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.