Comments on: The Developer’s Dilemma http://blog.oofn.net/2008/05/07/the-developer%e2%80%99s-dilemma/ You have found the home of Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:57:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Matt Ronge http://blog.oofn.net/2008/05/07/the-developer%e2%80%99s-dilemma/#comment-142311 Matt Ronge Thu, 08 May 2008 15:41:19 +0000 http://blog.oofn.net/2008/05/07/the-developer%e2%80%99s-dilemma/#comment-142311 One thing about shipping early and often is it forces you to work on what is most important for the app. It's like iterations, and it keeps you focused, and provides early feedback in case you're headed in the wrong direction, or someone has an idea you've never thought of. Or atleast that's the idea :) I too have fallen into the trap of wanting everything to be perfect before releasing, here's to releasing and getting some of those projects out into the wild. One thing about shipping early and often is it forces you to work on what is most important for the app. It’s like iterations, and it keeps you focused, and provides early feedback in case you’re headed in the wrong direction, or someone has an idea you’ve never thought of.

Or atleast that’s the idea :)
I too have fallen into the trap of wanting everything to be perfect before releasing, here’s to releasing and getting some of those projects out into the wild.

]]> By: Marc Charbonneau http://blog.oofn.net/2008/05/07/the-developer%e2%80%99s-dilemma/#comment-142294 Marc Charbonneau Wed, 07 May 2008 23:51:10 +0000 http://blog.oofn.net/2008/05/07/the-developer%e2%80%99s-dilemma/#comment-142294 I think that for most developers, it's not a matter of continuously polishing projects, but being over-ambitious at the planning stage. It's too easy to think "this doesn't have enough features to be competitive" and end up 6 months later with a complex codebase filled with stub methods and half finished features. I think that for most developers, it’s not a matter of continuously polishing projects, but being over-ambitious at the planning stage. It’s too easy to think “this doesn’t have enough features to be competitive” and end up 6 months later with a complex codebase filled with stub methods and half finished features.

]]> By: Joey Hagedorn http://blog.oofn.net/2008/05/07/the-developer%e2%80%99s-dilemma/#comment-142293 Joey Hagedorn Wed, 07 May 2008 23:48:31 +0000 http://blog.oofn.net/2008/05/07/the-developer%e2%80%99s-dilemma/#comment-142293 I think one of the reasons why people are afraid to demonstrate works in progress is because then all one gets is feedback about what is broken, and this detracts from making progress on the core valuable features and design aspects of the software. When you can ship a completed project, you won't get user reports about misaligned text or some graphical glitch, because you've fixed all of those, they were obvious anyway. The valuable feedback is about some real core design issue, or usability problem. That said, I wonder if the modern uses of "beta" in reference to software end up confusing people too. Sometimes a beta is pretty much ready to ship, just searching for bugs, whereas other people will release a beta that is hardly more than an idea. Just letting people know what you're up to is half the battle. I think many times this is solved by putting up a public SVN repo, people can see what you're doing, and also see its a work in progress. -Joey I think one of the reasons why people are afraid to demonstrate works in progress is because then all one gets is feedback about what is broken, and this detracts from making progress on the core valuable features and design aspects of the software. When you can ship a completed project, you won’t get user reports about misaligned text or some graphical glitch, because you’ve fixed all of those, they were obvious anyway. The valuable feedback is about some real core design issue, or usability problem.

That said, I wonder if the modern uses of “beta” in reference to software end up confusing people too. Sometimes a beta is pretty much ready to ship, just searching for bugs, whereas other people will release a beta that is hardly more than an idea. Just letting people know what you’re up to is half the battle. I think many times this is solved by putting up a public SVN repo, people can see what you’re doing, and also see its a work in progress.

-Joey

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