Web application and desktop application development varies in a few ways. One of these ways is product release cycles. Adobe Photoshop, which has been around since 1988, has shipped only 14 times in the last 20 years. In contrast we’ve “shipped” or pushed code onto the web 15 times in the last 20 weeks.

This is due partly to the fact that we are a much smaller company and are much more agile in our development. But, this is also due to the fact that traditional development cycles emphasize phases. First there is design, then development, then bug fixes and finally the product is prepared for release, printed on discs, and shipped out to retailers. This last step is not a trivial one, once a product is shipped to retailers it isn’t feasible to add a new feature or bug fix and give it to all customers without shipping again.

With a web application it is possible to develop continuously. The traditional development cycles still exist, but on a per feature basis instead of per product. We don’t have to worry about shipping our product to retailers, we can give it directly to the customer through the web, and we can constantly update it.

There is one major drawback to continuous development however, the lack of parties, specifically release parties. I imagine it is not difficult to drum up excitement for a release when the last year of your life was dedicated to it. But how do you get people excited for version 3.0 when you just pushed version 2.99?

Answer: You have cake. And so, as we internally wrap up version 3.0 of SAGrader we celebrate with cake.