Project Failure in software industry of

Bangladesh
As computer technology offers efficient and high performance information processing, it has got
popularity over the home, office users in the whole world. By the decade of 2008 to 2020, in
Bangladesh, it has also taken an important role. Since during this time PCs become more user
friendly and attractive, the number of users had been increased and also the use of mobile phones
and phone software APK increased.

Bangladesh is a developing country with a huge population (168.95 million). In addition, the
density of population (1,045 people per square kilometre – five times than that of any other
‘mega’ country) is itself is a challenge. The Government of Bangladesh has liberalized the
telecommunications sector for private participation by local and foreign investors, where
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), established in 2002, works as
an independent regulatory authority. The BTRC's objectives were to issue licenses to operators,
manage the radio frequency spectrum, and regulate technical standards and encourage
investment in the telecommunication sector. In late February 2015, the BTRC pointed out that,
around 96.60 per cent (41.96 million) of Internet users use the Internet through mobile networks,
and 3.4 per cent (1.46 million) use broadband Internet. A significant number of companies have
developed software products/ services and others are engaged in other services such as digital
content development and delivery business, mainly providing content services through a mobile
platform. The recent affirmative transformations such as larger Internet, better connectivity as
well as introduction of new payment methods (online payment through credit card and mobile
payment) are working as catalysts for the betterment of the industry. As a direct consequence of
such initiatives, new entrants such as Atomix System Ltd (ASL) came into play in the ITES
industry. ASL is a private software development company that was established as a joint venture
in Bangladesh in December 2011. The evolution and struggles of ASL exemplify the challenges
and opportunities facing Bangladesh's growing infrastructure and IT/ITES sectors. An
examination of ASL's growth, challenges and current strategies leads to a discussion of which
steps ASL could take to strengthen its position, and support the development of its industry and
its country's infrastructure.
Software Industry of Bangladesh: An Overview

Over the last few years, the IT and the ITES sectors have proven to be comparatively new but
fast moving industries facing impressive growth (Bhatt & Pathak, 2010). Even though the IT and
ITES sectors are somewhat similar, there are certain significant differences in the level of people
interface, professional demands and competence of the employees (Kanwar, Singh, & Kodwani,
2012). In general, IT is a broad subject concerned with the use of any kind of computing
technology, like networking, hardware, software or the Internet, as well as managing and
processing information, especially in large organizations. ITES is therefore a form of outsourced
service which has surfaced due to the involvement of IT in various areas like banking and
finance, telecommunications, and insurance. According to Kanwar et al. (2012), the IT sector is
specifically more knowledge-oriented.

The coronavirus pandemic that started from China did not remain confined to that country, but
rapidly spread outside, starting from Europe and Iran and now to the US and Canada, which is
one of the main target markets for the ICT companies of Bangladesh, especially the companies
who are doing outsourcing.

At the time of writing, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, spanning 210
countries and territories, stood at 2,249,717 and the fatalities 154,271.Borders have been closed
in most of the countries and those who have symptoms of COVID-19 have been asked to
quarantine themselves.

After the rebirth of the ICT industry of Bangladesh in 2009, the industry is now also passing the
toughest time like the other sectors.An industry where 95 per cent of the people are young and
below the age of 35 is going to be hampered seriously due to current pandemic.If we segment the
work dimension of our ICT industry, we can find three sectors where our ICT companies are
currently contributing. Of the 800 active companies, 175 are now working in the international
market, according to the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS),
meaning 24 per cent of the total industry is dependent upon the foreign market.The other 600-
plus companies are now working in the local market, catering to both the private and the public
sector.Among those who are working in the local market, 41.3 per cent companies are dependent
purely on the private sector market, while 56.7 per cent are working in both the public and
private sector market.

Recently, BASIS surveyed its members regarding the effect of coronavirus on their business and
the result we have got is very much alarming.It has been reported that most of the companies
won't be able to run their operations for more than two or three months if the situation continues
like this.Another problem that the IT companies face more often is not getting proper loan
support from banks. As the whole industry is doing intellectual work, the banks are yet to
address this intellectual property as an asset.

