More software architects needed

http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2006/2/27/technology/20060227161934&sec=technology

Monday February 27, 2006

BY CHRISTY LEE S. W.

KUALA LUMPUR: Is it possible to build a good house without proper architectural foundation? The answer is no. The Independent Software Architect Council of Malaysia (ISAC-M) believes the same principle applies when building software.

It has teamed up with the MCA ICT Resource Centre (MIRC) in an effort to help local technopreneurs apply proper software architecture practices to produce world-class level software.

The partnership, which was officiated at the Architecture Symposium 2006 held last week, will facilitate the sharing of software architecture expertise and resources among industry leaders.

Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Datuk Kong Cho Ha commended the effort, saying, "I am very encouraged to see the progress made by ISAC-M to reach out and educate software developers on the importance of software architecture, but I believe that software architecture is still in its infancy in Malaysia."

He quoted an IDC report that there are only 5% of software architects out of an estimated 35,000 software developers in Malaysia.

"This is quite low if we compare our numbers to the United States and Europe, where about 10% of the total number of software developers are software architects," he said.

Co-founder of ISAC-M, as well as architect and platform strategy advisor at Microsoft Malaysia, Aaron Tan Dani pointed out that "software architecture has been long overlooked in Malaysia."

He said software architects are vital when it comes to developing software systems, and yet many local technopreneurs aren't aware of such a role, so those tasks are usually left to inexperienced programmers.

Because of this unawareness, he said, software projects are often attempted without adhering to proper design methodologies and standards, which results in the programs costing more to maintain at a later stage.

"Software architects are in great demand globally," Kong said.

He agreed that proper software architecture practices has "resulted in enhanced integrated capabilities and a lower total cost of ownership for many companies."

"Such benefits are invaluable especially when we are vying to move up the value chain as a nation that can provide the global market with higher quality products," he said.

Kong observed that since there is a limited market size in Malaysia, the local technopreneur community must aim to move towards the global market for Malaysia's IT industry to progress further.

"But to take it to the next level, our IT companies first have to be able to compete on a global platform," he said.

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