Re: Slow Down Development, NO; Speed up Minds, YES

[Chris Hamilton <cah_91 -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

--- Dave Whelan <dave -dot- whelan -at- home -dot- com> wrote:
> If clients were offered a choice between two
versions of the same software, one that worked
properly and one that didn't, do you think they would
choose the dysfunctional version, even at a
substantial discount?

Let's say I have a need to do something and use
networked computers to do it. That something costs me
tons of time and money now, and it isn't even remotely
failsafe. So I look to a company to provide a solution
for me.

The solution is the first version of a networked
messaging system. It's kind of buggy and the install
requires them to send their own people out to guide us
through it. When it runs, it's not quite perfect and
there is a noticeable error rate.

But it's faster and more cost efficient than the
previous method and improvements will come with
subsequent versions. My error rate, while still higher
than I would like, is substantially lower than it used
to be. And that will improve, too.

It's not perfect and many times I leave work
irritated, but it's a lot better than what came before
it. I would rather have gotten the software now, even
buggy, than to have waited two years for them to
perfect it.

Oh, yeah, it costs lots of money to develop software.
Getting products to market earlier, rather than later,
helps pay your salary and keep you employed. The level
of bugginess to accept is a business issue. The people
paying the bills get to make that call, and they will
call on revenue before perfection, especially when a
product is new.

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