Why does software still take years to ship when months should be enough?

1•saichler•1mo ago

Across startups and large enterprises alike, we keep solving the same problems: security, scalability, networking, observability, deployment.

Over the years we added tools, layers, frameworks, and now AI. Yet idea-to-production still takes years in environments where months should be achievable.

This did not happen by accident, but it did become normalized. I am trying to understand how this happened and what would actually reverse it.

Comments

rawgabbit•1mo ago

In enterprise, you are dealing with many years of decisions, integrations, and changes in architecture. Business processes changes, development team processes change, IT vendors change, and leadership changes. You also do not have the source code to everything that the business depends on. What you have are the glue scripts and integrations to various black boxes that change their behavior every update. This is not a question about DevOps. It is also not a question about business process or change management. With large organizations, this is really more about governance and regulating the different independent vested interests.

auslegung•1mo ago

> idea-to-production still takes years in environments where months should be achievable

Source? My career isn’t terribly long, and it’s all been at startups, but it’s never taken me or any team I’ve been on years to ship anything.

The next frontier in weight-loss drugs: one-time gene therapy

At Age 25, Wikipedia Refuses to Evolve

Show HN: ReviewReact – AI review responses inside Google Maps ($19/mo)

Why AlphaTensor Failed at 3x3 Matrix Multiplication: The Anchor Barrier

Ask HN: How much of your token use is fixing the bugs Claude Code causes?

Show HN: Agents – Sync MCP Configs Across Claude, Cursor, Codex Automatically

Hello

FSD helped save my father's life during a heart attack

Show HN: Writtte – Draft and publish articles without reformatting, anywhere

Portuguese icon (FROM A CAN) makes a simple meal (Canned Fish Files) [video]

Brookhaven Lab's RHIC Concludes 25-Year Run with Final Collisions

Transcribe your aunts post cards with Gemini 3 Pro

.72% Variance Lance

ReKindle – web-based operating system designed specifically for E-ink devices

Encrypt It

NextMatch – 5-minute video speed dating to reduce ghosting

Personalizing esketamine treatment in TRD and TRBD

SpaceKit.xyz – a browser‑native VM for decentralized compute

NotebookLM: The AI that only learns from you

Show HN: An open-source starter kit for developing with Postgres and ClickHouse

Game Boy Advance d-pad capacitor measurements

South Korean crypto firm accidentally sends $44B in bitcoins to users

Apache Poison Fountain

Web.whatsapp.com appears to be having issues syncing and sending messages

Google in Your Terminal

Shannon: Claude Code for Pen Testing: #1 on Github today

Anthropic: Latest Claude model finds more than 500 vulnerabilities

Brooklyn cemetery plans human composting option, stirring interest and debate

Why the 'Strivers' Are Right

Brain Dumps as a Literary Form