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The next few years in IT quality

IT systems pervade in every aspect of modern society. Alas, although all new applications should be thoroughly tested and proved to be reliable before their introduction, practice still leaves a lot to be desired. The modern motorcar is a remarkable success story – large amounts of computing power have been embedded in automobile control functions over a number of years, usually without users being aware of the new technology, that is, apart from improvements in performance! At the other end of the spectrum, large government applications seem to have a poor track record.

Development timescales and costs escalate and the functionality delivered can be rather less than that desired. Is it sheer complexity that influences the outcome? What are the messages for IT quality?

The basis of this paper has been to make a series of observations about trends in IT today and to assess the impact and consequences of each of these. Thence it is possible to think about the implications for IT quality and arrive at some projections for the future.

The observations, not in any particular order and which each occupy a section in the following table, cover the following topics:

1. Society’s increasing dependence on IT and the consequences of systems failure.
2. The continuing trend towards inter-working of IT systems in government and commerce.
3. The proliferation of PC and server applications rather than large, bespoke systems.
4. The Internet as a means of fulfilling business ambitions.
5. Security threats.
6. The challenges presented by new software development methods.
7. Software re-use
8. Offshoring
9. The quality standards emerging from strong user groups and purchasers.
10. The growing number of registration schemes.
11. The value and relevance of third party registration.
12. The loss of engineering identity within ISO 9001(2000).
13. The place for a quality department and its changing role in future.
14. In-house IT functions.
15. The increasing impact of legislation.
16. The legal responsibilities of organisations and individuals.
17. Increasing IT literacy in general users and the public.

The above list is unlikely to be exhaustive and readers may well have additional observations, especially those that reflect particular business situations. However, the methodology presented should still be useful as a means of determining and tailoring IT quality projections.

The document should be read in its entirety to capture all relevant implications for a particular environment.

Members: download report (pdf 90KB) more»

Non-members: please contact:
Carrie Hartnell
T 020 7331 2007
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Intellect would like to give a special thank you to Roy Farmer and Mike Forrester for their substantial and invaluable contribution in producing this piece of work.

If you are unable to download the report and would like a copy please contact:
Carrie Hartnell
T 020 7331 2007
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