5 Ways to Build Great Software Without Involving Any People
In case you haven’t checked lately, there’s no Make Great Software button on your computer keyboard. And even if there was, it wouldn’t work anyway because software is all about people, right?
It takes people to understand the needs of other people. It also takes people to address those needs with appropriate solutions.
Or does it?
At Architech, we aren’t afraid to ask the tough questions. So we boldly ventured into the other side of the argument and to our surprise, we actually discovered how to build great software without bringing any people into the project. In fact, there are so many ways to do it that we had a hard time picking just five.
Here they are, five ways to build software without involving any people:
- Monkeys. Get enough of them at enough computers and you’re bound to come up with something good eventually. When you look at it from a geological perspective, this development approach promises to be rather quick.
- Vending machines. Again, a bit time intensive, but do-able. If you look long and hard, you’ll eventually find a software vending machine that has what you want. It works for snacks, doesn’t it? No software vending machines in your area? Are you sure?!? Don’t give up! Keep looking…let us know how it goes.
- Alien technology. Don’t laugh! According to a survey in the States (we can’t remember whose), CIOs claim to have used 77% more alien technology in 2009 than just two years earlier, in 2007. Early adopters stand to gain a significant competitive advantage over Earth-tech rivals. As one Silicon Valley executive quipped, “Alien abduction is the new MBA around here. Pass the tinfoil!” Farmer Brown, don’t be surprised when more geeks start showing up in the cornfield.
- Magic wands. Tech wizards use them all the time, right? Harry Potter: all TRUE. Need we say more?
- Time travel. Innovation is all about lateral thinking. Instead of asking people to build software, ask for a time machine. With a time machine, you can travel far into the future and cherry pick technology so advanced that it seems like magic (and not software). This is a simple, elegant solution and you get free trips, too.
And that’s the list. We hope you liked it.
If not, then go ahead and develop software the “smart” way—you know, relying on “people”—just don’t believe the hype. No one can actually, conclusively, once-and-for-all prove that your super duper slam dunk software application was really developed by people. When the software is that good, they probably won’t believe it anyway. So don’t sweat the small stuff.
By the way, in the interest of full disclosure, we should tell you that we’ve only tried one of these five solutions but you’ll have to call us to find out which one!
If you’d like to learn more about the other side of the argument—you know, the stuff about “respect for people” and “empowerment” and “teams”—then check out our white paper Great Team, Great Software: Understanding the “People” Factor.