The software industry is flourishing in Bangladesh. Due to increased demand at both the local and global level, the market for software development in the country has been expanding rapidly. Outsourcing work of software development, in recent times, has increased dramatically and it is expected that within the next decade, software development will be the major source of foreign remittance—competing with the RMG sector.
At present, Bangladesh is exporting software and IT-enabled services to more than 30 countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, Japan and various European countries. Seeing potential in the software industry here, many international software organisations like Microsoft, Accenture, Oracle, etc., have opened up their offices in Bangladesh. It is therefore high time we promoted this industry as a Bangladeshi brand.
Software firms in the country are improving gradually. At present, at least 10 firms so far have achieved Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) at level three and one firm (DataSoft) at level five. CMMI is one of the major indicators for measuring the quality of software firms and the highest score for this measurement is level five. However, we remain far behind compared to our neighbouring country India where more than 300 firms have achieved level three or higher on the CMMI scale.
The key ingredients in developing software are the capabilities, skills and efforts of technical people like designers, analysts, programmers, and testers who play an active role in the entire process. The majority of these people have a bachelor's degree in computer science. At present, there are 37 public and more than 80 private universities which have programmes in computer science, computer engineering or other relevant subjects. Apart from this, there are many affiliated colleges under the national university-run undergraduate programme in computer science. Each year several thousand graduates in this field are being produced by these institutions.
Yet, the prevailing situation is that the majority of these graduates are not being able to fulfill the industry demand, especially when the question of quality arises. Many software firms complain about not getting quality graduates of the calibre that they expect. Their claim, though frustrating, cannot be discarded given the harsh reality. One of the major reasons behind this is the absence of academic-industry partnership in the country.
Academia and industry share a symbiotic relationship. Academia produces graduates required by the industry. If academic institutes are to produce graduates who can efficiently fulfill market demands in this rapidly changing environment dominated by computer technology, establishing academia-industry partnership is a must. Academics will then be able to visualise the real demands of the market so that they can formulate the course curriculum in their respective institutions keeping the market needs in mind. In the domain of software development, the programming tools, design techniques, development methodology, and even the hardware platforms, are evolving rapidly and so, through proper communication with the industry, academics will be able to learn the market trends with a view of updating the course curriculum.
Academic institutes, for their computer science programmes, should introduce internship in the industry so that the students can get hands-on industrial experience. (Most of the universities of the developed countries have already integrated the internship aspect into their curricula in their computer science programmes, which has further enhanced the academia-industry partnership.) Some universities have introduced a one-semester-long internship for their final-year students. However, many software firms do not take an interest in recruiting interns due to various reasons. This attitude should change and they should understand that recruiting interns will help in the long run.
In the context of academia-industry partnership, another important issue that should be discussed is research. For the development of unique innovative software, research is crucial. In developed countries most universities conduct industrial research which, in turn, provides benefits to both the industry and academics. Following the research outcomes, the industry will have implemented innovative software systems that have commercial value. In Bangladesh, the leading software companies should think about taking initiatives in this regard with a view to producing unique software products for the global and local markets.
Ensuring high quality of software systems is another major issue. Most software firms in the country lack the expertise in this arena. The concerned academicians will have much to contribute towards improving the quality of software products being developed in the industry.
In order to improve the capabilities of the software industry in Bangladesh, promoting academia-industry partnership is a must. Fortunately, some academic institutes have understood this reality. For instance, AIUB recently conducted a workshop on capacity building where stakeholders from some major software firms in the country participated. They had discussions in this regard and agreed upon one thing: For the sound development of the software industry, both the academics and their industrial counterparts should work hand in hand. And a common platform is what's needed.
Mohammad Anwarul Kabir is a senior assistant professor in the department of computer science at American International University-Bangladesh.
