IS Microsoft DOS the First MVP?
The term “MVP” which stands for “Minimum Viable Product” is a term very much in fashion after the adoption of agile approaches to product development. The essence of an MVP is to have an enough features in early product development to attract early customers; and then based on feedback of users; improve the product.
As a person who started working on computers with MS-DOS 3.0, and the Atari, and the BBC Micro, I still remember the early struggles of configuring the Config.sys file, ensuring that there was an “autoexec.bat” file which was not corrupted in the floppy disk and other such scenarios. (MS-DOS stands for the Microsoft Disc Operating System - the precursor to Windows)
The understanding from the simple things like config.sys and autoxec.bat files is that as technology grew rapidly the changes in products had to be implemented to enable use of those new hardware features; 8 BIT microprocessors to 16 BIT microprocessors, 512 KB RAM to 640 KB Ram and so on.
DOS and Microsoft and later on "WINDOWS" was in perpetual update mode – addressing new technologies, receiving feedback from users on bettering the product – so on and so forth. As time has passed (rather the decades) the product is much more stable. However it was not always so.
So that brings me to the question, is the concept of an “MVP” something which came about only after the agile approach to development, or has it always been there, but never been accepted as such?
I would like to hear of more such examples.
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2 年It is quite evident that #agile ways of working have always been there in every sphere of life. Rome was not built in a day May be planning to an extent was #waterfall but execution was agile So is the case with many #products and #services Agile ways were always there and co-existed with waterfall ways and this is true even today based on situation in hand we adopt a certain method or a mix & match of various methos/ practices etc. Although various agile principles have been around since the 1970s, the manifesto itself — and the full definition of the agile philosophy — was created at the dawn of the new millennium. In early 2001, a group of 17 developers held two meetings — the first in Oregon, the second in Snowbird, Utah — to discuss issues and solutions in software development, which is how the manifesto was firstborn. Put simply, the manifesto was written as a response to major frustration with the traditional development processes of the 1990s.