Question

I’m a software developer. The only browser I have at work is IE7. I don’t have freedom to select my browser.

I am constantly learning and researching things online and, of course, IE7 is a very poor tool for doing that work.

I’ve been invited to present a business case for replacing the dev team’s IE7 browsers w/ a something more modern. I don’t want browser recommendations, and this isn’t about which browser the users of my software/webapps will use, but…

… what behaviors/traits/sideeffects of IE7 should I highlight when making the case that it has a very real negative impact when I’m trying to do my work as a software developer?

Do I talk about security vulnerabilities (on my workstation)? Do I talk about the cost of waiting for tabs to open all day? Do I talk about the memory leaks? Do I try to measure how often the browser just flat-out crashes on me? What would resonate best with the corporate decision makers?

Answer 1

Words that important people like to hear:

• Security (use open security vulnerability charts and such)
• Standards (talk very briefly about web standards, but then hammer in the point that IE does not follow them throughout the presentation)
• Productivity (here’s where you get to talk about speed, additional features etc)

Also make sure to talk about the minimal cost that the switch will have in terms of IT time required.