The Eternal Beta � UK Web Focus

Really nice guest blog post on Brian (Kelly's) weblog called  The Eternal Beta � from his colleague Phil Wilson. Essentially Phil is talking about the concept of everything being in beta, which is one of the major definitions of anything that is Web 2.0 as far as I'm concerned. The section that really chimed with me was:

"The other big fear is that this basically throws traditional software development and delivery out of the window (farewell, cruel Gantt chart). When a team suddenly has deliverable dates measured in the days rather than the months you suddenly discover that the priorities change and you start getting people-focussed software rather than something focussed on year-old requirements."

That is really what it's all about - doing things that help people, and helping them quickly. Yes, it means that things do need to change, and change quite dramatically in some cases, which IMO isn't actually a bad thing at all. As Phil also points out 'you take too long rolling out software'. And all of this really comes back to the 'just do it!' mantra - not in a hectoring or bully tone please note, but in a 'it's there, it's easy, you can just get on and try it out without learning anything new other than how to incorporate the application in your work.'

Great post Phil, thanks for hosting it Brian.

Comments

[Phil Wilson]

Glad you liked it :)