Technical Maturity Classification needs a change

Suggestion for Nokia Beta Labs

23-12-2008 19:45

The current technical maturity classification is not really apt.

Consider this - Some known issues & Many known issues.

They do not imply that the "Some known issues" beta is stable or more matured. Literally, it just says that as of now, there are only some known issues. It relates to the after effect of the maturity, does not directly talk of the maturity.

And for "Many known issues", its just another beta for which many issues have been reported. Gives a feeling that the users have found many issues.

Instead, something which actually talks of the maturity would be a better approach. So, something like a rating of the maturity on the scale of 1 to 5, or a classification like - "Stable", "Highly unstable" (Maps 3) and something for the "Still needs a little ironing" section.

Hope i was able to convey my opinion, do share your thoughts too.

Comments

Submitted by ilkkapeltola on 26-12-2008 17:48.

So you feel the current texts are somewhat confusing? Would simple renaming be enough?

Submitted by alsiladka on 26-12-2008 19:37.

I guess simple renaming would be the final solution if we are unable to find some alternative cooler text.

But as i mentioned in the first post, the current text does not directly refer to the state of the application, only the reaction of the users or the testers. Instead, if we could come up with some classification which would actually speak of the state of the applications, that would be much better.

Submitted by ilkkapeltola on 27-12-2008 12:06.

The purpose of these red/yellow/green symbols is expectation management - more often than not for users NOT actively engaged in Beta Labs. These users are not familiar with Beta Labs applications and they need to be explicitly told what to expect. The way we accomplish this doesn't matter. We just need to do it somehow. If we come up with a better way than current, then great.

I would not go as far as inventing a numerical scale for the application's maturity. This would make it almost impossible for users not familiar with Beta Labs to make a decision whether or not to try an application. Coming up with some alternative cooler text would be my choice here. What would you suggest?

Red - highly unstable
Yellow - somewhat unstable
Green - stable

And here we need to take into consideration all different sorts of betas we offer here: applications that install on mobile devices, services that run in the web browser, applications that install on PC, sometimes new technologies or support-functions etc.

Did I understand you correctly? Would this work for now? What do others think?

Submitted by snowy on 28-12-2008 06:40.

Ikka i like your explanation, what would make it really cool and help the beta team, besides the beta team labeling its official status, leave also room for the viewers and testers to place their vote or opinion on the current state of the project using the 3 choices you mentioned. It would be a direct way of taking the testers overall view of the project where it stands from their point of view. You know like weigh out how beta labs feels the projects level stands to where the viewers feel on it. A good check and balance system.....may not be accurate but a good quick scale.