As a result, the ICT companies are now facing a serious cash crisis as they are not getting loans
like the garment and other industries.In March alone, it has been reported that the companies
who are working in the local market have lost 52 per cent of the work orders and those in the
international market have lost 35 per cent. In the last three months, already the companies have
lost 74 per cent of their international buyers because most of the companies are working in the
EU and the US, the two regions badly affected by coronavirus.No doubt the situation will be
much more adverse in the coming days.

In short, it can be said that the companies working in the international market won't have any
work order for at least the next six months until the situation improves. The scenario of the local
private market is not comfortable either. Companies are predicting that the work orders will
shrink by as much as 61 per cent in the next three to six months. Some 69 per cent of the ICT
companies surveyed said they can run for a maximum one to two months under this adverse
condition, while 24 per cent said they can survive for a maximum of three to four months. Only 7
per cent companies can run for more than four months.The clients are now cancelling their
current work orders and there is no chance of acquisition of new clients now. The companies are
also afraid that they may not get the rest of the payment of the projects they have already
invested in. The operational costs like paying employee salaries, office rent, office expenses and
other overhead costs will become a burden.This will create a big challenge on employee
retention and the sustainability of the ICT industry will be a challenge.
Besides working capital shortage, a serious dearth of cash flow, 30-50 per cent revenue loss,
uncertainty in clients' bill payment, the additional cost of arrangement for a home office (devices,
internet and cost management) and so on will hamper financial sustainability, which may lead to
bankruptcy for many companies.Communication with the client is getting impossible for the
companies who are working in the local market, as everything is shutting down or being locked
down.Under this adverse condition, the companies have no option other than to cut their
overhead and operational cost. It has been found out that companies are planning to cut down 51
per cent of their current resources on an average in the next three to six months. It means that the
country is going to see half of its highly talented and skilled resources getting unemployed,
which will be a serious hit towards the implementation of Digital Bangladesh.For the survival of
the most promising industry of the country, which has a direct blessing from the Honorable
Prime Minister, the government support is the crying need now.

BASIS, which is the apex trade body of all the ICT associations of Bangladesh, is now working
hard to make the government understand the seriousness of the issue and the struggle under
which the companies is going through. It has already requested the government for financial
support to pay the salary of the employees, a portion of the operational costs (house rent,
electricity bill, office rent etc.) for at least six months, which will help survival amidst this
situation.

Besides, it is high time that all foreign software is banned for at least three years, which will help
the local companies to sustain and grow in this tough situation.The value-added tax on the local
software should also be exempted for at least up to 2024.The government has also declared a
loan facility for the export-oriented industries at 2 per cent interest. The companies will not get
this loan directly; rather, it will go directly to the employees' bank accounts.There is another loan
facility for local companies at an interest rate of 4 per cent under the small- and medium-sized
enterprise category. Already some banks have assured BASIS that they will give loans to its
members of up to Tk 1 crore without collateral. This will be a short-time solution for many
companies, but if the crisis continues for more than three months, then it will be not enough.The
companies will need more support at that time to sustain. Besides, the government has a plan to
implement more than 2,600 e-Governance service in the next few years.The procurement of
these services should also be made faster. Rather than giving one project to one company, joint
venture companies should be given preferences so that many more companies can get work from
the government, which will increase the capacity of many companies as well.

In a nutshell, it can be summarised that the main mandate of the present government by which
they came into power back in 2008 is to digitalise Bangladesh by 2021 and a developed country
by 2041.It's the IT and IT-enabled service (ITES) companies that will be the main partner of the
government in materializing the vision of Digital Bangladesh. No doubt that all the sectors have
been affected due to the storm of coronavirus and asking for support from the government. But
the government should give special emphasis on the IT and ITES companies. If they can't
survive due to the storm of coronavirus, who will build Digital Bangladesh? If the government
can back up the software companies for the next six to 12 months, I can guarantee you they will
give at least 10 times the return over the next decade.

