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I am a geek, and proud of it.
Give me a list of the 50 most nerd-related items and I am sure I can cross 90% of those off as being part of my live at some point.
Magic the Gathering? Yes, when I was 11.
Rubik’s cube? Yuhp.
Atari, X386, SNES, Playstation? Definitely.
World of Warcraft? Yes, let’s not get into that.
Lego? Back then, and now again.
Sci-fi games, books and series? Lots.
And Space. NASA has always been a fascination and ESA likewise. The current Artemis missions, are providing golden times again for us geeks!
As a software enthusiast, I also think NASA offers some hidden lessons for most of us, and the great thing is that their world really speaks to us.
The numbers are big, the goals are epic, the consequences are dire.
One of my favorite things to learn from NASA, is around innovation and tech debt.
How your monolith is keeping you back
Software is abstract. And that makes life a whole lot more difficult. It makes it more difficult to understand, to reason about, and to see it for what it really is; just a bunch of tools that help us get things done. Like the space shuttle!
The space shuttle was NASA’s monolith avant-la-lettre. Yes, it was the workhorse that put us in space and that kept us returning there for a steady number of years. It is one of the most iconic space vehicles out there. Get a picture up and most everybody will recognize it immediately.
Less well known is the fact that, back then, the average ‘spin around the earth’ in this amazing machine cost about 1.6 billion USD. That is a lot of money, even on the huge budgets NASA was able to count on at its peak of popularity and during the space race. Over the 40 years lifetime of the space shuttle, NASA spend more than 209 billion USD (that is with a B) on it.
The problem with this, is that for 40 years, NASA had to keep up with the maintenance and replacement of the space shuttles many components. This resulted in spending over 70% of the Human Spaceflight budget on keeping this grand lady of space flight in the air.
And the remaining 30%, did not allow for many other initiatives for Human Spaceflight, let alone working on a successor or innovative new solution.
Sound familiar?Â
All your budget is getting sucked into this one big tool that is core to your business, which you know is old and needs replacement and updating?Â
But, where do you get the money?
So, what NASA did that you won't able to
NASA had to make a bold choice: putting the iconic space shuttle in mothballs and the museum. Thus freeing up the time and money to hunt for other ways to get us into space. But this meant that for years, NASA could not get into space itself, and was reliant on other countries to get them to the International Space Station.
And this is why I love the NASA analogy. It is clear, almost tangible, and speaks to the imagination.
Clearly, what NASA did, is not something you can easily do for your business.
Can you imagine going to the board with the suggestion and plan that you will stop running your core support applications, and that you will outsource these to competitors or ‘colleagues’ in the market?
I am quite sure many boards would hit their recruiter on speed-dial to see who will succeed you to come up with a new and better plan.
Instead, plan and prevent
No, NASA’s example shows that when you let things get too far, there is almost no way back.
But for many of us the future is not so bleak. Even if you have a monolith of an application that arranges the core of your business, which is at the heart of your business, there is a way out. But that way out starts with managing, and I mean really taking control, your spenditures, investments and innovations.
This needs a hard look at your software portfolio and how you are governing the critical question of ‘How much capacity do we have left to invest in innovation?’. And it takes courage, but also clear insight and a planned approach to step away from sinking your budget into your very own space shuttle.
However, it takes but one action to start the journey. Analyse your portfolio and prevent your innovation drain. Just start today!
Feel you need a bit of help to get you started? Do not hesitate to reach out, we might be able to help!
About the author
Wouter Knigge
Wouter Knigge is Director Solutions & Advisory at Software Improvement Group (SIG),