Software Quality vs. Getting it Done

Yesterday I had to be at our San Francisco office for some meetings and arrived shortly before lunch. My office in San Mateo has a cafeteria and so I didn't know what my lunch options might be in that office. Sure I could have walked around and found something quite easily but I wanted to catch up with an old work associate and so I sent him a lunch invitation e-mail. He had the time and so we headed to his favorite place and caught up.

We didn't go any place fancy and I appreciated that. A simple meal is all I needed. We got to talk about the differences between the two offices that belong to the same company. Even though he is doing similar things as to when we worked together, there is a different feel to it. When we worked together, my friend felt like he could do the job correctly and fine-tune the software he created. In the new environment, he feels like there is more of a push to get something out and working. It doesn't matter if it is not optimal, it just needs to work. He mentioned that he appreciated being able to create quality software and not just quantity.

If you talk to a software developer, his or her code is never really finished. It just gets good enough to use. Therefore a healthy balance needs to be struck when creating software. Programs need to be created and they need to work. They also need to be put out in a finite amount of time. So if you see a video game release date moved to a further date, you can be sure the development team is wrestling with getting the product into your hands as a consumer but also making sure it meets minimum quality requirements.