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Peter Farrell-Vinay

"Manage Software Testing"

Bricks, lumber, tiles, cement, and plans are all commodities but some houses are still
better than others, and on the web we can live where we choose. There are lots of personal music players,
so how does Apple get 80% of the market in 2006? Why is Wal-Mart so phenomenally successful year on year?
What distinguishes the winners from the losers in the web game is the ability to provide a unique and
satisfying web experience. Since there are no barriers to market entry, everyone and their dog can, and
does have a website. Unfortunately most of these are at best ???coach??? class. The failures believe industrialstrength
websites can be created both painlessly and fast.
???Good enough??? is alleged to be the enemy of perfection. ???
I don??™t want perfection,???
screams a project
manager,
???I just want a site that works.???
The issue of course remains
risk
: do you want to risk your site
selling diamond rings at US$2.99? Can you be sure you have enough control over the development and
testing processes to be sure that that doesn??™t happen? Someone once thought they had.
It??™s Hard to Make It Easy,
and Easy to Make It Hard
pple??™s seamless combination of music player and download service has yet to be challenged
by devices from Samsung, Sony, or Creative, or from services such as Napster or
RealNetworks??™ Rhapsody.
???Apple set the bar . . . it just worked,???
1
said a spokesman for a competing and so-far-unsuccessful
music service.


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