The politics of software innovation

Summary form only given. In software firms ideas for development of new software applications compete for resources. Yet, it is nearly impossible to foresee if an idea is good or bad, and thus, when deciding which ideas to fund managers cannot rely on objective measures. Also, software innovation is typically a lengthy process and many resources are needed to develop an innovation to the point where resource controllers and the innovation team can determine the end-result. Hence, to judge the outcome (success or failure) of and guide the process, in the absence of solid information about the end result, resource controllers and the innovation team construct and rely on subjective outcome assessments during the process. Resource controllers will allow an innovation team to continue its course of action when outcomes are judged successful and correct its course of action when outcomes are judged failing. However, such learning processes might be disturbed by political processes in organizations. The paper presents selected theories of organizational learning and politics of organizations, condensing these into a theoretical framework. It describes the case, called financial products, thereafter presenting the analysis of the politics of innovation in the case, and finally, it concludes and draws some implications for the management of innovation