In the first instalment I mentioned this is not a negative process, rather a documentation of what factors contribute to not getting things done. Sure there’s lots of stuff on ISV blogs, the likes of Seth Godwin and others who tell us how to get things done, but very few are forthcoming on what doesn’t work.  Hence this little series as it’s applied to me.

To begin this post I’d like to point out that amongst a negative array positive elements do in fact exist.  For example it never occurred to me ever that I would end up doing website, blog and SEO consulting for businesses and yet through my work in building an ISV using CMS tools like WordPress that exactly what has happened and it’s reasonably lucrative too.  I state this to make it very clear that the objective here is ultimately to underline a contention that failure is in fact a good thing.

A good thing because from it other opportunities arise that are often unsuspected and sometimes worthwhile.  A good thing because failure does not mean a cessation or end to a process, as is often assumed by people, but rather a platform, a foundation if you will, upon which to build sturdier structures.

The reason I have not managed to embrace “release early and iterate” easily as an ISV is because, principally, time became an issue in my life for a variety of reasons and not forgetting I tend to be a perfectionist to the point where productivity is engulfed in a conflagration of anxiety and wheel spinning.  The latter issue being a serious design flaw in the current build – Version 47.1 – of me.

In reality there are degrees of separation in the kind of failures we experience in life.  It is true one persons failure is another persons meat.  It’s also true that it is easy to over emphasise the importance of failure in our lives rather than the value of failure.  In other words we frequently fail – that word! – to utilize and draw value from the experience.  Thanks to the 30 Day development exercise in June 2008 I learned I can produce content online very quickly and easily, that said content is sought after by people and that the SEO advantages of content are extremely powerful and virtually unrecognised by most businesses let alone ISV’s.

Avoiding Reinventing The Wheel – Your Doing It Wrong

As software developers we’ve spoken for decades about avoiding reinventing the wheel.  Time is generally saved by, for example, using a component library, to circumvent having to code each aspect from scratch whether that be a GUI library or an engine.  I admit in all the years of written software, before and after OOP, I have never experienced a situation where this could go so utterly wrong before.

Amongst that “wrong”  the concept has distinct elements of success without doubt.  I’m not suggesting for a minute you should not invest in third party libraries. In fact I still urge you to do so. Sure, not all third-party libraries are created equally.  I have incorporated excellent libraries – such as Krypton Components from Component Factory, which are beautiful functional libraries saving me oodles of time.  I use and heartily recommend them.

I’ve also purchased expensive libraries that have cost thousands of dollars over the course of the last two years that have utterly failed to deliver the value expected or even implied by their developers.  Seriously – if a developer offering a library is using a version of your IDE dating more than two versions ago you are probably going to have some serious issues.  If the developer is supporting a technology, like Active-X, and that support is geared if not laser targeted to that extinct technology you are going to have serious problems.  If the developer is incorporating yet another third party commercial library into their own commercial library – with no source code option available – you are going to have serious problems.  If you have to switch IDE’s to support the component library after the developer tells you your current IDE is supported in the advertising but not really in implementation then you are going to have problems.  If the developer tells you the functions documented and advertised aren’t really available in the library for real world use or at all, then you are going to have problems.  If the developers domain knowledge is less than 35% of your own then you are going to have problems.  Be aware that your testing of complex libraries may not be sufficient tests and that issues frequently arise only after you move beyond the sample code supplied by the developer.

OK.  A series of fail in the paragraph above.  The solution is simple.  Who is using the library?  Even though you may know the developer through an organisation, as was the case for me, who is actually using the library?  Go look at their customers and see what they are developing.  At what standard are those products?  Are they rebranding sample code projects supplied by the developer and labelling them a “product”.   If they are doing that, or the developer is leery of providing customer references then the solution is obvious and simple.  R-U-N and keep your credit card in your pocket!!

The next element in the solution is to know when to cut your losses if you didn’t apply the suggestion above.  If after three to six months the code you’re writing is not happening due to the library it’s time to drop it, arguing past time but it’s difficult when you have invested time and money.  However at the end it’s cheaper to cut your losses on this than to continue trying to make a silk purse out of a sow with swine flu.

To conclude for this instalment – negatives happen, fails occur.  They are not signals to quit in all instances, or even most.  They are grist for our respective mills.  You might have three months or thirty years experience in an industry but you’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to have failures.  It is not the end of the world.

Scott Kane

“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.”
~ Henry Ford

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There are four, beautiful, sets available that have my mouth watering.

Krypton Toolkit  http://www.componentfactory.com/free-windows-forms-controls.php

Krypton Ribbon http://www.componentfactory.com/windows-forms-ribbon.php

Krypton Navigator http://www.componentfactory.com/windows-forms-tabcontrol.php

Krypton Workspace http://www.componentfactory.com/windows-forms-tabbed.php

I purchased a control set earlier this month from another vendor (ISV’s beware – when a vendor does not have a trial version of a certain component there is probably a very good reason for this…) which sadly was not as good.  In fact that particular library was completely unusable.  Compiler warnings (warnings often signal future trouble, they shouldn’t be ignored), source code not at the current version (three years old in fact) and support was non existent.

KRYPTON from COMPONENT FACTORY however is a different story!

Active support forums (and I mean active) with helpful replies from both the company and users.  Super nice components that are fast, flexible and it’s got to be said – very, very sexy.

Yes, this ISV is going to have to work out how to purchase the suite.  It’s that nice.  Of course after purchasing the previous suite, and being on a boot strapping budget, this will be tricky – short of robbing a bank. 

The Krypton Toolkit BTW is 100% free to download and use.  Extremely generous if you consider what’s in there and how much many other component vendors charge for similar components.  The other three component packs form the “suite” which is commercial, though fully functional trials exist (always a good sign).

The look and feel is extremely nice, from the UI of the office suites (such as MS Office 2003, 2007 etc) and beyond, the increasingly ubiquitous ribbon bar, navigators and the rather interesting (and tempting) workspace control.

I’m going to be spending a good deal of the Christmas/New Year period looking at how to best implement these controls into MixAction now that the other component library has turned out to be a fizzer (I had a lot UI wise riding on it, an expensive lesson, I should know better after all these years), so stay tuned for, I guarantee it 100% this time, screenshots in the New Year. 

Scott Kane

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