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E-PUB and Paperback Coming October!!

HUMAN SOFTWARE follows the stories of two very different women working in tech, set against a backdrop of global uncertainty, AI data centres and corporate greed.

Meetings, Product Owners, Product Managers, Scrum, Agile, Stand-ups, Reviews. Corporate IT life can be dehumanising …but systems still need to keep running.

BETH works as a software engineer for an American logistics company in south-east Kent, UK. When CHRISSIE, a new executive, is sent over to carry out a savage restructuring, things don’t go to plan for anyone.

SOFTWARE RUNS THE WORLD..

In 2010, billionaire Marc Andreessen argued that “Software is eating the world” and kicked off an investment frenzy that directly led to the increased dominance of software in all of our lives. Whether it’s through our smartphones, televisions, dishwashers, or central heating systems, software is everywhere and controlled by a small group that essentially defines how we live our lives.

..BUT IT DOESN’T RULE OUR LIVES

But what about the people who build and maintain the software? What happens when lives are on the line? The consequences can be dire, as we’ve seen with in recent events such as the UK Post Office Horizon Scandal or the Boeing 737 Max. Who is responsible? Who is on the end of the phone?

Human Software: A Life in IT by Richard W. Bown

RESISTANCE IS NOT FUTILE

Set in the fictional town of Sandport in Kent, UK. HUMAN SOFTWARE is both a satire and an engagement with corporate culture. It explores how corporate IT and software engineering are often caught trying to solve competing business objectives, or pandering to different executives’ machinations, always playing catch-up to industry hype while always trying its best in the face of mounting pressure from users.

HUMAN SOFTWARE is the debut novel by Richard W. Bown. A thirty-year survivor of corporate software engineering culture.

HUMAN SOFTWARE is a glimpse behind the curtain to a world where decisions often don’t make any sense, where individual careers are made and ruined in a moment, and yet where the systems have to keep working 24/7.

Themes

Exploring themes of globalisation, community and the impact of burnout in the workplace. It highlights the disconnect between the ideals of modern software systems and the human realities of building and maintaining them.

Inspired and triggered by such industry-leading books as The Phoenix Project and The Goal, HUMAN SOFTWARE is a reaction against the standard corporate approach, which draws parallels with the movies Local Hero and The Pelican Brief.

The Blog

Here’s where I post updates about what’s happening in the world of Human Software.