Custom Development | Revenue Software |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Key Metric | Staff Utilization (busy developers) | Users (subscribers, licenses) |
| Business Model | Mark-up on staff hours | Re-use of identical bits |
| We track... | Projects/programs | Products/releases |
| Essential skills | Sales, business development | Segmentation, validation |
| Innovation ownership & risk | Client owns IP: we hope they pay and send more projects our way | We own IP: we hope target segment pays handsomely for perceived value |
| Graded first on... | On time, on budget, on spec | Market winner vs. competition |
| Customer wants a one-off? | "Great! Here's a change order" | "Let me put that (deep) into the backlog." |
| Plan to productize platforms? | Always sacrificed when paid projects run late | Essential part of product line planning |