Perspectives [The changing nature of software evolution; The inevitability of evolution]

Summary form only given. Traditionally, software evolution took place after software development put a system in place. However, the pace of change in technology and competition has changed the nature of software evolution to a continuous process, in which there´s no neat boundary between development and evolution. Many traditional software development assumptions and practices haven´t recognized this changing nature and increasingly find themselves in deep trouble as a result. Minimizing development costs by adopting numerous off-the-shelf products often leads to unaffordable evolution costs as vendors ship new releases and stop supporting the old ones. Assuming that a single form of evolutionary development covers all situations often leads to unrealistic commitments and dead-end systems as situations change.