Question 1
As we alluded to, the outrageous transformation taking
place in the camera and film industries is being caused by good-enough
products, specifically digital cameras and phone-embedded cameras. Read the
Outrageous Industry Transformation cases at the beginning of Chapters 2 through
8. Which corrections are being caused by good-enough technology products?
From digital camera to phone with camera,
this correction is caused by good-enough technology products. Camera in phone
is not a perfect camera because the quality of megapixel is not as good as a
digital camera. However, people tap into its benefits of being able to snap
photos anywhere, anytime.
Another example of good-enough technology
products is from hard-wired internet to wireless. Wireless connectivity enable people to access
internet anywhere, at anytime, and it makes you mobile as compared to hard-wired
internet, although its connectivity is slower.
Skype is a good-enough technology product,
it is not as convenient as mobile phone as skype cannot be used without
internet, whereas you can make phone call anytime at anywhere using mobile
phone without the need of internet. However, the cost being saved through
making international calls through skype are tremendous
Cell phone is not perfect either as the
voice on the other end cuts in and out, and sometimes calls are even dropped.
However, the good thing about cell phone is that it makes you mobile.
Question 2
What does all this mean for systems development? In the
good-enough technology, which will organizations come to rely on more heavily:
insourcing, selfsourcing, or outsourcing? Can organizations afford to use the
traditional SDLC and completely gather requirements before proceeding with
development? For what systems can organizations still use the traditional SDLC?
System development is being defined as the
process of defining, testing and implementing a new software application or
program. The advantage of incorporating “good-enough technology” in system
development is that you will save a lot of time, money and resources in your
system development process. This could be achieved through rapid application
development methodology, whereby it has extensive user involvement in the rapid
and evolutionary construction of working prototypes of a system to accelerate
the system development process.
In the good-enough technology,
organizations usually will rely more heavily on in-sourcing.
Organization can afford to use the
traditional SDLC to completely gather requirements before proceeding with
development, because it is a component-based development that can be written
each time for each application. Thus, it save a lot of time & utilization
of resources to gather information required for proceeding the development. The
rapid application development system is an example of traditional SDLC that can
be used by organization to achieve good-enough technology economy .
Question 3
How is the notion of getting things out the door quickly
and then using market feedback for product improvement similar to the concept
of prototyping? What are the disadvantages of using such an approach to the
release of products that aren’t perfect?
Prototyping is the process of building a
model that demonstrates the features of a proposed product, service, or system.
Prototyping is a dynamic process that allows end users to see, work with, and
evaluate a model and suggest changes to that model to increase the likelihood
of success of the proposed system. This is where the notion of getting things
out the door quickly and then using market feedback for product improvement
similar to the concept of prototyping.
The disadvantage of using such an approach
to the release of products that aren’t
perfect, is that the project team tends to forgo proper testing and
documentation. This is because they trust that after all, this product is going
to be improved further in future. Thus, they tend not to put in efforts to look
into the details. This may lead to the standard of the product getting lower
and lower.
Another disadvantage is that people will
feel that this company’s products are not high in quality, as they can easily
spot the product weaknesses when it first launches in the market. It gives a
bad impression to the consumer. As time
passes by, this becomes a not so good branding for the company as the product
is low in quality, even though it is going to be improved later on. This impact
is especially prominent in those products that required high quality image,
such as health supplement.
Question 4
Can manufacturers of automobiles use the concepts of the
good-enough technology economy to produce automobiles? What features of an
automobile must be perfect (or very close to it)? What features of an
automobile can simple be “good enough”?
Certain parts of the automobiles can use
the concepts of good-enough technology, whereas certain parts of it cannot use
the concept of good-enough technology. For example, the engine, the hand-brake,
tyre, etc must be perfect because any discrepancies will threaten the safety of
human’s life. On the other hand, parts that do not require perfect technology
are the material of the seat, the air-con, the sound system, etc. These
features can be just “good-enough” technology instead of perfect technology.
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