Software is not a tool. It is embodied knowledge.

What is software, if we set aside the technical and engineering perspective and look at it from the user's point of view?

Is it just a tool that helps you complete a task faster and more easily? Is it perhaps an annoyance that bothers you, for example with mandatory data entry in a prescribed format? Is software a tireless supervisor that constantly monitors, measures, and evaluates your work? Or is software perhaps a recipe for how to complete a task faster, more easily, in short, more efficiently? And bypass the chaos caused by using Excel, emails, phones, and other utilities.

If we want to quickly make soup, we take an instant preparation. Making that preparation requires specific expertise from its manufacturer. Is it not the same with software, that its maker needs expertise? That is, knowledge, experience, and skills? Put differently, a large number of soups cooked and tasters who tried and evaluated them, and with feedback helped the manufacturer improve their flavor.

Software can clearly be viewed as a recipe for how to carry out a given task optimally, from the perspective of the process itself and the resources consumed. We can even go a step further. When a given software starts being used by a large number of stakeholders in a specific field, for example in the experience industry, we can say that it quietly standardizes how work processes are managed in that field.

Yes, that is exactly the direction of software's essence, if we look at it from the user and social perspective. I will try to structure this thought.

A tool is not enough

To say that software is just a tool is like saying that a map is just a piece of paper, a novel merely a sequence of letters, and sheet music a jumble of lines and strange symbols. A tool presupposes that the user knows how something should be done and that software merely helps them do it faster. In practice, this is most often not the case and the opposite holds true.

Software as recipe, a very good analogy

The analogy with instant soup is extremely accurate. A recipe means that someone else has already done the thinking for you, tried different paths, removed unnecessary steps, and determined what is best, that is the correct sequence. When a user uses software, they no longer think about how a task should be done optimally, they just follow the steps the software enables or, if you will, imposes. Software is therefore operationalized expertise.

The software developer as a Michelin-star chef

An instant soup is of course not something random, but the result of a precisely defined ratio of prescribed ingredients, a sequence of procedures, and compromises between preparation speed, taste, and product cost. Software too is not merely a technical implementation, but condensed knowledge: of systems analysts, process designers, UX planners and designers, software development engineers, testers, and so on. The user does not see this knowledge, but they use it.

Software as quiet standardization, yes, absolutely

This is one of the most powerful, yet usually overlooked properties of software. When a given software reaches a critical mass of users, it does not just standardize the tool, but also the way of thinking, working, and the outputs. Software defines what a normal workflow is, it defines the phases of the work process, it determines who performs checks and when, it defines the appearance and content of output documents, and so on.

Users start adapting to the software, not the other way around, and with that, software becomes an informal regulator of business practice. It shapes user behavior, teaches them what is right, and often even replaces their own knowledge in the long term. Software does not just speed up a task. It redefines it.

Summary

Software is an embodied recipe for the optimal execution of specific tasks, which through use quietly standardizes the practice and behavior of its users. This is not a technical definition and this is no longer IT. This is a user, organizational, and social definition. This is a philosophy of practice.

Zoran Bistrički, Senior Consultant