Software is critical to the success of Swiss-based power and automation technology giant ABB. It is the ‘glue’ that holds the £15 billion company's systems together—which means a high level of consistency is required in development and application. This paper describes the company's approach to harmonising and expediting software processes through the group—including the establishment of a common framework for software development and maturity, an online experience database to share lessons learned and a ‘decision gate’ model to expedite projects.