Development practices that could help make the software product popular quickly.

• rapid release schedule:Regular file releases (even a few days from one version to the next) were the best way to keep the project bug-free and users confident that the project is active. Having working software "out there", in actual use, is the best way to discover which functionality the users really need.
• regression tests: The importance of automated unit tests should not be underestimated. A comprehensive test suite is central to the maintainability and stability of any product, as it goes through massive changes in functionality and design. The mentality should be that if there is no test for a feature, then we have absolutely no idea whether that feature works or not.
• documentation: There's no such thing as an undocumented feature. If your users don't know about a feature, its a nonfeature. Get rid of it; it's just complicating the sourcecode.
• developer responsiveness: When users have problems, which they inevitably will, the development team must be responsive and helpful. Users let you know about holes in your documentation. Users find the subtle bugs that your test suite misses. And besides, the project is a waste of time without them. Incidently, heres a funny thing about bugs: users don't mind discovering bugs in new features, as long as they are fixed quickly. "Responsiveness" means bugfixes should be ready in under a week. 24 hours is a good target for the average response time between a bug report and the CVS fix.