OSEF - Software as a Service

Yesterday was the event on SaaS, we had a very information savvy group and our panelists, as usual, have helped demystifying SaaS for the rest of us. 

A couple highlights for me from the discussion:

SaaS is raising the bar with respect to the quality of the development process.  

I was not expecting that one.  But when you think about it, delivering software (read: value) frequently puts pressure on the need for the development team to create quality software at all time not relying as much on an intense and lengthy verification process.  In this context, successful SaaS product teams have better software development processes.  We did not dive into the details of it, but risk mitigation and quality assurance strategies such as: user centered design, code review, agile methodologies, automated unit tests are certainly part of the mix.

Lesson: When building software in the SaaS model, ensuring you have a great software development process should increase your odds of getting the most returns out of your SaaS initiatives.

Your development team are on the operation team. 

We had an extensive discussion on the shift that SaaS causes on the involvement of the development team.  This is a no brainer when you think about it.   When releasing software on a monthly basis (or even faster) to your customers, you must have your development team available at all time, otherwise who's going to take care of the unexpected failure occurring on a Sunday night?  This is a clear distinction over the more traditional delivery model of shrink wrapped software.  

Lesson: Ensure you are engaging your development team for more than "simply" building the software.  They must be available to handle software failures at all time.  

Hope to see you at the next OSEF, the last of this season (for real this time!) 

If you are not member, please request membership through http://www.meetup.com/ottawasef/

Cheers!