This article covers easy-to-implement strategies for small to mid-cap companies that operate in industries (Commercial, B2B, and Consumer products) where:
– software development remains a small part of the expenditures,
– maintaining or gaining market share will require more software investments.
We will demonstrate how SciTools UnderstandTM is a must-have one-stop strategy to grow your software development team to become a leader in your industry.
Not a long time ago, Tesla was known as an electric car manufacturer, but valuation experts appear to now disagree on the company’s nature. UBS recently declared: “Tesla could become one of the most valuable software companies.” A software company is now both the innovation leader and the poster child of the auto industry.
Like traditional automakers, you may be a technology leader in your industry, but how prepared are you if a new software company enters your space? Is it safe to ignore it? Or should you address it today? If you are a newcomer in a crowded industry, how can you become a disruptive player?
In both cases, I am sad to report that every indicator shows that you must also become a software company to succeed. It has happened everywhere from the retail industry, Taxi services, real-estate, Movies Rental, Music, Home Automation. Late adopters of new software practices are either out of business or playing catch-up.
As scary as it sounds, where can you start to build a mitigation strategy?
By taking a few actions, your company can preserve and upgrade its ticket for the future. And it is all based on a single piece of good news for a newcomer to software: All the technologies you need already exist and will evolve at the industry’s pace. Only your software’s process needs to be improved and accelerated: Tesla started by putting an already existing AC propulsion engine in an already existing Lotus Elise chassis. As a result, there was no “ludicrous mode,” “easter eggs,” or “iPad-like dashboard” in the car’s system in 2008. But, of course, there was not even an iPad at that time.
What Tesla initially did is glue existing and average components within an excellent, flexible & upgradable software that they carried over the years.
Your software development will not be much different:
– Your developers will spend most of their time looking and searching for the next missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle in a massive and overwhelming catalog of software parts, old or new, home-grown, or open-source.
– They will need to pick and learn quality libraries to build reliable components or products.
– Complexity will increase and must remain under control.
– Turnover will require a flexible team with a quick transfer of knowledge.
– Fast time-to-market will require the software to be “reinvented” periodically.
– End-Customers and Industry regulators will require more and more documentation.
On your way to become a software company, SciTools UnderstandTM will offer a variety of solid springboards to accelerate your organization toward the goal of meeting each of those new demands.
In general, there are huge risks associated with committing to a development toolset. It is easy to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on an improperly vetted solution because you may quickly outgrow it. SciTools is a commercial offering, but its open architecture design will let you export and re-use any artifact you have created over time with solid extensibility and exporting capabilities. By SciTools UnderstandTM being a fair team player, you will never end up in a situation where you must write off months, even years of work.
Here is where SciTools UnderstandTM will help:
Learn and integrate new software: SciTools UnderstandTM is the most efficient tool to accelerate integration when coding is required and develop successful re-use vs. build strategies.
SciTools UnderstandTM will accelerate evaluations and integrations of any 3rd party (from open-source or supplier) or internally (poorly known due to developer turnover) software code. Over the years, and due to positive community acceptance, SciTools UnderstandTMis now the de-facto leader in reverse engineering for software code. As a good testimony, the tool is universally recognized as the best choice for research in patent infringement cases. In addition, anyone can quickly embrace any new software using SciTools UnderstandTM. SciTools is even investing in new initiatives to make mainstream Open-Source packages more approachable by inexperienced developers.
Control an ever-increasing code base: SciTools UnderstandTM is the easiest way to keep a complete understanding of your software code. If code were a warehouse, this always up-to-date inventory would let you decide what to buy, what to replace, and what to give up.
You will create a considerable amount of technical debt in software assets along the way to becoming a software company. While many software tools provide cataloging solutions in terms of “libraries”, SciTools UnderstandTM is the only solution that lets you create SKU-like (stock-keeping unit) registration of all your coding artifacts and assets. Such registration will allow you to control your software application’s evolution better, and you will easily keep track of each asset and its mutation over time.
