By software product (SP) we mean software as a result of human activity, exhibited in the market of mass buyer as a commodity and having a non-zero use value.
It is very important to distinguish between the replicated software product and the project software. Circulation PP is produced so that it can be used in many places by different users. Therefore, it has no customers, and the decision to begin development is based on anticipated market demand. Word processors, spreadsheets, database management systems, electronic dictionaries, spelling correctors, russifiers, translators, optical character recognition software are all examples of batch PP. All over the world millions of people use them.
The project software is created for one, rarely – for several users or is developed as a part of technology that can be sold to another organization to be used as a part of the hardware and software complex. For example, part of the ParaGraph International team working on character recognition problems works in this direction. Having no more than a dozen potential customers, nevertheless, this firm is a giant in its field.
Thus, if a project usually has one or more users, the question of continuing development is not so acute, and the competition is for the right to lead the development. On the contrary, a mass-produced software product is intended for hundreds of thousands of potential users, and competition with other products of the same class is inevitable when it appears on the market. At the moment when the decision to start development is made, the firm takes a significant financial risk. At the same time, the manufacturer should clearly realize that the release of one version will not be the end, since the life cycle of a PP implies its improvement.
Another important difference between a PP and many other goods is that a single copy of a software product has a small cost. This property, unique to the manufacturer, allows the introduction of new forms of interaction with the client after the first sale of a software product. We mean upgrade, that is the right to update the PP on the same, but new, improved version for a small fee. The concept of upgrade allows the user to consider different versions of PP as one PP, while for the manufacturer of different versions sometimes serve as different projects and, accordingly, completely different products.
All programs by the nature of use and categories of users can be divided into two classes:
Nowadays there are variants of legal distribution of software products, which appeared with the use of global or regional telecommunications:
The software product should be properly prepared for exploitation, have the necessary technical documentation, provide service and a guarantee of reliable operation of the program, have the manufacturer’s trademark and preferably have the state registration code. Only under these conditions the created software package can be called a software product.
Software product is a set of interconnected programs to solve a particular problem (task) of mass demand, prepared for implementation as any kind of industrial products.
The way from “programs for yourself” to software products is long enough, it is connected with changes of technical and software environment of development and operation of programs, with emergence and development of independent industry – information business, which is characterized by division of labor of firms – software developers, their further specialization, formation of the market of software tools and information services.
Software products can be created as: