Third Cape Software Engineering Colloquium (SE10), 16 March 2010

SE10 was a one day colloquium emphasizing serious thought and discussion around issues of key relevance to the growth and future of our software industry and software engineering as a profession. It was convened by the Cape IT Initiative (CITi) and the IEEE Computer Society Chapter (IEEE South Africa Section) and was attended by a full-house of close to 120 software engineers, academics and members of industry and government. The event was held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cape Town on 16 March 2010. Whilst the Colloquium agenda was driven by software engineers, and the key audience was senior technologists, technology managers and software professionals, it was open to all individuals with an interest in putting in place tangible and immediate programs to build and grow our software industry and software engineering as a profession.

This event furthered the work of previous Cape Software Engineering Colloquiums held in 2005 and 2007. It was informed by multiple conversations generated by the colloquium technical advisory committee prior to the Colloquium, as well as by a series of eight multi-stakeholder round table conversations hosted by CITi in February 2010. Key action points were agreed by the Colloquium and reported after the event, and will be followed up by the organizing committee in the year ahead.

There were ten presentations at the Colloquium, each covering a key thematic issue highlighted by the software engineering community, and it is our intention (as an organising committee) to continue to develop these during the course of the year.

Key progress since March includes the following:

• Proceedings: The 2011 Software Engineering Colloquium Proceedings have been compiled under the editorship of Assoc Prof Sonia Berman of UCT Computer Science Department and can be viewed online
• The Cape Software Showcase exhibition - This has been achieved. We successfully ran an exhibition, titled The Cape Software Showcase, concurrently with the 32nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE10), at the CTICC from 5 - 7 May 2010. This exhibition used recycled material to create "forests" of trees to showcase our software development companies, our IT Heroes and our universities; present case studies about agile development in the Cape,  and other interesting information about our eco-system. It was very well received by the visiting software engineers. We also invited students and school learners to the exhibition and they loved it! We plan to expand and repeat the exhibition during the course of the year.
• Agile development: Compilation of case studies - this was achieved and posters on agile in the Cape and case studies for ViaData, MXiT and Astrata were printed as part of the Cape Software Showcase exhibition. We would like to compile more case studies and if you would like to contribute one, please contact Gerhard Esterhuizen at Yila Consulting.
• Accreditation: - Dr Joseph Balikuddembe and CITi's Jenny McKinnell have met and agreed to initiate a research survey to assess the perceived value and need for independent accreditation
• Cloud computing - Dr David Hislop is in the process of setting up a cloud computing group. Contact him at Korwe Software if you would like to join this group.

The programme and speakers were as follows:

Welcome address: Chairperson of the Morning Sessions, Prof Johannes Cronje (Dean of Informatics & Design: CPUT)

Opening address: Jo-Ann Johnston (Chief Director: Trade and Sector Development, Provincial Government Western Cape) 

• Key note address: Prof Nico Beute (Ex Dean of Engineering: CPUT. Past chair: IEEE South Africa Section)
• Cape Software Factory: A hybrid reference model: Roderick Lim Banda (CIO Forum. CEO: KASE Consulting)
• Marketing Software at ICSE: A proposal for showcasing our industry: Jenny McKinnell (Executive Director: Cape IT Initiative)
• ICT Skills Crisis: Do we lack the skills pool we need or are we mismanaging the skills we have? Marius de Beer (Consultant. Development Manager: Scrumsense)
• Accreditation: Professional recognition of software engineers: Dr Joseph Balikuddembe (Systems Analyst, Sanlam Personal Finance (SPF-IT))
• Rewards & Recognition: Creating an Award to acknowledge software innovators , designers and architects: Dr David Hislop (IEEE Senior Member. CTO: Korwe)

Welcome address to afternoon sessions: Chairperson of the Afternoon Sessions, Assoc Prof Sonia Berman (Head of Computer Science Department: UCT) 

• Agile in the Enterprise: Evolving enterprise systems development practice: Gerhard Esterhuizen (Software Engineering Consultant: Yila Consulting)
• Legal compliance, IT governance and King III: Sian Evans (Attorney: Michalsons, Sian Evans & Associates)
• Venture Capital Funding: the Barriers to Deal Flow & Globalization of Investments: Alexandra Fraser (Research Analyst, InVenFin)
• Open Source: Repositioning FOSS as a software development methodology: Sean Grant (Sling-shot)
• Cloud computing: Building on a shared platform for software delivery: Dr Pawel Lubczonok (ThoughtExpress)

Concluding address and thanks: Jenny McKinnell (Executive Director, Cape IT Initiative (CITi))

Presentation of Certificate recognizing Exceptional Software Engineering from a Western Cape based organisation: Jo-Ann Johnston (Chief Director: Trade and Sector Development, Provincial Government Western Cape)

Launch of CITi’s “IT Heroes” Project: Jenny McKinnell, Executive Director, Cape IT Initiative