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Zimbabwe and software development
Padenga Tendai
January 08, 2006

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/opinion101.13610.html

Software development is not an easy exercise. It is more complexly intricate than most people would love to think and excite themselves about.

An exercise or rather a policy to train and develop software professionals at early stages right up to institutions of higher learning is not a solution in its own for Zimbabwe. That being done alone at short term and middle term planning will simply translate into brain drain. In simple terms, we will simply be preparing professionals for countries with better software development machinery in place.

I have learnt over the years through a more intimate study of the Indian IT revolution and the present day Indian IT scenario. There are various key point areas that Zimbabwe needs to address before embarking on an IT revolution with respect to software development and PC penetration.

PC penetration in Zimbabwe is not impressive at all especially at universities and institutions of higher learning, let alone secondary and primary schools, though statistics for private colleges where not made available in the ICT report, but I feel they are even worse off. Also to note, though very disappointing, is that computer facilities in existing institutions of higher learning clearly highlight that they are mainly accessible to those in the mainstream IT programmes which finally leads to hindrance in software development which is meaningful to the economy. The above point leads to failure in developing software that aids in decision efficacy.

Most people would want to believe that computerization is the ultimate solution. Yes, to some extent it is, but that only translates into doing what we used to do slower yesterday faster today, but least we forget that businesses demand more than just lightning speed. The greater challenge is not just mere automation and development of cheap user screens, algorithms etc and reducing the paper work but rather developing more robust Core Business applications which integrate various aspects of business, civic society etc.

If software development is entirely left in the hands of Pure IT professionals, we will be faced with a very complex problem of migrating the existing solutions (with respect to their domain areas requirements) to the next level. For an example, we may have the ability to assemble a new car but can we decide what are going to be the features of the next generation car?

Companies in Zimbabwe might have the ability to design a software solution but do they know what kind of solution will win in the market place 2 years from now? The answer to that question will mean we will be in a position to develop software locally and attract the much needed software technology to attract customers the world over or simply resort to buying ready made solutions. Now in order to meet that need, a more rigorous approach is needed as Pure IT professionals no matter how intelligent cannot solve. We need to develop a serious approach of introducing core aspects of IT (Programming, Data Structures, Algorithmics, etc) to students across various domains be it Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Agriculture, Agronomy, Wood Technology, Tool Making, Aircraft engineering, Motor Mechanics etc. By this, I am referring to dissemination of IT Core aspects to all existing higher learning Institutions with Apprentices included.

This, however, will mean involving various concerned ministries with Ministry of Education playing a more pragmatic role and the Ministry of Science and Technology playing a guiding and visionary role. By the end of the day, we will be in a position to come up with a human resource that not only satisfies unilateral or domain specific requirements but rather more interestingly, a human resource that can clearly outline its domain problems in a language that the Pure IT professional can understand and further purify to meet the Software development set standards. That way we can come up with software solutions that are International in nature and above all satisfying the domain aspects of the problem at hand.

For example, an airline ground operations solution that is solved by Pure IT professionals and Pure Airline Professionals will end up requiring a lot of panel beating that is not necessary and might miss a lot of the airline required norms resulting in a product that is not usable or maybe locally usable but cannot be marketed regionally let alone globally. So in short, graduates in various disciplines need Core IT empowering concepts if ever we are to develop any meaningful globally marketable IT solutions and gain the Bangalore, Hyderabad fame.

On the issue of increasing PC penetration, I would want to highlight that India having realized that the cost of the PC in the late 80s was out of reach of many people and institutions, they introduced a component based sale of computers and a serious reduction and even removal of duty to schools and individuals for a certain formative period. To date, India has a PC that costs less than USD300 (loaded with Linux Operation System) in plug and play mode and if you are going to buy in assemble, plug and play mode it will cost around USD250. India, with respect to that concept, has in place a central IT Hub commonly known as the Nehru Place located in New Delhi. More information on the same can be accessed at www.npithub.com.

The assemble-it-yourself approach has several advantages to the customers as they can

If Zimbabwe is to adopt that approach and the Reserve Bank as well as ZIMRA participate positively, then the results will be overwhelming since I believe it’s the only positive way of increasing PC penetration especially in Universities, Schools as well as certain households.

*Tendai Padenga is a Zimbabwean studying for a Master of Computer Applications with electives in Artificial Intelligence and Neural Networks at Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi. You can contact him at tepadenga@yahoo.co.uk

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