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History

Faculty of Engineering
The JCSE is an intiative between government, industry and academia and was initially located at the School of Electrical and Information Engineering.
The Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) was launched in May 2005 by the City of Johannesburg, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and a number of industry players.

Supporting the Joburg 2030 vision to improve the city’s economic growth, the JCSE was founded on the principles of stimulating growth, increasing employment, and encouraging a more competitive Information Communication and Technology (ICT) sector.

A group of almost twenty companies partnered with the City to contribute over R5 million to open the centre and fund it for the first year.

From the beginning, the JCSE set out to become the nucleus for software development on the continent, promoting best practise, tools and methodologies and blending them with Professional experience from the sector to grow South Africa’s ability to deliver world class software through research and training initiatives.

In 2006, the centre was made the first official partner in Africa of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), which is situated at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in the USA. It partnered with the SEI to bring Capability Maturity Model Integration ( CMMI) to South Africa and launched a two year pilot taking several companies through the CMMI process.

The JCSE has also been a centre of learning, offering numerous courses including a continual Professional development course, a Chief Information Officer (CIO) Practice Professional Certificate and the opportunity to attain post graduate qualifications through Wits University including two Master of Engineering (MEng) programmes in Software Engineering and Telecommunications Engineering.

The JCSE then went on to launch the Linux Centre of Competency in partnership with IBM in 2005, the Microsoft Technology Enablement Centre using .Net technology and the Wits Convergence Lab in partnership with Vodacom, Telkom and Siemens Telecommunications. These teaching, testing and research environments allow companies allow companies to test proof of concept projects in a laboratory environment.

Furthermore the JCSE has launched a Pre-incubation facility where small start-up companies can develop products, receive business coaching and utilise office space and resources.

In 2007, the JCSE deepened its relationship with the SEI, launching additional CMMI related courses and began expanding its CMMI pilot to include more companies.