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It's an intriguing question, encompassing complex issues around the linearity of application development, the constraints of path dependency, and so on. Frankly
by RyanMcGreal 17y ago
It's an intriguing question, encompassing complex issues around the linearity of application development, the constraints of path dependency, and so on. Frankly I don't know enough about the internal workings of WalMart's operations to answer helpfully.
The question is: would they really start from scratch or would they try to shoehorn their processes into some existing application that kinda, sorta does what they need and then hack-and-patch the rest of the way?
- tptacek 17y agoIt's more like, if you were starting a retail business of any sort, are there tech decisions you could make very early on to drastically reduce the eventual cost of operating a nationwide chain?
- RyanMcGreal 17y agoIt's a tough call. You don't want to optimize too prematurely for scaling, because the kind of system that would work effectively for a nationwide chain would likely be a very poor fit for a single store or small regional chain. My guess is that a more valuable trait would be an aggressive willingness for the business to 'kill its darlings' and break from processes that can't scale, rather than falling prey to the psychology of previous investment and chasing its losses.