Jan Bosch
Over the decades that I’ve worked with companies, I’ve seen many, many examples of sales versus engineering. These two functions are frequently at odds with each other for a variety of reasons. In companies that are mostly technology-driven, senior management often comes out of R&D and is frustrated with the sales organization being unable to … Read more
Few words get as much attention and excitement in the software-intensive systems industry as “platform.” One of the reasons is that it has several, quite distinct meanings that often are ignored or forgotten in the process. Everyone supports “the platform initiative” while failing to understand that we mean different things. In my view, there are … Read more
For the better part of well over a century, companies would classify themselves as product- or service-oriented. Product companies often were high-margin businesses with high volatility as the investment in product R&D was largely fixed, but the sales and margins were very much influenced by the competitive landscape, the economic climate and the capabilities of … Read more
Few words are as overused and misused in product companies as the word “innovation.” In most contexts, it means something along the lines of new and good. It’s new because we didn’t have it before we developed it and it’s good because it wouldn’t be innovation otherwise. Few people are interested in discussing innovation that … Read more
The distinction between development and operations has been identified as obsolete in many companies that have adopted continuous deployment. The term DevOps was coined to refer to teams that are responsible both for development and operations. Although DevOps sounds really easy in theory, it’s surprisingly multi-faceted in practice. Since software started to be included in … Read more
Once upon a time, the customers and users of the products we built were vague, amorphous beings. Although most in R&D suspected they were out there, they were no real, tangible personas. This led to many decisions being made based on technological capabilities and, sometimes, spurious ideas of what customers and users might appreciate. At … Read more
Most companies I work with are focused on R&D. As product development is viewed as the wellspring of all new products and, by extension, revenue, the function is often protected from external influences by putting gatekeepers in between the customer, suppliers and other ‘distractors’ and the folks in R&D. Generally, the thinking seems to be … Read more
Why do you get out of bed in the morning? What are you looking to accomplish? How do you decide where to best spend your limited time and energy? Some of us are purely driven by the whip, meaning that others have decided where they need to be at what time to be doing what … Read more
Complex software-intensive systems typically consist of mechanical, electronic and software components. To ensure that all the parts come together in an integrated system that delivers the intended functionality to the customers, we need people to keep it all together. These are often referred to as systems engineers or system architects. Systems engineers frequently have a … Read more
In my experience, companies tend to fall into two categories when it comes to technology. Either they’re extremely market and customer-focused and view R&D as a necessary evil required to get the products we need to have anything to sell. Or they’re technology-focused and have the implicit belief that as long as we put bleeding-edge … Read more
