Quality vs Quantity in the Software Industry

We live in the era of the technological revolution, the software industry is at its best, thousands of startups are created annually and a large number of companies have their own development team.

All those involved in this wave wish to create something great, something that can solve the problem under which it is focused (or overcome another application that already does exactly what it is developing). While you are in this process, the brainstorming starts and after a while you finally have a defined plan, you know what, when, how and who. With a defined action plan the development of the idea begins, in that process new features are added to the original idea which requires more time, but the dead line is already defined, then the question arises: What should I give to my clients, quantity or quality?

Each side has a group of people who defend it, but the truth is that it is a little silly at this point of the game to make that comparison. Quality and quantity are interpenetrating are not on opposite sides. There are many “reasons” to justify quality over quantity or the opposite, I present my favorites:

Quality — Reason: “It is better to give the client 3 features that work correctly and not 4 that are not quite right”.

Reality: It is true, quality is very important to ensure the loyalty of our customers. But if the situation is that the client had required 4 features and you accepted to perform them in an amount of time X, it is not a valid reason to deliver 3 because you did not manage to assure the quality of those that you had already promised. If you buy an ice cream with cone in advance and when you pick it up they tell you that they do not have a cone but that the ice cream is very delicious, would you feel happy?

Quantity — Reason: “Our competitors took out a new feature, now they have 12 and we only have 10, we must reach 15 to have an advantage”

Reality: You have to start discarding that mentality, if my competitor has 5 applications I need to have 7, if my competitor jumps I jump higher because I can not be behind my competitor, I have news for you, you are in the back of your competition and you’re going to stay there until you stop being reactive and start being proactive. Each new release must add value, do not reinvent the wheel, perfection it.

Advice

Quality and quantity go together and you will only be able to achieve that harmony with good planning, knowing what will be done and when, that information must be agreed by the development team and by the clients. Keep your planning flexible for your customers under the agreement that if new features are added, delivery time will be increased, do not kill your team.

At the time of planning remember that you must have a contingency plan, do not make the plans based on the best scenario. If the delivery is on Friday, your work should be ready by 11:00 a.m. from Thursday.

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