Software development to the present has been characterized by problems such as a tendency to over-allocate work to the most capable staff, leading to the overwork of these persons and hindering smooth handovers of work among all staff involved in software development.

 As another issue, software development often begins without proper ascertaining of specifications between the acquirer (user) and the supplier (vendor). This has resulted in such problems as long-term scheduling and budget overruns and instability of essential operations.

 The principal obstacles to improving this situation are Japan’s unique structure of multiple subcontracting and the belief that development know-how should be confidential and only shared internally. Utilizing our position as a public institution, IPA clarifies the various problematic points faced by the software industry and provides a range of tools for preparing basic procedure manuals for software development and for creating criteria for evaluating reliability. Concurrently, IPA accumulates data, including case examples of problems in systems development, and enables the “visualization” of problems.

 The guideline for dependable software development developed and published by SEC encourages mutual understanding between the acquirer (user) and supplier (vendor). This guideline is essential in software development for controlling system quality, costs and delivery times. Also, dependability indicators explained in the guideline should serve as metrics for visualizing and measuring software quality. Through the aforementioned initiatives, IPA aims to improve the dependability of software development.

Transcending the respective barriers of industry, academia and government, IPA gathers researchers and engineers who energetically engage in activities based on various themes. Utilizing its features as a “base for industry-academiagovernment collaboration,” IPA will systematize the extensive knowledge created through various types of practical application in software development and propose software development methods suited to actual circumstances in Japan’s software industry.

 Numerous achievements have been compiled through industry-academia-government collaboration in Japan. To ensure steady and ongoing achievements in the future as well, IPA will maintain its role of comprehensively orchestrating such forms of collaboration.

 IPA is also progressing with collaborative works with various U.S. and European institutions that include the U.S.-based Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of Carnegie Mellon University and Germany’s Fraunhoffer Institut für Experimentelles Software Engineering (IESE). Through such collaboration, we are jointly introducing companies to each institute’s respective software engineering methods and undertaking pilot projects with the aim of promoting the use of these engineering methods in Japan.