Point/Counterpoint

Sales, profits, and success are the goals of any business, large or small. Many factors can influence success, but when software development is an important business constituent, the relationship between the software product´s characteristics and business goals is strong. We don´t always recognize this, of course, because most of us became engineers for nobler reasons than serving a business - the intellectual challenge, the free T-shirts, the 2 a.m. beer and pizza to celebrate unit tests that are finally passing. But ultimately we must allow the choices we make in software development to be influenced by business goals, or else risk business failure