Hi this is Gary Straughan
Welcome to Development That Pays.
In the last video I told the tale of two walls and two ladders.
The walls represented business objectives.
The ladders represented software.
The moral of the story was this:
It's more important to pick the right WALL
than to have a great LADDER.
In other words…
it’s more important to achieve a real BUSINESS GOAL
than to produce beautifully crafted, elegant CODE.
Having saying that…
… You may have spotted there is a small problem
with the “wall and ladder” model.
The problem is this:
If you're standing at the bottom of the wall,
you can’t see over it.
It’s impossible to know with 100% certainty
If the wall is good or not.
The same is true of software development.
We might think, for example, that a particular new feature
will be a big success…
but we don’t really know for sure until it’s built and it’s live.
In other words, the only way to be sure -
if we go back to our walls and ladders -
the only way to be sure it’s a good wall
is to climb up there and take a look.
Here’s a new wall for us to consider.
Will it be a good for us?
Will it lead to great riches?
It’s impossible to know.
We have no choice but to start building.
After a lot of time and expense, our beautiful staircase is finally ready.
And now, at last, we can climb the stairway and discover what lies beyond.
Alas, we’ve built a stairway - not to heaven - but to certain death.
Not only have we wasted time and money,
but we have a team of disgruntled developers
annoyed that the beautiful software that they have crafted
won’t even be used.
Let’s start again.
We’re back at the bottom of the wall.
Our job is get to the top of the wall ...
and this time…
we want to do it as quickly and as cheaply as we possibly can.
A ladder would be a good choice…
even if it’s a bit rickety.
A pile of boxes would also work.
We scramble to the top…
and we take a quick look over the edge.
The news is not good.
But that’s okay:
it didn't us take as long to get here
we didn't spend a lot of money
and we didn’t build any “emotional attachment” to our beautiful creation
Which means that we have the TIME
we have the MONEY
and we have the WILL
to try another wall.
Let’s try another wall.
This time the news is…
well, rather excellent.
We have found a wall that leads to great riches.
And this is where things get really interesting:
We now in a position to upgrade.
We can now afford to swap our piles of boxes...
for an aluminium ladder
or a beautiful staircase
or even a fabulous escalator
I hope the message is clear.
When you’re building something new,
Avoid the temptation to build it with “everything on”.
Instead, keep it bare bones.
Get it built.
Get it live.
That’s when you’ll know if it’s a winner.
If it turns out to be a dud…
give yourself a pat on the back:
you wasted the MINIMUM of time and money.
If it turns out to be a success…
give yourself a pat on the back...
And feel free to upgrade.
Talk to you next time.