If software can be made more relevant to the ways people work and much easier to use at the same time, will businesses have a better chance to become more innovative in what they do?
An affirmative answer to this question would seem obvious, but what isn't so obvious is how to create and deploy software systems that achieve these goals. The problem is that there are inherent conflicts in these ideas that are not easy to resolve.
The dilemma was center stage at SAP's recent Sapphire conference in Orlando, where some 15,000 of the SAP faithful were witness to how SAP is thinking about the problem.
SAP has long acknowledged that its software system is large and complex. Several years ago, co-founder and then-CEO Hasso Plattner talked about putting the R/3 system on a diet and reducing its many lines of code. But such an exercise has proved problematic as the SAP system has continued to grow. At Sapphire, for example, SAP announced the availability of the latest release of its flagship mySAP ERP product, featuring more than 300 enhancements.
At the same time, though, SAP executives at the conference stressed that businesses must become more innovative, agile, and possessed of an IT infrastructure that can facilitate business change. CEO Henning Kagermann posited that in the future software systems will be model-based and will shift from "standardization to individualization."
In a keynote entitled "SAP Simplified: A New Experience," executive board member Shai Agassi talked about greater simplicity through redefined processes, new user interface initiatives, and the company's roadmap for its Enterprise Services Architecture, a blueprint for a Web services-based applications platform.
But it was Plattner, now chairman of the company's Supervisory Board, who seemed to issue a challenge for software development. In his keynote, Plattner drew a distinction between analytical thinking applied to design - characterized by focused, systematic problem-solving - and what he called design thinking, exemplified by creativity and a holistic approach.
"Creativity cannot be confined into boxes," he said. "We have to think laterally instead of systematically to achieve breakthroughs. Continu- ous innovation is inside out; design thinking is outside in."
And in words that seemed to be directed as much at SAP as at the software industry at large, Plattner said software must be made fun to use. "It seems ridiculous to say 'delight' and 'SAP software,' but this is what we want to achieve. A door handle can be delightful. Why not software?"
To achieve breakthroughs, he outlined four steps for software development: 360-degree fact finding ("We cannot write software for people if we haven't seen them work."); reducing the scope of the system ("This is a very difficult process."); iterative prototyping ("We have to be emotionally engaged and have technical relevance."); and a continuous engineering process ("The design team has to remain engaged and empowered.").
A roadmap for the "accelerated business innovation" Kagermann talks about? Perhaps, if SAP and others can find the balance between the growth of systems and the need to reduce complexity. Do developers have the freedom to get us there?
Is your business software too complex? Write to me at Dbrousell@thomaspublishing.com.