There’s an interesting thread in Mundane about the original Google Map being taken away. Forcing people to use there so called “new and improved” version. A version that’s deficient in many key features from the original. This happens all the time. The Microsoft Office programs today look nothing like the 2003 Office that I and many other people prefer and use. Windows 8 was a failure because they made drastic changes the public hated. Web sites change. Sometimes for the better, and sometimes not.
What is it about Software and Web sites that companies and their programmers can’t leave them alone?
Imagine building a nice dresser for your bedroom. You personally select the cherry boards. Carefully cut the pieces. Hand plane the joints. Then you spend a hundred hours painstakingly hand sanding. Apply 5 coats of lacquer and sand between each coat. It looks great. Works great. You’re so proud of it. Something you will use every single day for the rest of your life. One of your kids will inherit it. Would you one day, say, oh what the hell. Lets redo the drawer layout? Grab that jigsaw and just butcher it? Of course not.
People don’t realize the complexity of programming. Thousands of man hours can go into the design and development of a big project like Google Maps. There might have been 12 people in that team. Often it’s fine tuned based on User comments. It’s as good as it can be.
I’ve gone through that same programming development cycle many times. The users will give me a request for a report. I may spend a week writing it. After it’s written, they’ll ask for a few mods. The finished report is tailored to fit their requirements. Typically it’s not changed unless there are new data element that need to be added. I understand that the people that use the reports are familiar with the layout. They know how it’s sorted. Where the Group Breaks are. The subtotals for each Sorted Group. How I summarized the data. Tinkering with the design just makes their job harder and more time consuming.
I was talking with other Analysts at work. We’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that it’s all about job security. That the programmers spend a year or two writing a difficult software application or web site. Now, instead of focusing on selling that product. They immediately begin a new development cycle. Ensuring their jobs are required. You only need one or two guys to maintain software. You need a team to write a new version.
Tinkeritis has spread to the public too. They’ve come to expect. New, New, New. Every damn year give me something new. It’s really getting pretty comical. Think about all the products in your home that are exactly the same. A dishwasher today is not much different than the one your mom had thirty years ago. A dvd player today is not much different than one you had in 1995. Product stability is a good thing.