Towards management of software as assets: A literature review with additional sources

  • Authors:

  • Mordechai Ben-Menachem

  • Affiliations:

  • P.O. Box 15174, Beer-Sheva, Israel

  • Venue:
  • Information and Software Technology
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

How should and how can software be managed? What is the management concept or paradigm? Software professionals, if they think about management of software at all, think in terms of Configuration Management. This is not a method for over-all software management; it merely controls software items' versions. This is much too fine a level of granularity. Management begins with accurate and timely information. Managers tend to view software as something (unfortunately) very necessary but troubling because, they have very little real information about it and control is still nebulous, at best. Accountants view software as an incomprehensible intangible, neither wholly an expense nor really an asset. They do not have, nor do they produce information concerning it. Their data concerning software barely touches on direct outlays and contains no element of effort. Part of this disorientation is the basic confusion between ''business software'' and ''engineering software''. This ''Gordian Knot'' must be opened; it needs to be made much more clear. This article shows a direction how such clarity may be achieved.