Purpose of survey
MSIA members have raised concerns that the Department of Health and Aged Care (the Department), Services Australia and ADHA issue a high rate of demands for unpaid software development. The MSIA development roadmap provides a snapshot including some of this current work. See more.
The Problem
The problem with government-imposed mandates for free software development is that the costs are borne by others, namely shareholders, staff, and even other customers. It can diminish a company’s scope for innovation and/or unfairly reduce profitability.
The extent of this problem can be captured in the metric used more widely to assess productivity levels in the economy. See more.
To ensure we only collect highly relevant data, we have designed a survey that is simple, short yet will yield powerful insights.
As such, in the MSIA survey we are seeking to gather three important statistics from each member:
1. Total $1 sales for your business (EOFY 2023 and/or 2024).
2. Total number of hours worked over one month, (we will extrapolate for the year)
3. Total number of hours worked on unpaid government mandated software development in 2023 and/or 2024, and how the hours would otherwise be used, for example commercial reasons including innovation and product development, customer roadmap etc. Perhaps a combination.
We recognise that estimating number 3 is not simple.
It may require an educated guess, but the more science and reasoning behind the estimate the better. One conceptual problem is that some government free mandated work may well have been undertaken by the business even in the absence of a government mandate.
We recognise that estimating number 3 is not simple.
It may require an educated guess, but the more science and reasoning behind the estimate the better. One conceptual problem is that some government free mandated work may well have been undertaken by the business even in the absence of a government mandate.