Tuesday, February 14, 2006

decision: ship, don't ship

Shipping the software causes problems. Not shipping the software causes problems too.

In order for your product to have any impact at all, you have to let it go. But if you want to avoid controversy, keep it in dev or QA just a bit longer, and the impact it will have might be better.

You'll embarass yourself with software that isn't ready. You'll embarass yourself by missing the opportunity to get the product into the hands of users.

The software won't be perfect, and in some cases, it won't work because it's missing key functions you once thought it could never live without. You could take the time to make it perfect, make it work, add those key functions if you wanted to.

It's risky to ship. It's risky not to ship.

This is the heart of the problem. Ship, don't ship. It is analogous to dare, don't dare.

As Virgil and Flaming Carrot say, "Fortune Favors the Bold". So ship. Then ship again.

No comments: