The Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) has joined Software Center as a new partner. The partnership further strengthens the collaboration between academia, industry, and the public sector in advancing software engineering.
“We’re very happy to join Software Center as I think it’s a unique forum for transferring knowledge within the software intensive sphere”, says Hannes Salin, Head of Department Digitalization and Road Systems and CTO Lead for Software Engineering at the Information and Communication Technology Division of Trafikverket.
As one of Sweden’s largest public authorities responsible for the national transport infrastructure, Trafikverket will bring new perspectives on large-scale software development, compliance, and digital transformation within critical public systems.
“We’re delighted to welcome Trafikverket as a partner. They bring valuable experience from operating large-scale, safety-critical systems in a highly regulated environment. At the same time, the collaboration gives them access to new research insights and practices around topics like AI-driven development, scalable organizations, and modern software engineering”, says Jan Bosch, Director of Software Center.
Key challenges include AI paradigm shift and compliance
One of the key challenges in software engineering Trafikverket sees ahead is the rapid development of AI and its impact on software engineering. AI represents a broader paradigm shift that will affect how software is developed, how teams work, and how organizations structure their development processes.
“AI is changing the way we think about software engineering. We are exploring what it means for our development teams and how we can adopt these technologies responsibly and effectively. We have initiated several AI-related strategies, but we’re still in an exploratory phase when it comes to applying it in software development”, says Hannes Salin.
As a government authority, Trafikverket must also navigate a complex regulatory environment while continuing to innovate. Compliance requirements related to cybersecurity, national regulations, and operational reliability are deeply integrated into the organization’s software development processes.
“In our environment, compliance and security are always part of software development. We need to meet strict requirements related to cybersecurity and regulatory frameworks while still moving forward with new technologies,” says Salin.
Learning from others and contributing to research
For Trafikverket, joining Software Center is an opportunity to expand collaboration beyond the public sector and build a stronger network within software engineering. Salin highlights knowledge exchange with other organizations as one of the most important benefits of the partnership.
“We want to learn from organizations that have come far in their software development practices and share our own experiences. The network aspect of Software Center is very valuable for us. Joining also allows us to connect more directly with innovation and research in software engineering, which gives us new opportunities to apply research results in our own organization. That kind of structured collaboration is essential if we want to address the challenges of modern software engineering,” says Salin.