Fuck it ship it -- really?

[danse]

Are you sure that this principle leads to good civic software? I would like to discuss that

[pudo]

None of these are absolutes, but I think it's a useful rule. Let rubber hit road. Discuss :)

[danse]

Well, i agree with the idea of exposing a project and its code to the public and to its users as early as possible. The whole agile methodology is based on this principle. That said, there are some invisible, structural features in software, like reliability, that are likely to be overlooked by a superficial approach to development.

I have worked often on "demo driven developed" software, and it's terrible. The users and the management cannot be aware of all the infrastructural work needed to make a software component maintainable, and therefore sustainable, and being guided just by what you see is not helpful in making the foundation work visible.

If we want to encourage people not to be afraid and to look for exposure early, let's do it using a different expression. I am not sure about where fuck it, ship it comes from, but to me it evokes a culture of hustle and disrespect, where no time or space is left for doubt and discussion. While pressure for money can motivate this attitude in some contexts, i wouldn't definitely pick it as a model of a civic pattern