The Power of One

I have heard Dave Duffield of Workday say in all the companies he has started he has never felt as much customer unanimity than at Workday since all of them are all on the same release and have plenty to talk about at customer events. On-premise software in his past companies and those of many present competitors are on multiple releases, different database platforms, with different customizations, sunset schedules etc.

And Workday is no slouch with new releases at a blistering pace – 3 a year.

So it is a bit eye popping, David Clarke, VP of Technology Development  says that is actually not quick enough in a post where he talks about a move to a single codeline development

“For a SaaS vendor, completing features and then not delivering them to customers is akin to a manufacturer stockpiling inventory. It is not an efficient use of a valuable resource (in our case, development time), and it is indicative of a problematic supply chain (for us, just three releases of new features per year).”

Oh gasp - at that enhanced pace I expect Dave to start calling it the Power of Formula One!