To Release No More or To "Release" Always: Part I -- The Myth

by Israel Gat

For most of my adult life, I have been perplexed by a Pavlovian phenomenon: whenever I, as an engineering manager, released code to manufacturing,¹ the marketing folks reacted by conducting a three-week worldwide analyst tour. As much as I appreciate good public relations for my products, I viewed this phenomenon as a mystery that I might one day solve, perhaps when I retire. As luck would have it, the need to solve the mystery has become more pressing in recent years because agile has transformed the way we develop software. My resolve to postpone exploring this phenomenon until better days arrived came to an end when a frazzled marketing manager said, "Israel, you guys can code faster than my team can market." Flattering as this comment was, it led me to some far-reaching conclusions with respect to the way we develop and use software in general, as well as enterprise software in particular. This Executive Update series captures the essence of my thoughts on the subject.