It turns out that software developers may have something to learn from the garment industry. I just read the "My Turn" editorial in the 30 October 2006 issue of Newsweek, entitled "How to Keep Your Shirt". The author, Sudhir Dhingra, describes both his experiences in starting up and running a garment business in India. It's quite a story, detailing the trials of the licensing bureaucracy, corrupt officials, various kinds of red tape, competing with China, and the successes of eventual partnerships with the likes of Ralph Lauren, Banana Republic, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, and Levis.
One lesson Dhingra recounts, as a result of being stuck with piles of unsold Nehru shirts (remember that '70's craze?), is that "in the garment business you have to make fashion, not follow trends." Other conclusions he draws include, "We don't just make clothes, we design them," and "We successfully compete with China because we make a better product."
I was particularly struck by this key statement: "I came to see that the key to success in the globalizing apparel market is to be involved in design and development with the customer."
To me, Dhingra's lessons learned sound like they were written by the advocates of agile software development. Apart from the current hype surrounding the agile movement, don't Dhingra's conclusions square with good principles of software development in general? Who would argue that being a leader in good design, making better products, and working closely with the customer are not keys to software product success?
A favorite discussion question in the software community is what other discipline is our industry like? Is writing software similar to designing a building? Or is it more like writing poetry or painting a picture? You find plenty of opinions at both ends of the spectrum, but Dhingra demonstrates we can probably learn a lot from the garment industry.
J.A.W.
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