MY SHORT STORY

"One of my personal drivers is learning from clients as they build and deliver on their governance model. It's great to see when it starts to kick in."

Over time, consumers and businesses generally demand more functionality at a lower price. 

These changing requirements are both natural and often difficult to meet. Each requirement needs to be defined and prioritized, and a release roadmap should be set up based on market segments expectations and customer type. 

Changing demands often impact many different parts of the product, and are therefore packaged into a large project incurring high costs and long lead times. But if changes, such as cost reductions and new functionality, are defined to only impact a part of the product, changes are easier and can be implemented faster, which in turn delivers greater value to both market and the company. 

The exciting thing is that this is possible in a modular product architecture. How? Each module has its own functionality, performance and roadmap with defined interfaces. Any changes are well defined and impact a limited part of the architecture, thereby increasing flexibility and speed. 

Clients that go for a modular architecture see increased margins, faster time to market, greater flexibility in customer deliveries and increased sales. Not bad effects. As for the challenges, the main challenge is often to maintain a stable and profitable architecture over time. To solve this, you need a structured governance model that’s an integrated part of the development plan, with clear owners and decision makers. 

One of my personal drivers is learning from clients as they build and deliver on their governance model. It’s great to see when it starts to kick in and deliver value.