Software engineering has been changing a bit with the introduction of the web 2.0 paradigm. While previously, a software project would be developed into a prototype that would be evaluated by a client, nowadays, we’re seeing the emergence of the public beta stage.

If you look at the web-apps that are currently “hip”, like say Flickr, Feedburner, 43Things, Odeo, you’ll see they’ve all gone down the same road. That road is basically the following.

Development cycle for the Web2.0

• Agile development
• Release of a beta version to the public
• Gathering feedback
• Live improvement on the beta
• Removal of the beta stamp.

You’ll probably notice most of the projects I’ve mentioned in the last paragraph haven’t even stepped out of beta yet - but do you actually see them worried about that? Do you actually notice any decrease in usage? No, because there is none - people are getting used to being on the edge, because that’s where the next cool thing will come up from.

An example: I remember when the Robot Co-Op launched the very first version of 43things, and I also remember that wasn’t so long ago. They took all the steps mentioned above. Now look where they are now - 43things is getting HUGE, and its an extremely simple idea.

There will be a few more posts on software development for the web (and specifically under the web2.0 paradigm) very soon. Happy development!