Here is a very nice post by Andy Brice @ “Successful Software” about the importance of releasing early in software development. I commented the post as well, so I won’t say the same things here.

“You wouldn’t write a thousand lines of code before you tried to compile it. Why would you spend a year or more on development before testing it in the market?”

The author lists a few arguments “for” and “against” releasing early, and puts “Reputation” in the “against” list (ok, not properly, since he explains how not to get a bad reputation). I surely agree with his argument and I think “Reputation” should be in the “for” list as well.

If I release early and frequently add new features in response to users’ feedback, I will incrementally build users’ confidence in the product, acquire new customers, get blogs buzzing about the application and its improvements, and make users feel like their desires do really count and are driving future developments of the product.

On the other hand, if I come up with a late released, one-size-fits-all product, users won’t feel part of the development process at all, which is weird since they actually are important project’s stakeholders.

Anyway, some really good points are in the post… you made it easier on me to release v1.0 for my GSoC project (review coming soon) .

(BTW the blog is currently the “Fastest growing blog” @ wordpress.com. Congratulations. )