What is the SA Industry doing to develop skills

1
What is the SA Industrydoing to develop skills?

• Barry Dwolatzky
• Professor
• School of Electrical Information Engineering,
  Wits University
• Academic Director Joburg Centre for Software
  Engineering

2
Overview

• A software development scenario
• The view from Isett SETA
• Critical Scarce Skills
• Some examples of Industry skills initiatives

3
Scenario meet the cast
Jasper Chief Financial Officer at Department
of Pensions Welfare (DPW)
Janet Director of Computer Services at DPW
4
Scenario meet the cast
Tsepo MD of SoftHouse one of South Africas
major IT companies
Tim Employed by SoftHouse Project Manager for
Project Venom
5
Scenario meet the cast
Sam Employed by SoftHouse Architect and
designer for Project Venom
Thando Employed by SoftHouse Implementation and
testing manager for Project Venom
6
Scenario
March 3rd at 1230 pm Jasper calls Janet
MAJOR Crisis !!!
CFO of DPW
Head of Computing Services at DPW
7
Scenario

• New pension payment regulations have just been
  introduced by Treasury
• Monthly payment schedules generated by PaySys
  DPWs legacy IT system
• All over the country pensioners are receiving
  much less than they should
• Angry crowds at pay-out points!

8
Scenario
March 3rd at 730 pm Janet meets Tsepo
We need your help fast!!
MD of SoftHouse
Head of Computing Services at DPW
9
Scenario

• PaySys is 23 years old.
• It was written by DPW computer services
• Maintenance of PaySys was handed over last year
  to SoftHouse to prepare for the merger between
  DPW and other government departments

10
Scenario

• Tsepo says
• The current problem is just a symptom of a bigger
  problem PaySys is unmaintainable
• DPW must replace PaySys. The options are
• Find a package
• Develop a replacement

11
Scenario
Many meetings later . DPW decide to contract
SoftHouse to develop a replacement for
PaySys Project Venom is born!!
12
Scenario
Tsepo appoints the Project Venom team
Tim Project Manager Also responsible for
liaison with DPW
Thando Manages implement test team
Sam Architect Designer
13
Scenario
WHAT?
Tim analyst
Janet DPW Computer Services
Jasper DPWs CFO
14
Scenario
User Requirements Formal Specification
Tim analyst
15
Scenario
Sam Architect Designer
16
Scenario
Thando Manages implement test team
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Scenario
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Scenario

• Process is iterative and incremental
• Project Venom is completed on time, within budget
  and meets all of DPWs requirements

19
Scenario
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
MANUFACTURING PRODUCTION INTEGRATION TESTING
Tim
Sam
Thando
Janet
Tsepo
20
The view from Isett SETA

• Isett SETAs latest Sector Skills Plan (SSP) was
  released in draft form in August 2006
• It covers the period 2005-2010
• It analyses the Supply and Demand for skills in
  the IT, Telecommunications and Electronics Sector

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The view from Isett SETA

• Is White and Male (62)
• Makes up 3 of Technical employees in IT
  sub-sector
• Has a degree or diploma (93)
• 6 of all vacancies in IT sub-sector are for
  Project Managers
• Demand will grow by 2 in next 2 years

22
The view from Isett SETA

• Is White and Male (61)
• Makes up 9 of Technical employees in IT
  sub-sector
• Has a degree or diploma (87)
• 8 of all vacancies in IT sub-sector are for
  Design Development
• Demand will grow by 9 in next 2 years

23
The view from Isett SETA

• Is White and Male (47)
• Makes up 9 of Technical employees in IT
  sub-sector
• Has a certificate or diploma (79)
• 7 of all vacancies in IT sub-sector are for
  Production Testing
• Demand will grow by 57 in next 2 years

MANUFACTURING PRODUCTION INTEGRATION TESTING
Thando
24
SA Industry Skills Initiatives

• ICT Skills are required for SA to succeed
• AsgiSA, ICT Charter, Growth of local ICT
  outsourcing capacity, etc
• The key skills gaps identified in Isett SETAs
  SSP is in middle and lower level skills
  programs are in place to fill these gaps
• But - critical areas are Project Managers (Tim),
  Architects and Designers (Sam)
• Need to educate relatively small numbers of black
  Software Engineering graduates and postgraduates

25
SA Industry Skills Initiatives

• SA Industry supports conventional skills supply
  chain ? School -gt University -gt Recruitment
• Bottleneck is lack of matriculants with Maths and
  Science at Higher Grade as demand increases
  supply is shrinking
• Industry also supports some non-conventional
  programmes

26
Some examples of Industry Initiatives

• Working together with ICT Industry Wits
  University has piloted a Level-7 Learnership in
  Software Engineering and Telecommunications
  Engineering
• The Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE)
  has been launched as an academic, government,
  industry initiative to develop high-level skills,
  and promote best practice.
• CPD Programme leading to Masters Degree
• But Much work remains to be done!!