Soooo......any news?

[S P 18]

12 hours ago, jstnj said:

As someone working in software development for a decade, its clear Aerosoft simply does not understand this truth:

Customer communication, expectation handling, and transparency are 50% of a product and what gets delivered is the other 50.

The truth is that software developers should develop software and not spend 50% of their time "managing expectations".

[FlyingHero 8]

With the end result being they can only spend 20% of their time developing software because the customers keep bugging them and when they finally do release the software the unmanaged customer expectations have risen to such heights that the developer gets mostly complaints, lower sales and a bad reputation. At that point, somebody in that company starts thinking "If only we had spent 50% of our time managing expectations, we could have spent 50% of our time developing a product which made 80% of the people happy. Lessons learned."

 

In other news, Boris created a new sound pack for the CRJ. I read an article about it with this line: "Although somewhat past its prime time and, in the eyes of many, in need of a few important updates to bring it in line with today’s standards, the Aerosoft CRJ is nonetheless still a popular aircraft."

 

Yup, they got the current customer impression correct.

[SIMIOVOLADOR 1]

... And Tom, in another post, said:

 

"Unfortunately, the current version of the CRJ doesn't support Xbox. Once the next update is released, it's likely something that could then be checked up on again".

 

So, three people "linked" in some way to the CRJ, confirm that an update is coming...

[FlyingHero 8]

In 2013 Capcom announced a game called Deep Down. In 2014 they created a trailer. The game never came but a Capcom official stated in 2019 that the game had not been given up on. We may have seen more content for the game that never came than the CRJ update.

 

Of course they will say there's an update. Imagine if they said they abandoned it or that it will never come to XBOX. Or worse, pulled it from the store altogether like another aircraft. Much better to give people hope and keep them engaged.

 

As they say in Italy, between saying and doing many a pair of shoes is worn out. Or in China, talk does not cook rice.

 

Pay less attention to what men say, just watch what they do. After nearly 2 years since the last update, words are no longer a confirmation.

[CRJay 429]

There is a middle ground between near zero communication and too much communication.

 

Right now it is at near zero. And I am not yet even talking about the status of the update. There are many, many threads on this forum reporting issues that never got so much as a single reply or acknowledgement from anyone involved with the CRJ. Now still, newly created threads reporting issues are just sitting there with zero input from ANYONE on the project.

 

Regarding the update status, I've said it before but I'll just repeat it. Please do better in communication. Take 5 minutes in the week/bi-weekly/monthly to write something along the lines of "Since the last update we've mainly worked on improving these systems, models, features, code optimization, whatever". Would make a world of difference with very little effort.

 

And answer some dang threads with issues on your own forum... "Working on it."/"Fixed in coming update."/"Not planned to change." It is so easy, if you'd only dedicate a fraction of your working hours in the week on it.

 

Communication is at rock bottom from HH and AS regarding the CRJ. I'd like to think it can only go up from here.

[S P 18]

1 hour ago, FlyingHero said:

As they say in Italy, between saying and doing many a pair of shoes is worn out. Or in China, talk does not cook rice.

There is also an old Yiddish saying that translates to: "Don't show a half-finished job to a fool".

[FlyingHero 8]

2 hours ago, S P said:

There is also an old Yiddish saying that translates to: "Don't show a half-finished job to a fool".

You're making the assumption that it's half finished already after 2 years. You know what they say about assumptions...

 

It's a good one! Fits the context perfectly.

 

I'm having difficulty choosing between Shakespeare's "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool" and Twain's "He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever."

 

This is fun! Why don't we do this until the update is released, have a civil argument using only quotes. If the quote does not fit the context well enough, you lose. We'll all be a bit wiser at the end. Not to mention, at the rate the update is going we might all be academic scholars by the end as well.

 

EDIT: I'll go for Twain. We have to keep asking Aerosoft. If we don't they can fool us forever.

[amahran 608]

15 hours ago, CRJay said:

Now still, newly created threads reporting issues are just sitting there with zero input from ANYONE on the project.

