DaveBirchall.com on Business Technology

Archive for January, 2009

So the news is not good. Apart from the obvious feelings of a new beginning (President Obama’s inaugoration) that is being projected by our US friends, the rest of the world seems a little less hopeful at least for the short term. Australia gained around 10,000 new people on the unemployment figures yesterday as BHP and Rio Tinto announced their various reforms and a global technology giant announced global redundancies in their thousands. To state the bledding obvious, everyones chief concern is about survival at the moment.

It’s a time to be focused on our objectives, make few mistakes and get results as quickly as we can. When it comes to IT projects, it’s important not only to get a return on investment but to get that return quickly. Its maybe for this reason that my company seems to be bucking the trend and doing steady business whilst other vendors seems to be slowing down. Our accelerated approach to custom software is able to play a vital role in the survival of businesses across Australia as budgets get tightened, and we are expected to do more with less.

So if you are unfamiliar with our approach, I’ll take you through the highlights.

Before I describe what it is. I’ll tell you what its not.

• Its not Agile development, its more than that. Whilst we also use Agile to accelerate the process. This is a just a small piece of the puzzle.
• Its not an accelerator, its more that that. In the world of software development accelerators can be used to speed up the software development process. Examples might be controls or reporting tools. We do that too.
• Its not code reuse, its more than that. Code or portions of code can be used during development from previous projects to allow for a lean delivery. An easy example to understand is demonstrated with a simple log in screen. Most of our customers need a log in screen for their project, so do we reinvent the wheel each time? No! We go way beyond code reuse.

So what is it then?

Solentive have developed an ‘ultra accelerator’ that allows us to deliver reliable, innovative solutions in a fraction of the time that other developers can. The ultra accelerator can be used on practically any workflow oriented application and comes with native connectivity technology (BUS) to facilitate the integration with other systems.

The approach ‘displaces’ a mountain of engineering effort by using the ultra accelerator, where other companies would normally be piecing code together or writing code from scratch. Further customization can then be performed to tailor the solution to your specific requirements.

Further to all this, our customers benefit from a very stable code base, user acceptance testing is minimised and the system is fast tracked to production.

Business processes can be automated or largely automated meaning with rules engine technology and workflow design tools so the potential for a huge return on investment is also available. For the price of a standard approach to your project, we are able to include reporting and SLA monitoring tools to ensure that your workforce is always on task and you are able to identify leakage in your productivity. Do more with less! No really!

We have enjoyed some great implementations for our customers so I thought it may be interesting to share our approach.

If a jobs worth doing its worth doing well and its worth doing now!

Do you have project? A question about software development? Are you lonely or bored and just fancy a chat ?

The door is always open as they say.

We live with the machine all around
There is one machine
We share, we receive
The web is its OS
All screen link into the one
Let the one read it the one is us.

Some great concepts covered here including cloud computing, semantics and more. There are also some astonishing facts on offer along the way. 5000 days of internet….

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=J132shgIiuY

So I am looking around on You Tube to see what is being said about the semantic web. I will post some of the videos online as I find them. I am not sure where the term Web 3.0 came from but its certainly been accepted and it part of the road map for the web laid out by TBL some time ago.

This one is a good one to start you off if you new to it.

I recently came across a particularly damning forum thread where its users seem to have had all manner of negative experiences in dealing with IT ‘outsourcers’ I simply had to wade in with what I thought was a fairer view of the world…

WOW!

I can’t believe some of the poor opinions of outsourcing. Its a real shock to me. Of course there are always some horror stories out there and you hear them more often than the success stories. I will attempt to bring what I feel is a more balanced view.

Here’s my thoughts from the point of view of someone who works for an ‘outsourcer’ (www.solentive.com)

For a start, ‘outsourcing’ is the wrong word for the sort of relationship that is going to work. If you think you can simply throw them a brief and look back at the project a few months later, then you are setting yourself up for failure. A successful project can be largely attributed to continuous engagement with the domain experts. What do I mean by this? Well, you don’t need to be technical to start a business, you need to have a sound knowledge of the market you’re operating in and how the business will run in that market. Your development team (inhouse or ‘outsourced’) need to be the experts in software development and can write the code to meet your business objectives.

Our engagement model required continuous feedback from our domain experts so perhaps that’s different from the way some people think about outsourcers?

So if the question is to outsource or not, here’s some high level considerations.

1) Do you have the experience to project manage a team in the context of software development?
2) Do you have the technology to work efficiently in a collaborative manner?
3) Are you happy not to benefit from code reuse and write most of the code yourself?
4) Does you team have the breadth of experience to create a lean delivery?
5) Does you team have a build master, lead developer, project manager, architect?
6) Do you use continuous integration software?
7) Can you afford to budget into the build for project tracking software?

Or would you prefer just to concentrate in offering direction and leadership to a team of people with all the fundamentals in place? Would you prefer that those cost is spread across some other customers.

The fact is that a good software development partnership acts like an in house team and most definitely has a stake in the project.Software development, like any project related field always has some element of risk. In 15 years, we have never had a customer experience what has been described on this forum. The reason is down to people and process. So its important to realise that there can be huge difference when it comes to who you trust, but DIY software development is not always the answer.

Complexity is good

So I am back from my much needed break and doing some research beforethe year ramps up again. I was taking a look at the google enterprise technologies when I came across this. It made me smile so I guess you will like it too.