The production of application software is rapidly being industrialized. Computer manufacturers and software houses produce a rapidly growing number of generic software applications and systems, and more and more user companies choose to build their computer-based information systems with such generic products, instead of custom made software. We discuss how the move away from traditional in-house development and the increasing use of generic software is likely to transform IS development in the near future. We conclude that these developments will make new demands on the information systems professionals and that the conditions for user participation will change radically.