An organic masterpiece?
Many of the projects that I’ve undertaken throughout my life have been projects with a clear end and beginning. My M.O. has been to create a masterpiece that will hang on the wall, never again to be changed. The software development life cycle has always been something hard for me to swallow. I’ve never been comfortable releasing something that didn’t include all of the features that I thought were important or something that wasn’t developed to its fullest.
So our whole adventure into Knapsack has been quite contrary to my last big project, my Master’s thesis; a project that was bound and published in all of its perfection and now sits dusty on my bookshelf. Others might use it to create something bigger and better, but my piece will stay intact and unchanged forever. I planned it out from start to finish and completed it. I have since learned that academia does not always parallel reality :)
When we initially began designing Knapsack, I envisioned that we would code everything and create some sort of Picasso or Rembrandt. However, actually implementing the entire list of features that we dreamt up was laughable. If we had tried to accomplish everything we had listed, technology would have far surpassed our coding speed and we would never have released a 1.0. So we chose a set of features that made sense, tagged the rest to future releases (despite my protests), and carried on. During this process, I fought the urge to exhume all of the tickets we filed away in Trac and I trudged along with what I saw as our “bare bones” app.
I quickly learned that we chose the right route. Initially, you have to start with something small and do it well. We could have half-assedly (I didn’t make that word up - I credit the Barenaked Ladies) implemented all of the features that we brainstormed, but we would have missed the point. If you want people to use your app, you have to find out what they want and then “surprise and delight” them with your implementation.
During these last few days, we’ve been overwhelmed with positive feedback. People are truly excited and are asking for all sorts of features (iPhoto integration, iCal integration, and Google Maps are the most popular requests). This sort of feedback is invaluable. We’re beginning to get a picture of what people want and we can develop accordingly rather than trying to guess.
With all of that said, I think I finally get the organic process. Knapsack will never be the dusty masterpiece on the shelf, but instead, a living, growing, dynamic, and ever-improving organism and I can’t wait to see where it goes. We are so excited about the ideas that are appearing in our in-boxes. The keyboards here at TinyPlanet Software are already starting to clack out your feature requests. Please keep them coming - we really value the feedback!
So our whole adventure into Knapsack has been quite contrary to my last big project, my Master’s thesis; a project that was bound and published in all of its perfection and now sits dusty on my bookshelf. Others might use it to create something bigger and better, but my piece will stay intact and unchanged forever. I planned it out from start to finish and completed it. I have since learned that academia does not always parallel reality :)
When we initially began designing Knapsack, I envisioned that we would code everything and create some sort of Picasso or Rembrandt. However, actually implementing the entire list of features that we dreamt up was laughable. If we had tried to accomplish everything we had listed, technology would have far surpassed our coding speed and we would never have released a 1.0. So we chose a set of features that made sense, tagged the rest to future releases (despite my protests), and carried on. During this process, I fought the urge to exhume all of the tickets we filed away in Trac and I trudged along with what I saw as our “bare bones” app.
I quickly learned that we chose the right route. Initially, you have to start with something small and do it well. We could have half-assedly (I didn’t make that word up - I credit the Barenaked Ladies) implemented all of the features that we brainstormed, but we would have missed the point. If you want people to use your app, you have to find out what they want and then “surprise and delight” them with your implementation.
During these last few days, we’ve been overwhelmed with positive feedback. People are truly excited and are asking for all sorts of features (iPhoto integration, iCal integration, and Google Maps are the most popular requests). This sort of feedback is invaluable. We’re beginning to get a picture of what people want and we can develop accordingly rather than trying to guess.
With all of that said, I think I finally get the organic process. Knapsack will never be the dusty masterpiece on the shelf, but instead, a living, growing, dynamic, and ever-improving organism and I can’t wait to see where it goes. We are so excited about the ideas that are appearing in our in-boxes. The keyboards here at TinyPlanet Software are already starting to clack out your feature requests. Please keep them coming - we really value the feedback!
posted by Merrilee at
10:13 PM
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