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

1.7. So What Exactly Do I Do?

I make a kind of highly specialized software that makes it easier for other people to make good software. My software is used almost exclusively by software developers, so it won't hurt my feelings if you've never heard of it.

But even if you don't know the first thing about it, my software is probably helping your home computer network run faster, your online banking transactions remain secure, and your Internet phone work without sounding like you're calling from outer space.

My software increases the productivity of software development groups—by a lot. It accomplishes this by automating every part of the software development process that can possibly be automated. If you are trying to create new software quickly, that's important.

Fred Brooks, the author of a classic book on software productivity called The Mythical Man-Month and highly regarded professor of computer science at the University of North Carolina, wrote an article in 1986 entitled "No Silver Bullet," in which he argued that there would never again be a giant increase in programmer productivity. Only incremental improvements were possible, he said.

As depressing as that sounds, for many years Brooks was right. But his point is no longer correct; today, it is possible to achieve astonishing improvements in productivity. And not only developer productivity, but also the productivity of the whole organization, and this is the key. I know this is true because I see it every day: radical, ...