By Chris Uwaje
The state of software delivery of the next government: Will President Goodluck Jonathan win the 2011 Presidential election?

The answer is capital YES – provided the Presidency ensures that indigenous SOFTWARE powers and controls the process. Indigenous Software should be empowered and at the centre of perhaps – what should be classified as one of the most critical assignments of our time.

This is a change to ensure that the African continent skillfully migrates from her current match-box vision muscle society (economy) to a machine society, in preparation for the Information Society (IS).

The upcoming national election should be the major laboratory for indigenous Software and IT Practitioners to learn the perfection of how to master future e-challenges – ranging from Health Care Delivery, Agriculture, Cultural enhancement, national Brand innovations and sustainable management, others.

In recognition that the current INEC Chairman is a distinguished professor from the academia, one is deeply concerned that of all the available quality IT resources of indigenous professionals both at home and abroad – with proven credentials of accomplishment – the INEC Chairman could not find – a Nigerian – as a better qualified candidate for the position of an IT adviser to the INEC Chairman? Is that why the IT Adviser to the INEC Chairman is not a Nigerian IT professional? Is he more qualified than the more than 250,000 globally accredited Naija IT Specialists? The Nigerian IT community both at home and abroad is estimated at over 50,0000 plus the 80,000 National Association of Computer Science Students in Nigeria.

First, it must be stated very clearly, that while all the most successful economies of the world are driven by technology and particularly IT (software-related) stocks, we have found ourselves imprisoned by B&B (Bank &Beer) related stocks – in the name of democratic economy. Suffice to state that we live in a nation where knowledge is blinded and thrown to the dogs. Indeed, a nation where indigenous software (knowledge) is treated like a plague, while non-professionals, throws millions of dollars at the best of inefficient foreign software.

New emerging facts now validate what stakeholders have known and propagated for many years; that is, “No nation can succeed in the new (21st century) economy without the incubation, development and mastery of its indigenous software knowledge-based. This is what nations like US, India, Malaysia have done.

Software is critical to national prosperity and security From its modest beginnings some 50 years ago, computer software has become a critical element of modern society, with global reach and impact on virtually every aspect of human endeavor. Software is a key enabling technology in business, industry, government, and defense, and permeates products and services of all kinds.

It is no exaggeration to say that the progress of modern society is totally and irrevocably dependent on software, as clearly exemplified by the recent year 2000 (“Y2K) crisis. Economic sectors such as manufacturing, financial services, communications, health care, energy, transportation, and education, as well as national defense and government, depend for the conduct of daily operations on software ranging from personal computer applications to large-scale, networked systems of astonishing complexity.

The critical infrastructure of the nation is largely controlled and managed by software. In short, software has become a critical national resource, vital to national well being, sustainable development, creation of wealth and global competitiveness.

According to recent UN studies, ‘Software’s Critical Role Raises National Issues’
This has necessitated the accelerated involvement of government of most nations in the WSIS programme agenda.

The study further observed that nation’s dependency on software raises national issues and challenges that must be addressed in a coherent manner. Representative issues of major import include:
lUnderstanding the value that software adds to the nation’s economy.
lEnsuring national competitiveness in the global software marketplace.
lMeeting public needs for trustworthiness in critical software systems.

lEnsuring the necessary degree of security and privacy in information systems.
lEducating and training the current and future software workforce.
lEnsuring qualifications and competency of software professionals.

lProtecting intellectual property and preventing software piracy.
lDefining an effective agenda for software research and investment.
lAddressing the National Software Issues.

It is in recognition of the above challenges that the United Nations University – International Institute for Software Technology (IIST) initiated its Software Advanced Development Project – particularly focused in assisting Developing Countries.

Goals of the Project- Software implementation: Development projects aim to develop prototypes rather than fully engineered systems; full development and exploitation is done by the partner institution(s) .Some of the code development may involve automatic translation.

Software architecture: Involves refining the formal model from requirements capture, mainly decomposing the “state” type of the system and so decomposing the specification into a number of modules. Refinement may be justified informally or formally with a justification tool.

Domain analysis: Involves a broad study of the relevant domain, its intrinsic aspects, its particular technologies, the roles of the people involved, perhaps its role in a wider socio-economic context.