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Build or don't build a software feature?

dont.build

1–10 of 45 posts

Re: Build or don't build a software feature?

#6
I'm not sure it would be useful to decide if something should be implemented or not (in the sense that you often already know), but it's a great visual tool regardless, and could be used to show users how development decisions are made.

A nice additional feature would be a way to bookmark a set of slider values, so that it can be shared with others.

Re: Build or don't build a software feature?

#8
post #7

Great job on this decision making tool. One thing that might be missing - the business viability of the feature. All else being equal you prioritize features that add value to the company that builds them.

To be fair, the tool doesn't seem to be exclusively for "business software", so that would be a parameter you'd control yourself.

Re: Build or don't build a software feature?

#9
post #5

Interesting approach for a decision calculator. Why is the result always between 5% and 95%?

TL;DR: A minimum score of 1 messes with their formula. OP should consider changing it.

Looking at the page's , I think it's because they set the minimum score to 1 rather than 0.

In addition, for three of the questions, a high score is seen as a negative rather than a positive (e.g. a high score in "development effort" likely means "a lot of effort"), so behind the hood they invert those scores by doing (10 - score).

The problem is then that positive questions have a range from 1 to 10, and negative questions have a range from 0 to 9, and the means you have a minimum score of 3 and a max of 57, rather than 0 and 60.

For a more flowery answer: A developer never deals in absolutes :)

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