Basecamp Next in phases and flow Mar 02
50 comments Latest by JF
We started work on Basecamp Next back in April of last year. Initially it was just a tiny team: JF, JZ, and me exploring whether it would even be a good idea to rewrite Basecamp from scratch. That phase lasted about two months.
After the first two months, we were convinced that there was enough value to do The Big Rewrite. Basecamp Next did enough things differently that would be very hard to retrofit into Classic. So we committed to making it real. We then spent another two months or so fleshing out all the major functionality, still with just a small team. Sam and Ryan joined the game during that phase.
After that we slowly ramped up the team. Adding people here and there as there was enough decisions made to proceed implementing with. Everyone, more or less, was involved on/off taking the rough shell and making it solid. This phase took about four months.
The last two months we’ve been in crunch mode. Everyone in the company has been involved polishing, refining, and improving. This is also the time we spent building out our wonderful new calendar.
Take a look at the Github impact diagram to see the ebb and flow of the development process:
Or enjoy the light show of this commit animation:
It’s been a fantastic journey over the 10 months or so building an incredible version 1 of the new Basecamp. We’re finally at the end of the tunnel. Next week we’ll be ready to share it all with you.
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50 comments so far
Christian Hjalmarsson 02 Mar 12
Very colorful :)
Nice job!!
James Deer 02 Mar 12
Looking forward to getting our app GatherContent hooked up with it!
Dave 02 Mar 12
2 months fleshing out main functionality, 4 months for better, faster stronger, and 2 months of crunch time.
It always amazes me how we end up spending more time on what we call “polishing” than on what we actually think of as the nuts and bolts of an application. This fact is very nicely demonstrated by your chart.
It’s looking great guys. Looking forward to the release.
Oleh 02 Mar 12
Curious to see the punchcard :)
Scott 02 Mar 12
As someone who has been using the beta for a while I can say the effort was well worth it. BCX is a lot of fun to use.
Jeff 02 Mar 12
Why did everything go to sleep for a week in early November?
Ericson 02 Mar 12
So did you guys redo new database structures and import old data, or did you just write it all on top of the old database?
DHH 02 Mar 12
Ericson, completely new domain model. So new database as well. But we allow you to import projects from Classic to the new model.
Toine Branbergen 02 Mar 12
I’m Excited and cant wait to check out the new Basecmap .. im a new Basecamp user and after 3 months of use it became one of my favorite tools, good job!
Cedric Hurst 02 Mar 12
Since it’s a new domain model, are you also planning to launch a new API at the release, or is that coming later?
JF 02 Mar 12
Cedric: New API , coming later.
Paul D 02 Mar 12
Interesting is the light-touch of JF threading thru the project… visible in the beginning, nearly invisible at the end :-)
radex 02 Mar 12
I wish I knew whose these initials on the graph are… ;)
Teng Siong Ong 02 Mar 12
What tool did you use to generate such visualization? Thanks. :)
Teng Siong Ong 02 Mar 12
Okay. Got it: http://code.google.com/p/gource/
Jeremy Mack 02 Mar 12
I’m assuming the black square in the video is a Russian hacker planting a backdoor. Might want to check into that.
Gregor 02 Mar 12
Is Basecamp Next the first project you are hosting on github? Or are you using a self hosted github for Enterprises?
devth 02 Mar 12
Clearly someone isn’t pulling their weight.
Andy T 02 Mar 12
37signals
I’m confused, how does this rewrite fit into your development model of only 2 Week long projects?
Andy T 02 Mar 12
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2099-2010-the-year-of-the-products-a-new-way-of-working
JF 02 Mar 12
Andy T: Building the new Basecamp was chunked into many many smaller projects. Some take a few days, some a few weeks, and others took a bit longer. When you put it all together, you have dozens of small projects over 10 months that make up the whole project.
Rahul 03 Mar 12
What does “crunch mode” look like at a company that doesn’t believe in working overtime and gives employees so much freedom?
Eric 03 Mar 12
I’d love to hear about what you saw in the first 2 months that proved it was worth it to do the rewrite.
Adam 03 Mar 12
Request: New API authorize using oAuth
JF 03 Mar 12
What does “crunch mode” look like at a company that doesn’t believe in working overtime and gives employees so much freedom?
It mostly means extreme focus, more people involved, and lots of tough decisions and calls.
It also means an occasional weekend of extra hours and a few extra late nights. That’s this weekend.
Kel 03 Mar 12
JF
What happened to your 4 day work week?
Does 37signals not practice what you preach?
JF 03 Mar 12
Kel: We work 4-day weeks May – October, and 5-day weeks the rest of the year.
