The Goal of Software Development

Thousands of software development teams worldwide are engaged right now in developing widely different software applications in widely different industries. But although we work in different industries and speak and write in different languages, we all work with the same technologies, we read the same magazines, we went to the same schools , and fortunately, we have the same clear goal: to develop quality software ”on time and on budget ”that meets customers' real needs.

However, our customers are quite different. . . .

• For some of us, the customer is an external entity, purchase order in hand, whom we must convince to disregard our competitor's claims and to buy our shrink-wrapped software product because it's easier to use, has more functionality, and, in the final analysis, is just better.

• For others of us, the customer is a company that has hired us to develop its software, based on expectations that the software developed will be of the highest quality achievable given today's state of the art and will transform the company into a more competitive, more profitable organization in the marketplace .

• For others of us, the customer is sitting down the hall or downstairs or across the country, waiting anxiously for that new application to enter sales orders more efficiently or to use e-commerce for selling the company's goods and services so that the company we both work for will ultimately be more profitable and our jobs more rewarding and just more fun.

So, although our customers are varied, we can take some comfort in the fact that the goal is the same.