Lessons learned from VCommerce: A virtual environment for interdisciplinary learning about software entrepreneurship

Technical people know the tension created by accelerated development cycles coupled with expanded feature sets. Likewise, managers have all experienced the frustration of proposing a critical competitive feature and having the technical staff stare in stunned silence. New features are easy to imagine, but not always easy to implement by next Friday. Over the last few years, as companies have been striving to compete on “internet time,” [9] the conflicting pressures of deadlines and fancy new features has risen to new heights. While the dot-bombs have come and gone, the reality of market-driven competition is certainly here to stay. The ability to make clever trade-offs between business objectives and technical possibilities is an important skill for managers and technical people alike.