Hi bshopp,
I thought it would be best to move this conversation out of the SWSD announcement post and into the WHD forum.
I'd be happy to talk, but my concern is that it would take up my time without creating any results.
I say that because the three items tagged as "what we're working on" are requests from 2013, which could be interpreted as a six year development backlog. (Mobile is high on my list, especially mobile asset management and scanning)
According to Thwack, about 14 user requests have been completed over the last five years. I've long wondered how many development hours per year go into WHD. The impression I, and others in this forum are left with is "very little". I have no doubt the person(s) doing the development are hard working and doing their best with the limited resources and I appreciate the work they are doing immensely (I just want them to have more help).
I have used WHD at two companies over the last 7 years, there is a lot to like about the product but pace of development has been a frustration for years. The sense I get when reading the forums, Slack channels, etc is one of resignation. There just isn't any confidence that the product will get updated at the pace it should.
I think a good first step would be for SolarWinds to create a proper Product Roadmap. There's a Roadmap section in Thwack but it's usually not useful and often out of date (current entry is from November of 2018 about 12.6). Give us a 12-24 month roadmap, add a safe harbor statement to it to CYA. Giving us an idea of what's planned for the next couple of releases and the estimated timelines would be helpful (if they are within the realm of reasonable). I think many of us would just like to have an honest conversation about what we can expect and when. I suspect a lot of the work that happens now is related to modernizing old code. I don't know for sure because SolarWinds never talks about it. And even if it's true we have no idea how long that will take.
All that said, I'm happy to talk more about what our needs are. In particular I've been thinking about how API/DB/Integrations could allow me to shift some of the more poorly implemented features of WHD into other systems that already do those features well.
Regards,
- Craig
