Delivering Working Software is not Enough
originally published June 11th, 2024- Business Needs Evolve
- Successful Software Empowers Business Evolution
- Examples of Behavioral Changes
- We’re not Shipping Functions. We’re implementing Strategy.
“What properties must software have in order to empower a business?"
Shipping functionality is not our only responsibility.
Business Needs Evolve
The only constant is change.
- Businesses do not have complete and perfect understanding of their environment and their environments change.
- They lean and adjust their strategy according to new insights.
- They seek to exploit opportunities, which often require quick adjustments.
Successful Software Empowers Business Evolution
If a business can’t change quickly enough, it may lose opportunity. Many businesses fail for this reason.
Successful business software is functional delivery on a time scale that empowers the business to exploit opportunities. If we can deliver fast enough, the business can become more ambitious about how it reacts to the market. Slow development means fewer adaptations.
Businesses rely on timely changes to behavior.
Examples of Behavioral Changes
- The initial delivery of software.
- Changing behavior in existing software.
- Killing off software or replacing it.
We’re not Shipping Functions. We’re implementing Strategy.
The purpose of business software is to support business strategy.
Only once we realize that delivering functioning software is not enough, can we begin to assess the trade-offs necessary to deliver successful business software.
We must consider our approaches, principles, and tools and determine if they’re empowering us to react and deliver quickly enough.