Thailand Spin has strategy to increase value of local software production
To place Thailand more prominently amongst the world's software development countries, Thailand Software Process Improvement Network (Spin) plans to encourage local software developers to adopt software process improvement (SPI) as a key principle in their software development while encouraging them to be certified to the CMMi (Capability Maturity Model Integration) international standard.
According to the president of Thailand Spin, Rom Hiranpruk, the plan is to encourage 30 Thai software companies to be certified to CMMi standard by the end of this year. Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMi) is a process improvement approach that provides organisations with the essential elements of effective processes. It not only helps evaluate the content of processes - information essential to technical support and managerial activities, but also improves process performance - information used to increase the capability of an organisation's activities. The standard has been shown to reduce risks associated with development projects, increase efficiency, and improve the overall quality of products. Having this standard will also guarantee the quality of software development. Only one local software company has been certified to CMMi Level 2 with another certified CMMi Level 5. Under the plan, Rom said from 30 companies to be certified to CMMi standard by the end of this year, it's hoped another 25 will get CMMi Level 2 next year with 15 at CMMi Level 3 by 2008. In 2009 there will be five companies at CMMi Level 4 and five at Level 5 by 2010. To promote software process improvement and software quality in Thailand, Thailand Spin has joined with Software Park Thailand, the Software Industry Promotion Agency, Kasetsart University, Chulalongkron University, IBM Thailand, Oracle (Thailand), Infoware (Thailand), and Global Process Innovation (GPI) Asia to help strengthen the local software industry. Sipa's director Manoo Ordeedolchest said Thailand Spin is a key factor to drive the local software industry to reach market value of Bt160 billion by 2010. Manoo said around 40 per cent of all software companies in next five years need to have CMMi certification. "We think by that time we will have around 1,600 local software companies totally, so around 400 to 500 companies should be certified to international standard," he said. Currently, there are around 1,200 local software companies, of which around 30 companies have international certification. To encourage local software companies to reach CMMi standard, Software Park Thailand is working with Thailand Spin to provide support through the SPI@ease programme. The support includes funding and consultancy. Funding is to support 10 software companies to achieve CMMi Level 2 while consultancy support is to develop local CMMi consultants. "Today, only four Thai software companies are CMMi consultants. If we want to increase the number of software companies certified CMMi, we need to encourage more local CMMi consultants so we reduce costs on consultancy services," she said.
asina@nationgroup.com Asina Pornwasin The Nation
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