The software itself was installed at the customers' premises, ran on their servers and was updated more or less regularly. Customers signed multi-year contracts, with very high maintenance and service costs. The software world was also very different. These models are now known to not be flexible: they do not allow for easy "roll back" if the user or the market is not satisfied – or has simply changed since the requirements were first written. Already, the aim was to efficiently solve the many problems encountered in large-scale IT projects.Īt the time, software products were built using methods such as the V-model or the Waterfall model. This led to NATO itself organizing the “Software Engineering Conferences” in 19. To solve this, they sought to build methods, tools and practices to produce software that could meet requirements and respect quality criteria as well as economic constraints. After having been confined since the 1950s to huge systems built for scientific calculations or industrial process control (in short, working behind the scenes), software engineering took on an existence of its own after the “software crisis” of 68-72: engineers were faced with an ever-growing computing power, ever more complex tasks to solve, and a lack of sustainable software development processes.
1975 - 2000: the emergence of digital workers The software crisisĪt the end of the 1960s, software engineering officially made its appearance. Time-to-impact and Power-of-impact are becoming the levers of success for the software and product world. The emergence of the Internet and the resulting SaaS model have completely changed the situation: software is becoming accessible everywhere, available to everyone, and can be built by everyone. This one has dramatically decreased over the years because software publishers are not so much focusing on technical predictability anymore, but rather on velocity, to cope with the needs of the usersĮach evolution in the software development world makes it possible to have a greater impact on these two indicators. " Time to impact", which corresponds to the speed of iterations on the product in relation to changing needs.Indeed, problem value, then user experience and lately the ability to define hyper localized product market fit have dramatically improved the power of impact of software publishers. This indicator has been increasing over time because product creators (Software Engineers, Product Managers and Product Designers) have shifted their attention from focusing only on tech feasibility. " Power of impact", which is the value brought to users.The development impact driversĪs an introduction, here are two key indicators which are influencing the evolution of software development: Let’s take a look at the gradual emergence of hybrid product functions in companies. We at PayFit chose to name them Product Builders. These new positions are shaping the future of digital product development, made faster by the versatility of contributors. Hybrid functions have recently made their appearance in tech companies.