Develop in haste, repent at leisure…

By Sean Sloan | November 10, 2012 |

Whoa, that has to be the single most concise, accurate statement regarding software AND web site development I have heard in a long time. Rushing is when mistakes are made, when mission critical technological details are overlooked.

Now I understand the need for deadlines but often they are subjective in nature and don’t reflect any true urgency. This should be one of the first determinations a company makes: when do we need the site live? Is it a looming trade show or product launch? Has collateral advertising material already been printed with hard dates on it?

Develop in haste, repent at leisure…

“The end result,” Ekdahl wrote, “was that 30,000+ of the most active and fired-up volunteers were wandering around confused and frustrated when they could have been doing anything else to help. The bitter irony of this entire endeavor was that a supposedly small government candidate gutted the local structure of [get out the vote] efforts in favor of a centralized, faceless organization in a far off place (in this case, their Boston headquarters). Wrap your head around that.”

It comes from a cautionary tale of the rushed development of software for the Romney campaign. You can read the entire article here.