I have come to be against continuous delivery - in 'whole product terms' there are vast hidden expenses.
In particular - documentation and support.
Using complicated interfaces is very challenging sometimes, to the point of obscene - Google searches for help turn up a variety of outdated answers - and it's impossible to know what's what.
I'm using Facebook Ads right now quite a lot - it's complex system that just shifts like quicksand under your feet.
Users make incredible efforts to learn the product, only to have it shift away from them like a ghost.
Documentation may or may not be up to date.
Locations of things change.
And who can you ask? Where do you search for support? Facebook has never really provided me answers to many questions in their documentation.
Tiny example - an advisor used to know how to list people that have commented on a post, so that you could 'invite them to like your page'. But it's changed and now he can't find it. One small thing now that he doesn't know how to do, a tool list from his tool-chest.
And who really gains from all of this? Seriously? I don't think anyone.
Is that 'new feature' really that important? It needs to be rolled out 'now' instead of in a major/minor delivery?
These changes are seldom well communicated either.
I suggest the total opposite might be better: release major iterations every year, minor iterations quarterly, and patches as needed.
Every time there is a release - provide users friendly release notes - something they can read at a quick glance and get up to speed. A little 10 second video for every change: "Oh, now you can do XYZ like this"
This way - you have predictability and consistency so users can know how to 'keep up'.
Also - the ability to use the OLD interface where possible for at least 1 year, or something like that - that we users are not forced onto the quicksand.
"Ok it's Jan 1 - FB Ads 2019 is released in 1 month - let's go over the changes - Mary, you can be responsible for highlighting the major changes and communicating them to the rest of the team, and highlighting any risks for us"
Otherwise, you're trolling along, these companies make changes that could feasibly have major impact on your business and you're out to lunch.
Maybe internally continuous delivery could be a useful thing ... but for the world at large the downsides are real and the upsides are limited.
In particular - documentation and support.
Using complicated interfaces is very challenging sometimes, to the point of obscene - Google searches for help turn up a variety of outdated answers - and it's impossible to know what's what.
I'm using Facebook Ads right now quite a lot - it's complex system that just shifts like quicksand under your feet.
Users make incredible efforts to learn the product, only to have it shift away from them like a ghost.
Documentation may or may not be up to date.
Locations of things change.
And who can you ask? Where do you search for support? Facebook has never really provided me answers to many questions in their documentation.
Tiny example - an advisor used to know how to list people that have commented on a post, so that you could 'invite them to like your page'. But it's changed and now he can't find it. One small thing now that he doesn't know how to do, a tool list from his tool-chest.
And who really gains from all of this? Seriously? I don't think anyone.
Is that 'new feature' really that important? It needs to be rolled out 'now' instead of in a major/minor delivery?
These changes are seldom well communicated either.
I suggest the total opposite might be better: release major iterations every year, minor iterations quarterly, and patches as needed.
Every time there is a release - provide users friendly release notes - something they can read at a quick glance and get up to speed. A little 10 second video for every change: "Oh, now you can do XYZ like this"
This way - you have predictability and consistency so users can know how to 'keep up'.
Also - the ability to use the OLD interface where possible for at least 1 year, or something like that - that we users are not forced onto the quicksand.
"Ok it's Jan 1 - FB Ads 2019 is released in 1 month - let's go over the changes - Mary, you can be responsible for highlighting the major changes and communicating them to the rest of the team, and highlighting any risks for us"
Otherwise, you're trolling along, these companies make changes that could feasibly have major impact on your business and you're out to lunch.
Maybe internally continuous delivery could be a useful thing ... but for the world at large the downsides are real and the upsides are limited.