Computer Weekly readers have their say
New skills needed for outsourced IT
projects
Your report on the Forrester survey highlighting the needs for
new skills when IT staff are transferred to an outsourcing supplier
(Computer Weekly, 11 October), is a welcome piece of reporting that
throws a spotlight on what many in the British IT industry know,
but cannot describe in convincing detail.
Working for a service provider is very different to being on an
in-house team, and as IT becomes a more commoditised corporate
service, the number of IT staff working on-site via a supplier,
rather than directly for their employer, will only increase.
The problem you highlight needs some joined-up thinking from the
government, the unions and strong leadership from the IT trade
bodies.
Mark Kobayashi-Hillary, global technologies research
director, Commonwealth Business Council
Save as PDF? So what's new in the office?
Microsoft is presenting the proposed "save as PDF" feature as an
innovation in Office 12 (Computer Weekly, 11 October). However, for
those who cannot wait until the November 2006 release date for
Office 12, it is worth bearing in mind that this feature is already
available on the free office suite Openoffice.
And if Microsoft is truly concerned about ensuring that Office
12 documents can be accessed on multiple platforms, it should
include support for the Oasis Opendocument format, so users can
exchange editable documents between Office and systems such as
Openoffice.
John Halton, associate, Cripps Harries Hall LLP
Offshore testing must meet UK standards
It was good to see Marks & Spencer taking the lead in
software quality assurance and using the Testing Maturity Model
(Computer Weekly, 4 October). Developing and implementing such best
practices is certainly a step in the right direction and the
pay-offs are clear.
However, the mention of using offshore suppliers for testing and
development work raises some issues. Firstly, companies should
make sure they are outsourcing the application development and
testing phases to different organisations to ensure that the
quality of the application is independently validated, otherwise it
is rather like letting a child mark their own homework. Secondly,
as customer data is often used during the quality assurance
process, businesses using outsourcing suppliers must carefully
consider data protection legislation.
The Data Protection Act states that only countries with similar
levels of privacy protection to the UK may be used to process
customer data. In addition, it says customer data should only be
used for the purpose it was collected for - I cannot think of many
organisations that collect data specifically for application
testing. Organisations must take note of this and ensure they
disguise data before it is given to outsourcing suppliers to be
used in the application testing process, otherwise they could find
that they are not only breaking data privacy legislation, but that
customer data is compromised.
Sarah Salzman, solutions manager, Compuware
Collaborate to combat failure of IT
projects
Ian Watmore's article on problem IT projects (Computer Weekly, 4
October) raises interesting issues around the failure of IT
projects to meet their original objectives. This point of view
backs up research from The Standish Group, which found that 66% of
software projects worldwide are considered failures, more than 50%
exceed budget, and 84% suffer overruns.
Many IT projects are abandoned, but as Watmore correctly points
out, effective requirements management can help mitigate such
problems. With many businesses employing antiquated requirements
management systems (Word documents for example) and the emerging
trend for offshoring developments adding further timezone and
language complications, effective project management tools are more
important than ever before in ensuring more projects succeed in
meeting their original objectives.
A new, more collaborative approach is required to make IT
expenditure succeed, where companies use high-level business
process models and change management tools to automate the flow of
tasks and decisions that need to be made, particularly within
software development. It is essential that CIOs can keep track of
developments, particularly when stakeholders are increasingly
spread out all over the world.
Chris Purrington, managing director, Borland
Software
Staff can undermine the best technical
defences
One of the greatest corporate myths is that technology-based
defences will protect the business community and that a security
culture is in existence.
If we look beneath the technology shields, 80% of all security
breaches are caused by staff, and yet the levels of background
checking undertaken by employers is woefully inadequate.
A survey we commissioned into 1,200 UK companies found that only
2% of employers command more than the most cursory checks before
appointing new staff to positions of trust. With near-full
employment in some areas, employers are desperate to get people on
board and are therefore conceding on quality. Too much
responsibility is being left to hard-pressed personnel people and
interview panels that often include those who are relatively
inexperienced.
According to the survey, oversight is not confined to low-level
staff. Of 10,000 people employed in financial services and IT
posts, 25% had lied or exaggerated when applying for a job. Many
inappropriate candidates rely on prospective employers not checking
up on their resume, an approach that is becoming increasingly
common.
There is an interesting debate as to where the best returns are
gained from spending on security. Is it from building global,
technology-based defences or simply improving the quality of the
staff being employed to work inside these shields? The answer must
surely be in taking a more balanced approach to both of these
areas.
Steve Bailey, RwC