- Posts: 123
- Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2018 9:31 pm
- Real Name: Mike Kelly
I see bits and pieces of this on different threads, but I thought it might be a good idea to summarize some reminders of how to best help the development team prepare their product for final release. I do not work for Blackmagic and these are my own opinions, so I encourage you to add, correct, and opine as you wish.
1. Beta-testing software helps both of us; Blackmagic gets a bunch of people finding bugs virtually for free, allowing them to release a better product for less cost, and we not only get to practice using the new features in advance, but we have a voice in what gets fixed and changed sooner rather than later.
2. Adding dozens of new features to an existing product of this size creates hundreds if not thousands of new workflow paths. It is simply not possible in any reasonable timeframe to create automated tests to cover every use case. Therefore, things are going to regress, break, crash, etc. It is the reality of software development and the result of us as end-users demanding major new versions of software every year instead of every decade.
3. It is not financially possible for Blackmagic to hire enough developers to fix every bug in the software. Therefore, they use an agile process where the product owner prioritizes the bugs and the developers fix them in iterations based on their capacity to build functionality in a given timebox. You see the results of these iterations as we get a new beta version every 2-3 weeks. Most software companies release their final production version based on the rate of incoming new bugs, not the number of open bugs. Thus the adage "Software is not released, it escapes."
4. The priority for fixing bugs is not based on reported displeasure, it is typically based on severity and the reported frequency of the issue. So, adding comments like “I can’t believe this doesn’t work” or “I’m going back to X software” has no impact and is not helpful. As a rule, leave all emotion out of your post. Just state the issue, your setup, how to reproduce, and logs if possible.
5. Responding to a thread with “I have this problem as well” is generally a good thing. It lets them know that it is not just an edge case with someone on an unusual hardware configuration or upgrade scenario. It is even better if you can respond with additional information like how your computer is similar or differs from the original poster, or narrowing down the issue with more specifics like “I can get it to work if I do X, but it always fails if I do Y.”
6. Personally, I prefer a bit of detail in the thread subject. “Resolve 15 broken” or “List of beta 6 issues” requires that I open the thread to see what is happening. As a former product owner, when I am looking at and prioritizing hundreds of issues, seeing a list of meaningful subject lines is much easier to work with than having to open every one to remember what something was referring to.
7. We have heard this a million times, but finally, don’t install a beta product in a mission critical environment. Telling Blackmagic how many hours you lost or what deadlines you missed on a customer’s project because of a beta bug is unprofessional and just reckless. If you don’t have a test machine that is separate from your production work environment, please strongly consider not being a beta tester.
My apologies if this has all been said in previous threads. If so, it will make its way off the page in a day or so. It’s also not a personal bash on anyone. If anything, it is a good reminder to me on how to post effectively.
1. Beta-testing software helps both of us; Blackmagic gets a bunch of people finding bugs virtually for free, allowing them to release a better product for less cost, and we not only get to practice using the new features in advance, but we have a voice in what gets fixed and changed sooner rather than later.
2. Adding dozens of new features to an existing product of this size creates hundreds if not thousands of new workflow paths. It is simply not possible in any reasonable timeframe to create automated tests to cover every use case. Therefore, things are going to regress, break, crash, etc. It is the reality of software development and the result of us as end-users demanding major new versions of software every year instead of every decade.
3. It is not financially possible for Blackmagic to hire enough developers to fix every bug in the software. Therefore, they use an agile process where the product owner prioritizes the bugs and the developers fix them in iterations based on their capacity to build functionality in a given timebox. You see the results of these iterations as we get a new beta version every 2-3 weeks. Most software companies release their final production version based on the rate of incoming new bugs, not the number of open bugs. Thus the adage "Software is not released, it escapes."
4. The priority for fixing bugs is not based on reported displeasure, it is typically based on severity and the reported frequency of the issue. So, adding comments like “I can’t believe this doesn’t work” or “I’m going back to X software” has no impact and is not helpful. As a rule, leave all emotion out of your post. Just state the issue, your setup, how to reproduce, and logs if possible.
5. Responding to a thread with “I have this problem as well” is generally a good thing. It lets them know that it is not just an edge case with someone on an unusual hardware configuration or upgrade scenario. It is even better if you can respond with additional information like how your computer is similar or differs from the original poster, or narrowing down the issue with more specifics like “I can get it to work if I do X, but it always fails if I do Y.”
6. Personally, I prefer a bit of detail in the thread subject. “Resolve 15 broken” or “List of beta 6 issues” requires that I open the thread to see what is happening. As a former product owner, when I am looking at and prioritizing hundreds of issues, seeing a list of meaningful subject lines is much easier to work with than having to open every one to remember what something was referring to.
7. We have heard this a million times, but finally, don’t install a beta product in a mission critical environment. Telling Blackmagic how many hours you lost or what deadlines you missed on a customer’s project because of a beta bug is unprofessional and just reckless. If you don’t have a test machine that is separate from your production work environment, please strongly consider not being a beta tester.
My apologies if this has all been said in previous threads. If so, it will make its way off the page in a day or so. It’s also not a personal bash on anyone. If anything, it is a good reminder to me on how to post effectively.
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Resolve Studio 18.5 Beta 3
OS: Windows 11 Home x64
CPU: Intel i9-13950HX
RAM: 32GB
GPU: RTX 4090 16GB
Driver: Nvidia Studio 531.61