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Well, the one particular company I'm thinking of, and its product, were/are
not nearly as big as Microsoft. Just a small group that had been developing
and releasing this product for a fairly small niche market (maintenance
management) for about 10 years at the time I started. There were bugs, of
course. As someone said earlier, there's no such thing as a bug-free
release. I spent some time on Release Notes. And sometiems Sales promised
things they had no business promising. But as a writer, I have seldom or
never been treated as well, in terms of being included as part of the
development team. I hated to leave 15 months ago, but they moved the
company 250 miles away and I just didn't think I could deal with the
commute! :)
When I first started there, I couldn't believe the deadline wasn't going to
get pushed out. But it didn't And although I did put in a few late nights
in the last week, we did it. No one was more surprised than I.
All the other software-related projects (and "all" is not that many this
past year) I've been on have been contracts and had firm due dates which
were met.
Maggie
~ego in tact :)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen McDermott [mailto:Stephen -dot- McDermott -at- PREMERA -dot- com]
> Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 12:33 PM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: RE: Reality check
>
>
> Maggie writes,
> "Every software project I've been on in the last 4-5 years
> has come in dead
> on schedule."
> _______
>
> Just a couple of serious questions from a non-software writer
> (by choice).
> It is not directed specifically at Maggie, or is it intended
> to bruise (or
> inflate) egos or raise red flags, but it does go back to my
> post yesterday
> regarding integrity.(/disclaimer)
>
> I, as a consumer, see a serious flaw in software development
> that can (and will) cripple these companies that "always" release on time.
> (MS 2000 - 80,000+ known bugs on the day before release... but it was
> still released on time... other companies release patches released within
a week after a release.
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