Initiatives

The ultimate goal of software development is business problem-solving.

Due to the digital nature of hyperconnectivity and interdependence, software applications will become more interrelated as we move to a world of systems-of-systems in which constraints govern how and what we develop. The ultimate goal of software app development is business problem-solving for either delighting customers or engaging employees to generate business value ultimately.

Don’t let enthusiasm cloud judgment: Every software development initiative has a business purpose. It is to implement the business goals, market needs, speedy time to market strategies, increase business value through improved stakeholder collaboration. Thus, all software solutions meet the customers’ criteria and clarify their concerns such as, what the users need it to do, the way they want to do it quickly and accurately enough. Build the right thing and build it right – though the context can vary with the balance. Technically, you need to check-up: Isn’t the initiative worth doing provided the value exceeds the cost by a sufficient amount? Is it safe enough, secure enough, cost effective economically; and when they want it changed, can it be quick and easy to change?

Recognize the importance of working closely with the application end users: A major part of creating a user interface that is natural and intuitive is to make common system controls consistent throughout the software development cycle, enforcing the "Intuition + Evidence-Based" design to focus on valuable - the feature has some value on its own to the customer. A feature that the customer would never use has no value. A feature that a customer might use, but that doesn't do anything useful probably has no value. To improve software development productivity and maturity, resources, tools, and environments that programmers use will become more powerful, easy-to-use, and knowledge-base.

Invest time and effort that all parties put into building a strong business initiatives portfolio: Part of the problem is that a single application may not be the best concept to build portfolio management around. More and more new applications, or new versions of existing applications will be delivered on software as a service models by leveraging agile practices. The software design team must transform from being agilists into being "product people" if you want to deliver better business value. Modern software management with embedded data analytics features will empower the software team with the effective tools, resources and best practices to produce high performance results. The goal is to improve the “health” of software initiatives, trending the well-defined metrics to see how you're managing rework, defects, automation, documentation and customer satisfaction.

The ultimate goal of software development is business problem-solving. It takes more creative and analytical thinking, and talented people to be a fantastic problem-solver by delivering quality software solutions to delight customers and creating business value.

Posted in: Project Management,Quality