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About the Book
Product Owners, Product Managers, Scrum, Agile, Stand-ups, Reviews.
Corporate IT life can be dehumanising …but systems still need to keep running.
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.
Beth works as a software engineer for an American logistics company. When a new executive is sent to carry out a savage restructuring, things don’t go to plan for anyone.
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 is often caught trying to solve competing business objectives, or pandering to different executives’ machinations, always playing catchup to industry hype while always trying its best in the face of mounting pressure from users.
Corporate life can be as dehumanising as it is caring, unpredictable as it is stable and shocking as it is boring.
HUMAN SOFTWARE is the debut novel by Richard W. Bown. A thirty year survivor of corporate software engineering culture.
HUMAN SOFTWARE will be available in September 2025.
About the Author
Software engineering is rife with contradictions—roles that shouldn’t exist, people who do things that they shouldn’t. Having worked in the industry for thirty years, I thought it was time I started writing about it. Human Software is my first novel, inspired by the work I've done for dozens of different global corporations in the UK, the Netherlands and further afield over my career. It's set in a part of the world I know well, but with a twist, and it features characters inspired by those I've met along the way.
As a programmer, I’ve contributed to the world of Open-Source Software since the mid-’90s. I’ve also worked as a technology journalist and continue contributing to the discussion about how we build more humane software engineering organisations. I regularly publish on my blog and I have an occasional podcast. I’m also active over on LinkedIn.