Software Development
"You get what you pay for"

Dr John Murphy, Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Applications

In the software world there are many reports of dissatisfaction with computer applications systems. Application systems are those systems that help people do their jobs. Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc., are off-the-shelf examples but there are many specialist, custom-built or highly tailored systems in use, some local examples being our Student Record System (ITS), the Finance Office systems and the Personnel Records system. Development, and purchase, of these systems can cost enormous amounts of money - often millions of pounds. So why is it that they often don't deliver as expected?

Before any system is commissioned the many specifications need to be developed. The specifications are effectively blueprints that outline at diffferent levels of details (and for different audiences) what the software system must do. It also defines at a design level how it will do it. In order to create a specification, software developers must understand the world of the 'problem', for example a business area in an organisation such as order processing might be typical. The software developer must express this understanding in a manner that is communicable to two broad categories of interested parties: the customers commissioning the system and the technical personnel who will be charged with implementing the system.

The technical personnel (computer folks) who have blueprinted the system have a limited understanding of the business area and a deep understanding of technical issues and the folks who commission the system (business folks) have a deep understanding of the business area and a limited understanding between the business and technical parties involved (customers and builder) will result in better, more effective systems.

Better specification and design techniques lead to improved capture of customer requirements and ultimately ensure systems are better engineered and meet customers' business needs.

Over the last twenty-five years there have been many major initiatives in software engineering and related fields that have sought to improve the specification process. In the 1970s and early 1980s there was much work in relation to 'structured tecniques' and many methodologies (methods and notations for describing and constructing software systems) emerged.

In the late 1980s and through the 1990s (and onwards) much work has concentrated on so called 'Object-oriented' methods and techniques. In a nutshell these developments relate to the fact that properties of things are encapsulated as objects (date + programs) - whereas with previous structured techniques data and programs were typically separate entities.

But this is only one side of the equation. You will have the communication gap between the computer and business folk.

Our undergraduate computing students now have a wide range of optional subjects availabel to them, allowing them to gain an appreciation of such areas as Accounting, Business, Marketing, Physics, Chemistry, Electronics and a selection of European Languages. Computer folk gaining business skills.

Our new part-time Graduate Diploma in Information Technology is a conversion programme. As well as attracting those interested in changing careers, it is attracting those who, because of fundamental changes in the way business operates, have found themselves working in an increasing technological environment, working closely with technical specialists. Business folk gaining computer skills.

Now all we need to do is get them talking to each other.