4 ms·

Can someone explain to me how one can use the "iterate faster" method to build highly reliable systems? How would Google look like if they were to release GMai

Can someone explain to me how one can use the "iterate faster" method to build highly reliable systems? How would Google look like if they were to release GMail using an "iterate faster" mentality? Your INBOX just got accidentally erased because of our UI bug. Oops sorry, we'll release a fix in 5 minutes. How about Windows? or a generic OS driver? Oops, your machine is just blue-screening now. Don't worry, we'll just release an update in an hour. It'll certainly make your OS drivers very reliable. Don't confuse the Web 2.0 "iterate faster" era with "the right way". Building "iterate faster" systems is easy. Building systems "the right way" is hard.

scintill76 15y ago
From the article: > Find a faster way to fail, recover, and try again. If the problem you are trying to solve involves creating a magnum opus, you are solving the wrong problem. I bet GMail and Windows do iterate and fail fast, internally. They probably often do fix bugs within 5 minutes, and have continuous integration tests running at least hourly. This is "the right way", and yes, it's hard. You don't see the fast iterations in the final product, but that doesn't meant they're not there.
semanticist 15y ago
Iterate rapidly to test environments, have more controlled releases to production. You can also use techniques like feature switches to roll out experimental features to only part of your userbase, although even then you'd ensure basic reliability first. To be honest, it sounds like you've confused 'iterate faster' with 'write crap code'. That's not what it means at all. It's HARDER to iterate faster with crap (presumably untested/untestable) code since you're piling technical debt upon technical debt. Clean, tested, maintainable code is essential for quick iterations to succeed.

4 ms·

Can someone explain to me how one can use the "iterate faster" method to build highly reliable systems? How would Google look like if they were to release GMai

by locacorten 15y ago

scintill76 15y ago
From the article: > Find a faster way to fail, recover, and try again. If the problem you are trying to solve involves creating a magnum opus, you are solving the wrong problem. I bet GMail and Windows do iterate and fail fast, internally. They probably often do fix bugs within 5 minutes, and have continuous integration tests running at least hourly. This is "the right way", and yes, it's hard. You don't see the fast iterations in the final product, but that doesn't meant they're not there.
semanticist 15y ago
Iterate rapidly to test environments, have more controlled releases to production. You can also use techniques like feature switches to roll out experimental features to only part of your userbase, although even then you'd ensure basic reliability first. To be honest, it sounds like you've confused 'iterate faster' with 'write crap code'. That's not what it means at all. It's HARDER to iterate faster with crap (presumably untested/untestable) code since you're piling technical debt upon technical debt. Clean, tested, maintainable code is essential for quick iterations to succeed.