We just don’t write or release software the way we used to. Software isn’t so much built as it is grown. Software isn’t shipped … it’s simply made available by, often literally, the flip of a switch. This is not your father’s software. 21st century development is a seamless path from innovation to release where every phase of development, including release, is happening all the time. Users are on the inside of the firewall in that respect and feedback is constant. If a product isn’t compelling we find out much earlier and it dies in the data center. I fancy these dead products serve to enrich the data center, a digital circle of life where new products are built on the bones of the ones that didn’t make it.
From Testing in the Data Center (Manufacturing No More) by James A. Whittaker