Roadmaps

DrTeeth

Now that a roadmap of sorts has been published for some hardware, viz Maestro; could it be published again for the software, viz SSDR?

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Guy,
A Software roadmap would be nice but I doubt that is going to happen.  FRS has been pretty clear on that.  However I would welcome an update on the idea status.   Maybe FRS will comment....here are some excerpts from another post.

Al / NN4ZZ

Roy,
Regarding your comment above:  

"FRS's customer wish list, in my humble opinion, is a lot like those old "push to walk" buttons on crosswalks that were probably not connected to anything, but gave pedestrian's a false sense of control."

Things have changed since this community started.  At one time the idea statuses were frequently updated to "under consideration or planned or not planned or implemented."    Then this practice became hit or miss.  Many of the most popular ideas don't have any status currently.  Even the top 5 in votes don't have a status.  Some of the more recent ideas have been marked "under consideration"  or "planned" although they have just a few votes.   It's inconsistent.

Without FRS keeping the idea status up to date or a road map (which was also discontinued) it really is hard to tell whether a given customer request will ever be done or what FRS thinks about it.  Even if an idea is being worked on the status is not discussed until it is released.  So unfortunately, I'd have to agree with your assessment.

Maybe someday when they have some time, FRS will make a pass through all of the ideas and update the status.  It would help provide some confidence in the voting process.   The counter argument is do the customers want new features quicker or better status and feedback.  

It would take some time to get caught up.  But I'd guess that a small team could spend a few days or a week each quarter and review the active ideas to update the status.   I used to be on a review team and it worked for us.  We also did road maps but that is another subject.  Development didn't stop, only a few of them were on the team.  You want to limit the team size anyway to move quickly.  Customers, managers, architects, and developers were happy with the process.

Quarterly updates would be fine.  IMHO, I think keeping us informed about the ideas would improve our confidence in the whole idea creation & voting process.   I think it would be worthwhile even if it means an occasional  delay in the software updates.   


Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
6700 - HW......... V 1.5.1.70
SSDR / DAX...... V 1.5.1.152
CAT................... V 1.5.1.0
Win10

KF4HR

It would be interesting to know what future enhancements FRS has in mind for the 6000 series.

Bill -VA3WTB

They always let us know what each release is about, we were told what 1.5 was  and 1.5.1 things like that. And we know what is in V 2.0 But Flex is very careful to go into much detail about future plans so as not to tip off competition.

KF4HR

Good point.

DrTeeth

I recently came across a feature that had been 'under consideration' for over 2 years. I suspect if it has not been implemented by now it is not going to be.

I only made the OP as I cannot see the difference between a software and a hardware roadmap.

Martin AA6E

Flex doesn't have very much direct competition! I'd think they worry about competing with themselves -- over-promising features or over-commiting resources. It's hard to innovate on a fixed schedule. Still, a little more discussion of directions is always welcome.

Burt Fisher

They can't tip off the competition. There is no competition. Tell me who does even close to what they do.

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Guy,
I have the "share your experience" section of the community home page set up to display the ideas instead of problems etc. That way it easy for me to keep up with them (800+ currently).   Here is the setup, it list the active ideas by number of votes. 



For example here are the top 3 ideas have no status and are 1 or 2 years old.




Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Burt,
Even without a roadmap, updating the idea statuses consistenly would help us to understand if an idea is under consideration or planned, etc.  Some ideas get updates and others don't so it's not very helpful currently.  

IMHO it would also provide more confidence in the voting process.  There are almost 2,500 members in the forum.  The most popular idea only has votes from 56 members or around 2%.    Most of the ideas get even fewer member votes and less than 1% of the community voted.  

Maybe there is another reason but if you don't see the results (i.e. status updates) then some may not feel voting is effective. 

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
6700 - HW......... V 1.5.1.70
SSDR / DAX...... V 1.5.1.152
CAT................... V 1.5.1.0
Win10

DrTeeth

Al, it looks as if the forum software could have changed since you took those screenshots. This is where I found the options that you pictured. I could not find the location that showed what your shots did.

Jay Nation

Anyone able to provide linkage for this new Roadmap?
I haven't seen it yet.
73, Jay - NO5J

Al_NN4ZZ

Guy,
See snapshot below.  Start on the main screen in the lower right, then click the "view all...." to get tot the REFINE screen.






Here is the REFINE screen.



Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
6700 - HW......... V 1.5.1.70
SSDR / DAX...... V 1.5.1.152
CAT................... V 1.5.1.0
Win10

DrTeeth

@ Jay NO5J "Anyone able to provide linkage for this new Roadmap?"

It was the sole topic in the latest FlexInsider, dated 4th December.

Jay Nation

@Guy

Which was a status update on Maestro, and not a Roadmap

Whining about Roadmaps, lost us the Roadmap. 

Be careful when whining, or status updates could suffer the same fate.

73, Jay - NO5J

W9OY

I don't think it was "whining" per se.  I think the work became considerably more complicated with the advent of things like WBR so the "deadline" nature of a published "roadmap" became counter productive.

73  W9OY

Jay Nation

Lee 
I'm willing to agree to disagree about what constitutes, whining.
I tend to whine myself, about whining. I'm guilty!
I'd rather enjoy.
I'd rather be part of the enjoyment, and in the discussion.
 
