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At 11:29 AM -0400 5/6/99, FXTrader wrote:
>Omega has not been able to shrink it's product cycle. Updates, revisions
>and new products take longer and longer and with lower quality each time.
There is no question that TS2000i is far from a usable product at this
point. I certainly would not risk my money trading on the basis of what it
indicates. What is clear is that it was rushed to market far too early. As
software engineers always say:
"There is never time to do it right but there is always time to do it over."
It is very apparent that the development processes at Omega are far below
software industry standards. And it is apparent that the competition is
well on the way toward a new, much higher standard of quality. Appended
below is the text from the web site of the MarketStream, Inc. "Universal
Market Data Server" describing their ISO 9000 Quality Control Initiative.
Their site lists 14 trading products that use that server and state that,
"The M3 Server is now being used for mission critical purposes by
exchanges, brokerages and trading firms."
I was an engineering VP of a major software company for many years and our
customers were major corporations who insisted on aggressive quality
standards such as ISO 9000.
As we all know there are still hundreds of serious bugs in TS4.0 that we
have to work around every day to use the product. What Omega should have
done if they were running out of time was to:
> Fix the Y2K issues
> Recompile TS4.0 as a 32 bit application and eliminate the 13000 bar
and other limits
> Fix bugs to make it a much more robust product
> Improve documentation and provide an ORGANIZED way to learn
EasyLanguage
This would have been pretty easy and would have protected their dominant
position for several more years and allowed a lot more people to learn to
use the product effectively, greatly expanding the potential market.
Instead we get this mess.
And pretty soon, they had better step up to re-architecting the product.
Software architecture, like new all architecture needs to be revised every
five or so years to remain current. TradeStation architecture is now
getting pretty old. In addition to using the newer operating system
features, they need to allow TradeStation to be able to:
> Plot in any subgraph as part of a trading system
> Get rid of the Simple/Series function mess
> Allow real subroutines/procedures
> Use a modern real-time data server
Inept management usually wants to "milk" the old product a while longer by
adding superficial things to make it look like a new product. But this
never works. All the users can see that it is still the same old product
with a few more blow-out patches, painted up to look new. And eventually,
a new competitor comes on the market and starts taking market share. Then
the inevitable "crash programs" to recover start. I've seen it a hundred
times.
Perhaps Omega will wise up, perhaps not.
Bob Fulks
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>From the MarketStream, Inc. web page: http://208.237.116.96/M39000.htm
ISO 9000 Quality Control Initiative
Certified Quality Control of the M3 Server has now become very high
priority. The M3 Server is now being used for mission critical purposes by
exchanges, brokerages and trading firms. It is extremely important that
MarketStream, Inc. provide a long-term and consistent quality control
program that institutions can completely rely on.
ISO 9000 Certification. ISO 9000 is a series of international standards for
quality control. MarketStream, Inc. goal is to become ISO 9000 certified
sometime in year 2000.
Standardized Testing Procedures. ISO 9000 Certification entails audits of
documented quality control procedures and testing activities. This includes
that before any software or changes can be released that it will have to
undergo a thorough and documented testing regimen.
Getting Started. Almost immediately we will be starting critical testing of
the M3 product line while starting to prepare for ISO 9000 Certification.
The M3 Server will not be formally released until MarketStream, Inc. has
put it's testing procedures in place and the M3 Server has been thoroughly
tested with these procedures.
What ISO 9000 really means? ISO 9000 does not mean that software will be
completely bug free. But ISO 9000 does mean that software should be of much
higher quality since the certified organization has been audited for
following documented quality control, testing and release procedures.
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