Adressing Management Issues in Small IT Companies- Part I

Information about software project management processes and practices are in abundance. The sheer amount of books, reports, papers and other reading material makes it extremely difficult to identify and adopt suitable practices. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that one always has to modify the standardized practices to one’s need. Adoptability is a major headache due to the generalized nature of standardized software project management approaches.

Software project management approaches differs significantly from other engineering project management approaches. Software project includes activities that are more engineering and creativity oriented with the only tangible output being the required software which is available upon completion. It is therefore extremely difficult to measure it prior to its completion. Scope or requirement creep can only be measured once the software is complete; i.e. when it is too late for corrective actions. Lack of measurement causes inefficient resource utilization. All of these issues translate in terms of monetary values in terms of cost overruns and lack or no profitability.

Software industry in Pakistan is in its infancy. It was recognized as an industry as late as late 90’s. There is a lack of basic understanding of the software engineering at all levels within the software industry. Most of the software houses in Pakistan close down within two years of operation because of financial losses and/or inability of timely delivery of high quality software projects. Most of the companies currently in operation today have projects outsourced to them from abroad with a large customer base in US and Europe.

A software company may be categorized as ‘small’ based on its financial standing. Most of the software houses in Pakistan would not be able to survive a couple of months without any cash inflows in terms of new software projects. Such software houses either end up closing down or lying off most of the resources. It is therefore imperative that the resource utilization and profitability is maximized during the complete software project lifecycle.

This series is an attempt to identify and address the problems faced by the small software companies specifically in Pakistan.