detail of their designs, or conduct detailed reviews, or have their software undergo several levels of testing.
Second, the Philippine software industry is relatively new compared to that of India, UK, and US. Quality assurance is still a brand new concept in the Philippine software industry as it was in early stages of the manufacturing industry boom.
Although several international quality management system standards have been published, such as the Integrated Capability Maturity Model (CMMI), the ISO 9000 Quality Management System series, Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, and the like, most players in the Philippine software industry do not have yet the expertise nor luxury to implement them.
On one hand, most of the players in the Philippine software industry tend to give much importance to what they do best: programming. The industry has too many programmers. And due to the fact that most universities that offer IT courses teach only programming languages, software quality assurance has even now been a vague concept for IT graduates and professionals. Most programmers brush the idea of conducting even unit testing aside. They despise all the more the idea of having their codes criticized by testers or QA personnel.
On the other hand, software companies in the Philippines usually find compliance to international standards expensive and time-consuming. With deadlines to beat and limited budget, quality assurance always end up last in the list of priorities.
Third, a huge chunk of software companies have never considered acquiring licenses for automated testing tools. And if they have, they resort to manual testing anyway for two reasons:
(1) Software Testing Tools are too expensive that they don't think twice against buying one once the price has been laid on the table; and
(2) Automated testers are not abundant resources since automated testing software are imported from other countries, making training expensive, and thus, making resources with these specific expertise limited.
The incapability to implement quality standards and procedures, document software specifications, and conduct thorough and reliable testing has threatened the industry. Software companies have begun to encounter more defects at the end of development than they have predicted, causing delays in delivery, more and more hours spent overtime, more expenses, burnouts, and unhappy customers.
ALTERNATIVES
In an effort to provide a quick fix to their quality problems, software companies have either given some of their programmers the task of testing or started hiring software testers.
The former is not a very smart move since programmers are, most of the time, unreliable testers even with proper training. Because of the collective inexperience of the industry in quality assurance, the latter is given very little support in terms of equipment and tools and is eyed with much contempt and doubt by programmers and project managers. They are seen as merely added expense with little contribution to the project, and a nuisance to the development team.
However, as more defects are found than software companies can imagine despite efforts to devote some time to testing, they realize that there's more to software testing and quality assurance than meets the eye. Most of them have become aware of the importance of quality assurance and managing quality assurance processes. This realization paves the way for reliable quality assurance management and testing solutions.
The Philippine software industry could not overemphasize the urgency of its need for reliable quality assurance management and testing solutions. Needless to say, the industry's capability to deliver quality software products needs to be demonstrated as the industry grows. The market demands quality. The Philippine software industry has to provide it, and provide it fast or face its end.
Eden I. Hernandez
Chief Quality Officer
CheQ Systems, Inc.
You may also view this article at
BusinessWorld IT Matters Open House
CLICK HERE
