I’ve written a novel called HUMAN SOFTWARE. It’s about how engineers and IT leaders work, how we support 365/24/7 systems, and how companies can sometimes exploit our natural behaviours.
Meet Beth & Chrissie
Beth is a lead engineer for the UK subsidiary of a US-based company called Gerbach. She lives in the fictional town of Sandport, Kent, with her husband, Dominic, and her kids, Maddie and Eric. She’s in her late 30s, and she loves her job; however, she is increasingly getting tired of the middle-of-the-night support calls, the endless meetings, the new managers, the revolving door of staff, new technologies, and the increasing pressure to deliver more features, faster.
Beth feels like she’s losing touch with her career and her family. Sometimes, she wishes she could do the job without caring so much. Can’t she do a job well without having to progress? Can’t she just be left alone to do her work, as she was earlier in her career?
Chrissie is the executive tasked with reducing costs in the UK business. As an experienced consultant, this is her first executive role and a big chance to impress her bosses after returning to work after raising her child.
Through Beth, Chrissie and their families and friends, we explore the dynamics of real-world software development in a cloud-first, always-on world where a single mistake could mean life or death.
Why Did I Write a Novel?
Software development has unique pressures and challenges. It’s a profession that rewards critical thinkers. It’s a job that encourages us to keep learning, but it’s also a job of work. Quality of software is often difficult to define and hard to prove. Ultimately people are on the line when something goes wrong.
And what happens when software systems go wrong? The news is full of stories from the fallout from the UK’s recent Horizon software scandal to the Boeing 737 max software disasters. These terrible disasters led to people losing their livelihoods and even their lives due to failures in software systems or their management.
“A proper page-turner… makes serious points about generative AI, globalisation and dehumanisation.” – Charles Humble, Tech Journalist
“Freaked me out more than any Stephen King novel.” – Jeremy Markey, Rands Slack Book Reviewer
“Absolutely gripping! Valuable lessons for leaders and developers alike.” – Lovdeep Pannu, CTO
“A sharp, compelling novel… David versus Goliath in the age of AI.” – Susanne Kaiser, Tech Consultant
Exploring the human cost of software development
Inspired by a lifetime of working in software development, I wanted to write a book which has, at its heart, the visceral human experience of building, maintaining and supporting software.
Like so many others in my profession, I was moved by the fictional stories of The Phoenix Project and The Unicorn Project. When I read them, I finally felt that my experiences had been heard and were valued. But ultimately, those are both business manuals, not stories.
I wanted to explore further the difficulties building and supporting world-class software puts on individuals and families. I wanted to examine the interactions inside and outside our software teams in more detail. More than that, I didn’t want to come to a chocolate box perfect ending.
Software development is hard, so where are the books that celebrate that for itself, allow us to live with it without attempting to devise a solution?
About the author
Richard Bown was born and raised in Kent. Graduating from Bath University with a BSc/MEng in Electronic Engineering, he worked as a software engineer and contractor in the UK until 2007, when he moved to the Netherlands with his family to continue his career. He started writing this blog in 2022.
Human Software is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Leanpub and other platforms.