Datasheet

Building a commercial product is much more diffi cult than creating software for yourself. You need
to clearly understand what the customer wants before you can start building. You need to know
how much the customer is willing to spend before you begin to buy technology or hire the team
for the job. Whether you ’ re building something for just one customer or thousands, the work
requires signifi cantly more resources than building something for your own use.
As you ’ ll see later in this chapter when we compare different strategies for software
project management, Scrum optimizes resources by iterating toward a solution.
This enables you to adjust your plans along the way, based on the realities you
encounter with technology, the team, and customers.
Time and Money
You need many resources to build and ship a great software product. At the highest level, you
need time and money. To be sure, these are not interchangeable, no matter how much you have
of either.
The saying “ Timing is everything ” holds quite true in software development. A perfect product
released at the wrong time is generally not very useful. It may be interesting or thought provoking,
and it may even be amusing, but if the timing is wrong, the product won ’ t be useful. Similarly, the
wrong product at the right time isn ’ t very useful either. It may garner a lot of attention because of its
potential, but if the product is lacking some critical element, it won ’ t be very successful. On the other
hand, the right product at the right time is very valuable: Even if it has fl aws, if you release the right
product at the right time, you ’ ll have a success on your hands.
AN EXAMPLE OF A GOOD PRODUCT WITH PERFECT TIMING
One example of the right product at the right time was Microsoft Windows 95.
It was a good product with perfect timing. It was the early 1990s, and Microsoft
was developing Windows 95 as the next operating system for personal computing,
gaming, and business productivity. But a confl uence of events occurred during its
development cycle that made Microsoft rethink its plan. The Mosaic browser was
written and distributed as Netscape Navigator; Senator Al Gore sponsored legislation
to increase investments in the publicly funded Internet; and consumer websites such
as Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo! began to create real value. Microsoft faced a dilemma:
Should it delay Windows 95 until it could include a web browser, or should it ship
Windows 95 without one and continue to develop an integrated browser in parallel?
Microsoft knew that people would be upgrading their PCs to get to the Internet, and
the company didn ’ t want to miss the opportunity to sell those people an operating
system. Microsoft chose the latter route and released Window 95 without a browser
but in time to catch the Internet wave. While Windows 95 was far from perfect, its
timing was ideal. Windows 95 was included on hundreds of millions of computers,
and this cemented Microsoft ’ s place as the desktop of choice for the next decade.
What Do You Need to Ship Software?
❘
5
CH001.indd 5CH001.indd 5 3/23/11 2:46:16 PM3/23/11 2:46:16 PM