Beside the general users, in Bangladesh, a number of Software Developers has been increased as
well as. Many of Computer Science and Engineering graduates form Public and private
universities as well as Computer diplomas from training institutions are getting employed to the
local software companies. As the time goes, the overall development of skill of software
developers has been increased with respect to Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a country, where the
only surplus property is the human resource. Considering the earning of foreign exchanges and
removing of unemployment problem, software industry is a very prospective field. To make this
field more profitable, several plans has been done by the government and private organizations
form past several years. Since software developers plays the key role to the software industry, so
it is very important to care about their needs and problems, to boost up their skill.

THE FIGURE OF THE PROBLEMS

After researching in Software Developers of Bangladesh, I tried to find out the figure of the
problems which are faced by the
local software developers. According to the opinions of novice and expert software developers
we can categorize their problems into three sections.
– Problems Due To Employer
– Problems Due To Client and
– Problems Due To Developers Themselves

1) Problems Due To Employer

A number of software manufacturer companies have been established in Bangladesh during past
several years. Their ultimate goal is to meet the need of local and foreign market. Many of
software developers those are employed in these companies, complained about some of their non
professional attitude to them.

• Lack of Well Management

To develop a well standard, high quality and effective software is not a silly task. In this
case according to the user requirement, with some specific calculation and analysis
worker should proceed to make the software system, so that it can gain the ultimate
satisfaction of the user perfectly. To build a software product it is required to have skillful
and experienced contribution into the fields of project management, system analysis,
software architecture, software engineering, coding, testing, debugging and
documentation. But respect to many of software companies in Bangladesh, it has been
seen that during the software development process either there is a lack of skilled person
in proper field, or the employee who is employed as a `Programmer’ has to do all the task
that is necessary to develop the software. In this case the developer suffers in a way that
neither s/he can become experienced in proper way, nor can contain the satisfactory
standard.

• Lack of Well Environment and Resources

For a software developer, environment is a very important fact that should be cared.
Comparing with Conversional official tasks and the job of a software developer is not the
same fact. To be deeply involved and concentrated on to his/her work, a developer
desires a sound and peaceful environment. Unfortunately many of software companies
are not concerned enough considering this fact. Due to the limitation of investment, they
 cannot provide proper accommodations to their employees. Beside this, due to same
reason, the developer has to take the responsibility of local network and hardware
management. Some developers complained about their basic requirement as high speed
internet, hardware accessories etc. which are not provided properly by their employer.

• Improper Salary
Since Bangladesh is a developing country, financial fact plays a very important impact
over the developers those are working here. The salary range of the developers depends
on the financial condition, investment of the employer software company. Based on my
survey onto several software manufacturer companies, a basic estimation about the salary
of the employees those are related to the development process of a software system can
be figured out as programmers with 2 years of experience get 5 thousand to 10 thousand
taka monthly, where as 5 years of experienced programmers get 15 to 25 thousand.
System analysts and software engineers get monthly 25 to 40 thousand and 25 to 60
thousand taka respectively. Most of the developers are not satisfied enough with their
salary. They desire more salary according to their service. To earn more money some of
the developers get them employed onto several companies, which results lack of proper
concentration to a specific project.

2) Problems Due To Client

• Requirement Elicitation
Maximum Software’s that are built for the local market of Bangladesh is customized
software. To produce this type of software, an important part is to elicit and analyze the
requirement of the user. Stake-holders (including paying clients, users and developers)
together form a large number and can be distributed. Form the point of view of the
positions of different types of stakeholders, their goals may vary and conflict, depending
on their perspectives of the environment in which they work and tasks they wish to
 complete. Their goals may not be explicit or may be difficult to articulate. To develop a
software system that can satisfy the overall requirement of all the stakeholders, the
conflicts and contradictions those can be arise, should be carefully removed. One of the
most important goals of requirement elicitation is to find out what problem needs to be
solved and hence identify the system boundaries. At the high level, these boundaries
define where the final delivered system will fit into the current operational system. As a
matter of fact, a high degree of coordination among the user is required.

