Managing Software for Growth: Without Fear, Control, and the Manufacturing Mindset

Conception

I think software project ideas ought to come from one of two sources:

• Conversations with existing customers

• Conversations with potential customers

Periodically, business decision-makers ought to have informal brainstorming sessions with their customers (that is, potential software users). These could be internal or external to the company. These conversations should help business decision-makers figure out unmet software needs.

Nobody should make software unless somebody somewhere needs it. If somebody needs it, there's a business reason to have it. Whether that business reason is good enough to justify committing budget to it is another matter that has to come from another conversation, this time with the idea that it may turn into ...