The Success of missing a release date

I'm sure there must be some unwritten rule of software development which says developers must commit to release dates which are impossible to meet.

And I'm certainly one who doesn't want to break any rules.   Sometime ago, right here on this blog, I said I would have the purchasing module of Cabinet Maker Manager ready for beta release on April 5th.   The fifth has come and gone and I missed the release date.

So here's the status on the development of Cabinet Maker Manager... its going slow, really really slow.   My goal with the purchase order module is to have the program create a purchase order for doors.   Since every door maker has their own parameters and style of doors, I am programming the module to use a set of parameters which are unique to the vendor the user selects. 

For this development version of the program, I am using door parameters from California Door in Morgan Hill.   CalDoor makes the best cabinet doors your recession stretched dollar can buy, in my opinion. 

The work flow goes like this;

1. Create a new cabinet project in Cabinet Maker Manager
2. Enter all the specifications of the newly created project into CMM.   This is an extensive process but it only has to be done once and can be changed at any time later in the project, if needed.  Cabinet Maker Manager creates all the electronic folders necessary for the project and builds a jobs folder for Cabnetware.
3. From the Cabinet Maker Manager program, start Cabnetware and create the CW job.  Cabinet Maker Manager sets the file paths for this new job by changing the settings in the FRAME.INI file.   Cabinet Maker Manager also uses FRAME.INI to locate the DXXXXXV.CSV files.
4. Print the batch cutlist to a file ( from within Cabnetware ).  From within Cabinet Maker Manager, open the purchase order module and select the type of purchase order you want to create ( door, hardware, material, etc. ) and select the vendor.  Confirm the CSV file name and badda-boom, badda-bing you gotta nice complete work order all filled in.
5. Make any neccessary changes to the door styles or sizes if, for example, upper doors are different than base doors...and Cabinet Maker Manager will alert you to specifications you may need to change on each PO.
6. When you are satisfied that this PO is correct, push the send button and Cabinet Maker Manager will e-mail the PO to the vendor.  It stores an electronic version in the CMM database as well as creating a PDF version of the PO in the job folder for this project. 

Now that I have successfully missed my target release date, I can move forward confidently.  I'm not certain what the next release date will be but I feel good knowing that I will most certainly miss that date as well.