Three Easy Steps
I think I have this software thing figured out.
Development comes in a few easy steps.
1.0- This is the intro to your product. This shows off what your idea will do, but is usually plagued by lack of features, or poorly implemented features. If you’re lucky, the software works.
2.0- Assuming that people are still using your product, this is where you listen to your users, and implement all the features that should have been in 1.0. This solves most of the bugs, and hopefully introduces new and sometimes useless features. if the software is a companion to a website or larger piece of software, it still misses some really important features, and your users are still pissed.
3.0- The first version that is considered by your users to be ‘usable’. It includes most of the features that was initially promised, and now is a fully functioning piece of software. As soon as this is released, grand plans are already being talked about for the next version.
4.0- (proposed) With all the ‘enhanced and optimized’ features introduced in this new release, this breaks everything that 3.0 set up, and pisses off everyone who uses your software.
I would like to thank facebook for iPhone for its use as a model for this study. Hopefully 3.0 is finally what everyone wanted to begin with.
Haha, love it. COuldn’t help but think of my own development efforts. I think the key is to stop adding things after step 3, and refine maybe. At some point, listening to users and constantly adding new features is a bad thing. The product loses focus and becomes Windows.
Matthom
July 7, 2009 at 12:42 pm