RAD Cycles

The 24-hour Upgrade

Every now and then, as a developer, one is faced with what seem like "now or never" requirements.

For the micro-ISV, this can be exciting.  Out the window go any concepts of project management, formal specifications, version cycles.  Replace RAD (Rapid Application Development) with VRAD, and shoot for "get as much done as you can by dawn".

Such a situation happened this week:

• A potential new client, Auckland Hockey, suddenly wanted to use my SportsRunner application.
• In order for it to be useful to them, they would need to rip into it straight away, as their competitions start this week.
• Being my first customer in this particular sport, there inevitably turned out to be some missing important functionality - par for the course.

Conclusion: Do it now!

So, they've now got a web page for their sports draws and results information, plus a version upgrade of the programme with some pretty significant customisation, plus a stack of telephone-based training, plus a pretty weary Steve.  Nice.

Nice to be working in a context where this sort of thing is possible.  Nice to be my own boss.  Nice to have small organisations as clients.  Nice to be using Access, which encourages such quick, flexible development.  Nice that it's the weekend.

Technorati tags: Microsoft+Access, micro-ISV, sports+administration, sports+software