Evolution: Why do they evolve?

[amyjko]

The article talks about how evolution is done/managed, but I think it would be interesting to talk about why programs evolve. Not because of technical reasons like the change in languages, perse, but rather the social implications. It's not super relevant to this particular article, but I think it would still be interesting to address.

One critique that I would like to give to this chapter is, the article has been continuously claiming the benefit of changes and evolution, but what could be some key timings or points that inform people there should be a change. Would it be based more on the company vision, or on the customer value change, or the trendy? If it is one of these, how does one affect the decision makings comparing to others?

The introductory paragraphs pose some questions about whether users should have say when their experiences should change but the chapter does not elaborate on these points any further. I am curious about examples of where software is driven by users opposed to software that is driven by developers. Which approach is better and how does each approach impact software evolution?

The article did a good job of explaining how and why software changes over time, and ways to keep track and test these changes. One thing that was missing that I was interested in learning more about was when requirements change, do software teams go back and edit the old requirement list? Basically what is the relationship between the requirement list and the software after the initial build that meets the requirements has been released.