Becoming a Software Company

There is a call to action reverberating in company boardrooms, earnings calls, technology conferences, and IT departments: every company should be a software company. The call makes intuitive sense. Software, when done right, creates infinite business leverage. It is not a coincidence that 7 out of 10 largest companies in the world are software companies. But how does a company become a software company? This book will help enterprises transform into a software company. The software-driven future that Marc Andreessen predicted in his now-famous 2011 essay is here but unevenly distributed. While enterprises, and teams within, grasp the software technologies, they lack the context to leverage them — much less understand the fundamental principles that drive the business value from software: What is the real essence of the software-based transformation? If every enterprise is implementing the same technologies, what is the sourceof differentiation? How do you manage the inherent complexity of software such that it doesn't destroy software's value? How do you build and nurture talent so that it is empowered to create the best solutions for your customers' problems? This book will answer all of that and more. The boundary between enterprise and consumer software is rapidly blurring. IEEE reports that 40% of the cost of a new car comes from software . Elsewhere, software is becoming synonymous with medical devices and therapeutics . FinTech and EdTech trends are primarily about personalization through software at an internet-scale. The struggling enterprises are up against it. They have no choice but to figure out how to ship consumer-grade software. It is an existential problem for them. This book compiles the timeless principles of building good software, yet often disregarded while building and deploying software products for enterprises. What You'll Learn Leverage people to build creative software solutions Manage development complexity so that we keep software focused on user problems Understand software technology as a means of producing value Who This Book Is For Enterprise Executive Management, Enterprise IT Management Professionals, Software Practitioners within Enterprise