Indian IT industry overview Information Technology is one of the most important industries in the Indian economy.

The IT industry of India has registered huge growth in recent years. India's IT industry grew from 150 million US Dollars in 19901991 to a whopping 50 billion UD Dollars in 2006-2007. In the last ten years the Information Technology industry in India has grown at an average annual rate of 30%.
The liberalization of the Indian economy in the early nineties has played a major role in the growth of the IT industry of India. Deregulation policies adopted by the Government of India have led to substantial domestic investment and inflow of foreign capital to this industry. In 1970, high import duties had forced IBM to leave India. However, after the early nineties, many multi national IT companies, including IBM, have set up their operations in India. During the ten year period 19922002, the Indian software industry grew at double the rate as the US software industry. Some of the major reasons for the significant growth of the IT industry of India are -

Abundant availability of skilled manpower Reduced telecommunication and internet costs Reduced import duties on software and hardware products Cost advantages Encouraging government policies Some of the major companies in the IT industry of India are -

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Infosys Wipro IBM HP HCL Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) Patni Satyam NIIT India's IT industry caters to both domestic and export markets. Exports contribute around 75% of the total revenue of the IT industry in India. The IT industry can be broadly divided into four segments -

IT services Softwares (includes both engineering and Research and Development) ITES-BPO Hardware HR Software Cost effective payroll and HR software solutions from KCS.

Growth of India's IT Industry

India's IT industry has recorded phenomenal growth over the last decade. During the period from 1992-2001, the compounded annual growth rate of the Indian IT services industry has been over 50%. The software sector in India has grown at almost double the rate of the US software sector. The statistics of the India's IT industry substantiates the huge momentum acquired by the IT sector in the recent past. During the financial year 20002001, the software industry in India accounted for $8.26 billion. The corresponding figure was $100 million 10 years back. As per the report of a study undertaken by NASSCOM-McKinsey, the software export from Indian IT industry is likely to reach 50 billion US dollars in the year 2008. This growth rate of the software sector for the year 2008 has been projected on the basis of the 35% per year growth rate achieved in the last couple of years. Export of software and services from India is expected to add almost 41 billion US dollars to the annual revenue of the Indian government in the current year. The share of technology industry in India's GDP is expected to reach 5.5% in 2008; while the corresponding figure in 1998 was as small as 1.2%.The study of NASSCOM has revealed that the growth of India's IT industry has prompted the growth of Indian exports by almost 36%. Another favorable effect of India's IT boom is the expansion of opportunities of employment. By the end of fiscal year 2008, the IT sector of India is expected to employ around 2 million skilled Indian youths. The growth of India's IT sector has brought about many other positive changes in the Indian economy. The purchasing power of a large section of Indian population has increased dramatically. This has resulted in an increase in the average standard of living of the majority of population of the country. The increase in purchasing power of the common people has propelled the growth rate of the other sectors of the economy as well. There has been considerable increase in the amount of fund available for

venture capitalism and equity financing. India is now home to a number of IT giants. The operations of IT firms like Wipro, Infosys, Accenture, Capgemini, Tata Consultancy Services and many more in different locations of India have changed the entire scenario of the Indian job market. The ITES sector has also come up to complement the growth of Indian IT sector.

Size of Indias IT Industry

The size of India's IT industry has grown significantly over the years. The size of this sunshine industry of India grew from 150 million US Dollars to 50 billion US Dollars between 1990-1991 and 2006-2007. The growth of the IT industry has been very high in the last few years. The size of the Information Technology industry of India was 5.7 billion US Dollars in 1999-2000. After the turn of the century the industry experienced exponential growth to reach the 50 billion mark by 2006-2007.