I would like to briefly interject as the primary person making these threads; I do encourage everyone else to do the same, so when the update gets released there will be more content than just Simbrief and Navigraph integration (according to Hans)

[Davis E. 3]

On 3/15/2024 at 2:54 AM, Lars K. Rønes said:

At this point, I think the best that would happen is that a respectable developer who actually cares about the product and the customers who buys it will develop a new CRJ which will leave this Aerosoft one in the dust. I will definitely not buy anything Aerosoft again, unless the current attitude towards supporting products change, as well as proper communication towards customers. Nobody wants to listen to "We're working on it, trust us, it will come when its done" for a year or more. 

I was thinking the same thing! Just sell it to someone and let them run with it. Than we are happy, and (presumably) AS is as well.

[rbringh 50]

I think Just Flight has set the bar on communication and product updates. The upcoming updates to the 146 and F28 has sparked a whole new interest in the sim community. I would think the Flight Sim user base is growing, why not keep your products up to date and gain those sales. Aerosoft just needs some management training...lol.

[jstnj 108]

On 3/22/2024 at 8:24 PM, S P said:

The truth is that software developers should develop software and not spend 50% of their time "managing expectations".

50% of the experience is communication. Literally no one said "software developers need to spend 50% of their time managing expectations"

If you dont want to understand what I said just move on, don't make a half-assed attempt to straw man the argument lol. 

[S P 18]

6 hours ago, jstnj said:

50% of the experience is communication. Literally no one said "software developers need to spend 50% of their time managing expectations"

But why should they spend more time on an activity that adds relatively lesser value? Because it sounds like in order to maximize product's value, one needs to hype the product as much as possible, while doing the minimum amount of actual development... 
 

Do you want Aerosoft to cut half of the planned features from the upcoming update and just start posting weekly "work-in-progress" screenshots instead?

[Lars K. Rønes 38]

If it really takes 50% of their time to post a small update on the forum every odd week or so, then I don't have much faith in their coding skills.... lol. Nobody here is asking for someone to spend day in and day out writing big articles hyping every little detail, but come on, 1 or 2 posts a month is something that even the busiest developer can manage to do. 

[amahran 608]

11 hours ago, S P said:

But why should they spend more time on an activity that adds relatively lesser value? Because it sounds like in order to maximize product's value, one needs to hype the product as much as possible, while doing the minimum amount of actual development...

 

I think it's less about "hyping a product up", and more answering to customers who paid full-price for a product that got delivered with deficiencies and are told they will get the deficiencies addressed eventually...

[jstnj 108]

13 hours ago, S P said:

Do you want Aerosoft to cut half of the planned features from the upcoming update and just start posting weekly "work-in-progress" screenshots instead?

Ok so, lack of understanding confirmed...glad we have that settled. 

Here we go: 

Aerosoft = A company

Developers = people who write code

1. Develop features scoped by product
2. Collab with product, refining features and efforts
3. Squashing bugs that get prioritized by product, clarifying therein
4. Collab with product, coordinating releases and iterations of work
    

Product manager = Someone who is responsible for (among other things): 

1. communicating with stakeholders (A community manager can help here too)
2. collecting/prioritizing feedback from users
3. collecting bug information, identifying common threads and condensing common bugs into a single effort
4. managing the backlog of features and bugs 
5. documenting features and initiatives for development
6. keeping the day-to-day running smoothly for dev teams
    

 

Without #1 and #2, there's a flawed feedback loop: You miss opportunities to learn, and you make customers unhappy because you a)deliver things they don't want, and b)ignore things they asked for.

All the while, you further alienate the customer because you leave them in the dark...you didn't communicate what you were building (things they do/dont care about to give opportunities to better prioritize), or telling them why something they wanted fixed wont be, and that the issue will be worked on in the future with context. 

Not only does it result in a product that doesn't reach it's potential, it alienates the customer. 

TL;DR
Developers should develop, other roles make sure the needs of the customer are connected to the efforts of the developers and that the two stay in sync. 

 

 

This tirade by me doesn't even address the fact that the "Developers" in this scenario is just a single person, and that single person is not beholden to Aerosoft at all. One of the original sins of how we got into this situation IMO. (and its not really his fault, dont get me wrong)

[S P 18]

Wow, I had no idea software development can be so incredibly complex. More than one person working on a project?!? People with different responsibilities?!? Crazy stuff!!!
Thank you for sharing your valuable expertise. You should definetely contact Aerosoft and tell them about this novel "Product manager" concept you've just described.