The current software development process in common use within industry is inefficient, in that the time required to incorporate results from competitive, beta, and previous releases into new versions available to customers is typically measured in years. Further, the accuracy of customer feedback returned to the development team is frequently weak or incomplete, with samples often drawn from only a small, selfselected set of customers. This paper argues that we can automate this feedback process and, in so doing, drive an order of magnitude improvement in the rate at which software evolves and improves.
James R. Hamilton