This last Sunday, I met a friend. In our conversation, he brought up a topic between him and his colleague.
He said, there is no innovation happening in Software Engineering. Instead, he see the apps development to cater business services to people. That is, in other egineering industries there are innovation being done along with research and development. But, he did not see anything happening in our Software Engineering and communities.
I asked him, "What makes you not to see the Hackathons [being projected] as an innovation initiative followed up with further research and development?"
He did not see the hackathons as a space for innovation. His experience is, the organization hosts Hackathon for two or three days in a year.
Further, he said, "We are asked to participate in the Hackathon and also to work on stories in parallel. If the stories are not worked in these two or three days, it will be escalated. And, the ideas and outcome of the hackathon are left as is. Hardly one or two ideas are picked for a proof of concept work in the project."
I feel, maybe, what he is saying make sense, as I have witnessed it.
Are We Not Innovating, Then?
I see, there are innovations happening in the Software Engineering. But, these innovations are not something that common men can consume directly. But, these innovations are consumed indirectly by the common men.
The innovations that I see and test are not B2C. Sometimes, it is indirectly B2B via D2D.
Yes, D2D -- Developer to Developer. I'm not sure if there exist a word Developer to Developer. This is what I said to him -- D2D. Maybe for this reason, the innovation and software engineering's problem solving and solutions do not come to the discussion and spotlight.
As an innovation byproduct in the software engineering, there are frameworks, libraries and artefacts developed by the developers of an org [and communities]. This is being consumed by the other organization's developers in their project. As an outcome, there is a solution being built [using an innovation] and delivered by a business which is consumed by a common men.
Maintaining these frameworks, libraries and artefacts outside the payroll job time is a challenge for any developer. But, some do it beating all the hurdles they experience. There are challenges here when it comes to maintaining such projects by collaborating with software engineers from the communities.
Most of my research and development outcomes in the Test Engineering area are consumables of we developers and not the common men. And, it is not known to all the developers. When I say developers, it includes, programmers, test engineers, DevOps and product teams.
To conclude here for now, might be the software project you are working on is also consuming an innovation that you are not aware of. Talk to your programmers, test engineers and teams.
The apps development by a buisness and catering its service to people is one area or segment of business and market. For example, the ecommerce apps, food delivery apps, cab aggregators apps, communication apps, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe above said is needed to fuel the industry in terms of monetary and employment. The problems or necessity of the society's market will be segmented and a business will be made out of it. This cannot be equated to we are just focusing on one area. This is as well needed for the functioning of economy.
On the other hand, the innovation in the software engineering is a different problem solving space/area. This can become a catalyst for the solution we deliver through a business. If there is no business which can consume the innovation, there will be no necessity for innovation in the first place.