The chef not only thinks about what to serve today; they must also keep in mind the available ingredients, the tools in the kitchen, and the quality of each item. If they don't manage all of this well, ingredients can spoil, tools can fail, and ultimately, the customer experience gets compromised. The same story applies in the software world.
Each project is like a menu, and every asset is an ingredient. If we don't know what we have in our pantry—our code libraries, frameworks, and management tools—we waste valuable time searching for what already exists or, worse, reinventing the wheel. Without visibility into our assets, we risk duplicating efforts and using resources inefficiently.
Our Tools in the Cloud
Any company working in the software context manages its technological assets, including business management tools and online promotion services. These range from classic enterprise management systems to domain management.
The management of IT assets is becoming increasingly necessary as digital operations grow. Collaborative work platforms, design tools, document management, project management, and promotion services are increasingly contracted as cloud services.
Double Dose of IT Asset Management in Software Companies
In IT companies, their products are software assets themselves, which adds two more layers of asset management: the tools for software development and the technological solutions with their corresponding components.
Whether utilizing in-house hosting or cloud services, the development toolset—including IDEs, version control systems, bug tracking tools, and test automation platforms—requires consistent monitoring and maintenance. This includes implementing feature and security updates to ensure that our development team has the optimal environment for productivity and efficiency.
With Intangible Ingredients unforeseen failures can occur
In software projects, any solution uses at least six software assets: the base technologies we develop our solutions with, such as programming languages and database systems; the libraries containing common elements the team works with; and the APIs and external services required.
The version of the programming language, the database management system, the libraries, and technologies in use form a web of interrelations that complicate development and maintenance plans.
When we fail to manage the expiration of our ingredients in software development, two phenomena occur:
- Degradation of Functionality: Unexpected failures occur when we ignore the need for updates or reorganization.
- Scope Creep: Deviations from project scope happen when the development team is preoccupied with updates.
Any of these variants generate unforeseen costs in the work plans. Although the phenomenon that we suffer most from in our industry is that we do not anticipate or postpone maintenance actions until some functions begin to fail, or the systems themselves become slower and more dysfunctional.
Maintenance actions for our application components are one of the most beneficial long-term actions for the company. However, this requires personnel who are organized and focused on performance and long-term evolution of the solution. Even when we are fortunate to have such specialists, the lack of foresight regarding these actions in the development plan naturally leads to scope creep due to unforeseen maintenance actions.
On the other hand, when the tech team intends to perform preventive maintenance, it’s not easy to answer questions like: How much will the update cost? How long will it take?
Without a clear list of all our assets, it’s impossible to know which systems might be affected by that change. If we don’t have a list of the "ingredients" used in each "dish," we won’t know which dishes will be impacted by the absence of any ingredient in our kitchen.
Do we have a recipe for this Muddle?
Planning is key. Just as a chef plans their menu to make the most of fresh ingredients, we must organize our projects to maximize our software assets. This means cataloging, classifying, and maintaining an inventory of what we have. But it’s not just about making a list; we need to know how, when, and why to use each asset.
Controlling these resources is where many face challenges. Without a system to monitor the usage and status of our assets, we can lose our way. Each project can become a real challenge, where time slips away and deadlines approach while we search for the code we need or the tool that could have made our task easier.
So, instead of sailing blindly, let's open our eyes. Investing in software asset management is not a luxury; It is a necessity. Every well-managed asset is a step towards efficiency, innovation and, ultimately, success. The story we tell is not only measured in lines of code, but in our ability to create effective and valuable solutions, day after day.