iovation was going through a rapid growth phase. Product enhancement requests from customers, executives, customer support, and engineers were piling up. Features were being delivered, but there was significant dissatisfaction with their nature, completeness, and timing.

In discussions with product management professionals, it became clear that many organizations faced a similar problem: They expected a return (in the form of sales revenue) on their product development investment (in the form of labor or capital costs). Unfortunately, as known and unknown risks came to fruition, they ended up "throwing good money after bad," to the severe detriment of the product and the organization.

Corillian powered the internet banking sites of some of the world's largest financial institutions. We had to maintain the highest standards for web application security.

In an effort to extend its market beyond online banking for consumers, Corillian decided to transform a custom small business online banking implementation into a full-fledged product.

In 2003, Corillian took a hard look at the markets it was serving and accessible markets that we were leaving underserved.

As Corillian grew its customer base and revenue, its development organization had to scale and mature.

In 1998, Corillian was a one-year-old start-up with a couple of internet banking products. The company had to differentiate itself from larger competitors and close business with marquee customers in its market.

By 1994, Moore's Law had created a challenge for Intel Corporation: business and consumer software applications drove the majority of demand for microprocessors. However, software's need for faster and faster microprocessors was diminishing.

Intel's Supercomputer Systems Division faced a serious problem. Delays in the availability of hardware prevented the downstream operating system group from developing its software, and delays in the development of the operating system prevented the downstream application group from developing its software.