Why you can’t always have what you want Simon Hutchinson – Reckon Product Management .

1. Why you can’t always have what you wantSimon Hutchinson – Reckon Product Management.

2. Tomatoes – Don’t need those!

3. Overview • The development cycle • A few scenarios that regularly occur • What about a patch? • PSG tells me they sent it on to development but I never hear back • The typical Reckon development cycle • Things that can really make things tough

4. We’re on your side • We understand the frustration that occurs when you find issues in our software • If we could fix absolutely everything we would • We do take your feedback on board, as you will see later in this presentation • We take pride in the software we produce and ‘bugs’ hurt

5. A few scenarios

6. Compliance Changes • Each year we sit down to determine what will go into the product this year • These decisions are generally around features that we want to add to improve the product • As you may know we regularly attend ATO meetings to discuss changes. We are also in close contact with the IRD on changes. • Often these ATO meetings change our development priorities due to upcoming compliance. The IRD can also throw a spanner in the works. • Compliance is and always will be the number one priority

7. Government Rules • Regularly when the developers are working on compliance changes they have questions • There is a hotline and email address setup to deal with these questions from developers • However they are not allowed to answer questions on draft laws • Regularly we are working with draft legislation and have to interpret it • We have to do this to deliver compliance on time to our users

8. Government dissolving • One of the more recent problems occurred when the Federal Election was announced • This leads to the Government moving into caretaker mode • In caretaker mode the ATO/IRD is not allowed to answer or talk about any questions directly related to Government policy and law which has not been passed parliament yet • This caused delays into interpretations of Paid Parental Leave in Australia last year

9. External Factors • As some of you are aware Reckon develops for international markets such as New Zealand and Asia • Recently the NZ Government has given indications that it is flagging a number of changes to its taxation and revenue systems • Like in Australia, compliance is the number one priority • If we had a dollar for each time Australian compliance has cost NZ a feature, we’d be pretty rich by now.

10. What happens when I tell PSG about a problem • This has been one of the issues of angst from the AC/AP network this year • PSG does tell us of an issue and it gets logged in our bug tracking system • It is then attempted to be replicated and if it can be, risk assessed • Sometimes we don’t get enough information to look at the issues

11. Information we need • Operating system and Service Pack • What version of QuickBooks and if there is a patch installed • Can you get it to happen over and over again or is it intermittent • Is it running through Terminal Services • Brand of computer where applicable

12. Reckon Development Process • Product Management build a draft scope of the features to be included in the product • Escalations meeting then occurs to decide what needs to be looked at. • Draft scope is taken to Senior Management and then signed off • Scope is then presented to the AP Council for feedback • Discussion about the feedback from AP Council

13. Reckon Development Process (cont.) • Scope is finalised and documents written for development • QA and Development are shown the documents and ideas for their feedback • QA and Development are shown the design and changes tweaked based on feedback • Product is developed and tested • Beta Test Occurs. Live data fed back to Reckon

14. Reckon Development Process (cont.) • Bug reports are analysed and we try to replicate the issues • Final testing Occurs • Product release

15. Terms you may hear when dealing with us • Alpha Phase – Initial development and testing phase • Feature Complete – The day we lock the products features down • BETA Phase – A beta test of the Feature Complete product • Regression – The second last phase. We test that new features have not broken old features.

16. QA Processes • Each defect (bug) with the product is entered with a rating system of tweak through to block. • A block is something that completely breaks the product. The developers have to fix this issue by the end of the day if possible. • Examples of block defects include program won’t open, old file not found and payroll won’t calculate any tax. • The whole office knows when we find a block

17. QA Processes (cont.) • Other bugs are entered into the system with a rating system and priority • Due to time lines tough decisions need to be made. Frequently towards the end a major becomes a block to ensure that we fix it. Some defects are lowered after more research. • In general a defect with an acceptable workaround is less likely to be fixed then one where a workaround exists.

18. A few other things that affect decisions • User guides • Boxes and marketing pamphlets • Legislation changes

19. Why do we not release patches that often? • Some of you may have noticed the US has in the past released around 20 patches a year • It is a huge strain on development and has an impact on the business. Cost/Benefit analysis. • Releasing a patch for issues with a workaround can lead to more issues • It has an impact on future products

20. Patch process • Gather data from users about operating systems, versions and the issue itself • Perform an analysis on the risk and the potential impact of the fix • Determine the scope of the patch process. Confirm that we have the correct fix specified in a document. • Usual software development life cycle then kicks in.

21. AC Council – Your Voice • As of 2008 we meet with a selected number of AP’s every 3 or so months in Australia to discuss issues. We want to start hearing from NZ AC’s. • If you have issues, and they are raised via the AC Council, they are discussed with the Reckon departments affected. • The AP Council in Australia has had significant impact on the release of our products and has been very positive. We hope to do the same in NZ. • Don’t be afraid to raise problems with them

22. Reporting an issue • Give as much information as possible to us. Operating system, multiuser, what version, what computer system etc • Submit via PSG • The more information we have the easier it will be to trigger it in the office.

23. BETA Testing • Most important phase of our development cycle. Giving it to you to try. • We hear your voices about it breaks my old quickbooks, I don’t have time etc and are improving things • All future QuickBooks BETA’s will be conducted via the Online Infrastructure. Those who want the actually install files can request them.

24. Questions!