3 Non-Problems When Justifying Visual Studio 2010 Upgrade

The past week has seen the much anticipated release of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4.0 and a major new release of Silverlight.

As Software Developers we like to install the latest and greatest.   Indeed as an ISV we have to embrace and ensure our products move on with the times.

But not everyone is as fortunate.  Usually business constraints dictate that you cannot or will not upgrade to the latest Microsoft Developer tools.

So what typically prevents Software Developers from at least deploying the latest Microsoft tools?

Time

“There is no time in the schedules for you to assess/deploy the latest tool-set.”

The “no time” argument is highly prevalent in service based technology organizations where there is always pressure to ensure team members are effectively “utilized”.  When employee time is relentlessly aligned to “billable” work, opportunities to perform R&D or leverage appropriate new tools can be challenging.

It’s a bit like taking time off from work: there’s never a good time to book your vacation but we all need to do it.  Time and time again we all see Software Developers working late into the night or pulling a “rabbit out of a hat” on a Saturday afternoon.

There is always time.

Money

“There is limited/no money to upgrade your tool-set.”

We see it all the time – Developers unable to upgrade to the latest tool-set due to a lack of funds.  The Visual Studio tool-set is refreshed once in a while so having no funds to upgrade can really cause friction.  A ny “Express” edition does not cut it either because we are analytical by nature: we will find plenty of reasons not to install at least the “Premium” Edition!

So how much money did  Software Developers save/make by working outside of hours without asking for any remuneration?

There is always some money somewhere.

Legacy

“We cannot upgrade any of our systems.”

We don’t live in a perfect world and legacy systems are part of the software eco-system.  We get that.  But the bullshit argument that sometimes comes out of “management” is just plain wrong.  Visual Studio Multi-Targeting capabilities ensure that we can all continue to build great software using the latest IDE whilst protecting against “codebase migrations”.

There is no argument for legacy.

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Tags: opinion, visual studio