Ease Sharing and Knowledge Transfer: Sofware engineers can discuss, cooperate and make educated decisions based on the blueprints created by SciTools UnderstandTM.
SciTools UnderstandTM is a “good citizen” that can become a central hub of information for your developers. While the user interface’s goal is not replacing each developer’s favorite development environment, SciTools UnderstandTM is the go-to visualization for a brainstorming session between developers. Further, SciTools UnderstandTM is a central hub of information and an open platform that will help integrate existing or new systems and services for requirement management, testing, Q&A, and support tickets.
Control overwhelming code complexity: In software, there are many ways to climb a tree; SciTools UnderstandTM will show you the best branches to use.
Handling complexity comes with three main challenges: Taking control, keeping it, and finally trusting others with doing the right thing. SciTools Understand’sTM Architecture features let application owners gain a complete “understanding” of their application. Your organization coding expert, with a few actions, will create easy-to-share and easy-to-read diagrams. This newly created clear picture will most likely highlight bad practices and poor designs that SciTools UnderstandTM new Dependency solver can quickly resolve. Once in control, CodeCheck, SciTools’s validation engine, will enforce correct design patterns moving forward, right in your DevOps/CI System.
Scaling with massive codebase: There are about 100 million lines of software code in a car. How many will be in your code in 5 years? SciTools UnderstandTM will scale with your software.
Today, any software solution must scale. But, too often, toolchains are not able to scale-up and become a hurdle to your success. Maybe not today, but if the analysis of your code takes a full day, it will be challenging to remain fluid in your decisions and address the flexibility needed in your industry. SciTools Understand’ sTM state-of-the-art parsing methodology is the fastest static code analysis engine in the industry, guaranteeing your investment today will grow with you.
Handle Change quickly, reinvent at will: It’s better to have a map and an efficient navigation algorithm to reach your destination. SciTools UnderstandTM gives you both when your code evolves.
Development tasks, in most cases, revolve around moving your software from point A to point B. It can be removing an annoying dependency due to cost or security risks, integrating a new differentiating feature or porting to a new customer platform. SciTools UnderstandTM helps you estimate work through an advanced metrics system, organize tasks by identifying critical hot spots and possible hurdles, and, along the way, will control progress using proprietary insights in code changes. Finally, SciTools UnderstandTMwill confirm your success.
Validation and Testing: Building new software must meet your industry requirements. SciTools UnderstandTM offers affordable, scalable, fast, and flexible ways to implement relevant quality control.
SciTools UnderstandTM integrates easily in an automated or a manual process to validate and verify industry-specific specifications and requirements. Government organizations and IV&V (Independent Verification and Validation) groups have developed advanced dashboards relying on SciTools UnderstandTM scripting engine to go beyond traditional static code analysis checks and address their specific needs. Also, SciTools UnderstandTM offers unique solutions to monitor, review, and measure any work performed by an outsourcing contractor or by a 3rdparty software supplier changing their implementation.
Documenting: SciTools UnderstandTM is the dashboard that lets participants see what they need to see.
Today or tomorrow, your organization will face a documentation challenge. It may be internal documentation for knowledge sharing required by code certification or qualification (as covered earlier). Or you share your API with 3rd parties, and you want to find a better way to train your customers. SciTools UnderstandTM is a live dashboard creating living documentation that will never get stale.
When I talk to developers using SciTools UnderstandTM, I often hear the analogy of a “Swiss army knife” for software development. It may be the best tool you need in today’s jungle if you are not ready yet to invest in a bulldozer. Today a company has no other choice than to invest in software toolchains, and current offerings can be easily overwhelming or too expensive. SciTools UnderstandTM is a perfect affordable solution that can lead your development to success along the entire journey. But it is also the tool that will know how to collaborate with your future needs and solutions with no risk of a dead-end.
