PSIA was organized as the Philippine Software Association in 1988. Its main purpose then was to organize the Philippine software industry and help member organizations achieve their business objectives.

Since its inception, it has been involved in several missions to sell the Philippines as the preferred choice for software development services. PSA (now PSIA) has worked with the government in developing policies to make the Philippines competitive in the software development services market worldwide.

PSIA is recognized by government and other external parties as the representative of the software industry in the country.