The size of the IT industry grew consistently during the period - 1995-2000 1995-1996 - 1224 million US Dollars 1996-1997 - 1755 million US Dollars 1997-1998 - 2670 million US Dollars 1998-1999 - 3900 million US Dollars 1999- 2000 - 5700 million US Dollars 2000-2001 - 8750 million US Dollars According to the NASSCOM- McKinsey report on the IT industry of India, the projected revenue of the IT industry of India for the year 2008 is 87 billion US Dollars. The projected exports or the year 2008, accord to this report, is 50 billion US Dollars. Some of the important aspects of the NASSCOM- McKinsey report related to the size of India's IT industry are -

There is potential of 2.2 million people being employed in the IT industry of India by the end of 2008. Contribution of software and services to the total GDP of India will be more than 7.5%.

FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) of 4.5 billion US Dollars expected in the IT industry by the end of 2008. 35% of total exports from India will be from IT exports. 225 billion US Dollars worth of market capitalization from IT shares. Softwares and services are exported to bout 95 companies from India. North America accounts for 61% of the software exports from India. The projections about the size of India's IT industry present a very optimistic picture. The industry is expected to grow to double its current size by the year 2012. India's IT industry is expected to grow at an annual average rate of 18% in the next five years. The industry is also expected to cross the 100 billion US Dollar mark by 2011. One of the major areas of growth for the IT industry of India is by tapping the potential in the domestic market. The IT industry of India is largely dependant on the export market. Penetrating more into the domestic market would create further opportunities of growth for the IT industry.

Contribution of India's IT Industry to Economic Progress

The contribution of India's IT industry to economic progress has been quite significant. The rapidly expanding socio-economic infrastructure has proved to be of great use in supporting the growth of Indian information technology industry. The flourishing Indian economy has helped the IT sector to maintain its competitiveness in the global market. The IT and IT enabled services industry in India has recorded a growth rate of 22.4% in the last fiscal year. The total revenue from this sector was valued at 2.46 trillion Indian rupees in the fiscal year 2007. Out of this figure, the domestic IT market in India accounted for 900 billion rupees. So, the IT sector in India has played a major role in drawing foreign funds into the domestic market.

The growth and prosperity of India's IT industry depends on some crucial factors. These factors are as follows:

India is home to a large number of IT professionals, who have the necessary skill and expertise to meet the demands and expectations of the global IT industry. The cost of skilled Indian workforce is reasonably low compared to the developed nations. This makes the Indian IT services highly cost efficient and this is also the reason as to why

the IT enabled services like business process outsourcing and knowledge process outsourcing have expanded significantly in the Indian job market. India has a huge pool of English-speaking IT professionals. This is why the Englishspeaking countries like the US and the UK depend on the Indian IT industry for outsourcing their business processes. The emergence of Indian information technology sector has brought about sea changes in the Indian job market. The IT sector of India offers a host of opportunities of employment. With IT biggies like Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Accenture and several other IT firms operating in some of the major Indian cities, there is no dearth of job opportunities for the Indian software professionals. The IT enabled sector of India absorbs a large number of graduates from general stream in the BPO and KPO firms. All these have solved the unemployment problem of India to a great extent. The average purchasing power of the common people of India has improved substantially. The consumption spending has recorded an all-time high. The aggregate demand has increased as a result. All these have improved the gross production of goods and services in the Indian economy. So in conclusion it can be said that the growth of India's IT industry has been instrumental in facilitating the economic progress of India.

Future prospects of IT industry The current scenario in the IT industry of India and the tremendous growth registered in recent years has generated much optimism about the future of the Indian Information technology industry. Analysts are upbeat about the huge potential of growth in the Information Technology industry in India.

The major areas of benefit that the future growth in the IT industry can generate for the Indian economy are -

