The Art of ‘Ware (V 2.0, maxim 2:4): prolonged development
[From The Art of ‘Ware (Version 2.0) by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming), Chapter 2, “Supporting Development”] When a company is drained by competition, it is because product development and marketing have taken too long. Prolonged development cripples the company. Developers can typically sustain a high level of energy for 18 to 36 months, depending on […]
The Art of ‘Ware (V 2.0, maxim 2:3): financing and hiring
[From The Art of ‘Ware (Version 2.0) by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming), Chapter 2, “Supporting Development”] Those who handle product development skillfully don’t build engineering teams twice, nor raise capital three times. Building product development teams twice means having to replace the original engineers with new ones in the order to complete the product. There […]
The Art of ‘Ware (V 2.0, maxim 2:2): delayed release
[From The Art of ‘Ware (Version 2.0) by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming), Chapter 2, “Supporting Development”] When you release a product, if success is slow in coming, you’ll face diminishing returns on product development and exhaustion among your engineers and marketers. It is enough of a challenge to sustain energy and excitement through the process […]
The Art of ‘Ware (V 2.0, maxim 2:1): budgeting for IT staff
[From The Art of ‘Ware (Version 2.0) by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming), Chapter 2, “Supporting Development”] A parable in the Bible talks about counting the cost of something before you start to build. That truth is ancient and obvious, yet I’ve seen too many companies ignore it. Once you know what you want to do, […]
The decline in computer science students (part 1)
When I gradated with my BS in computer science from Brigham Young University in 1978, we had roughly 120 undergraduate students in the CS program. When I came back to teach in 1985 — just seven years later — there were over 1,000 undergraduate students in the program, and you actually had to apply to […]