The Timer

I probably ought to be saving this post for Friday since what triggered it is a food thought. Then again, most of my thinking seems to be triggered by food thoughts as my waistline demonstrates.
One thing you must have in a kitchen is a timer. I have several, including one which can time 4 things at once (it’s very cool until you forget which time applies to what dish). You set a timer so that you know when things are done. That’s the big difference in digital – nothing’s ever done.
For those of us that grew up in old media, programs or publications were done when the editing was over and aired or the piece went to print.  You could take a great deal of satisfaction in a completed task and move on to something new.  It’s very different in both positive and negative ways when the site’s never finished.

I’m in the middle of another project where we’re building an application.  We’ve been playing with versions of this for months and while we finally have a release version ready today we’re also working on the next version that will ship in another month.  It’s done but not.  I’ve found on this and other projects such as web sites that the team usually knows changes are constant and, therefore, there’s a tendency not to get too focused on making everything right – they can be changed later, after all.

I don’t agree with that philosophy.  It’s great that unlike a print ad mistakes can be corrected almost on the fly.  But maybe it’s the old school in me that won’t let something go when we KNOW there’s a problem.  I don’t mean the shade of green is not perfect – everyone has their own opinions about aesthetics anyway.  I mean something doesn’t work.  It’s like the old joke about how Microsoft tests software (they release it).  Not me, thanks.

So there’s no timer in the digital kitchen but there still has to be a chef who maintains the quality of what’s served.  Otherwise, customers just move on.  Right?