Exports - The IT industry accounts for a major share in the exports from India. This is expected to grow further in coming years. The information technology industry is one of the major sources of foreign currency or India. Employment - The biggest benefit of the IT industry is the huge employment it generates. For a developing country like India, with a huge population, the high rate of employment in the IT sector is a big advantage. The IT industry is expected to generate employment of 2.2 million by the end of 2008 which is expected to increase significantly in coming years. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) - High inflow of FDI in the IT sector is expected to continue in coming years. The inflow of huge volumes of FDI in the IT industry of India has not only boosted the industry but the entire Indian economy in recent years. The Nasscom- McKinsey report on the IT industry of India projects that the Indian IT

industry will reach 87 billion US Dollars by the end of 2008. 2.2 million Employment is expected to be created in the IT industry according to this report. The report also projects 50 billion US Dollars of IT exports from India by the end of 2008. Software exports from India are expected to grow in coming years. New markets for software exports from India have opened up in the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. The reputation that India has earned as a major destination for IT outsourcing has opened further possibilities. Many developing countries are now using the Indian model for growth in the IT sector. Another important area of future growth for the IT industry of India is the domestic market. While exports dominate the IT industry at present, there is huge scope of growth in the domestic market which can be tapped in the future. The US recession has had its share of negative impacts on the Indian IT industry. However, the industry has faced the challenges posed by the global market and is sustaining its rate of growth. The focus for the future is to ensure that the benefits of the IT industry percolate to the grassroot levels.

Gap Analysis For software development in IT industry

In a Successful Software System Development there are two important constituencies, users and customers, and their needs play a central and continuous role in the system development life cycle (SDLC) .The User / Customer Needs the Gap model was developed in a commercial setting to complement a traditional SDLC and address these issues. Use of the gap model yields some interesting insights regarding the management of system development; in many cases, companies overinvest in managing certain gaps and under-invest in others. USER/CUSTOMER-CENTRIC MODEL FOR SOFTWARE QUALITY:It is generally accepted that quality is experienced by the customer as a high level of satisfaction with the product. This is driven by the presence of features that fulfill customer needs and the absence of defects that interfere with the fulfillment of needs. The User/ Customer-centric Model is developed to deploy the system solutions that meet the business requirements of the customer and it work as per the user requirements and this basically keeps the user and customer focus on all phases of SDLC .The SDLC model basically starts and ends with the user/customer needs and it helps in understanding the frequent verification needs particularly during the long life cycle and in this model(or Software solution) the Customer has the opportunity to reflect the problem directly to the management or the executives who are in direct operational role and the business results that are delivered by the deployed solution and most critical for the customer satisfaction.

GAP ANALYSIS IN THE USER/CUSTOMER NEEDS SPACE In the early phases of the SDLC or in the developing the business case and performing the systems analysis, attempt to uncover few sets of user needs. The assessment and the needs that are collect and which fails in not capturing the real needs of the users/customers as there is not enough time, budget, and also there are not perfect tools, to capture these real needs completely and precise, there is an assessment gap between the real needs of the users and the assessed needs and these are two different points in the user/customer needs space i.e. Assessment gap = Real needs at assessment - Assessed needs The need that changes over the time and varies due to external and internal factors affecting the business this is figured out as time gap which is the gap between real need at the time of assessment and the real needs at the time of deployment. Time gap = Real needs at deployment - Real needs at assessment And at the completion of development process and when the solution is deployed .The Difference between the needs which are captured during the assessment and the needs which are deployed during the solution is called implementation gap. Implementation gap = Assessed needs - Deployed needs The gap results between the deployed needs highlighted in the solution and the real needs at the time of deployment (which was previously mentioned during assessments). This gap is determined by assessments gap, implementation gap and Time gap. But the impact also depends on the solution, weather the solution is as per the real needs i.e. the User/ Customer acceptance region. Deployment gap = Real needs at deployment - Deployed needs = Assessment gap + Implementation gap + Time gap

Overview
The difference between the study of two distinct information system or applications is called Gap Analysis. Its the space between where you are and what you want to be .Gap analysis is also defined as the difference between what are the needs and what is available .Gap Analysis is the studying the difference between the standards and delivery standards . For Example: - In a Firm the Document is prepared between the customer Expectation and the Customer Experiences at the Time of Delivery. The Difference between the Expectation and the Experience is known and Gap, and once the gap is analyzed the game plan is to focus on the reduce the gap and move towards the expected result.

