Thirty years after computers became mainstream, software
projects are still late and over budget because CIOs are
underserved by their own industry.
So says Tod Nielsen,
Borland's CEO, and a veteran
of Microsoft and Oracle. Improving a CIO's ability to manage
software-based projects is the platform on which former software
giant Borland plans to rebuild its fortunes, Nielsen told Computer
Weekly.
Borland was once a contender for PC-based database management
system of choice, but has had a rough time since Microsoft
cornerned that market. Borland has since reinvented itself as a
maker of software development tools such as Turbo Pascal, and more
recently, as a source of tools to manage, develop and deliver
applications.
BT, with 15,000 seats, is now a prime global customer in the UK,
as is the Met Office. Systems integrator EDS is Borland's biggest
customer internationally with 30,000 seats.
"CIOs can see (software driven) dashboards that show the status
of the company everywhere except the IT department. All CIOs have
is a graph that goes from green to red instantly when there is a
problem. We aim to give them a yellow," he said.
Nielsen has repositioned the company as
life cycle management (LCM) products specialist, launching its
suit in July under the Borland Management Solutions banner. Nielsen
is also concentrating on agile development.
The company is pitching the tools to traditional user firms,
software houses, and increasingly, firms that build embedded
systems. He said a Mercedes Benz manager had told him there are now
about 1.3 billion lines of code in the average Mercedes, thanks to
all the electronic systems. "That makes companies like Bosch, which
supply those components, potential customers," Nielsen said.
The key to successful software projects is getting the initial
requirements right, he said. "Thirty percent of software projects
are never delivered because they took too long and requirements
changed," he said.
That is also why he prefers the agile style. "We can divide work
packages into daily 'stand-ups', weekly 'sprints', and project
'marathons'," he said. "This granularity gives CIOs complete
visibility, and thus early warning, of what is going on with each
of their development projects."
It also allows software development teams to take in changes in
requirements in incremental chunks. This helps cut the cost of
changes.
Nielsen's aquistion of Segue, maker of the Silk software testing
tools two years ago, gives coders tools to test their output as
they go along. Catching bugs early in the system life cycle cuts
costs hugely, he said. As the former manager of a Microsoft
development team, he should know.