Whether you’re a technology junkie or you just know someone who is, you have to admire the number of diverse applications that have exploded onto the scene over the last several years. Clever, inspiring — and sometimes useful — apps on Apple devices capture our attention, while countless other Internet (aka Cloud) services from companies like Google and Microsoft expand the palette of possibilities available to the talented artists who craft such wonderful software. You have to appreciate the amount of thought put into these creations.

At The Planet, when it comes to providing software systems and tools, our goal is simple: Create software experiences that delight our customers. To that end, we are making several changes to our approach to software development. First, we’re getting back to the basics, like aligning with your needs and striving to enable you with tools that are both relevant and reliable. We’ve talked with many of you about specific capabilities that exist today in Orbit and other killer features that should be there. One thing is clear: our customers provide amazing feedback. We are excited about implementing a new medium for capturing suggestions so that all of our customers can participate in the development process. We have some big ideas and want to get your feedback as we prioritize them.

The next step in our new approach to developing world-class software is retooling our process. While our audience is smaller than the likes of Google and Yahoo!, our developers still have tens of thousands of users that interact with our software every day, so creating tools that our customers love to use is very important. Early on, our systems were built by folks who genuinely had passion to deliver cool tools for both customers and fellow employees. After a while, our approach to building software became a bit stuffy and cumbersome, so we’ve made some big changes to reenergize the group.

As a development organization, we are adopting the Agile methodology for building software by fostering empowered, passionate, and inspired teams to create innovative software filled with features valued by our customers. The Orbit for iPhone web application is one of the first products we’ve released that was built with this new approach, and we plan on impressing you with new releases we have planned for the future.

-Stephen

P.S. If you’ll be in the Irving area tomorrow, swing by the NYLO Hotel to check out the Rally Software Agile Success Tour. I’ll be on a panel at 9:30 a.m. CDT to discuss how the implementation of the Agile approach has produced great results for The Planet.