Software Releases, Ralph Story And The Sales Funnel
Software releases generally bring new capabilities, but like Ralph Story’s LA, some things aren’t here anymore. The results have some very negative consequences that may not support a new conspiracy theory, but being locked into a sales funnel is not pleasant. We’re starting to do something about this by rolling our own tools; perhaps you can too. Topics:
- The Good Old Days: When Software Worked
- Things That Aren’t Here Anymore
- Outsourcing Quality Assurance
- How Did It Come To This?
- Hot Wax And The VW Beetle As Models
The Good Old Days: When Software Worked
There was a time when software releases were eagerly awaited, because in those halcyon days they increased productivity. This wasn’t because the prior releases were defective in any way, although that was sometimes the case. They offered innovative ways to tackle the problems and opportunities of an expanding horizon, itself brought about by the productivity improvements of the prior releases. The base, usually manual systems, that it all started from was pretty small. Large productivity gains based on software tools are harder to come by now, and the tools are only getting bigger.
Things That Aren’t Here Anymore
Today, in early 2008, it’s pretty clear that there’s no difference between software releases with new capabilities, and upgrades/updates with new problems along with the old. Exhibit A is Peter Huber’s renaming of Microsoft’s Office2007 to Blunder 2007 in Forbes magazine (October 2007 issue). It was as if there was no prior art at all: Menu items disappeared, functionality radically changed, a new learning curve, and less reliable. Microsoft gets the lion’s share of bad press, but it certainly isn’t alone in this.
Outsourcing Quality Assurance
Does anyone really test this stuff? Does the concept of regression testing mean anything to these companies? Or do they pass that on to their customers, who find the problems one by one, paying for the privilege of being hosed? With no documentation or history, getting things back to where we were seems to presume the gift of clairvoyance as a requirement, and anything less clearly demonstrates personal failure and being in the wrong line of work. The loss in productivity, of being unable to respond to our customers in a timely fashion, and the sheer frustration can be reduced to a cost, and when that happens some comparisons can be made and questions raised about staying inside an infinitely long sales funnel that more resembles a Mobius loop.
How Did It Come To This?
There was a time, not all that long ago, when one individual, or maybe a small group, knew a software product inside and out. Now, the development tools themselves have become bigger (as in massively bloated), more complex, undocumented and untestable, needing armies of ever more specialized development teams, who in turn need cadres of managers, administrators, and all the impedimenta that is somehow always required. The bureaucratic overhang means the monthly nut gets bigger, requiring more sales just to stay even, never mind growth that investors are always demanding. Satisfying customers by making their lives’ easier doesn’t seem to get much attention by the Bright Lights at the large software companies.
Hot Wax And The VW Beetle As Models
Facing customers today means maintaining a web site, but the software tools that purport to accomplish this are collapsing under their own weight. Maybe we can’t go back to hot wax on images and copy strips, but the simplicity of that approach and speed in getting results is something that can be emulated in a new environment. There’s no way the Linotype will ever make a comeback, but the same approach that resulted in its demise can still be applied today. Like the early VW Beetle, what we need to accomplish is really simple. The costs of doing things the ‘old’ way have become excessive. In our case, we know how to roll our own tools, and the build or buy tradeoff has moved the other way.
It has worked quite well for us. Sometimes the Siren Song of making them commercial products is appealing, until the sales funnel comes up.
Tags: outsourcing, Ralph Story, regression testing, sales funnel, software releases