Norman vs. 37Signals
An article over at Wired about “The Brash Boys at 37signals” (makers of Backpack and Ruby on Rails) has prompted a bit of a debate in the blogosphere.
Donald Norman wrote an article asking “Why is 37signals so arrogant?” and 37Signals wrote a follow-up describing “Why we disagree with Don Norman“. Have a read, it’s an interesting debate on software design philosophy.
All articles bring up interesting discussion - is there a single and correct product design process? Probably not. I think the important take-away here is that there are multiple processes and philosophies of product development to consider. But I believe there are some processes better suited for certain situations. The choice of process is only one of the many choices any company has to make on their road to success or failure.