The Next Leap in Productivity: What Top Managers Really Need to Know about Information Technology

AFTERWORD: Let the Artisans Stick to Cheese and Microbrews

By John Sundman^[*]

^[*] John Sundman is a 30-year veteran of the software industry. He's worked at large and small companies in both Silicon Valley and Boston's fabled Route 128 corridor. His novel Acts of the Apostles (Vineyard Haven, MA: Rosalita Associates, 1999) is considered a geek underground classic.

The techniques outlined by Adam Kolawa in this book are not entirely novel. The idea of creating reusable blocks of software recalls the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, in which the basic concept of using standardized, inter-changeable parts in a repeatable assembly process became the foundational element of the Industrial Revolution. The quality management techniques he is promoting have been applied in other domains, notably automobile manufacturing, since the mid-twentieth century.

But if you take the time to internalize his points about applying quality management techniques to software, about the importance of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and about the central role of information technology (IT) governance, you will truly have taken a first step toward achieving a giant leap. To this I would only add, your job will be a little easier and a lot more fun.

Basically, Adam says that it is high time for software developers to leave the world of artisans and join the rest of us in the twenty-first century. Don't cry for the artisans—as long as there is a taste for microbrews, handmade jewelry, and ...