Not All Software Is Manufactured

Manufactured : produced in a large-scale industrial operation.

A confusion exists concerning the process of marketing of the product of software development.

The formation of software (through programming) is not the same as the marketing of software (the cds, disks, documentation, packaging) through the channels of distribution.

When software development is complete and the packaged materials are ready for assembly, SoftwareIsManufactured.

It is not unlike the design of a machine or material object including particulars of shape, color, operation, etc. that manufacturing of the product begins.

There is a separation that exists between research, engineering, design and formation, from the process of physically producing a product. It should not be a difficult thing to understand separation of concerns.

Management of the separate concerns of the software development process and the packaging and marketing of the developed product may or may not be separated.

Corporate operational software as opposed to Manufactured Software, is also a separate concern and is managed in a totally different way. While Manufactured Software is versioned, Corporate operation software is maintained.

The point to be made is that when we speak in general of software, we are often imprecise in distinguishing between development and manufacture. There are manufactured software products intended for widespread general usage, and there are also categories of software that are specialized and narrowly used. This is what is meant by NotAllSoftwareIsManufactured.