We're building software a lot faster now, compared with 10 or 15 years ago.  How are we doing it?  I put together this list to kick off a "Development Summit" event for our local trade organization, the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council.

1) Staffing.  We are innovating with distributed teams, ecosystems, open source, incubators, outsourcing, crowdsourcing, etc.  This gets first place, because the team you put together has a bigger effect on outcomes than anything else.

2) Methodologies and management.  This includes the agile methodologies, continuous integration, lean startups, and people management techniques for both distributed and co-located groups.

3) Tools.  This includes installed and hosted hardware and software for developers

4) Platforms and Code.  The base development platforms and available code, much of it open source, are always improving.

5) Cloud and on-demand resources.  This encompasses a lot of the above (staffing, code, tools, platform as a service) but is worth its own category, because you can now go out on the global Internet and get a lot of things that will accelerate development "on demand".

6) Rapid deployment and feedback.  This includes SaaS, appstores, flash memory, phone home, feedback sites, and user reviews.