If you're a software developer like I am you've probably noticed over the past decade or so a major problem in the commercial software industry: product development schedules keep getting shorter and shorter, yet companies want software products delivered at an ever faster pace with ever-increasing quality and usually with fewer and fewer people working on them. Meanwhile software projects and companies are failing at a rate higher than ever before. Silicon Valley is still in the worst shape ever with no real turnaround in sight. Anyone who has been in software for more than ten years can remember better times when it wasn't always like this. What happened?
This article identifies the major key factors that have led to this mess and then explores what can be done to correct the situation. To begin let's summarize the list of problems and then delve into each in more detail to explore the problems and some solutions.
Here's the list:
1) The traditional alpha-beta-GM cycle no longer works for today's software projects.
2) The focus in software has shifted from creativity to money.
3) Open Source software cheapens software and destroys value.
4) The senior people who built Silicon Valley have been ejected in favor of cheaper imported labor and as a result SIlicon Valley has lost its institutional knowledge and experience.
5) Corporate and executive greed leading to myopia.
Now let's examine each in detail:
1) The traditional alpha-beta-GM cycle no longer works for today's software projects.
2) The focus in software has shifted from creativity to money.
3) Open Source software cheapens software and destroys value.
4) The senior people who built Silicon Valley have been ejected in favor of cheaper imported labor and as a result SIlicon Valley has lost its institutional knowledge and experience.
5) Corporate and executive greed leading to myopia.
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