Software Development
Essays

My company choice is Microsoft, mainly because it best reflects one of the newest and most used organizational approaches in the 20th and 21st century. There are several interesting considerations worth pointing out in the case of Microsoft. Microsoft uses a team-based organization, often combined or embedded on a project-based approach. The idea of a team-based organizational structure is to synergize individual skills and competencies into a larger, more overarching framework (Thareja, 2007). In the case of Microsoft and, in fact, of many other software producers, the team-based organizational structure is also determine by the necessities that arrive in software development and the particularities of the different phases in this process that require employees with particular skills at each phase of development.

Global software development continues to be a disruptive innovation that is re-ordering every facet of the software industry and its value chain. From high-end enterprise software development of applications used within Fortune 1,000 corporations to the reliance start-up firms throughout the Silicon Valley and elsewhere have on Indian outsourcing firms for rapid prototyping, the globalization of software development is accelerating. Best practices in these areas is often defined by the adoption of quality management and compliance frameworks by both the outsourcer and client organization. Total Quality Management (TQM) and Six Sigma frameworks and methodologies are often used for ensuring application requirements are equally understood and implemented (DCosta, 2002). Software outsourcing is also growing exponentially due to its use for streamlining out-of-date applications that need to be updated to support current and future generation information systems needs of companies relying on them. The shift from Information Technologies (IT) departments attempting to do all development internally to having outsourcers handle the programming, quality testing and release is exponentially growing due to the time savings and potential to gain external expertise quickly and at a reasonable cost (Dey, Fan, Zhang, 2010). The option for many IT organizations choose to pursue is select an outsourcing partner who has the needed expertise needed for next-generation applications. This strategy is very dominant in enterprise software especially, as the recruitment and retention costs of experts in a given area would be exponentially more expensive than working with the outsourcer (Hanna, Daim, 2009). There is also the issue of time-to-value and the critical role that time management plays in managing enterprise applications. There is often literally not enough resources or time for a given enterprise to plan, code, test and launch complex enterprise applications. In many industries these constraints of time, cost and the urgency to focus only on the core business are becoming so great that outsourcing application software development is often the only viable alternative to keeping an enterprise in step with the many competitive demands placed on it over time. For all of these benefits however there are just as many disadvantages and hidden costs of outsourcing software development. The intent of this analysis is to provide the best practices ascertained from an extensive literature review and continued study of this rapidly changing area of the IT industry.

Using various organizational examples (different companies), please evaluate the major concepts underlying effective major business transformation and dynamic change management which we discussed in class, including:…

Most technical innovations in any field have been combinations or amalgams of software and hardware applications that were never meant to be used together. However, they have nevertheless come into existence because…

¶ … Software Testing in the Product Life Cycle

¶ … information system requires knowledge of development tools in addition to expertise in software development methodologies. As each of these areas requires expertise the typical user does not have, it is daunting for…

With the proper education and tools in Organizational Management one can be the driving force behind a company's growth and prosperity. The beginning of any business decision should include a five (5) and ten (10) year business plan, as well as, people who can manage and contribute to its continuation in growth. Starting with a vision and a mission statement creates the foundation from which to build upon.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has emerged as one of the most profitable and prolific companies in the world, generating a market capitalization rate of $623B as of this writing in late August, 2012, delivering $148B in Revenues in their latest fiscal year and $40B in Net Income (Apple Investor Relations, 2012). One of Apple's greatest strengths is its ability to quickly translate innovative product concepts and designs into state-of-the-art products that deliver exceptional customer experiences. Apple has honed this through decades of disciplined execution and a continual focus on creating a highly synchronized supply chain, highly collaborative product design and development workflows, and the ability to take concepts to completed products in a fraction of the time of their competitors (Murray, Goode, Muro, 2010). Apple is credited with creating the smartphone market, tablet PC, cloud-based music buying and delivery service (iTunes), centralized document and image storage (iCloud) and more innovations in operating systems in the last five years than Microsoft (Apple Investor Relations, 2012). All of these accomplishments taken together have led to Apple creating a catalyst of growth in the tablet PC market, fueling a 100%+ increase in iPad sales (13% year over year) and iPhone sales that have increased 152% over the last eighteen months as well (Apple Investor Relations, 2012). Apple continues to accelerate the sales of their iPad, iPhone, iTouch devices in addition to its mainstream laptops and systems. Apple is able to accomplish these significant results by concentrating on the execution of its value chain, a decades-only concept that Dr. Michael Porter originally created to illustrate how the functional departments of a company all must be synchronized to deliver profitability (Porter, 2008). Apple's value chain is exceptionally effective in managing the coordinating of supply chain, sourcing, quality management, production, product design, marketing services, logistics and retailing operations. As long as two decades ago Apple had been concentrating on how to create this level of synchronization across their entire enterprise (Larson, 1994). As the business model of Apple has continually become more complex, the ability of the organization to stay agile and quick to respond has increasingly become more difficult. This is a common problem companies have as they grow in size and complexity of their business models. For Apple, the environmental factors in the areas of economic, social, technological and political change have challenged their ability to grow, and also forced them to create a more market-driven organizational structure, abandoning the highly successful product divisions of the 1990s and early 2000 timeframe (Apple Investor Relations, 2012). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate how Apple is managing to continually grow despite economic, social, technological and political environmental forces impacting their business. In addition, an analysis of their market environment, response to the turbulent economic environment they operate in, the nature of their product strategies, an assessment of their strategic direction and strategic options are all included in this analysis. A separate section is included for each of these areas throughout the analysis. The Porter Fives Forces Model is used for analyzing these market dynamics (Porter, 2008).

This paper presents a comprehensive business plan for a software company, Nerd Patrol. It contains an analysis of the company's ownership, business operations, and organizational structure, projects its revenues and costs of operations for the short run, and presents some important marketing strategies for the success of its business in the IT industry. ?

Complete Solution is a consultancy company with annual turnover of £40 millions. While the company has enjoyed rapid growth in the last few decades, the company lacks necessary IT infrastructures to enhance growth in the next three years. To address the problem, the management assigns Information and Communication system proposal to ITDD manager. However, Roger, the ITDD manager, is facing several challenges in implementing the proposal. The major challenges facing ITDD is human because people are not ready to provide constructive suggestion for the development of the system. People generally believe that Roger is incapable of implementing the project. To address the problem, the report suggests that Roger needs to integrate Soft System Methodology in the new proposal.