Security vs. Lock-in
I love how Bruce Schneier can make complex security issues so clear and understandable to non-technical folks that don’t have a security background. Security, access to your personal data and privacy of it are VERY important topics currently, but they are very complex to understand.
Here he has a great article on the concept of platform security vs. the age-old business concept of “lock-in” - raising the bar of cost/pain to switch to a competitive product. He talks about Apple iPhone/iTunes a lot, but the Microsoft examples (NGSCB or Next-Generation Secure Computing Base) are more telling to me. When you think of his examples, lock-in is pretty pervasive in tech and non-tech areas.
Lock-in applied to Software Services
It makes me think of the “lock-in” concept as it pertains to software services… In many methodologies, including “waterfall” and traditional marketing/advertising processes, the delivery process is the lock-in mechanism. That is, the client doesn’t get work until the end of the project, until then, clients only see documentation, comps and so forth. Very little that can be useful to another team, so the incumbent is locked-in to finishing the project. Clearly that’s good for the service provider, but sometimes it can be a real risk/problem for a client engaging them.
One of the interesting benefits of Agile methodologies and the concept of Agile User Experience, (Agile UX) is that at each “sprint” or short term milestone (usually 3-4 weeks) clients get a set of formed deliverables. Not perfect deliverables, but something that is technically able to be brought in-house or to another development team without losing the entire value.
Now some would say that the lock-in concept here is a very good thing… so would the companies that Bruce references in his article. But for the end client, whether it’s us as consumers, or software services clients, the ability to “switch horses” to keep their project on track is a very good thing. It decreases the risk associated with selecting a software vendor.
Services without the Lock-in
For firms using Agile or Agile UX, (and us at Neudesic) this “non-lock-in” approach lowers the bar for selection and lowers the risk for clients. The strategy is to “lock-in” clients by keeping them happy, and by more frequent interaction and small course corrections. It’s a “soft lock-in” based on client satisfaction… in my opinion, that’s the way to go. 8-)
What do you think?
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment