I owe myself this article for years. Since now I am in the same shoes again, for the umpteenth time, I decided to take some time and write this. I am working in the software industry, in software consulting to be more precise. That means what I (and the companies I work at) do is building software solutions for the unique problems of our customers. These solutions are customized and expensive, made for large enterprises who have deep-enough pockets to pay for the tailor to come to the house.
But every time and again, someone in the company comes up with the idea (or we receive a grant from some innovation fund) of building some software product, that we can create once, then sell it to dozens of customers and make a lot of money. Great idea, sounds terrific, software has the lowest (zero) manufacturing cost once it is designed, after all. Selling it once or a thousand times cost the same from software development perspective. Besides, who else would be more capable of building a successful software product than a software consulting company who has a track record of developing a series of complex, cutting-edge software systems, beating technological challenges, and coming up with novel solutions for the complicated problems of their customers?
Yeah, right, that is all true, but there are some fundamental problems and challenges in this otherwise noble endeavor. I participated in and lead several such initiatives and projects by now, most of them within software consulting companies, and I failed miserably so many times. So I decided to collect, organize and put these experiences down on paper to help myself, my current company, and many others, not to commit the same mistakes as I did.
Continue reading “How NOT to Develop an Innovative Software Product”
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