10 October 2007

Problems of Software Developers in Bangladesh

1. INTRODUCTION As computer technology offers efficient and high performance information processing, it has got popularity over the home, office users in the whole world. By the decade of 1990, in Bangladesh, it has also taken an important role. Since during this time PCs become more user friendly and attractive, the number of users had been increased. Beside the general users, in Bangladesh, a number of Software Developers has been increased as well as. Many of Computer Science and Engineering graduates form Public and private universities as well as Computer diplomas from training institutions are getting employed to the local software companies. As the time goes, the overall development of skill of software developers has been increased with respect to Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a country, where the only surplus property is the human resource. Considering the earning of foreign exchanges and removing of unemployment problem, software industry is a very prospective field. To make this field more profitable, several plans has been done by the government and private organizations form past several years. Since software developers plays the key role to the software industry, so it is very important to care about their needs and problems, to boost up their skill. 2. THE FIGURE OF THE PROBLEMS By conversing with a number of Software Developers in Bangladesh, I tried to find out the figure of the problems which are faced by the local software developers. According to the opinions of novice and expert software developers we can categorize their problems into three sections. - Problems Due To Employer - Problems Due To Client and - Problems Due To Developers Themselves 2.1 Problems Due To Employer A number of software manufacturer companies have been established in Bangladesh during past several years. Their ultimate goal is to meet the need of local and foreign market. Many of software developers those are employed in these companies, complained about some of their non professional attitude to them. 2.1.1 Lack of Well Management To develop a well standard, high quality and effective software is not a silly task. In this case according to the user requirement, with some specific calculation and analysis worker should proceed to make the software system, so that it can gain the ultimate satisfaction of the user

perfectly. To build a software product it is required to have skillful and experienced contribution into the fields of project management, system analysis, software architecture, software engineering, coding, testing, debugging and documentation. But respect to many of software companies in Bangladesh, it has been seen that during the software development process either there is a lack of skilled person in proper field, or the employee who is employed as a `Programmer has to do all the task that is necessary to develop the software. In this case the developer suffers in a way that neither s/he can become experienced in proper way, nor can contain the satisfactory standard. 2.1.2 Lack of Well Environment and Resources For a software developer, environment is a very important fact that should be cared. Comparing with Conversional official tasks and the job of a software developer is not the same fact. To be deeply involved and concentrated on to his/her work, a developer desires a sound and peaceful environment. Unfortunately many of software companies are not concerned enough considering this fact. Due to the limitation of investment, they cannot provide proper accommodations to their employees. Beside this, due to same reason, the developer has to take the responsibility of local network and hardware management. Some developers complained about their basic requirement as high speed internet, hardware accessories etc. which are not provided properly by their employer. 2.1.3 Improper Salary Since Bangladesh is a developing country, financial fact plays a very important impact over the developers those are working here. The salary range of the developers depends on the financial condition, investment of the employer software company. Based on my survey onto several software manufacturer companies, a basic estimation about the salary of the employees those are related to the development process of a software system can be figured out as programmers with 2 years of experience get 5 thousand to 10 thousand taka monthly, where as 5 years of experienced programmers get 15 to 25 thousand. System analysts and software engineers get monthly 25 to 40 thousand and 25 to 60 thousand taka respectively. Most of the developers are not satisfied enough with their salary. They desire more salary according to their service. To earn more money some of the developers get them employed onto several companies, which results lack of proper concentration to a specific project. 2.2 Problems Due To Client 2.2.1 Requirement Elicitation Maximum Softwares that are built for the local market of Bangladesh is customized software. To produce this type of software, an important part is to elicit and analyze the requirement of the user. Stake-holders (including paying clients, users and developers) together form a large number and can be distributed. Form the point of view of the positions of different types of stakeholders, their goals may vary and conflict, depending on their perspectives of the environment in which they work and tasks they wish to complete. Their goals may not be explicit or may be difficult to articulate. To develop a software system that can satisfy the overall requirement of all the stakeholders, the conflicts and contradictions those can be arise, should be carefully removed. One of the most important goals of requirement elicitation is to find out what problem needs to be solved and hence identify the system boundaries. At the high level, these boundaries define

