‘Feature’ is a construct
We talk about features but they don’t really exist
Features don’t exist. Records in databases, lines of code, commits and software releases are real. So are business outcomes. But although everyone talks about features from time to time, we never really make them concrete. Instead, we construct features on the fly, for the length of a conversation.
This talk explains how we make our lives difficult by failing to pin down features, throughout software development. We juggle roadmaps, tests, deployments, analytics and support requests, without following features from one conversation to another. We don’t have a clear idea about which features are released, enabled, documented, popular, broken, unreliable or abandoned.
We can have better conversations, and find common ground with more people, by paying attention to feature lifecycles. Attendees will broaden their perspective on software development, and learn about how their work connects to other people’s. They will discover a new way to have a positive impact in their team and on their career.