With respect to Bangladesh, considering the development of a new software system,

developers have to suffer to elicit the need as well as the expectation of the corresponding
client. So the corresponding developer find it difficult to determine what the facilities
should have in the new system, or what should not. As matter of fact, they have to
proceed through a misty way. After an interval of time, when the developers comes near
to the finishing point of the production, then if the product doesn’t meet the client’s
satisfaction, the developers has to further go through a lengthy and complicated process.

• Money and Time

Another fact that generally arises by the local software client is money and time. To build
well engineered and efficient business software solution, a considerable amount of time
and money and time is needed, on which the local software clients are less interested. In
this case, although the corresponding software developer may have proper eligibility and
wishes to build a good product but he cannot proceed to do that. Lack of proper
awareness of the local software clients about the efficiency that is offered by information
technology, results this type of problem.

3) Problems Due To Developers Themselves

To be productive and skilled enough, a software developer should contain some sort of efficacy.
The problems that arise during the development of a software system in Bangladesh cause not
only for employer manufacturer and customers, but also for the programmer him/herself. To be
successful enough, a developer must have to be devoted enough to his/her technical education
and professional field. Many student of computer related education and training and professional
in Bangladesh has a comprehension that, learning one or two programming language somehow
will make him/her a software developer, which is a wrong idea at all, according to the opinion of
experts. Focusing on this type of comprehension of student, experienced project managers say,
this is due to not to think the software development as a long term profession. We can categorize
the causes that make developers themselves low skilled is focused below:

• Lack of In-depth Knowledge and Up-to-date Information

Considering software development as a long term profession, one should go through a
process by being up to date enough with respect to the current trend of information
technology as well as by implementing several techniques of programming languages and
development platforms with respect to real business and information world. Since a large
number of students in Bangladesh is weak in English and contains a fear to study, which
arises from conventional study of Bangladesh, very few number of developers get them
interested to be informative enough.

• Lack of Specialization
Specialization is one of the key factors to be highly skilled professional. To get more
jobs, many students related to computer education and training goes for several courses,
which ultimately makes a barrier for him/her to be specialized enough in any particular
field. If anybody wants to be a network administrator, system administrator, web
designer, graphics designer, as well as a software developer, then obviously he/she has to
be frustrated enough after an interval of time!

• Lack of Community
Very few developers in Bangladesh contain their own professional community. Forming
an own professional community and sharing ideas among them, is very effective way, to
be skilled quickly, in a particular field. Developers that face lots of problems during
project development may easily benefited by this idea.
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

