Professional Issues in Software Engineering: The Perspective of Uganda

Abstract

The research paper is dedicated to investigating legal and professional issues in Uganda’s software
engineering industry. The paper reflects on academic perspectives on the issue and the lack of relevant academic
publications that overview the causality behind the software engineering problems in Uganda. The limited
amount of literature on the topic that does exist presents a roadmap to solve the challenges potentially. The
overview of the software engineering industry of Uganda is presented. Professional issues that are discussed in
the paper include not conducting Requirements Engineering Process Improvement, low quality of practical
software engineering education in the universities, lack of adherence to international standards, poor career
development, and engineers focusing on seeking foreign jobs. Legal issues include a lack of implementation of
the relevant law, multi-sector corruption, and the challenges related to the ease of doing business. The research
concludes that the multi-dimensional approach that involves the state, academia, and companies has to be used to
solve the underlying issues.