I recently touched based on a job costing program I wrote in C++ when I was 16 (and re-wrote as a client-server app in Java/MySQL) that is still being used on a daily basis.
That's nearly two decades of active service!
And if you think about it, there's still quite a lot of software from that era still kicking around: Windows, Word, Excel, BSD, Linux, Photoshop, and many others.
There's fad software, and there are programs built to adapt, and stand the test of time.
Photoshop today is certainly more advanced than the first version released in 1990, but the core principles remain the same.
Successful software products must constantly evolve to suit an ever-changing environment.
It's easy to get caught up in day-to-day bugs and support requests, but it pays to stand back and take a broader view every so often, thinking about the long term.
So -- Where will your software be in 20 years?
Successful software products must constantly evolve to suit an ever-changing environment.
It's easy to get caught up in day-to-day bugs and support requests, but it pays to stand back and take a broader view every so often, thinking about the long term.
So -- Where will your software be in 20 years?
