Optimization of software development

For many companies, including leaders in software development, software is becoming an increasingly critical competitive factor. For example, at Siemens, sixty percent of our business is strongly influenced by software and approximately fifty percent of all Siemens patents are software related. With more than 30,000 software developers worldwide and an expenditure of more than 3 billion Euros, Siemens is playing in the 'Champions League' of the world's leading software companies. But this fact is not well known because most of the software developed at Siemens is embedded. It's embedded in the products and solutions sold to customers, such as medical devices, automation controls, trains, automotive components, and even power plants. Yet a major part of the functionality of these products and solutions is defined by software.Because of the high cost of developing software, and because of its extraordinarily high business impact, optimizing the software development process has become a top priority at Siemens.The three levers will be described in detail and examples will be provided. The presentation will emphasize the early phases of software development, particularly with reference to requirements engineering and the importance of functional and non-functional requirements. A simple metrics system to measure success in software development will be presented. The Siemens Software Initiative, a company-wide program specializing on software engineering and management at Siemens will also be described.