Free software development and supporting it
Posted by: Fred Boyle on Thursday January 14, 2010
Developing software to be consumed by the general public is always a tricky situation. So many things have to come into play that you might not have worried about if the software was for internal use only. All these factors end up creating an interesting situation when it comes to supporting the software.
With paid commercial software, support is an expected service and should be professional and prompt. With free software, however, this same expectation can’t be met. Without revenue from sales it limits how much time can be spent on support and new feature development. So how do I do it and still maintain a good relationship with our users? Balance and setting the proper expectation.
Let’s start with balance; what does this mean? It simply means taking the time without derailing other work. I work on developing our free software, such as the ExpressionEngine add-on nGen File, as I have time while working on our paid client work. Some weeks this means I get to spend a chunk of time, others none at all. Once in a while I’ll even put in a bit of time after hours. On occasion I’ll also schedule time to work on our software, sometimes a serious bug shows up or we have an internal need for a change. Keeping things in balance and properly prioritized.
What about expectations? This is where many free software developers fall a bit short. Expectations help establish the perception your user will have of you. If you constantly set unrealistic expectations and fall short, users will lose faith in you. However, if you set the proper expectations and meet or exceed them, it’s a big win in the eyes of your users.
So how do I avoid over-committing myself on support issues? I set time aside during the week to look at support issues, making an effort to at least respond and either get more information or offer a possible solution. These are usually quick and don’t take much time, although once in a while there’s a tough one that requires more time. In such situations, I will try to gather as much information as possible so that I can investigate later when time permits. Armed with this, I can also set a realistic expectation that I will look into the issue when time permits, which could be the same day or later in the week. Thus far, I’ve had no complaints and nothing but praise for the assistance.
By supporting our free products this way we’ve been able to continue offering great software and a positive relationship with our users. This is important — since we want users of our software to be happy, it helps us contribute positively to the ExpressionEngine community and even learn of ways our products are being used that we hadn’t even thought of.
One unexpected thing with free software and its support, however, are the tools available to offer a good support experience. Currently we use e-mail and Twitter as a means of contact. We also use the ExpressionEngine forums to a certain degree, but this has become inefficient and cumbersome. So what are we to do? There are several services available such as Tender and Get Satisfaction, but these aren’t free and without revenue from software sales to help offset the cost, it isn’t easy to justify. Our software has grown in popularity, our nGen File add-on was runner-up for devot:ee’s 2009 Extension of the Year, and is the third most favorite add-on as well. We’re trying to find the best support method to make things easier for everyone.
Do you have any suggestions or personal experiences you’d like to share? Post a comment and let us know.
Comment RSS Filed under: Interweb, Process
Jim
02.04.10 at 5:27am
I applaud your giving of free software to the community, and as someone who’s just discovered Publish Tweeks (and possibly a bug in it) I’m a bit lost on where to go to feedback, or what’s the latest version (0.8?) I’d even like to toss some coinage your way for a beer and a pat on the back, but there’s nothing on this site that points to the files—at least that I can find.
Quite of bit of free software seems abandoned, some of it is used by other sites to snag hits. If you want to go to the source, and it dead-ends…then what now?
Can I suggest a small subsection, off the blog, that points to your freeware, lets us know of the current release and gives a download and a feedback, and most importantly, a little button for a gift through something effortless like Paypal.
I appreciate your stance – this should be standard disclaimer on all freeware, if only set expectations. But I’d like to feedback, contribute or aid, and you don’t make it too easy.
:)
Fred Boyle
02.04.10 at 9:44am
Jim, thanks for the comment and feedback. Currently support for our add-ons is primarily through the EE forums.
You can also find our EE specific software and docs at http://www.ngenworks.com/software/ee/. This page is linked to in our EE forum threads where we announced and support the add-ons. We are looking at different ways to improve support for our software though.
Thanks for using our software and providing feedback!
John
02.06.10 at 6:09pm
Fred,
First of all, much thanks for nGen file field. It is far and away the best file management tool for EE I’ve yet found. I understand it’s tough to spend time on a product that you develop for free… which is why I initially came to your site — to tell you to charge for it! It’s worth it!
Can you at least tell us if you’re working on that memory issue when it creates the thumbnails? I’d love to keep using this plugin and would be willing to pay for it, but I can’t have that issue shutting down sites for my clients anymore. At least have it respect the upload limits set in EE. If you’re not going to address it, just let us know so I can move on and alleviate you of all the support requests on the forum!
I know it’s tough and I’m not trying to be a pain, you really have developed something great. I’m just wondering if this is a product I can continue to depend on or not.
Thanks again,
-John
Fred Boyle
02.08.10 at 10:32am
John, thanks for the kind words and using our software.
We are always looking to improve our software. However since it is free our development isn’t always the fastest unless something is affecting our use of the product with clients.
Regarding the issues you’re having I e-mailed you so we can see what might be going on and hopefully resolve it for the next upcoming release.
Thanks for the feedback!
Jim
02.08.10 at 3:34pm
The one thing I’d love from the plug in is the ability to drilli-down into subdirectories. It’s be great to make the directories, but letting me do a little file management would be fab.
Fred Boyle
02.08.10 at 3:49pm
Jim, I certainly understand the desire to do some file management – however nGen File was not designed to be a file manager. We leave that functionality to products like CKFinder.
We do love to hear about suggestions or thoughts, so if you have any please feel free to send them to ngenfile [at] ngenworks.com.
Software Development
02.22.10 at 1:57pm
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