At the office we just got out of a long period where we released patches on a too-frequent basis. Near the end of that period we were doing almost three patches per week on average.Beside that this was very demotivating for the developers, I was wondering what the customer would think about this. I asked the question myself and concluded that I never knew software that was updated that frequently. However, for the case that comes the closest I do not care really since the patches are pretty quickly applied.The customers which received these patches differ a lot from each other. Some were really waiting for the patch where others did not really cared, yet they all got the same patches.The time to update the customers software is less than 30 seconds, so I do not expect any problems concerning time. They do need to be logged out though.So my question in more detail: Is getting updates frequently giving a 'negative' message to the receiver?Of course, I could ask the customers, but I'm not in that position nor do I want to 'Awaken the sleeping dogs'.PS: If there is anything I could do to improve my question, please leave a comment.
Are patches a bad sign for the customer?
customer relations;software updates
As with many things in computing, it depends.  If the patches are a response to customer  requests for new features or improvements, then your company will be viewed as responsive.  If, on the other hand, your patches are a response to bug reports, then your company will be viewed as incompetent.Testing software on your customers is by far the most expensive possible way to detect bugs, no matter what anyone says.  It's a false economy; the free labor that you think you're getting is more than offset by customer service effort, breaking the software development life-cycle, and losing customer confidence.