Food for Thought: Measurement of globalization
Information technology jobs will continue to grow in the US because of globalisation and offshoring, according to a new report.
To what extent a nation-state or culture is globalized in a particular year has until most recently been measured employing simple proxies like flows of trade, migration, or foreign direct investment. A more sophisticated approach to measuring globalization is the recent index calculated by the Swiss think tank KOF. The index measures the three main dimensions of globalization: economic, social, and political.
In addition to these three indices measuring these dimensions, an overall index of globalization and sub-indices referring to actual economic flows, economic restrictions, data on personal contact, data on information flows, and data on cultural proximity is calculated. Data are available on a yearly basis for 122 countries. According to the index, the world's most globalized country is the USA, followed by Sweden, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Luxembourg. The least globalized countries according to the KOF-index are Togo, Chad and the Central African Republic.
Source: Wikipedia
Agile "People Oriented Approach to Software Development"
For many companies the appeal of agile methods is purely a reaction to the bureaucracy of the monumental methodologies that no longer adapt to today’s changing business environments.
At Softura, we take a more practical approach to using Agile methods for our software development. Our Agile development approach iteratively "cycles" through the entire software development process, from gathering requirements to delivering functionality into a working release.
Our goal is to provide our clients with rapid results which create increased ROI via reduced time to market.
The two primary benefits to our Agile approach are as follows:
Agile methods are adaptive rather than predictive. Traditional methods tend to try to plan out a large part of the software process in great detail for a long span of time, this works well until things change. So their nature is to resist change. The agile method welcomes change. Our processes adapt and thrive on change which is the true nature of software development today.
Agile methods are people-oriented rather than process-oriented. The goal of traditional methods is to define a process that will work well whoever happens to be using it. Agile methods assert that no process will ever make up for the skill of the development team, so the role of a process is to support the development team in their work.
Our adaptive style lends itself better to the construction of custom applications which is the cornerstone of Softura’s business and why we have helped so many businesses with solutions that could not be addressed by off-the-shelf solutions.
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IT Security Rides Offshore Outsourcing Wave
By Dawn Kawamoto
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
U.S. companies that outsource their IT security functions dramatically contributed to the volume of business sent overseas this year, according to a new survey.
The survey, released Thursday by the Computer Security Institute and the FBI, revealed dramatic changes in 2006 in the volume of offshore IT security work. Of the U.S. companies that indicated they farm out their security functions, the amount of work sent overseas in some cases doubled year over year.
Companies with an average revenue of less than $10 million outsourced 8 percent of their security functions overseas this year, compared with 4 percent last year, according to respondents. Midsize companies of $100 million to $1 billion in revenue also nearly doubled the work they sent offshore, from 7 percent last year to 13 percent this year.
Large corporations with more than $1 billion saw the biggest increase in outsourcing, sending 15 percent of their security functions offshore, up from 9 percent last year, according to the survey.
Although the volume of security functions sent overseas jumped significantly, the number of U.S. companies that use outsourcing has remained fairly stable. This year, 39 percent of the companies surveyed indicated they farm out varying degrees of their security work, compared with 37 percent last year.
In a preview of the survey last month, Robert Richardson, editorial director at the CSI, also noted that there was a decline in financial losses due to cybercrime in 2006 and fewer security incidents than in previous years.
Top Ten Reasons That Companies Outsource
- Reduce and control operating costs
- Improve company focus
- Access world-class capabilities
- Free up internal resources for other purposes
- Resources are not available internally
- Accelerate re-engineering benefits
- Function difficult to manage or out of control
- Make capital funds available
- Share risks
- Cash infusion
Source: The Outsourcing Institute
The Demand for Business Analysis is Heating Up!
Projected growth from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that from 1990 to 2005 analyst positions grew 45%, with more jobs continuing to be created every year. Through 2014, the expectation is that this job position will grow more than 27%, not including self-employment or openings due to turnover. Many business analysts are independent consultants or work specifically for consulting firms that do business and systems analysis for many companies. The demand for business analysts is expected to rise as advances in technology lead to new applications for computers.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor
Business analysts must be able to think logically and should like working with ideas. They often deal with a number of tasks simultaneously. The ability to concentrate and pay close attention to detail also is important. Although analysts often work independently, they also work in teams on large projects. They must be able to communicate effectively with technical personnel, such as programmers, as well as with managers and clients (many who have no computer background).
Information technology (IT) business analysts play a vital role in their organizations' technological direction. IT business analysis responsibilities can reside in various corporate functions and departments, such as operations, product development, information systems and finance. The job of business analyst also can fall under many different titles:
- Business systems analyst
- Computer systems analyst
- Information systems analyst
- Systems analyst
No matter what organization or title owns the function, the business analyst's primary responsibilities are gathering requirements for designing business information systems, modifying systems to improve production or workflow, deploying new applications or expanding systems to serve new purposes. The bottom line for business analysts is to help make their companies more efficient, effective and profitable.
Business subject knowledge: The BA should have some background knowledge of the subject to make the requirements gathering efficient, or at least have the skills to apply logical analytical thought to a business issue. The degree of prior knowledge required depends highly on the complexity of the project. This kind of investigation is also known as domain analysis.
- IT capabilities: understanding of what systems can and cannot do.
- Feasibility: analysis around how realistic the requirements are in terms of effort, time, costs.
- Relevance: the purpose served by individual requirements in relation to larger business and/or project goals.
- Data: this area will usually focus on identifying what data the business currently has, what data need to be carried over into the new systems and/or analysis around what can be achieved with a new system.
Techniques that a BA uses to gather and document requirements include UML, process flows, use cases, interview skills, workshop facilitation, and investigation of current state (existing systems and/or processes).
Skills required to successfully execute the business analysis process include communication skills, understanding of a variety of technologies and platforms (client/server and mainframe), entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs) and relational database concepts, object-oriented technologies (Rational Rose, object-oriented analysis, object-oriented design, object-oriented programming), and the systems development lifecycle (SDLC).
Also the BA needs to have the ability to assemble, analyze and evaluate data and to be able to make appropriate and well-reasoned recommendations and decisions to support the business stakeholders and the project team.
As the global economy continues to seep into the fabric of today’s business landscape, the demand for business analysts will increase. Whether applications are being developed internally, onshore or offshore, the need to match software functionality with business requirements will continue to dominate the success of software applications being delivered. For more about Business Analyst opportunities contact: scotts@softura.com
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