A software process is a framework for the tasks that are required to build high quality software 3.
Therefore, software process defines the approach that is taken as software is engineered. It may
be an ad-hoc process devised by the team for one project. But the team often refers to a
standardized documented methodology which has been used before on similar projects or one
which is used habitually within an organization. Some managers who are held accountable for
software development may seek to find the commonalities in the efforts of their organizations. If
those managers are process oriented then they may seek methodologies or other proxies which
can serve as templates for the software development process. Another reason why software
development process is important is that a process provides organizational stability and more
control to its activity. Scott et al. 4 discusses important requirements for software process
improvement (SPI) that should be built on developed and proven SPI technologies like CMM,
SPICE, and ISO 12207. However, as these models are built actually for large companies, they
may not be appropriate for Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs), where they have short
deadlines, are dynamic projects and have tight budgets. Another paper of Kautz, Hansen and
Thaysen 5 has investigated the suitability for IDEAL model for small software enterprises,
though it was actually based on the experiences of large organizations. IDEAL model was
developed by Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University, USA (SEI). This
model, as originally conceived, was a life-cycle model for software process improvement based
upon the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) for software, and for this reason, this model uses
process improvement terms. IDEAL model defines five phases: Initiating, Diagnosing,
Establishing, Acting and Learning. The Authors implemented this model in a small Danish
company named ‘NP’ and deployment of IDEAL model took 10 weeks for them, ‘one week
initiating, three weeks diagnosing, and six weeks establishing and acting in parallel. McGuire &
McKeown 6 showed how an ISO 9001 certified company adopted CMM level 2 first and later
adopted level 3. The authors pointed that ISO 9001 had similarities with CMM level 2; however,
differences were more pronounced and profound with CMM level 3. McGuire & McKeown
placed a UK-based software company’s example in this regard and examined that it takes five
(5) steps to adopt CMM in an ISO environment, which are: 1) Establish a Software Engineering
Process Group to change the culture of the organization, 2) Perform a gap analysis between ISO
9001 practices and CMM key practices, 3) Make a plan, schedule and detail the specific tasks,
target a timeframe, 4) Provide training that address the CMM specific roles, and finally 5)
Measure the improvement. Each of the companies is following their own software development
policy and software development standard if any. Some of the companies got certified that they
are following ISO9000-1/2/3: 1994/2000 for their software development. Some of are trying to
upgrade their certification up-to CMM level. But there are no unique guidelines for software
development for all companies as well as for the nation so that each of the software developer
can follow the unique standard guidelines throughout the country. These rules of software
development come through the software development life cycle (SDLC). To develop
international standard software, it is important to know the SDLC.

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION

It’s a very hopeful fact that, many of government and private organizations in Bangladesh
starting to make their organizations computerized, which results expansion of local software
market here. As well as, many working field is going to be created in software development
arena through software outsourcing and export to the foreign countries. As Bangladesh suffers
unemployment problem and shortage of foreign exchange, software industry, however, is one of
good solutions. To be actually benefited enough through software industry, a careful view should
be given to existing and coming software developers of Bangladesh. Timely awareness by
private organizations, local government and the developers themselves, according to these issues
will certainly broaden the way of development of Information and Communication Technology
in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh poses some advantages regarding software development, which is very important to
compete in global arena. One of them is low labor cost. Tjia 10 reports that cost per programmer
is much lower in Bangladesh, which is more than 50% including overhead compared to India.
High programmer productivity and wide spread of English have significant influence in software
industry of Bangladesh. According to our survey 54% of the workforces are graduates from non-
IT subjects and diploma/certificate courses in IT. Generally, they are trained in professional IT
courses from different internationally recognized IT institutions established in Bangladesh. This
justifies the analytical and technological ability of Bangladeshi people. With this competency,
Bangladeshi software companies have to exploit the advantages of having no major cultural
differences with other client countries as have reflected so far. Software process and process
improvement is the key to success for a software company in software business. Without a
process, a software organization is not capable of producing high quality software. Without
defined and measured software process, a software company fails to determine its business goal.
Software companies of Bangladesh are facing the problem of adaptation of specific software
process model. Our research has identified some problems. These are lack in target set for
software process and improvement, lack in involvement of quality control activities, and lack of
standard business expertise practice. This paper is a quantitative study and is based on
questionnaires and interviews of software companies’ personnel. The total amount of software
companies in Bangladesh is more than 250 if we include the software company those are not
enlisted with BASIS and we have collect data from around 50 companies. Our result does not
show the whole picture of Bangladesh. Therefore, the study is exploratory. The results are not
conclusive at this stage. A further study is needed to explore the extensive scenario of the
software development standard of Bangladesh.

REFERENCE

[1] Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), “Bangladesh

Government Policies and Guideline”, http://www.basis.org.bd , viewed 24 August, 2008.

[2] IT Report by Export Promotion Bureau of Bangladesh, http://www.epb.gov.bd/cmc.html,

viewed 24 August, 2008.

[3] Pressman, R. S., Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach, 6th International Edition,
McGraw-Hill Education, Singapore, 2005.

[4] https://omiazad.net/185 2007

[5] https://www.thedailystar.net/