Software Development & Updates

Ask participants to describe how software is developed (or to guess, if they aren’t sure). Explain that software is written by development teams consisting of programmers, designers, and other specialist roles, depending on the project – also:
While it is being built, an application goes through alpha and beta versions (early versions/draft versions) which are not released to the public, but are tested internally. With open source software, the testing may be a carried out by a community of volunteers to test software. When problems are found, testers alert the developers – they file “bugs”.
•Software is almost never ‘final’ or ‘perfect’, but is released when it is just good enough for public use, with the expectation that the development team will continue to work on new releases which contain fixes to existing problems.
•Each new release is an Update, or a Patch. These updates might improve or change features, the user experience or security.
Ask participants what software on their PC receives updates. See what gets listed or left out. Some examples to get the list going include:
•Browsers
•Adobe Reader
•Microsoft Office
•Windows / Operating System
•Anti-virus
As you work through the list, see what other examples participants can think of and contribute – add these, and see how long you can get the list to be.