Software companies are renown for pre-releasing software – known as beta-testing – and, indeed, officially releasing incomplete (buggy) software.

Back in the 1990s it was a running joke (and probably still is) that if Microsoft launched cars like it launched software… there would be accidents galore due to so many faulty cars on the road.

But the point is: Microsoft wasn’t releasing cars. It was releasing software. And, for most home and business users, a bug in Windows or Internet Explorer wouldn’t cause serious or fatal injury.

Also, software is arguably much more complex than an automobile engine – it’s almost inevitable that a program will contain a few mistakes here and there, given the millions of lines of code that goes into a typical program. If, despite the best of intentions, it’s possible for a few typos to slip through the editing process used for a book or report or article… it’s certainly possible for a few typos to slip through the testing of software code.

That’s not to say that software companies intend to, or should, release buggy programs or that software bugs can’t be disastrous – just ask anyone who’s been hacked because of a software security flaw. It’s just that despite all the internal testing, alpha testing and beta testing that software companies typically go through, they are still almost bound to release imperfect software.

That being the case, they aren’t about to delay launching their products even further to ensure everything is perfect, when (a) further testing may not uncover further bugs, and (b) real world usage IS likely to reveal further bugs.

Thus, Microsoft and just about every respectable software company tends to release imperfect software which it then improves by sending customers updates, patches and fixes.

Now, here’s why that’s a smart approach: when it comes to things that are NOT life or death: speed trumps perfection.

It’s better to get something out and keep on improving it than to wait for everything to be absolutely perfect first. It’s better for morale, and it’s also better for uncovering problems that may only become apparent when real customers buy and use the given software product.

I like the way Google puts it. In his blog post announcing Google Chrome on Monday, Sundar Pichai said that Google’s engineers have a saying, “launch early and iterate”.

In fact, I like this philosophy so much… I’m STEALING it. And I recommend you do too. (Presuming, of course, that not doing so won’t hurt anyone!)

Source: Sundar Pichai, “A Fresh Take On The Browser”, Official Google Blog, September 1, 2008

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 at 3:52 am and is filed under Feature, Internet Marketing Niche, Leadership and Management, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.