Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackBellamy
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
Wow that's a lot of caps there. I don't go to a Mechanic when my car breaks down, I go to a mechanic. A developer is just another type of worker.
Are you a dev? You work in a professional shop? I do, and if some dev said what you said everyone would be like this guy is retarded. That's because consumers drive development. We don't build software so we can appreciate it, we build it so people can use it. And we're super responsive to our customers because without them we are mere hobbyists. If consumers say they don't like a button placement we hop right on it. If the consumers tell us it loads too slow, we speed it up. And if we can't do it, we patiently explain why and offer alternatives.
I'm just providing a professional viewpoint here. Like if you have a going concern that is interested in profits, then that's how you act. I understand p99 is a private effort staffed by volunteers and is operated on a hobby-level of support, maintenance and communication. I'm perfectly fine with that and have no higher expectations and I'm grateful for it's very existence.
I'm just taking a strong position over the generalization presented above.
|
As another professional dev I just want to second this. Now to be fair, I've absolutely worked at companies that didn't listen to their users ... but I left them after a year, and none of them lasted more than a couple years after (if that).
At any
good software company, listening to your customer isn't just "one important thing you should do" ... it underpins your entire development process! Literally everything you work on, except paying off technical debt, should be because your "customer interfacers" (account managers, product managers, etc.) have told your dev team "the customer(s) need this."
... but none of that changes the fact that P99 is not a company with customers: it's a bunch of volunteers giving up their free time to let the rest of us play a game.