Chapter 6 -- Reducing Time to Market

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Chapter 6

For many developers, the concept of time to market doesn't mean anything at all. They think of themselves as internal developers, developing applications for their employers only. The software they create isn't meant for the market. But the concept should mean just as much to them as to a developer who creates applications for the open market. The sooner an application can be put to work, the sooner it will start paying for itself. In this respect, it doesn't matter whether the user belongs to the same company as the developer or is part of an open market.

In the old days—only a few years ago—every serious application was created according to the waterfall process model. A team using such a model wouldn't start any coding activities until the parties ordering the application had approved a complete and detailed model or specification of the design.

These days, developers increasingly use iterative process models as replacements for the waterfall process model. Software is developed in stages, allowing developers, users, and customers to see results much faster. Misunderstandings might thus be resolved earlier, and the final result is more likely to resemble the user's real needs than in the old days.

Furthermore, if a development team refines its aims and reviews its work in successive stages, the coding of user interfaces can start much earlier than it could using the old development model. As a result, a team organized to view its task this way should also be able to finish its work much earlier. Time to market will be shorter.