The AndPlus Software Development Blog

Digital transformation isn’t easy.

The hardest part for most companies has less to do with the technology itself. The hardest part is overcoming the organizational inertia that keeps organizations trapped in their current, antiquated processes. The process of getting stakeholders to examine and rethink their processes is a cultural change that takes time. Organizational change must be nurtured and can’t be imposed.

One of the biggest mistakes business leaders make is assuming what brought them success in the past (business models, core competencies, business processes, and tools) will continue to do so indefinitely.

“Build or buy?”

It’s a common question in business:

• Do we build a new factory or office building, or buy an existing one?
• Do we build a product or technology from scratch, or buy a startup company that’s already doing something similar?
• Do we develop and promote senior leadership from within (build), or hire outsiders (buy)?

Digital transformations are complicated endeavors for any company, but their purpose is simple: improve business performance.

There’s quite a bit of discussion amongst software developers (and AndPlus is no exception) regarding the importance of user-centered software design, usability, and user experience. To hear such talk, you’d think that the only kind of software that exists is the kind that people interact with directly by use of keyboards, mouse devices, game controllers, and touch screens.

An architect wouldn’t design a custom house for you without knowing something about your family, lifestyle, hobbies, and tastes. These inputs, and more, inform the requirements for the house: how many bedrooms, how many floors, what type of kitchen, and so on. From these requirements, the architect can design the size and arrangement of the rooms and the style of the exterior.