When ArcMap was release back on 1999, half of the ArcView tools were missing. And then year after year ESRI made these big announcements of the new things coming to ArcMap and most of the new things were tolls already available in ArcView. The same thing happens with the release of ArcGIS Pro, half of the ArcMap tolls were missing and then for the past years they have been incorporated to Pro as a new thing. That’s why users like me are still saying, “what were they thinking???”. Of course, to be fair, there were new tools in ArcMap that did not exist in ArcView, and there are tools in ArcGIS Pro that never existed in ArcMap. But the point is, you don’t release a new version of anything taking away past functionalities just to say you have a new software. You keep adding up and keep having your customers happy. So, what can we expect in the future when ArcGIS Pro is replaced by a new software, that we are going to have, again, half the tools missing? And now that ESRI used the “Pro” suffix in this latest version, what would they called the next software, Super Pro, Mega Pro, Pro Pro??? The answer to all this is very simple, talk to your customers before and find out what they really want to see in a new installment. Do focal groups, do beta testing, do surveys, and most of all, be users of your own products so that you can really understand what we as users want in future releases.
