Stu Zweben, professor and chair of Computer and Information sciences at Ohio State University and also a CRA board member, agrees that new hardware products are becoming faster and cheaper. Adding to the turmoil, every business sector is cooking up new software application needs. Marjory S. Blumenthal, executive director of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board at the National Research Council, brings up data mining as an example of the effect software has on business growth. Wall Street, too, actively recruits electrical engineers to develop the algorithms that make trading decisions, says Lazowska. One development leads to another, creating new needs for software development.
System assurance is a major factor.
As more industries see the possibilities of software applications, they must ensure their systems are crash-proof. Denning adds designer integrity. But we also have to know that the designers who created those systems are well trained and ethical. This forces the issue of certification. Denning speculates that formal licensing is likely within the next decade.