I just got done blogging CompletenessAndMaturity and TendingSoftware, and thinking it through some more, I realized a more direct point I wanted to make here: Immaturity is inevitable.
Why is this important?
I ask you this: is any person writing software who is concerned with quality going to desire to design something that is immature?
This is the breeding ground of scope creep. I was just talking with a colleague about his current project, and how the design scope creep bug recently attacked. But as we talked, no one creeping bug seemed that evil, “If we're going to be doing A & B, we really should have C & D in there as well. And we all know that every other app that has the first four letters of the alphabet usually has the next 4, not the mention the other 18 as well. How could we not design this any other way?”
Substitute “add”, “edit” and “delete” for A, B & C and go read CompletenessAndMaturity.
Granted, you might have to have a ton of completeness and maturity to enter a market with a new product, but before you have a mature product, you will have an immature product. And if you mistake pursuing maturity instead of completeness, you can really screw yourself.
Immaturity is inevitable. It's great to desire maturity, never lose that drive. But do not fool yourself into thinking you can bypass immaturity on the way there.
tags: ComputersAndTechnology SoftwareAppreciation
