How Fast is Your Turnaround Time?

petrus.burdigala writes "I work for a mid-sized commercial software company (~20 Mloc) and we are frequently challenged by our supervisors to get fixes around the clock. Overall, we manage to get a 'bullet-proof' patch in about 4-5 weeks (from coding->QA->Build/Packaging->shipment), which I consider not so bad. But the other day, we got an urgent request from our support team to come up with a decent fix in 48 hours. I think they're a tiny bit unrealistic. So I wanted to get feedback from my peers: are we doing that bad? It takes months for other software vendors to issue zero-day exploit fixes, are our customers being unreasonable?"

Comments

1 to 2 weeks

[duplicate-nickname]

For high priority bug fixes, it usually takes 1 to 2 weeks to get a patch out once we determine that a patch is needed.

My jaded perspective...

[idontgno]

Overall, we manage to get a 'bullet-proof' patch in about 4-5 weeks (from coding->QA->Build/Packaging->shipment)

Not unreasonable, depending on the size of your release. (How many modules and how many LOC you're changing, the number of change requests or bug reports in the build).

But the other day, we got an urgent request from our support team to come up with a decent fix in 48 hours. I think they're a tiny bit unrealistic.

I think they're smoking crack.

So I wanted to get feedback from my peers: are we doing that bad?

With your regular release schedule, I don't think so.

are our customers being unreasonable?

Yes. That's what they do. If they want a crash development program to get this "patch" out the door that fast, they seriously risk software which does nothing but crash. Really, if they want it that bad, they run the risk of getting it that bad.

You have to ask yourself and your "support team" (sounds more like marketing to me): "Do we wish to ruin a perfectly good reputation for quality and reliability in one hurry-up bashfest followed by weeks of agonizing on-line debugging?" Really, advocate any kind of work-around and risk mitigation response before being pushed into an overly-hasty release that will linger on your reputation like a dead skunk.

Re:The Real Meaning of Bad

[clsours]

If they ask for something within 48 hours and know what that means, then they deserve what they get.
If they ask for something within 48 hours and expect something usable, it is up to you to educate them.

Re:Parent is right.

[jomama717]

The most valuable skill I learned during my short time as a field consultant was how to "manage expectations" (pardon the bullshit bingo term). It's not the customer that is being unreasonable, it is that they have somehow adopted unreasonable expectations of what you can provide them. In other words, it's all your company's fault.

If a customer buys a support contract that explicitly states that 1 week is a reasonable turnaround time for an issue you'll be amazed to find out how pleased the customer is when you fix a problem in 72 hours. If some asshole salesman tells them that they can expect solutions to any issue in 2 hours, well, get ready to deal with an "unreasonable customer".

I unreasonably expect this post to be modded +5 insightful.