Like-Driven Development

Crowdsourcing the wisdom of crowds, one crowd at a time

Crowdsourcing the wisdom of crowds, one crowd at a time

It’s been 25 years since the first something-driven-development (or, XDD) moniker was popularized. Back in 1989, Rebecca Wirfs-Brock proposed Responsibility Driven Design style of building software, and ever since then we’ve seen a veritable explosion of variations on the same theme. From serious methodologies, such as Test Driven Development and Domain Driven Development, to semi-serious ones, such as Hammock Driven Development, to hilariously zany ones, such as Mortgage Driven Development and even Stonehenge Driven Development.

But what all those software development methodologies driven by something are missing is leveraging the wisdom of the crowds. Instead of expecting social media networks to provide the brain power by nudging people to join or forking a software project on Github, why don’t we simply develop a few versions of a product, offer it to our network of friends, and let them press the ‘Like’ button? The version that gets most likes is the version we ship. That way, we can only blame the wisdom of the crowds if it turns out that our product is defective.