Maintenance is often classified as reactive work: it’s the minimum required to keep things running smoothly. But users’ needs change over time, too. Software must also change to meet these needs, or else risk becoming irrelevant. Clayton Christensen famously identifies and analyzes this problem in The Innovator’s Dilemma, the book in which he tries to understand why successful companies can be overtaken by new ones, even if they are doing well. By focusing too much on iterating upon their incumbent product, companies risk missing major opportunities for so-called “disruptive innovation,” which
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