Abstract:
Software industry is a growing industry in Sri Lanka in the recent decades. It brings more
foreign currency to Sri Lanka and provides more employment opportunities to the
graduates who pass out from universities. As Sri Lanka has a highly skilled and talented
workforce, Sri Lankan software companies would be able to compete with the global
software companies to provide sophisticated software products necessary for the global
market. That is, the development of the software industry would be able to bring more
benefits to the Sri Lankan economy.
This research investigates the software industry developmental trends in Sri Lanka. There
are five independent variables, three intervening variables and one dependent variable
identified in the context. They are namely: software industry related investments,
software industry related recruitments, the number of students passed out from
universities, software policy, domestic software industry development, revenue earned
from software exports, economic conditions of the country, global software industry
constraints and software industry development. Considering some of the relationships
between these variables three hypothesis were developed to predict the future of the
software industry in Sri Lanka. Also, statistical data analysis using SPSS and Minitab
software packages was used to forecast the development of software industry related
investments, software industry related recruitments and the number of ICT graduates
passed out from universities. This was useful in determining the development of the
factors that affected in developing the software industry in Sri Lanka.
According to the research, there would be a higher development in software industry in
Sri Lanka in the future. Therefore, the government of Sri Lanka should plan for the future
of the software industry focusing the factors that have mainly affected in developing the
software industry.