Forum Discussion
This topic came up in yesterday's "Ask Me Anything" session with the various product owners within the SmartBear organization. While there wasn't anything specifically said about "Kudo count" or anything like that, what was said was encouraging. There were several people throughout the days at the Connect conference that mentioned that, when they asked for SmartBear to add a feature to a tool for them (whether it was TestComplete or ReadyAPI! or something else), SmartBear did give them that feature. And this was reinforced at the "Ask Me Anything" session.
One thing that yesterday's session opened up with were talks from the CTO and other product owners of the products and some upcoming roadmaps of what they are hoping to do with the various tools. Regarding TestComplete, one thing that was mentioned was that they want the tool to be as "frictionless" as possible meaning that they want to develop it in such a way that, if you're using the tool, there should be no impediments to being able to being successful with the tool, whether you are someone who writes complex framework code or is a more "beginner" level user. So, when it comes to developing the tool, that balance is taken into consideration (again, reinforced in "Ask Me Anything").
One thing that was reinforced over and over and over again both in LinoTadros training on Tuesday as well as in the many talks given on Wednesday was that, with regards to TestComplete, there are many ways of achieving the same results. This flexibility I would imagine also is taken into consideration with regards to feature requests. If they implement a feature, does this restrict the user to having to do things "The TestComplete Way" or will it allow the user to determine how they want to utilize it.
One thing I do see about a lot of the feature requests out there is that many of them are on the lines of having TestComplete do things in a very particular way. So, if someone is using the tool and they want to achieve a particular task, they would have to do it that way and that flexibility of the tool is lost.
So, with the vision in mind of a "frictionless" product that provides a flexibility of usage for a variety of skill levels with regards to the automation person and does not interfere with the general roadmap of the product... I would imagine that all this is taken into consideration with regards to feature requests. But, and this was reinforced yesterday, if there is an overwhelming response from the user base that "Yes, we MUST have feature A", then SmartBear listens and implements it. So... there are 375 feature requests... but they don't have a lot of popularity. This is no reflection on the intrinsic value of the request... it may be a very useful feature. But if only 1 or 2 people out of a user base of millions (and they aren't all here on the forums) like the item, then it would be a feature added for a very small subset of the over all userbase which would then "break" that vision.
So... the take away: If there is a feature that you think should be voted up, mention it, campaign for it. Could be that there are a bunch of folks who just don't know about it. SmartBear DOES listen. But don't be surprised, however, if not a lot of response is given. Like myself, there are some very creative people in the SmartBear user base who, when presented with a problem to solve, instead of asking, "How can I convince SmartBear to add this feature?" they ask, "How can I use the tool to solve my problem?" And, in listening to many different users yesterday, the most successful users of TestComplete ask that second question and then go on to achieve amazing things.
- nebsta7 years agoContributor
tristaanogre I see your point but this kind of feedback is unquantified and may not represent the views of users as a whole. I think there should be more visibility on feature requests e.g. average age, number created vs number resolved, number of requests that have changed status etc.
The top two requests both relate to improvements to the NameMappings where AFAIK there is not currently a work around, they have been raised since 1H 2015 and seem to have been put into the 'too hard basket'. Even as the two two ideas - perhaps having only 56 and 58 kudos votes gives the impression that they are not really needed by users but I would guess that the vast majority of TestComplete users have never used the Smartbear Community, let alone reviewed the feature requests section. If there were an alternative way to achieve the feature request ideas easily then I would not be so worried about them but I don't believe there is.
I totally appreciate that there is limited dev resources and we shouldn't be encouraging custom workflows within the tool but IMO there are some very valid ideas with high votes that have been around for a long time and are not being considered.
- tristaanogre7 years agoEsteemed Contributor
Actually, based upon what was said at Connect, those two items are being worked on... but, as you noted, they are tricky. Again, just because it has the most amount of Kudos does not mean it's going to be completed first.
- mgroen27 years agoSuper Contributor
Like mentioned earlier.... I think it would adorn Smartbear if they provide proper follow up on the feature requests. They want us to provide feedback.. then, reward us for that! How? By providing updates frequently. Not only new features but also improvements, bug fixes, etc!
It's for their own good that the product keeps well respected by their users, and it will create flow and momentum for Smartbear product users and Smartbear developers. Last but not least it's modern to involve end users in product development and reward them for it.
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