Hey, this is Overpass Insights! My name is Eric and I make apps!
Now today, I want to talk about show stoppers.
Alright, so here we are, another day in isolation, just watching the world go by
during the big pandemic. I hope you guys are all doing really well. Today, I wanted
to talk a little bit about show stoppers. Now, show stoppers is a term that I
learned from project managers I was working in investment banks years ago.
I remember the first time I heard it. I thought it was a strange term and I've
been using it I guess the last decade or a couple
decades since. And I guess, it makes total sense. So a showstopper is something in a
project which stops everything going forward. And as an app developer who
works for clients, the first meeting with the client, that's the first thing I'm
looking for, the show stoppers. The things that are that would stop the whole
project going forward and I get this a lot spent because I did some creepy spy
apps before I get a lot of stuff from people saying all right so I want this
app right where I can assault on my wife's phone and I would be able to see
everything she does and read all over let's have messages and be able to hear
all of her phone conversations it was like okay first of all that's not even
technically possible right you we got we got all kinds of permissions and things
like that and even if it was possible it wouldn't be possible for long because as
a violation of security and privacy and Android doesn't do that and iPhone
doesn't do it all that kind of stuff another one and this is one that's a bit
more topical because I actually have heard this inherit what do we do an app
where you can hold the phone up to somebody's head and it would tell
whether or not they have a fever and whether or not they have the corona
virus and I'm saying that my whole thing as well I know it sounds stupid but I do
get this kind of I do get this kind of question from time to time I said well
actually there's no there's no sensor to to gauge temperature from a phone which
I don't think so at least there's nothing there's no exposed api's right
and then they'll say oh no but my phone does because it says the weather and it
says what the temperature is at lunch but that's different so that's the kind
of stuff you hear all the time and I get it a lot I get it a lot so I'm always
looking for showstoppers even when we have the first client meetings say I
once had a boss who said everything is possible given time or money which is
true when you're quoting for a project or when you get a scope creep and they
say hey is it possible to add this is it possible to add that yes every
as possible given time and money you need you need both we need the time to
do it and we need to charge for the for doing it which is usually they want to
you know they'll accept the time but not the money or they'll accept the money
but not the time but do we need both but the truth is not everything is is it's
possible given time of money sometimes things just aren't possible they're not
technically possible in fact I want to make a prediction so one of the new
iPhone features that will come out in the next couple of years or the ie the
Android features coming out will be will probably be the temperature thing
because you know what I don't have it I have a thermometer and nobody will sell
me one because they're all really busy and plus I can't go outside but you know
I think that would be something that would be really useful in the future
especially given everything that's happened now so anyway I just wanted to
share that with you guys when you're when you're coding for a project always
look for the showstoppers first I have literally have projects where I've gone
to develop like if I had something I wasn't quite sure about like Apple watch
for example and I'll go to the developers and say okay this is what the
client wants with Apple watch is it possible to do this and they'll say yep
that's possible right and then we'll get into the project well we're just about
to start the project I do some research myself I find out it wasn't possible at
all so I always do that research it takes a little sometimes if it's
something you're not quite sure about you have to go through look through not
just the api's but also do the guidelines because it could be the api's
allow it but apples not going to improve it or what Google's gonna suspend it so
Anyway, let me know what you, guys, think. You know, what kind of showstoppers you
guys get, okay? What kind of showstoppers have you got from clients?Coz if i
wasn't under NDA, I could tell you about some pretty crazy, stuff that people have
suggested in the past. I was like, dude that's not even possible!
So anyway, that is it for today! I'll talk to you, guys, again tomorrow!