rib ing quentin james. wait…what? releasing in beta releasing products that are not quite finished...
TRANSCRIPT
RIBINGQuentin James
WAIT…WHAT?
Releasing in Beta
Releasing products that are not quite finished yet, but knowing that you can patch them later.
BLACKBERRY STORM
Prone to…• Freezes• Abrupt Reboots• Non-responsive
controls• Cosmetic glitches
Release Date: 11.11.11 Game of the Year: 2012
Patched 5 times from Nov. 12, 2011 to Mar. 20, 2012
“It’s literally the things you’ve done in what order and what’s running.”
--Todd Howard
And other games
“The iPhone 4’s proximity sensor didn’t work until last week’s software patch.”
iPhone 4
WHY?
Benefits of an early Market introduction.
Enhanced functionality &Increased quality.
FOR
Publicity… twice
Money up front
Consumer testing
You can see flaws earlier
FOR
“You wouldn’t write a thousand lines of code before you tried to compile it. Why would you spend a year or more on development before testing it in the market?” – Andy Brice
AGAINST
Company Integrity
Angry Customers
Embarrassing
AGAINST
“There’s going to be a lot of marketing hype in the next few months regarding Skyrim’s release, but you shouldn’t pay attention to any of it because Bethesda doesn’t know how to make a decent game anymore.”
WHAT DOES THE MAJORITY DO?
“There's no question that, for whatever time budget you have, you will end up with better software by releasing as early as practically possible,
WHAT DOES THE MAJORITY DO?
and then spending the rest of your time iterating rapidly based on real world feedback.
WHAT DOES THE MAJORITY DO?
So trust me on this one: even if version one sucks, ship it anyway.”
ETHICAL DILEMMA?
When companies release buggy software, is this a breach of contract?
They aren’t delivering what they promised.
QUESTIONS?
REFERENCES
http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2011/10/failure-to-launch-sots2/ http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/released-too-soon/# http
://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/12/version-1-sucks-but-ship-it-anyway.html
http://successfulsoftware.net/2007/08/07/if-you-arent-embarrassed-by-v10-you-didnt-release-it-early-enough/
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2004/10/we-make-shitty-software-with-bugs.html
http://gojko.net/2009/11/23/the-danger-of-releasing-too-early/ http
://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/news-at-sei/feature2200604.cfm http
://www.fiercedeveloper.com/story/whats-wrong-blackberry-storm/2008-12-01