I reached a milestone in my project progress yesterday. I
have just put a very crude version of my app out for alpha testing. Unfortunately
this is three weeks later than I had originally planned back in January. At
that time I was hoping to do an alpha release over the Easter holiday. About
half the delay is due to problems with the place I decided to host the app,
Heroku. My app seemed to screw up their import system and for days I could do
nothing. It also seems a bit slow - noticeably slower in production mode than
my old laptop in development mode. When I get to beta testing I'll probably
move to a different host. I can't complain too much, as their service is free
and in beta. They are definitely worth checking out for small developments or
hosting.
The other half of the delay is caused by the time taken for
my expectations to return to their original level. Over the last three months
my ideas on what the app should do have expanded greatly, and that week of delay
was me trying to add some last minute features. I could have kept going forever
before releasing anything. Ultimately I decided it would be best to get
something out even if I knew it was a crappy bare minimum. I hope my alpha
tester will persist through some trying times, but right now I need a little
direction. The app is definitely not as easy to use as it needs to be and I
suspect the design is atrocious. The plan is my alpha tester will help direct
me to the areas that need most attention, and guide me away from those that are
less important.
I have decided that my next milestone will be the end of May
for expanded alpha testing. By then I hope to have something that I can show to
a small, but slightly larger group of people. Anyone interested?
