Both, Enterprise IT and software development world has been facing certain challenges since ages. If we carefully examined the changes in software development world , they have always been direct to meet such challenges - some time successfully and many time unsuccessfully . Many of such challenges are listed below:

1. Alignment
   
2. Agility
   
3. Value for money
   
4. Vendor independence
   
5. Complexity
6. Quality
   

The above challenges are both at enterprise level and software development level . An enterprise IT Manager need to answer the question " How i can have IT systems which are aligned, agile, provide value for money, have no vendor lock in and have acceptable level of complexity so that whole system can be understood, managed and change .

Similarly, a company developing software product or application, need to answer the same questions, may be in slightly different way.

Agility - How do i ensure that application/product i deliver, is in line with the actual needs and concerns of my customers/users ?

Agility - How do i ensure that my applications/products features can be be added, changed, modified in business acceptable time frame ?

Value for Money - How do i ensure that my products/applications deliver real value for money to the end customers ? After paying for my applications/products customers should not feel that they have overpaid or software does not provide enough value for the money spent.

Vendor independence - How do i ensure that my applications/products are not overly dependent on 3rd party components from one or two vendors? How do i ensure that most of the 3rd party components used in my products/applications are replaceable?

Complexity - How do i ensure that my application/products architecture/code structure is simple enough so that it can be understood by others and easily changed ?

Quality - How do i ensure that my applications/products are not only defect free but provide high degree of usability to end user and creates "WoW" effects in their minds .

The answers to all above questions are difficult . Just because they are difficult, it does not mean that we should seek their answers .

I future blogs i will try to give my perspective for each of these challenges. I will greatly appreciate feedback from all of you.