IBM dismisses software as 'a cottage industry'

Software development is no better than a "cottage industry" that fails to serve the needs of business, according to IBM. John Swainson, Big Blue's software group general manager, warns that software design is behind the times, is produced ad hoc and is too "artistic".

"Software has not evolved as far or as fast as hardware. It's still a cottage industry. Getting it out of being an art form and into the 21st century would be a good thing," he said.

Swainson adds that programmers are entrenched in legacy technologies and require structured working practices: "Human beings get locked into the paradigm they were using last."

Swainson was speaking at Rational Software's annual user conference in Denver, Colorado. IBM is a key hosting partner of Rational, a developer of tools that allow companies to build, test and model ebusiness applications.

Michael Devlin, chief executive of Rational, is sanguine about IBM's criticism. "Our competitor is not another software company, but the immaturity of the industry," he said. "You can't have nuclear missiles where the software is unreliable."

Devlin adds that general business applications are less mature than embedded systems.