Re: Delphi 2005 upgrade 2... not recommended

From: Brian Moelk (bmoelk_at_NObrainendeavorSPAM.FORcomME)
Date: 03/28/05 

Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 13:33:43 -0500

> > I wonder how your customers would react to knowing this?
>
> First, I don't share all my business methods with my customers. I
> don't know of many businesses that do. Second, I have been in this
> business, as an owner, since 1983 and making a living so I am
> apparently doing some things right. Third, you can have the highest
> ideals in the world, but if you can't deliver the product you don't
> remain in business. We have aprox 5000 customers using our primary
> product. It has taken a long time and lots of business decisions to
> get to that level in vertical market software. Have I had some
> disgruntled customers? Sure. Do I care? Sure. Would I change what I
> have been doing to make them happy? Not likely if would cause delays
> that would result in more disgruntled customers.

It was more of a rhetorical question...but thanks for the answer.

> >All I'll say is that we obviously have very different approaches to
> our craft.
>
> No, I don't think we have "different approaches to our craft" but I
> think we have very different appoaches to the business of software
> development. Those are not the same thing.

Well, if you define "craft" in that sense, we may or may not have different
approaches since we are not talking about our "craft". I meant "craft" as
the entire thing, which includes the business of software development and
how that business treats customers. But if you want to split hairs, I would
agree with you.

> > Call me an idealist, or see me as a customer who wants to use
> > software that doesn't suck. I do indeed have high standards.
>
> Ok, You are an idealist. :-) You missed my point.. If you are not a
> business owner or decision maker for your company then none of this
> will be relevant to you so, if that is the case, skip the rest. Also
> note that my perspective is as a devleoper of vertical market business
> software,

That's great, perhaps I am missing your point, because I still don't
understand what your point is. If your point is to make me understand
things from Borland's point of view or educate me with your hard fought
business acumen...that's a noble effort, but as a customer I don't have to,
nor do I want to really understand these things. All I know is that
software that is unstable, slow and bloated sucks.

I think that embracing the kind of mentality that "works on my machine"
symbolizes to me is just an awful way of doing business and serving
customers.

> I am not talking about "you" or "me" as a customer. I am talking
> about decisions and concessions businesses must make to survive. We
> all strive for shipping high quality software. I never said that we do
> not. But as a business, we must make a number of concessions in order
> to remain competitive. You do your customers no favour by delaying
> releases that may not be perfect, yet are good enough to meet the needs
> of the majority of your customers. You fine tune it via patches if
> necessary. Bottom line is many happy customers, with a few disgruntled
> ones who needed a particular feature that may not work perfectly, as
> opposed to all unhappy customers complaining that your software is
> never going to ship.

Sure, but we are not talking about a particular feature that isn't working
perfectly; in this case we are talking about the fundamental issue of
stability. And, we are also talking about how business treats its
customers.

IMO, business is doing a disservice to its customers if fundamental issues
are not addressed. I didn't complain (that much) that Delphi 8 was .NET
only, I didn't complain that they don't have as many whiz bang features that
*I* want. In this case, IMO, Borland has done a disservice by releasing
D2005 in the state that it was released.

> There are many pressures on a business that you
> may or may not be aware of. Your skill as a business decision maker
> is what is going to make the difference. Mistakes will be made but
> you fine tune your Internal (not public) policy to correct these for
> future projects. Learning the difference between internal and public
> policy, and learning the art of dancing on the edge between the two is
> key to success. You always strive for excellence in deliverables
> tempered by business requirements.

Hey thanks for the business tips....perhaps we can get back to discussing
why D2005 vanishes and why that sucks and why "works on my machine" is an
awful way to treat bugs reported by customers?

> If you are wondering if I have an opinion as to Borland's decision to
> release D2005 when they did, then the answer is no, I do not. How can I
> possibly know, without inside knowledge, what drives their business
> decisions?

Well ISTM that you do have an opinion. I'm not exactly clear as to what it
is except that you have taken issue with the fact that I don't like, as a
customer, being treated with a "works on my machine" attitude. Nor do I
like working with developers who embrace that attitude.

> As a consumer, I have to make my own decisions but those
> may be far from what would be appropriate for you, or any other
> consumer of Borland products.

Sure. But as a customer, and that's really what we were talking about...at
least that's what I thought we were talking about, I don't really give a
rats ass about their internal business processes and how they make their
decisions. I look a their product, I evaluate it and I either buy it or
not. I don't particularly like using software that just disappears or
performs inadequately.

I also don't like it when as a customer, I say "hey this software disappears
on me and that sucks" and the company's attitude back is "works on my
machine". That completely diminishes any kind of legitimacy of my
experience; it tells me the company doesn't care about my fundamental needs.
But perhaps that is just me. 

--
Brian Moelk
bmoelk@NObrainendeavorSPAM.FORcomME
http://www.brainendeavor.com

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