The Rule of 3

I think Dan has some good ideas. I like this blog because software is an iterative process. You cannot expect to build the perfect software package on the first try. I disagree that it takes three iterations as a rule. It may take more iterations or less iterations depending on the complexity and the client feed back/input. If you get good help from clients when building your application you may get it right on the first try. However, this is a rare case because clients usually only want things that fit into their own personal workflow and that may not be what other clients want. Leaving your software to be a custom solution when you wanted a commercial application.