The software industry is the most powerful wealth creator in history. It's an industry of extreme success - unrivalled job creation, extraordinary growth, accelerated product cycles - but the failures can be just as spectacular. What can we learn from the winners? In Secrets of Software Success, the authors investigate the software industry's best practices in order to develop a complete picture of what it takes to build a thriving software business. Drawing on an exclusive worldwide survey of more than 100 global software companies and 450 top executives, Secrets of Software Success presents the first panoramic view of the conditions that influence results for both the product and the service sides of the software industry. In the highly readable and often provocative examples from well-known firms, the authors debunk many widely held-beliefs, and offer instead some surprisingly counter-intuitive findings. Ultimately, say the authors, the secret to success lies in the details - the ability to choose from a range of key management decisions in order to balance the right set of actions at the right time to rapidly changing market conditions. With its universal lessons of competition, commitment, talent, and timing, Secrets of Software Success holds valuable answers to the questions asked by executives in every industry. Covering firms from Australia to Zimbabwe, it is the most in-depth picture to date of the conditions that surround success in the global software business.