I read an interesting blog the other day: The software business model is dead. May it rest in pieces.. Of course, I’ve been reading similar things for a number of years. However, this one caught my attention because it struck me as not simply about the software business model and also about the “performance management” business model.
According to the Wikipedia, “Corporate performance management (CPM) is a concept introduced by Gartner Research in 2001, which “all of the processes, methodologies, metrics and systems needed to measure and manage the performance of an organization. and that is the way that I used to think about it. I don’t think I’m the Lone Ranger in that respect. If you google “Corporate Performance Management” you’ll see all of the usual suspects competing in the Business Intelligence, Database Management, Data Warehousing world advertising their approach to CPM.
Today, I don’t think of it that way. After almost ten years of working with companies trying to improve performance through better project management, six sigma, quality circles, BSC, process management and more, I’ve come to appreciate that managing performance is, at its core, about people.
That is why this article struck me as succinct and to the point. Go back to the article Ray Lane: Good riddance, software business, and take note of some comments he makes about the software business in general:
- we’ll see fewer…and far more user-generated and user-driven applications.
- collaborative environments, and mobile capabilities are the types of applications a new generation of users expects
- Now, it’s about collaboration. We’ll use the power of individuals for the benefit of the enterprise.
The emphasis is not on the software, it is on what the software is supposed to do! It is supposed to empower people to work smarter, work more efficiently and “benefit the enterprise”. In other words, it is supposed to empower people and the enterprise they live in to positively affect performance.
When I read these posts, I can hear echos of lines from TS Eliot’sThe Journey of the Magi,”
“This: were we lead all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.”
I remember back when I was writing code, before I moved into “management”. It was 1972 and I turned in my code in stacks of long brown boxes with each line on a single punch card. I also remember that day when the Wang guy stopped by the lab with this strange device that saved code on cassette tapes.
Each step along the way in the evolution of software is both a birth and a death, but not just for the software business model….