If you grew up watching cricket in Australia, there are certain sounds you will never forget. Leather on willow, the appeal of a packed slips cordon and, of course, Richie Benaud calmly announcing: “two for two hundred and twenty-two.” So when our team recently told me that we had reached 222 releases of the Agworld iOS app, there was really only one place my mind could go.
Richie would have delivered the milestone better than I ever could. But, cricket references aside, 222 releases is something worth reflecting on because it says a lot about the way we approach building Agworld.
222 releases, not 222 reinventions
One of the things Richie understood better than most was that you didn’t need to fill every second of airtime. His commentary was measured, useful and added something to what was happening in front of you. There’s probably a lesson for software developers in there too.
Good agricultural software shouldn’t change simply for the sake of changing. Farmers and agronomists have jobs to get done, and the last thing they need is to open an app on a busy morning and discover that everything has moved around for no good reason. Instead, our approach has always been one of continuous improvement.
Across 222 iOS releases, that means gradually making Agworld faster, more reliable and more useful. Sometimes a release introduces a major new capability. Other times it’s a small workflow improvement, a performance enhancement or something behind the scenes that most users will hopefully never notice. Individually, those improvements might seem minor. Over time, they add up.
Building software for an industry that doesn’t stand still
Agriculture certainly hasn’t stood still while those 222 releases have gone out. The way growers and agronomists capture information, collaborate, manage compliance and make decisions has continued to evolve. Expectations around mobile technology have changed enormously as well.
When you’re building a platform that people rely on throughout their working day, you can’t simply release a product and declare the job finished. Our development team continually listens to customers, watches how Agworld is being used and looks for opportunities to remove friction. That feedback loop is a big part of why Agworld today can support workflows that would have looked very different when our first iOS app was released. Agworld itself has been around since 2009, and continuous development has been central to that journey.
The scoreboard keeps moving
Of course, 222 isn’t the finish line. By the time you read this, there’s a good chance the number has already changed. That’s precisely the point. Technology works best in agriculture when it quietly gets better alongside the businesses using it. Not through constant reinvention, but through hundreds of improvements that make everyday jobs a little easier and information a little more useful.
After 222 iOS releases, we’re still listening, still improving and still shipping. And when we eventually reach 333? Well, I’m not sure Richie left us quite as good a line for that one.
