Software Evolution as the Key to Productivity

Despite the existence of a seemingly continuous stream of new ``silver bullet'' technologies and methods, software productivity remains universally unimpressive. We argue that, as long as industry remains focused on short-term goals, and maintains a technology-centric view of software development, no progress will be made. A clear symptom of this problem is the fact that the metaphors we apply to software development are largely obsolete. Instead of thinking about software as we do about bridges, buildings or hardware components, we should encourage a view of software as a living and evolving entity that is developed and maintained by \it people. We begin with some assertions that are intended as food for thought. We continue by reviewing what we consider to be some of the key difficulties with software development today. We conclude with a few recommendations for research into software practices that take evolution into account