"Eat your own dog food" or how we found the most important client
The phrase "eat your own dog food" has long taken root in the IT industry to determine the practice of using a company or a team of developers of its own services and products. It is believed that this approach provides a number of advantages, including the ability to see and evaluate with your own eyes how a product or service works in real life, and not in terms of integration, load or any other testing.
At Acronis, we also traditionally used our corporate products in our own IT infrastructure. But for a long time there was no clear mechanism for introducing new products and updating old versions. This often led to situations where our customers started using products much earlier than ourselves.
The situation radically changed when the mandatory acceptance of all corporate products was introduced by the IT department of the company before their release. In fact, we officially recognized that our IT department is our first and most important customer, and that none of our products will be released until it satisfies our first customers.
')
The IT department connects to testing since the launch of the beta version. First, a new version or updates are checked in a test environment. Problems arising from the update, implementation and operation of the product are solved in conjunction with the development department. This allows project managers and developers themselves to see the difficulties, as they say, firsthand. And further, either quickly resolve them before the release, or add new items to the backlog for the next releases.
Then updates are installed in stages on work servers and workstations in different offices. This happens in the standard windows provided for maintenance.
As a result, for the final release, the new version of the product is already successfully serving all 18 offices around the world.
Microsoft has been using the Eat your own dog food practice since 1988. Nevertheless, in 2009, Microsoft's new CIO, Tony Scott, began to promote the new term “ Icecreaming ”, arguing that this term is much more attractive, and “ice cream is what our customers would like to eat.” What I can not disagree with.
At Acronis, we also traditionally used our corporate products in our own IT infrastructure. But for a long time there was no clear mechanism for introducing new products and updating old versions. This often led to situations where our customers started using products much earlier than ourselves.
The situation radically changed when the mandatory acceptance of all corporate products was introduced by the IT department of the company before their release. In fact, we officially recognized that our IT department is our first and most important customer, and that none of our products will be released until it satisfies our first customers.
')
How does this happen
The IT department connects to testing since the launch of the beta version. First, a new version or updates are checked in a test environment. Problems arising from the update, implementation and operation of the product are solved in conjunction with the development department. This allows project managers and developers themselves to see the difficulties, as they say, firsthand. And further, either quickly resolve them before the release, or add new items to the backlog for the next releases.
Domestic customers cannot guarantee the quality of the product!
It is very important not to place the responsibility of product testing on internal employees. This is not a project team, but FIRST CLIENTS. The product transferred to internal customers must comply with all quality requirements that are installed in the company for public releases, and any critical defects that were not detected during active project cycles can be considered as a “pack” of the project team.
Then updates are installed in stages on work servers and workstations in different offices. This happens in the standard windows provided for maintenance.
As a result, for the final release, the new version of the product is already successfully serving all 18 offices around the world.
What results it gives
- The development team can observe the product's life over time, how the product is updated, implemented and used.
- The product itself becomes faster, more reliable and more convenient. Illustrative example: the time required to install and configure the server part of Acronis Access product (a system for secure data exchange in a corporate environment) was reduced from several days to half an hour.
- Marketing and sales teams receive a ready-made case study, suitable for further distribution among existing and potential users of the product.
- Well, and most importantly, everyone in the company gets additional confidence that the new version of the product is ready for use in real conditions.
Products in our environment
- Our flagship product Acronis Backup Advanced has for many years backed up all business critical servers in the company, and has repeatedly restored them in the event of hardware failures or was used for cases of migration to a new hardware.
- Acronis Snap Deploy is a favorite HelpDesk product engineers who in a matter of minutes expands the image of the system with the necessary software for new employees: developers, testers, accountants, technical support specialists, etc.
- According to the company's policy for secure access, synchronization and sharing of corporate documentation, we all use Acronis Access solution, without which I can no longer present my work at the same level of performance, and which I will discuss in detail in one of the following articles.
- And finally, I do not know such employees in the company who would not use Acronis True Image to protect their personal data at work and at home.
Interesting fact
Microsoft has been using the Eat your own dog food practice since 1988. Nevertheless, in 2009, Microsoft's new CIO, Tony Scott, began to promote the new term “ Icecreaming ”, arguing that this term is much more attractive, and “ice cream is what our customers would like to eat.” What I can not disagree with.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/226673/
All Articles