Comment by PhilWright
10 years ago
I don't think this works in practice.
I cannot see Oracle slowly adding extra features to its database until it becomes an actual CRM system. A CRM is not just a solution to a different business problem but also a logically different layer from a development perspective. You would have to build it as a product that sits on top of the database product.
But as a CRM system it has no value to the end customer unless it has a certain minimum level of functionality. So although you can add features gradually and evolve your CRM offering you will not have a single customer until you have actually added enough features that make it actually usable. Nobody will buy your gradually evolving system until several years have passed and it works for some actual customers. In which case you have already spend alot of money and effort.
But as a CRM system it has no value to the end customer unless it has a certain minimum level of functionality
This sounds a familiar argument - roughly what you're saying is that an eye cannot evolve, it has to be intelligently designed? :|
eh? I make no comparison between developing a minimum viable CRM product and claiming irreducible complexity in biological systems.
I made the comparison with the kind of argument, because you made the same kind of argument.
Nobody will buy your gradually evolving system until several years have passed and it works for some actual customer
The parent was assuming people were already buying Oracle as a database (for example), and continuing buying Oracle as a database, and gradually getting CRM features coming with it.
So people will always be buying the gradually evolving system, and it will always/increasingly usefully be working for some actual customer.
But as a CRM system it has no value to the end customer unless it has a certain minimum level of functionality.
"There's a minimum crew requirement"
"What's the minimum crew requirement?"
"Oh, er, one, I suppose".
It has value as long as it has any value at all, there isn't a certain minimum level of functionality unless you assume either 'absent' or 'broken' is involved. By the time a single shipping useful feature rolls into a production release, it has value to anyone who wants that function. Or, potential value, at least. Like a proto-eye that has value as soon as it's a light/shadow sensitive cell.
It wouldn't make sense to release one basic function as a CRM product - which is why the parent is talking about 'evolving' an existing product up to a higher stack layer, not trying to release a new product at a higher stack layer all at once.
So although you can add features gradually and evolve your CRM offering you will not have a single customer until you have actually added enough features that make it actually usable
Following the model where Oracle tries to build and launch a CRM product all at once, or Google try to build and launch a social network all at once - which is completely the opposite of the gradual improvement up to a higher level which the parent was suggesting. You're arguing "you can't gradually improve from where you are because that isn't releasing a finished product in one go", no it isn't, that's the point.