The Dark Matter Of Technical Debt: Enterprise Software

Custom software is usually an expensive affair

. Besides all the usual hassles of dealing with software developers (who are usually a difficult lot to manage and are expensive), custom software development also adds up technical debt. While purchased software does seem economical in the long run because you can share it with others in your organization without restriction, there are other problems associated with it.

It is important to remember that not all software is utility. More often a web software developer needs to built enterprise software falls in this category. Those belonging to the corporate IT sector are well familiar with this type. Some of its features include:

It is targeted for a vertical market

They are expensive with cost for purchase typically falling in a 6-figure USD

It usually requires a significant amount of customization by code or configuration options

The decision to buy them are taken in informal/non-technical environments

Proper installation of the software requires special assistance by the developers which often comes at a premium

Where does the problem lie?

Such Enterprise Software, more often than not, adds only negative value to organizations by upping their technical debt. This is because enterprise software is often sold on the basis of flexibility. The common practice is creating a list of features, shortlisting vendors on the basis of desired features, and balancing that against some standard cost concerns. But we dont assess the technical debt of enterprise software. According to most of the software developer in India, enterprise software is often purchased on the basis of external features, not internal quality.

Does internal quality of purchased software matter?

It does! If the internal quality is bad, it will affect the cost structure of the software going forward. APIs developed around software with bad internal quality tend to reflect that bad quality, making integration difficult and leading to various other issues.

What is the end result?

The result is cost shooting through the roof. Even when the implementation works, massive maintenance costs going forward; and Indian software developers know that.

So what is the solution?

The way enterprise software is purchased needs to change. The tools we have for buy versus build analysis are deficient as few models include a real, robust cost-of-ownership analysis that properly includes the effects of insufficient internal quality. It is amazing that in this day and age, when lack of proper due diligence in package selection can cost an organization literally billions of dollars, that so little attention is paid to internal quality.

What would happen? There would be more importance given to internal quality. Much of todays mediocre software would start to look expensive leading to newer, fitter, easy-to-handle solutions helping businesses in more ways than one. Hence, more money could be allocated to strategic software that uniquely helps the company, providing more space for innovation.

by: Holly Maxted

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