DHH 03 Mar 12
Kel, we’ve been running the 4-day week over the Summer for the past three years. We plan on doing that again this year. Summer season runs May to October at 37signals.
But even if we were in Summer season, it’s not like its an immutable law. We could certainly still put in a Friday or even a weekend the week before launch.
“Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds”.
Andrwew 03 Mar 12
@DHH I think the problem is when people spend a lot of time presenting a set of rules as black&white at many conferences, in books and on their excellent blog, then don’t follow those rules in a black&white fashion, don’t tell anyone and then insult their fans, customers and readers by calling them small minded.
Ian L 04 Mar 12
The first few seconds of that video looks like DHH is shooting everyone :)
DHH 04 Mar 12
Andrew, following general principles as thought they were immutable rules is a recipe for failure. Context, exceptions, and mutations should be applied to all rules that flow from general principles.
In the example of the 4-day work week “rule”, the general principle is “working as hard and as much as you can all the time is a bad long-term strategy”. We first tried out 4-day work weeks year round and found that people often ended up working 5 days in the winter anyway, so we mutated the rule into being a Summer treat, while still keeping the original principle in place.
This same flexibility is what allows us to work through the weekend now that we’re just days away from launching the first all-new version of Basecamp in 8 years. Yes, that breaks the rule that working through weekends is generally a bad idea, but given its infrequency is well within the boundaries of our general principle.
And that’s where Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote come in.
Tom 04 Mar 12
Will the new Basecamp be part of the Suite?
Kel 04 Mar 12
@DHH
Working in the “winter months” in the South of Spain must be a hard way to live.
I’d hate to be you.
Andrew 05 Mar 12
@DHH Fair enough. I was just reacting to the way that you guys always present your ideas as this-is-the-way-it-is, but I guess you can’t stand in front of an audience and say this-is-the-way-it-is-we-think-until-we-need-to-alter-it-slightly….fair enough.
(and thanks for spelling my name correctly even when I can’t! ;-) )
Have a great week.
optymista.net 05 Mar 12
very nice visualization
Arik Jones 06 Mar 12
Can’t wait for the new Basecamp!
JF 06 Mar 12
Arik: It’s coming tomorrow.
Paul Montwill 06 Mar 12
We are waiting for the new version to implement it in our company. Can’t wait!
Valcun 06 Mar 12
Basecamp is certainly the best for business collaboration. Thanks guys
Brian H 06 Mar 12
Jason,
Got the invite to the new basecamp and I notice that I have to “upgrade” to it after the 90 day free trial. Two things: does this mean that if/when I do upgrade I’ll have to pay a monthly subscription to both Classic and the New one? Also looking at the difference in the plans, I’m paying more for less projects and storage. Seems a bit underhanded to me.
Some clarification would be much appreciated.
Rocky Erwin 06 Mar 12
When did y’all get basecamp.com? Was it difficult? Is there an interesting story to it? NAME HOOK .
Brian H 06 Mar 12
Ignore the first question…the FAQ covered it (obviously I didn’t get that far), however question #2 is still valid.
Why am I paying more for less? I understand all the new features and what-not, but still less projects/storage.
Zach 06 Mar 12
@Rocky yeah that was the first thing I noticed too, I know Apple spent a few million on acquiring icloud.com – I can only imagine the price-tag on basecamp.com ;)
Great new job on the site guys – noticing a few CSS inconsistencies though – where’s the best place to log those?
Brian H 06 Mar 12
I noticed those too.
I also had an issue in a project import where ONE discussion that had quite a few files attached didn’t import. Of course it would be the most important one on the project. I logged a support ticket.
Nom 06 Mar 12
Hi,
will there be a free plan on the new Basecamp (not the trial, but the free plan)?
AnnWithNoE 06 Mar 12
Hey folks, if you’re seeing a wonk in your new Basecamp account, can you shoot an email to support at 37signals.com? All hands are on deck to help you out!
Mike 06 Mar 12
I’m a bit confused.. in a recent post, didn’t you say that you scratched the “Basecamp Next” name in favor of just calling it “Basecamp”? Why are you still calling it “Basecamp Next” in this post – was that just a typo or have you changed your minds?
Gavin 06 Mar 12
Hey all, new Basecamp looks pretty slick so far. Curious though, is White labelling (to any degree) gone? Or am I just missing something…
OnLooker 06 Mar 12
Curious to note that the new Basecamp home page looks like it is displaying all the folds at 37signals at the bottom and Matt Linderman is not one of them. Did he leave the fold?
JF 06 Mar 12
Gavin: No colors/branding personalization in the first version, but we have some ideas that we’re going to explore for a future version.
OnLooker: Matt is no longer with 37signals. He left in 2011.
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