You might have bad software if you...
We have all been frustrated by current, working examples of bad software. What is even more perplexing, so little is being done to actually make software good. Most companies would rather live with it since it often costs significant money and knowing what you really need to build or buy software.
So, we end up with actual production systems which companies pay for which include...
Bad Design (Features)
If you have a password reset which requires a user to remember the old password, you might be bad.
If System Admin level access is not good enough and you have to have a SuperAdmin, you might be bad.
Bad Experience
If this is your first impression you provide to your paying customers, you might be bad.
You cover up your nice looking design with a big, plain, white box asking a user for info in the first 3 seconds, you might be bad.
If you still have a grey box UI with an MS Access type of interface, you might be bad.
Bad Quality
If it takes a new (competent) developer more than 4 months to get up to speed to make a feature edit, you might be bad.
If you are spending more than half of your software development budget to maintain the software, it might be bad.
A few questions to ponder regarding bad software...
Who is responsible for software being or going bad?
Everyone in the company.
What is so bad about running bad software?
It costs more to maintain than to build new. No good employee will work at your company using it. It is easier today than ever to build good software. It anchors your company into past thinking.
Why is it hard to keep software good?
Like everything in business, short term decisions borrow resources from the company. Since software can be changed fairly easily, short term decisions are often made in isolation without a whole company / system view. Also, the people making the decisions on what is good and bad often lack technical understanding of their implications.
I want good software, what can I do?
Use lean startup and agile techniques to build a little, test a little, validate a little at a time. Listen to users, not just executives. Empower your employees, developers and subject matter experts to make decisions and lead. If you are taking on a rewrite... don't. Build something better. Assume that most of the current features are not being used. Get some outside perspectives. Have a cross functional team building the software including at least one UX professional.
If you have a story to share on bad software, please do!
How are you?
Wild Card - draw me for a winning hand | Creative Problem Solver in Many Roles | Manual Software QA | Project Management | Business Analysis | Auditing | Accounting |
8 年How to get good software? Never cheap out on QA analysts.
Retired
8 年Good article! There is nothing worse than inheriting a bloated and primitive application to "improve". The use of Agile techniques, team involvement and a usability professional have been a great help to me. It is an uphill battle. I still get strange looks when I suggest that features be prioritized and some features may be left unimplemented at the end of development.
Eternally Curious Servant Leader
8 年I was trying to do my best geek version of Jeff Foxworthy...you might be a redneck. Thanks for the comments!