Contributor I

Why are the updates so frequent and disruptive

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
November 24, 2017
41 replies
3288 views

This is offered for your system management and senior development staff, please forward
I have had SONOS installed in our home (a $15K system) for 4+ years and it works and sounds great, but.... You keep updating your app to add features and "correct bugs". You are driving users nuts, it's a sound system, not a critical heart monitor or sophisticated pc. We have 2 i-phones, 2-ipads and a Mac. Everytime you update, we can't turn the system on or off. and the update takes some time. First, if you are going to update, advise the user that an update is available and leave system control capability available until the update is complete. Organize your updates so they are made periodically, like every 3-4 months rather than as some developer gets a wild hair. Test your systems before released, this last round had 3, 4,... who knows how many updates to fix bugs.
If you are not a teenager, are gainfully employed, have kids, are not independently wealthy, are over 60 or only moderately technically sophisticated, a smooth and reliable update process with cool new features that are better described would be a giant step toward better customer satisfaction. Apple does it pretty well, so can SONOS.

Updates

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Show previous replies

K

Kumar

Organize your updates so they are made periodically, like every 3-4 months rather than as some developer gets a wild hair.

Excellent point. The present state of affairs points squarely to an inadequate process discipline.
I also agree that Sonos is just something as mundane as a home audio system; they are not launching spacecraft or performing mission critical tasks of important missions. Nor are these responses needed as for virus attacks.

Chris

Lead Maestro

That is exactly what Sonos used to do ... then you would have 3 month long complaint threads asking why Sonos was so slow to add feature or make an improvement. You can’t win.

Respect the Queue (2)Move (3)Beam (1) Era100 (2)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1) Roam (2) Ace (1)Connect:Amp (4)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings; (2)Play)

A

Alan_6

Prodigy II

The ability to be able to release tested software in small, frequent batches is pretty much essential these days. No one wants to wait up to three months for a bug fix. That said, it's important to have stability in the user experience, and not constantly move things around. Sonos have probably got things about right (regular bug fixes, quarterly major changes) with their release schedule.

I do wish they'd prioritise different issues (eg. UI/UX consistency across screens / platforms) though...

K

Kumar

That is exactly what Sonos used to do ... then you would have 3 month long complaint threads asking why Sonos was so slow to add feature or make an improvement. You can’t win.

Of course you can win, by doing the right thing. If both approaches draw the same whining, isn't it the better approach to be disciplined? Besides, there is a lot of whining to which Sonos does not respond by either actions or words for much more than 3 months, so what's the problem in being disciplined?

Chris

Lead Maestro

Because some people will be upset you don't update but every 3 to 4 months and others will be upset if you update every month. Your going to have someone complain either way.

Respect the Queue (2)Move (3)Beam (1) Era100 (2)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1) Roam (2) Ace (1)Connect:Amp (4)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings; (2)Play)

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

Because Sonos does not have a list of every feature offered by the current version of each piece of software to use as a checklist for any new version?

We used to have a LONG printout of every feature/screen of our software on 13" green bar paper that we looped over a flip-chart stand (yes I am old) and we would go down it line by line making sure each feature was either present and unchanged or there was a darned good reason it was gone or modified. The changes were then presented to our customer for approval before the first Alpha release.

I'm sure there is some fancy computerized way to do this today but if we had a problem with our printout it could be fixed in 30 seconds with a bit of Scotch tape.

K

Kumar

If people are going to complain either way, my approach would be to do the disciplined thing and not let people drive me away from that. Unless I am too lazy and justifying this by saying: people complain either way. And it isn't as if there are monthly updates either - they seem to be released whenever Sonos feels like releasing them, which points to the lack of discipline in Sonos process management.

But I am repeating myself; if Sonos sees value in the feedback, that has been extracted.

A

Alan_6

Prodigy II

And it isn't as if there are monthly updates either - they seem to be released whenever Sonos feels like releasing them, which points to the lack of discipline in Sonos process management.

This is actually extremely disciplined (it's a technique called "Continuous Delivery"). Pushing regular, small, incremental updates - with a short timeframe from design to development to testing to release - is a sign of a software development team with excellent process.

pwt

Virtuoso

This is actually extremely disciplined (it's a technique called "Continuous Delivery"). Pushing regular, small, incremental updates - with a short timeframe from design to development to testing to release - is a sign of a software development team with excellent process.

Exactly that.

4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300

Chris

Lead Maestro

That means frequent updates and frequent reboots. The reboots are what cause all the problems. People’s networks them get messed up and everyone cry’s that it’s a bad update (when it’s been a highly tested update and the reboot exposed a network issue). So smaller updates more frequently would cause more problems.

Respect the Queue (2)Move (3)Beam (1) Era100 (2)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1) Roam (2) Ace (1)Connect:Amp (4)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings; (2)Play)

Show more replies

Sign up

Login to the community