73, Jay - NO5J

Mike - N8MSA

@ Al - NN4ZZ:

I don't particularly care for the voting system, as I think that there are still a number of basic capabilities that are not at the level of competition's offerings and should be addressed before adding features. These deficiencies could be expressed as "Problems" or "Ideas", but I would rather that FRS simply benchmark more than the "Sherwood list" and close the performance gaps in the noise blanker, CW audio SNR and other 95-percentile core capabilities. 

I know this isn't a popular viewpoint, and that features help sell radios, but I would rather FRS defer "nice-to-have" features and concentrate on the DSP code so that I don't have to switch radios as often as I currently have to. I think that FRS is making an sincere effort to do precisely that, but have to provide people with "toys" to such an extent that they simply don't have the resources available to finish "the basics"...and that's our fault.

73,

Mike - N8MSA

[Deleted User]

I said this a year ago when I had a 6300. They were too focused on adding features like Lan, Wan. Get the core system 100% with NB, fix distortion on 6300 that people have been complaining about and everything else then add the bells and whistles.

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Mike,
No problem with that, your points are valid.  My main concern is not the priority or timing of a particular idea.  But I do think it's helpful to see the status updated so members know if an idea is being considered, planned or even not planned.  And to do that for all of the ideas in a consistent way.  Some of the older and very popular ideas don't have a status and some of the newer ones with few votes do.

FRS has to consider a number of factors in deciding what to implement and when.  
It's all about selling radios and providing the features that help get that done.  Of course that includes features users consider to be basic or deficient as well as innovations.

But again, voting is one way the customers can show what they feel is important  if they believe in the system, take the time to articulate the ideas, and vote. 

Currently 99% of the ideas get votes from less than 1% of the community
 
I think there would be more confidence and participation in the voting process if there was feedback.  Updating the status is a step in that direction.  Seeing an idea move from "no status" to  "under consideration" to "planned" would provide that feedback and no dates or promises need to be made.   

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
6700 - HW......... V 1.5.1.70
SSDR / DAX...... V 1.5.1.152
CAT................... V 1.5.1.0
Win10



  

DrTeeth

When considering what ideas to implement and even when writing manuals, I feel that the people closest to the product are not the best to decide. The input of those with a wide range of knowledge and abilities is needed and not those deemed to be experts.

W9OY

Alternatively those farthest away from the product have tthe least knowledge of the design constraints and just assume anything in any order of development is possible using any amount of resources. 73. W9OY

Tim - W4TME

Guy - at this time we have no plans to reinstate a product roadmap for SmartSDR features.  However we will take the idea under consideration.

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Tim, Are you referring to updating the idea statuses or re-in stating the roadmap? Regards Al / NN4ZZ

rfoust

Gotta admit, I do miss the roadmaps but I understand why they went away.

DrTeeth

As much as I miss the roadmaps, I understand why it is highly unlikely they will see the light of day again.

Jon_KF2E

Maybe they could just put in one of the newsletters a list of things under consideration for future development. I for one would like to know if everything moving forward is going to be content centric. 

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Jon, I think Updating the idea statuses would do the same thing . And it would avoid maintaining a separate list that didn't stay in synch with the idea status. Does that seem to make sense? Regards, Al / NN4ZZ

DrTeeth

Hi Lee,

I agree with the design issues. I made the comment to reflect that what possibly a user may find very important a developer may not and that could be a reason why a feature does not see the light of day.

I use a piece of software for backing up. The company literally goes for years between major updates so nothing to pay for years. Their manuals are lacking as the people who write them are so close to the program that they do not realise what a noob user needs to know. So many items are written like "click box to activate feature 'x', and clear it to disable it", without saying why one would want to do one thing or the other. The one thing a manual or text book should not do is cause the reader to ask "why?".

FRS' manuals are nowhere near as bad as that aforementioned company by any means, but there are some places that would benefit from some extra prose.

DrTeeth

Definitely does Al. As I mentioned the other day, some things have been 'under consideration' for about 2 years so the list would also need a good clear out.

Steve K9ZW

@FRS - a Forward Looking "Dreamcast" would be useful to me as a FRS-6700/6300 owner.

My having a rough idea of what is coming along I can make decisions whether to homebrew solutions or wait for the FRS release.  An example would be not knowing that the 4o3a partnership was going to product the Antenna Genius 8x2 Antenna Switch I've been struggling cobbling non-SmartSDR aware software/hardware together to do much of the same thing as the 4o3a.  My interim solution hasn't panned out, and economically ended up in a lousy ROI as well.  So I had pretty much gone back to a manual-control remote switch only to see the Antenna Genius offered at the same time. 

Why play "Mastermind" when "MasterCard" can inexpensively (especially when hours spent is considered) deliver a working solution?

If these products had been in a Dreamcast projecting a relative timeframe I wouldn't have wasted time and money tinkering.

To be fair there is no winning position in the continuum from developmental secrecy to open lab development, and I do respect FRS's position.  Just think some forward framework (I'll sign another NDA if needed) would be useful.

73

Steve

K9ZW