Ulster University launches £1.5m IT initiative

The University of Ulster have launched a £1.5 million initiative in a bid to boost Northern Ireland’s role as a global player in software development.

The University’s Centre for Software Process Technologies (CSPT), based at the Jordanstown campus, will work with the 120 software companies in the province to ensure their development practices reach the highest international standards.

Dr George Wilkie, Director of CSPT, said: "The Centre has two main objectives. Firstly we will be supporting the software industry in Northern Ireland to help companies improve the processes by which software is developed.

"The second objective is to enhance the University of Ulster’s already high research reputation in the area of software engineering and computer science in general. The key is to blend these two objectives together. I believe that a programme of continuous research will lead to substantial improvements in the processes employed by the software industry".

With the Northern Ireland software industry facing a growing threat from developing countries, Dr Wilkie, said: "Some of the highest rated software development companies in the world are in India. Northern Ireland cannot compete with developing countries on price, but it must compete on the quality of its work.

"Quality is the main factor in winning orders in the software development industry. We want to ensure that the quality of software development in Northern Ireland is continuously improved".

The Centre will use a globally accepted benchmarking approach – the Capability Maturity Model developed by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh – to assess the strengths and weaknesses of local software companies and will then work with these companies to improve their development skills and processes to high global standards.

Welcoming the opening of the new Centre, Professor Gerry McKenna, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ulster, said: "The opening of this Centre represents a success story in the promotion of software quality, and demonstrates the University of Ulster’s commitment to supporting an increasingly quality-conscious software industry."

(GMcG)