Benefits of planning by gap analysis

Planning by gap analysis allows the development to adapt a general life cycle, the life cycle for project management in the specific company. This adaptation results in these benefits: It maximizes the benefits to the organization. It ensures that the benefits desired by executives and managers are the goals of the PMO. It ensures that current problems or issues are defined and resolved. It ensures that the PMOs goals and plans are feasible. It improves the effectiveness and efficiency of the project management throughout the organization. BALANCED GAP MANAGEMENT The key to delivering a solution that is within the user/customer acceptance region are:To ensure that all gaps are small and, to the extent possible To increase the acceptance area. For example, a very common measure for projects is the number of defects found per thousand lines of code. This is essentially managing the implementation gap, if defects are defined as deviations from requirements (assessed needs). If a development team (or software services company) focuses solely on improvements in this measure and doesn't measure and improve the other gaps, the defect measure may keep improving but actual system acceptance may remain low due to the size of the other gaps. The Formal SDLC and Project Management Methodology that includes Level2 CMM Capability and Adherence to this methodology allows company to build a system that is closely matched to assessed requirements and thus helps in providing strong management to the Implementation gaps .For example Big Commercial business , Government Agencies and the System Solution Provides etc.. Although these organizations have sound methodology and software development activities and this results in the realization of better management of the assessments gap that was needed .This Organization is focused on time and resources on the assessment phases of the projects .The requirement which mainly focus on the User's needs was also enhanced with the user-oriented scenarios of user and for this user should be more directly engaged in the assessment process. Previously the average length of the project was nine to twelve month but the changes in the assessment and the time gap produced and a more balanced gap management helps in reducing the development cycle to six month or to less duration. Steps involved in the implementation of gap analysis are: Identification of customer expectations Identification of customer experiences Identification of management perceptions Evaluation of service standards Evaluation of customer communications Customer expectations and experience is identified by Focus-Group Interviews. Typically a group of customers(Maximum Ten) Where interviewed on their satisfaction with service or products .This process helps in measuring experience and expectation and this process usually helps in successfully identification of those

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

service and product attributes that hold Importantance.Focus-Group Interviews and measure the expectations and Experience of the customer and they present on the scale of one to ten as one denotes " Not important " and ten denotes " Highly Important ".Gap can be identified with Customer Expectation and Experience and after identifying this gaps the management has to take some appropriate step to fill this gaps . An Example of CMM Gap Analysis CMM Gap analysis is a tool that is used to improve the processes in software development and engineering process companies .In CMM gap analysis the focus is to identify what stakeholders must do to comply with the CMM specification and what a developer must tweak in their day-to-day activities to improve the certain skill sets. Identification The capability maturity model (CMM) is an improvement methodology that is used by software companies to analyze their process development and the CMM gap analysis is helps the system to meet CMM improvement standards. Function CMM establishes a maturity path of continuous process improvement for an organization. This maturity path is as follows:Increasingly maturing milestones or quality standards. During Development the analysis of the gap between the current performance level and the desired performance level according to the capability maturity model. Application If the Company is performing at different level in the specified time and according to CMM Model then CMM Gap analysis helps to determine the Gap between the two levels and this helps company to close the gap .The Gap analysis involves in collecting of performance data and with the use of advance statistical and mathematical computations the root cause of the Gaps can be determined. REFINEMENT OF THE MODEL Though we have seen that the balanced Gap management model has proven to be useful in many ways but still there is some addition in the development of this model. The measurement of an organization's (Level of Management) gaps in some standard way can be done as follows:To develop a practical set of tools to assess how well each gap is managed in practice by a particular organization, perhaps using a standard set of measures used broadly across the industry To normalize the scores of management for each gap so that any imbalances are obvious. The most cost-effective improvement plan could be developed. CONCLUSION As we have seen the basic idea of two approaches i.e. customer-centric software development and balanced gap management are not new .The balanced Gap management in the User / customer needs space for the software development are not Explicit managed to manage the projects but the balanced gap management can be applied to SDLC methodologies because it was successfully used to improve customer satisfaction and the acceptance of the system delivery by a software company.