Three stages of growth.
Adrian Bridgwater
Organizations buy, build, bolster and break down their IT stacks. It’s a cyclical process that quite naturally gives rise to what developer-programmers and systems architects refer to as the software development lifecycle, typically shortened to SDLC as it is.
If the buy, build, bolster (by which we mean augment, extend and finesse the functionality of) an IT stack is quite an organic process, then although natural attrition will always occur, if CIO’s can reduce the amount of software code break-down passing under their purview, then they may be able to maximize Return on Investment (ROI).
This is not an argument for or against legacy software; some applications and data will become archaic, anachronistic or just simply outdated as a result of all platform progression at the highest level. Some digital assets have to retire, we know that, they had a good life, let’s move on.
Three core stages of software
What this is an argument for is a more lifecycle-centric view of software development i.e. one that has a more inherent appreciation for all three core stages of software’s life and existence from initial prototyping & testing to live production & deployment and ultimately onto legacy retirement and maintenance. Yes, it’s true, we can break down to the software development lifecycle into smaller granular chunks and tiers than that, but the before, during and after phase is enough for now.
Being able to work across all three phases cost-effectively, with functional excellence and inside an environment that still delivers robust secure enterprise apps is tough. Karthik Balasubramanian says we need to think about an approach he calls ‘intelligent sustained engineering’ as a route forward.
In his role as senior vice president for technology in the high-tech and independent software division at digital product engineering and IT modernization company Persistent Systems, Balasubramanian is aware that people are drawn to the new and shiny.
“When we think about engineering and software development, our minds are drawn to the newest, innovative and most exciting examples. This is the kind of [software and hardware] engineering that leads to the release of new generations of smartphones, new cars fueled by renewable energy and Artificial Intelligence (AI) that solves complex problems. We are naturally drawn to the work that breaks new ground, creating the tools and technologies that will make our lives easier or more interesting,” said Balasubramanian.
Of course, it’s important to remember that working on the new and shiny elements of an enterprise software stack represents only a fraction of the digital engineering for which a company is responsible. At any one moment, engineers and developers must work on at least three (above suggested) versions of their product.
Beta buzz delivers no dough
Balasubramanian warns that however exciting the future, exciting, to-be-released product sounds, this work is only used and appreciated by a few beta users. After all, during development, the future version drives no revenue for the company while carrying substantial research and development costs.
“Software engineers must also support the present version of their product i.e. the generation that they have most recently released to their organization’s users. The present version will typically comprise a large portion of the company’s customer base, so engineers must keep …….