RTC@Scale 2024 – an event summary
RTC@Scale is Facebook’s virtual WebRTC event, covering current and future topics. Here’s the summary for RTC@Scale 2024 so you can pick and choose the relevant ones for you.
Read MoreAre you sure you’re ready with your WebRTC product launch?
Here’s the thing. If you want to have a successful launch at the end of the project, you should focus on the planning phase in the beginning. Oh - and your plan should be different if you are going to self develop it all in-house or have the communication parts of it outsourced to external vendors.
Too often people contact me when they have already budgeted the project, spent the money, have a “product” in hand but it is lacking.
Two extreme cases recently:
We see this even more at testRTC, where I am a co-founder. Companies come to us because they think the product a third party developed for them doesn’t work as expected, and too often it breaks in ways that are unacceptable (like stressing the service with 20 browsers).
The problem is finding these issues too late in the game, and paying dearly for them.
There are lots and lots of images out there that illustrate the issue. I’ll use the one from Raygun:
We can dispute the multipliers. They don’t really matter. But here’s how a typical WebRTC product with outsourced development takes place:
Here’s the problem. Steps (1), (2) and (3) are the Design phase. And no one took any real ownership of it in this scenario.
Step (4) is probably Development,Testing and Staging. And they were all left to an outsourcing vendor. Who is most likely looking at this project from a cost perspective as well - but he doesn’t really care if this gets launched or not. Not really.
The customer got to step (5) immediately. With no milestones along the way. No checkpoints to see if everything is done correctly.
And please don’t sell me the story of agile development and how that will save the day for this customer. With agile he sees the “results” every week or two. In every sprint. But does he really know if that first Design phase was done properly?
Do you think you are getting a stable product that can scale to the millions (or even thousands) of users you plan on having? Are you sure your contractor feels the same way and didn’t build you a proof of concept instead?
Two things to do NOW about your WebRTC project:
Do you trust your vendor to build you the architecture you need?
Don’t.
You should do your homework or bring someone on “your side” that knows what he is doing.
Go now and look at the architecture you’ve been promised.
Take that architecture you’ve been given by the vendor and get a second opinion. It will be worth the time and effort.
At testRTC we’ve decided to host a free webinar that deals with these issues exactly. And me? I decided to announce it here as well because I think it fits my readers AND it gets more people to know about testRTC, which is another thing I am a part of.
WebRTC: How NOT to Fail in Your BIG Launch
The webinar will take place on July 25 at 14:30 EDT.
It will be recorded and available for playback, so register now.
See you then!
RTC@Scale is Facebook’s virtual WebRTC event, covering current and future topics. Here’s the summary for RTC@Scale 2024 so you can pick and choose the relevant ones for you.
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