By Vivian Yeo
Monday, June 09 2008 03:17 PM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62042395,00.htm

update Revenue loss has been polled as more of a potential disaster than increased vulnerability, if applications and software services are not tracked or managed properly, according to a recent survey.

The survey by PreEmptive Solutions found that 59 percent of respondents ranked revenue loss as the biggest potential disaster resulting from a lack of control in applications. PreEmptive Solutions provides programs that protect the integrity of code written for Java and .NET applications, as well as intelligence tools for the application lifecycle.

A close second "disaster" was increased security risks--56 percent of those surveyed said the failure to address application issues would likely result in this catastrophe.

Conducted last month, the survey drew respondents from 244 application development organizations in various industries. Most of the participants were software developers, but there were also architects, product managers, IT directors and business managers, a PreEmptive spokesperson told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail.

About 15 percent of these organizations are based in the Asia-Pacific region. The region's participants came from Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

"There are a number of risks impacting application development, and we found it interesting that the potential loss of revenue is more of an issue today than security risk," said Gabriel Torok, president of PreEmptive Solutions, in a company statement. "Clearly, it's a sign of the economic times and increasingly competitive markets."

Fifty-four percent said the gaps in governance and compliance was also a potential disaster, while 52 percent indicated that operational disruption was another major risk.

Industry observers told ZDNet Asia they were not surprised at the results.

Matthew Gyde, general manager for security at Datacraft Asia, said in an e-mail: "Organizational concerns today are all about driving larger revenues in order to meet market expectations, [satisfying investors] and grabbing larger market share."

Gyde, however, pointed out that companies need to accord increased security risk greater attention, as "it is an overarching risk which when compromised, will lead to revenue loss, operational disruption as well as material gaps in effective governance, risk and compliance management".

Aaron Tan Dani, Asia-Pacific president at the International Association of Software Architects (IASA), noted that the survey results reflected the "reality of the software development landscape that most of IT projects today are over-run, over-budget and 'under-featured', especially the medium- to large-sized projects."

According to Tan Dani, to better manage the application development process, companies need to look at various facets. They include:

•  Enterprise architecture--policies, guidelines and technology choices that are relevant to the business in achieving business goals, technical standardization and enterprise integration;
•  IT architects--they specialize in designing the software, and also assist the project manager to identify skill sets required, pin down a more accurate delivery timeframe, and prioritize features and tasks; and
•  IT governance--clear and consistent methodologies for roles, responsibilities, accountability and decision making for effective IT operations.