Radixhound

This is an overdue post about the things that I started reflecting about after watching the movie DareDevil – Director’s cut. I’m starting at the end because it’s the most interesting at the moment – the little things are what makes it big.

What happened with the theatrical release of DareDevil was that the producer and other people involved on the project wanted the running time of the movie to be under or around 90 minutes. I don’t really know why they would want to do that, I personally feel ripped off if a movie is too short. Bring on the 3 hour long flicks is what I say. That’s beside the point. This is not to say that you can’t make a good movie with a short running time. It just depends if the story can handle it.

The consequence of this decision was that they started to cut out what they considered to be the ‘fluff’. The cut out all the scenes that didn’t advance the primary plot line in some way. What was left was a very concise fast moving story. But it was devoid of small interesting details.

When it came to the director’s cut, a bunch of side stories were added, supporting cast had more screen time, and there were more quiet moments exploring little details. These little details didn’t necessarily fit in with the core of the story or move forward the main plot line, but in many ways they are what made it good.

The same idea can be applied to software development.

In the quest to deliver on time and on budget and as simple as possible, it is tempting to take a piece of software and cut off all the ‘fluff’. Someone seriously dedicated to quality might want to rip out all the little flairs of elegance, little extra tidbits that take some fiddling and maybe some of the visual icing. Someone serious about the timeline might ask of every feature “is this strictly necessary for release?”

At first glance, and even upon deeper consideration, these seem like good practices to engage in. Now ask yourself, “Is there anything in the initial version of the software that will make people say WOW?”

Any software that I have used and have immediately felt to be great software has made me say “wow” within the first couple of minutes. Where does this wow factor come from? I think that much of the answer to that question is in the feeling that all of the little details have been considered. Greatness comes when all of the details are completed to perfection. Look around and you will begin to see that this is true.