Monday, November 12, 2012

iPad development anguish

One of the challenges with developing application software is deciding when we have done enough. The reality is that we've never really done all that we could do, and rarely have we achieved all that we want to do. The temptation is always to be doing a little bit more...

I often characterise this with the word "just:" either I, or a customer,will use words to the effect of, "This is great, but can we just also..." As my programmer colleagues know, "just" often involves quite a lot of additional time, effort and careful thought to make sure we have covered all the angles.

So right now we are coming close to one of these decision points. I very much want to get the next version of the software out and into customer hands. But it's so very tempting to "just" add in a couple more major features that will really add value and distinguish us from competitor products.

This week will bring the decision about what to do .