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Tag: software development

Spaceships and Software

Software: The Real MVP of the Artemis II Mission

Written by STEP Software on . Posted in Blog.

When most people think about space missions, they picture rockets, astronauts, and dramatic launches. But behind every successful mission, especially one as ambitious as Artemis II, there’s something far less visible doing the heavy lifting: software. For business and technology leaders, Artemis II is more than a space story. It’s a masterclass in how mission-critical software enables complex systems, manages risk, creates competitive advantage, and determines success or failure. Let’s dive into the software that is taking humans around the moon and back. A Mission Half a Century...

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Large Language Model

What Is an LLM (Really)? A Practical Guide for Business and Technology Leaders

Written by STEP Software on . Posted in Blog.

Large Language Models (LLMs) are having a moment. They’re hot topics around boardroom tables, branches of product roadmaps, and part of just about every vendor pitch deck. But behind the buzzword is a concept that’s both simpler and more nuanced than it first appears. For tech and business leaders, understanding what an LLM is (and just as importantly, what it is not) is key to making smart, strategic decisions. This week we dive into LLM’s from the perspective of a software development company who fields questions about with our advisory client’s and uses them to achieve our client’s...

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21 Years of STEP Software

21 Years of STEP Software: Celebrating Change

Written by STEP Software on . Posted in Blog.

March 2026 marks an exciting milestone for STEP Software: 21 years in business. That’s right, STEP is officially old enough to… well, legally drink in the U.S., which feels appropriate given everything the tech industry has put us through over the past two decades. But jokes aside, 21 years in technology isn’t just a milestone, it’s a front-row seat to one of the most transformative periods in business history. From clunky legacy systems to cloud-native platforms and AI-powered tools, the way organizations build and use software has changed dramatically. This anniversary is a...

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System Failure

When Disaster Strikes: What to Do If Your Legacy System Goes Down

Written by STEP Software on . Posted in Blog.

For many organizations, legacy systems are still the backbone of critical business operations. They run billing, logistics, manufacturing systems, financial systems, payroll in many cases and even customer records. When faced with a cyberattack, software defect, or natural disaster, the consequences are immediate for businesses and downstream partners. Over the last five years alone, there have been several high-profile incidents showing how quickly a technology failure can become a business crisis. The lesson is simple: legacy systems don’t fail gracefully; and if you don’t have a...

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AI Literacy

AI Literacy Matters, Now More Than Ever

Written by STEP Software on . Posted in Blog.

AI is touching nearly every role in every industry, from customer service chatbots to automated data workflows to AI-assisted coding. According to recent data, job postings that mention AI skills have more than doubled from 2023 to 2025, showing that employers increasingly value (and require) these competencies in the labour market. AI literacy, even at a basic level, has become a competitive advantage across sectors. However, according to a global study that included Canadian respondents, Canada ranks among the lowest-performing advanced economies in AI literacy and training, with only...

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Out of stock RAM

Got RAM? Not so Fast: What the 2026 RAM Famine Means for Businesses

Written by STEP Software on . Posted in Blog.

As we turn the calendar page to the final month of Q1-2026, one of the tech world’s most surprising supply-chain stories isn’t about the chips we’ve always struggled to source, it’s about memory, RAM (random-access memory) to be precise. A once relatively stable commodity that has suddenly become scarce, expensive, and a central concern around boardroom planning tables across the globe. From skyrocketing server costs to delayed product launches, this ‘memory famine’ is more than a semiconductor blip, it’s shaping up to be one of the defining(and concerning) tech supply trends of the...

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Coding with AI

AI Coding Agents: Yes, Maybe, or No?

Written by STEP Software on . Posted in Blog.

If you have been following anything tech or AI related the past couple of weeks your feeds have likely blown up with headlines about Claude Opus 4.6 and autonomous coding agents. The latest flagship model by AI Research company Anthropic is at the center of the frenzy: 16 Claude AI agents tasked to build a Rust-based C compiler is a milestone that feels straight out of science fiction. What’s the real story here, is this 2026’s version of vibe-coding? This week on our blog we dive into the excitement of coding with AI, the approach with caution areas and the disappointing parts of...

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Ducks to the Rescue

Ducks to the Rescue: Rubber Duck Debugging

Written by STEP Software on . Posted in Blog.

Have you ever been working on a tough puzzle or working through a complex problem and no matter what you do you cannot seem to make progress? Then, on the precipice of giving up, you get up, verbalize it and ‘poof’ a solution is identified! Congrats, you just rubber ducked a solution. This phenomenon, in the software world, is known as rubber ducking. It’s wonderfully weird, a bit eccentric and powerfully effective; it’s a debugging technique beloved by programmers worldwide. At face value, rubber ducking sounds like something from an ‘Alice in Wonderland’s’ code review session. But...

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Writing Software SOWs

Writing Software SOWs Right: It’s all About the Details

Written by STEP Software on . Posted in Blog.

Statements of Work (SOWs) exist in almost every industry, but software development SOWs are a different beast entirely. Unlike construction projects or professional services engagements where deliverables are often fixed and visible, software is intangible, evolving, and deeply tied to business assumptions which often change mid-project. Software’s inherent intangible nature is exactly why a well-written software SOW isn’t just paperwork. It’s risk management, budget protection, and expectation alignment rolled into one tidy, detailed, collaborative document. If you’re outsourcing...

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Do no harm

First, Do No Harm: What Software Can Learn from Medical Ethics

Written by STEP Software on . Posted in Blog.

In medicine, the phrase ‘First, do no harm’ is often associated with the Hippocratic Oath and echoed in the Nightingale Pledge. Both remind healthcare providers that their interventions shouldn’t make a patient worse than their original condition. While that phrase isn’t in the ancient oath, verbatim, the principle underpins modern clinical practice: cure, fix, remedy, yes; but never at the cost of worsening health. Surprisingly, this principle has a lot to teach software developers, especially when we’re brought in to work on someone else’s codebase, apply surgical fixes, or help...

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