The Micro-Product Mentality

For me, one of the most defining books on software development is “The Mythical Man-Month” by Frederick Brooks Jr. In his first chapter, Brooks outlines what it takes for a piece of software to become a complete product. He suggests there are two ways this transition can happen. One way, is that the software is one part of multiple pieces of software that come together to form a cohesive product. The second way involves the software maturing and an interface being developed so that it evolves into a product itself. I often think of Brooks’ description as a metaphor for industry growth – i.e. either an industry grows somewhat organically, or it is becomes the sum of its collective parts over time. 

The birth of India’s software development industry took place in the 1980s, with various service companies starting to provide businesses with software systems to solve business challenges or enhance their operations in some way. These service companies relied heavily on engineers, who were often recruited out of India’s universities or engineering colleges to build the software. With the industry in its fledgling state, these companies trained their engineers on languages, databases and processes, given there was limited opportunities to skill them through external sources. Universities soon seized their opportunity and started offering courses focusing on computer sciences and software engineering. This symbiotic relationship between the software industry and universities was prevalent throughout the 80s and 90s, and helped train the workforce at a rapid rate. As they say, the rest is history and we have since seen this industry grow from strength to strength.

In the late 90s and early 21st century, we saw a shift in the types of businesses that were leveraging the software industry. Financial services, manufacturing, healthcare and other businesses realised that software development was here to stay, so they began hiring their own software developers. This included India’s vast population of trained engineers. The India software services industry soon realised this demand, and with the knowledge, expertise and experience it had already gained serving its clients, companies started focusing more on product development. In the financial services industry, for example, we saw product offerings supporting asset servicing, settlements, trade booking, processing and reconciliations. All industries need to innovate to survive and this was an example of the software services industry being fundamentally transformed into a product-centric industry, offering vast product development geared towards solving real-world challenges.

We now find ourselves in an era of financial technology (fintech) start-ups, providing the industry with a new proposition - micro-products for micro-problems. These start-ups are focused on providing targeted solutions through new technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, distributed ledger technologies, robotics and data analytics, which are applied to specific functional challenges, such as payments, regulatory reporting, trade booking and processing.

The software industry has put India on the world map of global commerce. Fintechs and start-ups are the brave new face of this industry, which has continually innovated and re-invented itself for over 30 years. Today, this mature ecosystem and the support structure surrounding the software industry continues to thrive. With future waves of innovation inevitable, industry leaders and businesses need to continue to work with government bodies to prepare for (or even lead) what’s next and ensure ongoing growth of our software industry.