If you’ve hung around The 8BIT Network long enough, you know that a number of our team are directly involved in ministry where as others of us are not. Having a mix of vocations and passions definitely provides an interesting dimension.
Case in point: the more time I’ve spent in contributing to our projects, the more I’ve begun to notice some significant parallels that exist between the Church and software development.
I know, it sounds weird. Bear with me…
At first, I think that the two fields seem disjointed – completely unrelated, even – but we’ve talked about certain ways that the two can learn from one another.
The Google Chrome team recently said that they are getting ready to increase the pace at which they’re going to be releasing updates to the software. Specifically, their program manager was quoted:
According to program manager Anthony Laforge, the increased pace is designed to address three main goals. One is to get new features out to users faster. The second is make the release schedule predictable and therefore easier to plan which features will be included and which features will be targeted for later releases. Third, and most counterintuitive, is to cut the level of stress for Chrome developers.
I think it’s fair to say that Chrome has a large audience and although it far exceeds the number of people any given auditorium (or sanctuary) can support on Sunday, the point remains that churches have an audience for which they must prepare fresh content on a weekly basis.
A weekly basis…!
Coming from the world of software development, I can’t help but be amazed. I’m used to working with a small number of people on a given project for weeks (to months) at a time where we aim to release small pieces of functionality weekly.
And that’s often considered fast.
Yet, I think it’s far too easy to take for granted the speed at which churches operate. Like the Chrome team, you’ve got an increased pace and a relatively predictable schedule. Still, many of you pull it off each week.
I know that much of what we do here is an attempt to resource the Church with practical information and technology, but I couldn’t help but recognize the similarities of the two fields nor did I want to pass up on the opportunity to comment on how amazing it is that many of you guys do this every week.
That’s awesome.
Dre' Barnes says
Hey Tom:
I can agreed with you. What the Google Chrome team and what my church has in common is probably the “Incremental Process Model.”. This model puts less stress on team members and gives them the best opportunity to exceed expectations. I believe 37signals may follow this model too. Furthermore, Brian Barela from Campus Crusade for Christ, write a blog about this not to long ago. 🙂
Tom says
Good stuff, Dre. So awesome.