

Why We Released Buggy Software - natasham25
http://blog.holler.com/why-we-released-buggy-software-2011-09

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tptacek
"Because this is the first iPhone app I ever built, after taking a 6 week
class on iPhone development in Atlanta".

You could have just said that, and people would have nodded and said "good on
you". The rest of this post actually sapped your credibility.

~~~
veyron
I dont think that would have made for a good blog post.

~~~
biznickman
Agreed :)

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pork
"I was merely a web developer, not an iPhone developer"

Thinking that alone is a mistake -- there is nothing magical about iPhone
developers, and ios programming can be learned quickly. If you're doing a
startup, you can't believe anything other people are doing is impossible to
master.

(that may very well be the case, but it always warrants investigation)

~~~
eropple
That's not really true. For the most part (no, this isn't true everywhere, but
for the most part), the tolerances are a lot looser in web development, in
pretty much all areas. Unless you're getting pummeled on inadequate hardware,
your performance choices in the backend of a web site or web app are
_probably_ going not going to harm anything.

If you make bad performance choices on an iOS application, you'll create a
stuttery, ugly mess (smooth scrolling in an iOS application is surprisingly
nontrivial) that will--unforgivably--sap a user's battery and ruin their
experience.

People are a lot more forgiving of 2ms greater response time on a web page
than a web app that drains 4% of battery in five minutes.

~~~
pork
No one is born writing elite code, and the question is one of overcoming fear
to conquer new ground, even if modestly at first.

~~~
eropple
Yes, but subjecting other people (especially paying ones) to your novice code
is kinda iffy.

~~~
pork
Not if it gets the job done.

~~~
eropple
_Yes_ , even if it gets the job done. Because if it gets the job done poorly,
by causing significant battery drain or performance problems or other
hallmarks of bad code, you are mistreating your users.

~~~
pork
Novice code isn't necessarily imbecilic code, you're conflating the two. If
I'm otherwise proficient and have a grasp of hardware conceptually, my iOS
code isn't likely to do those things you stated.

(signout from subthread)

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n9com
I agree with the 'release fast and often' approach. However, this is just an
example of really poor testing. If a key button on your app causes it to
crash, then there is no justification for that. You also pissed off a bunch of
your users and many won't even bother to update.

It's all fine and good getting a very basic v.1 out to get feedback - but it
shouldn't crash due to an easy to detect bug.

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paulmckeever
Hey. Kudos on shipping!

My honest feedback would be that your main point is lost in the story. Even
though I read the whole article, the thing I was left thinking when I finished
was that the root cause of your problem was 1) the failure of your contract
developer to deliver and 2) you rushed an early version of the app out in 6
weeks without sufficient testing.

For what it's worth, leading with a clear apology to those affected by the
problem would do no harm.

It would also help if you explained more clearly what _exactly_ you wanted to
learn from the release that justified the impact of this bug on users. Eg,
some key hypothesis or assumption in your business model or product roadmap
etc.

Good luck with the next iteration :)

~~~
biznickman
Thanks for the feedback! I'll update the post ... that's what I get for a
midnight article :)

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huhtenberg
> _We are now well aware of the problem and have since submitted a version
> that fixes the problem for_ the vast majority of _users_.

Well, you either found _the_ problem and fixed it or you fixed something and
now hoping it was what was crashing your app. Or you have multiple crash
points in the app. If it still crashes - fine, you have more work ahead of
you. Just don't try and twist words to make things look better than they are.

~~~
biznickman
I can only laugh at this comment "don't try and twist words to make things
look better than they are". Not twisting words, it's pretty straight forward.

~~~
huhtenberg
Well, does your updated version still crash once in a while?

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powertower
Not only do they release buggy software, they also crash IE8 instantly.

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biznickman
The homepage crashes in IE8 for you?

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powertower
<http://blog.holler.com/> crashed IE8 (using Vista SP1).

