Setting up a software shop requires substantial financial investments. One problem the industry faces is that no one agrees on where the biggest payoff can be realized for each dollar invested. The fact that software science does not lend itself to mass-production techniques compounds the difficulty. Furthermore, software is too broad a topic to have a single solution. Thus, all the domains of software must be considered before making an investment. Many software shops treat all software the same way. Different problems, however, demand different investments. For example, the investments producing real-time, safety-critical systems are far different from those needed for order-entry systems. One aspect the industry does agree on, though, is that programmers make the crucial difference between success and failure. This paper discusses programmer productivity and its importance to a software development organization.