where the final delivered system will fit into the current operational system. As a matter of fact, a high degree of coordination among the user is required. With respect to Bangladesh, considering the development of a new software system, developers have to suffer to elicit the need as well as the expectation of the corresponding client. So the corresponding developer find it difficult to determine what the facilities should have in the new system, or what should not. As matter of fact, they have to proceed through a misty way. After an interval of time, when the developers comes near to the finishing point of the production, then if the product doesnt meet the clients satisfaction, the developers has to further go through a lengthy and complicated process. 2.2.2 Money and Time Another fact that generally arises by the local software client is money and time. To build well engineered and efficient business software solution, a considerable amount of time and money and time is needed, on which the local software clients are less interested. In this case, although the corresponding software developer may have proper eligibility and wishes to build a good product but he cannot proceed to do that. Lack of proper awareness of the local software clients about the efficiency that is offered by information technology, results this type of problem. 2.3 Problems Due To Developers Themselves To be productive and skilled enough, a software developer should contain some sort of efficacy. The problems that arise during the development of a software system in Bangladesh cause not only for employer manufacturer and customers, but also for the programmer him/herself. To be successful enough, a developer must have to be devoted enough to his/her technical education and professional field. Many student of computer related education and training and professional in Bangladesh has a comprehension that, learning one or two programming language somehow will make him/her a software developer, which is a wrong idea at all, according to the opinion of experts. Focusing on this type of comprehension of student, experienced project managers say, this is due to not to think the software development as a long term profession. We can categorize the causes that make developers themselves low skilled is focused below: 2.3.1 Lack of In-depth Knowledge and Up-to-date Information Considering software development as a long term profession, one should go through a process by being up to date enough with respect to the current trend of information technology as well as by implementing several techniques of programming languages and development platforms with respect to real business and information world. Since a large number of students in Bangladesh is weak in English and contains a fear to study, which arises from conventional study of Bangladesh, very few number of developers get them interested to be informative enough. 2.3.2 Lack of Specialization Specialization is one of the key factors to be highly skilled professional. To get more jobs, many students related to computer education and training goes for several courses, which ultimately makes a barrier for him/her to be specialized enough in any particular field. If anybody wants to be a network administrator, system administrator, web designer, graphics designer, as well as a software developer, then obviously he/she has to be frustrated enough after an interval of time!

2.3.3 Lack of Community Very few developers in Bangladesh contain their own professional community. Forming an own professional community and sharing ideas among them, is very effective way, to be skilled quickly, in a particular field. Developers that face lots of problems during project development may easily benefited by this idea. 3. CONCLUSION Its a very hopeful fact that, many of government and private organizations in Bangladesh starting to make their organizations computerized, which results expansion of local software market here. As well as, many working field is going to be created in software development arena through software outsourcing and export to the foreign countries. As Bangladesh suffers unemployment problem and shortage of foreign exchange, software industry, however, is one of good solutions. To be actually benefited enough through software industry, a careful view should be given to existing and coming software developers of Bangladesh. Timely awareness by private organizations, local government and the developers themselves, according to these issues will certainly broaden the way of development of Information and Communication Technology in Bangladesh

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Newer Comments Tunu Miah says: 8 July 2008 at 9:52 pm I agree with some of your comments in the article. I think there is a great future in the IT sector in BD. In my opinion European companpies will be looking to move out of India as the cost of their Indian operations goes up and instead expand into other eastern countries possibly China or even BD. However, there a number of factors that prevent Western companies to move some of their operations to BD

1) political stability of the country 2) the difficulty and bureaucracy of the BD government in setting up such operations 3) Skills level offered by the country (which I believe is in the increase) 4) Level of spoken and written English offered (This must be inreased to high levels in my opinion) I generally think that the individual people are hard working and egar to see a large corporation set base in BD and would be willing to up their game (i.e. education, skills and experience in IT both at a technical level and non technical skills (like co-operation, written and verbal skills, leading teams etc). The question lies in the commitment of the government to encourge such organisations by offering then some benefits or by helping them set-up at the cost of the government. There was some talks of setting up a science park in Dhaka? Anyone knows how this is prcgressing? Anyway, I think I have said a lot and would like to hear from others that may or may not share my opinion. Tunu