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Page 4 of 4 IndicThreads >> What is your biggest concern as regards the software industry, something that we need to address right away?
Christopher Duncan >> Quality. Over the years, we’ve trained our customers to accept flaky software as normal. No one in their right mind expects to buy software that doesn’t have bugs. And yet, if they buy a can of tuna that makes them sick, it’s national news. As an industry, we did this to ourselves, and believe it or not, it’s not in the best interests of the company, though that may seem counterintuitive. Getting away with selling buggy software isn’t a win. It costs you big time in product support, and it also costs you when your customer base shrinks. Remember, when you decide to take your business to company B, you rarely write a letter to company A telling them why they lost your money, and neither does anyone else.
"Software Quality is my biggest concern..."
"Getting away with selling buggy software isn’t a win..."
For those of you reading, if you’ve paid careful attention to our conversation today, you’ll notice an overall theme, and it’s something I emphasize in Tribes. Lasting success is built on long term thinking. Short term thinking is what typically precedes shooting yourself in the foot. There’s an absolutely huge opportunity out there for companies and entrepreneurs who are sharp enough to see it. Quality and customer service in our industry is pathetic, and everyone knows it.
"Quality and customer service in our industry is pathetic, and everyone knows it...."
Sooner or later, a company is going to take the extra time up front to do it right and do it well. Sure, the competition will get their features to market first and win the first round of sales. But, slowly at first and more rapidly as time goes on, word will get out. These new guys have stuff that rocks. And when you call them, they treat you like you’re the most important person on the planet, because they really do care about their customers. When version 2.0 comes out, the competition will over promise and do all the standard vaporware tricks. But watch. People will start to wait. The competitors will shout from the rooftops that their neat and groovy features are ready today, while the new guys may never ship. And still, people will wait.
"The oldest trick in the book, one that’s surprisingly been forgotten in our industry:
Deliver the best quality and service...."
The new guys will finally release version 2.0, and even if it’s missing a feature or two, it will be a work of art and solid as a rock. Word on the street will build, and eventually they’ll dominate the marketplace through the oldest trick in the book, one that’s surprisingly been forgotten in our industry: deliver the best quality and service, use that as your marketing tools, and the world will throw money at you. The funniest part about it is that the competitors will never really understand why they eventually had to go out of business.
IndicThreads >> What kind of knowledge / skills are most important for a software professional of today, to be able to Unite the Tribes and also do well as a Career Programmer?
Christopher Duncan >> The most important skills come from the knowledge that quality, productivity and excellence are what truly bring success and stability. To make these happen in the real world, you have to master the strategies of human nature, and make that one of your highest priorities. Can you imagine what the software business would be like if companies found it more profitable to let the programmers do it right the first time? There would be parties in the streets!
"Quality, productivity and excellence are what truly bring success and stability..."
IndicThreads >> Thanks Chris. I am sure your thoughts will help our readers have a more fulfilling career and life. Any blog URL / email you would like to share?
Christopher Duncan >> To contact me for speaking gigs or take advantage of the articles & resources I have up for everyone, just visit my consulting company at www.PracticalStrategyConsulting.com. And if any of you are putting these principles into practice in your job, I’d love to hear your success stories and post them on the site – everyone loves a winner.
Thanks for the opportunity to chat!
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Comment by Noname on 2005-12-14 05:03:07
Getting it right the first time is one of the things that is easy to say, but difficult to do.
First of all you must agree to what "right" means. The scope of the requirements.
Second the developers must agree to what features are needed in the design, so they don't add all sorts of things that aren't really needed by anyone.
Third the developers must ruthlessly test the software.
All of this takes time, and can take a lot of time! The time to market factor is not irrelevant. The software must be released before it is obsolete. Personally I can live with a bug here and there in a new product if I get 150 new features. I'll not wait 2 years for a competing product just because of 2 bugs. But I guess that depends on the consequences of the bugs. If the consequences are fatal, perhaps 2 years isn't that much.
In addition the "new guys" have to make sure they have money enough to actually release the software "right". If it takes 10 years to release version 1.0 chances are they'll go out of business before that.
You have to find a balance between the the number of new features, number of bugs and release date that you can accept and survive by. The challenge is to finetune the balance to take customers from your competitors. |
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