¶ … Business Organizations," describe how recent technological developments are impacting the organizational structure of a 'software house'.
The internal organizational structure of a business is one of the key elements in predicting if a new, particular venture made by the business will succeed or fail. However, in the computer software industry, another key component is thrown into the mix and the friction between the internal workings of an organization and the external business environment. Computer software is one of the most volatile markets because of the rapid nature of technological development and change. What was previously a necessity for computer consumers can rapidly be rendered obsolete by shifts in technological development. Conversely, an effective new technology or software might not 'catch on' because it is incompatible with all currently existing popular hardware systems used in many businesses and schools. Furthermore, individuals outside the immediate software industry may be resistant to changing their computer systems on a wide-ranging basis or find the new software too complicated to be 'user friendly.'
Computer software must be compatible with currently existing systems yet be interesting and exciting enough to draw the consumer's eye. A software firm must be technologically on the cutting edge, yet responsive to the emotional needs of the consumer market. The software industry requires every firm to have an organizational structure that is communicative between the technical staff, the advertising staff, and the financially focused staff who has an eye...
In a software firm, these conflicts are not purely hierarchical, as it is not that one department is superior to the other, but rather that each horizontal element of the business structure is necessary to the firm's ability to operate to its maximum efficacy.
Thus, there is divided nature to the horizontal structure most software firms. Most firms, regardless of industry, exhibit some friction between members and departments of the organization. Software firms are usually divided between technically oriented and financially oriented personnel. These individuals are often quite separate in the internal hierarchy of the firm and have different backgrounds and different views of what constitutes success. The former staff members are often more forward thinking in nature, the latter more of the moment and the immediate economic environment.
For instance, highly computer literate programmers who actually write the software and the information systems managers who manage the different departments of the organization will have different educations and different ideas of what will yield the greatest ultimate financial dividends. Systems analysts usually must translate business problems into solutions and act as liaisons between the information systems department and rest of the organization, but these different views cannot always be…
