Providing structure through model-driven development

When you think of end-user development, you might think of IT taking a back seat as the business defines the type of applications it uses. That approach is all well and good in theory, but what about practice?

While employees might have loads of great ideas about the type of tools that could help the business work more efficiently, they are unlikely to have the requisite knowledge of programming and standards.

And unless you have the right background in place, users will not be able to create the applications that can make a real difference to day-to-day operations.

At that point, you should consider a turn towards model-driven development (MDD) – a design approach that allows your technology team to assert their presence, while providing a structured guideline to help end-users gain the software they really need.

The key to MDD is ensuring the building blocks of a business problem are understood before users take action. While MDD should aim to allow the business to create applications, the approach should rely on IT specialists using programming techniques to create the underlying components.

Open and vendor-neutral, MDD – also known as model-driven architecture – is based on the Object Management Group’s (OMG’s) established standards, including unified modelling language (UML) and the meta-object facility (MOF). OMG’s model-driven approach separates business logic from the underlying technology and allows the business to create platform-independent applications.

Rather than being created in general-purpose programming languages such as COBRA, XML, Java or .Net, MDD is created in a domain-specific language that is dedicated to a particular business problem. The break from a reliance on a particular technical flavour means users can specify the applications they require and then work with the IT team to create tools.

Such independence means underlying technology can be updated without affecting the business aspects of an application. Likewise, such platform independence means the business can generate the applications it needs without fear of a potential impact on underlying code.

So, what does the emergence of MDD – with big companies, such as Microsoft, backing its development – mean for the future of development? If the IT organisation creates applications in-line with the business specific-demands of MDD, the answer is simple: software that can make a real difference to business operations.

 

Everythings going mobile…

One out of every seven minutes of media consumption today takes place on mobile devices, according to new research from IPG’s Universal McCann and AOL. How can companies prepare for – and communicate with – their customers in the mobile age?

For many organisations, throwing out the existing rulebook might be a good start. Too many firms still think of customers and customer service in an old world style.

Such old world thinking suggests customers are people that usually buy from you in a face-to-face format, where service is all about building interaction and managing delivery. And that’s where the catch comes.

Interaction and delivery are crucial but such tenets of customer service need to be managed across a series of channels – from face-to-face to internet, and from call centres to mobile devices.

Mobile might seem like a fairly insignificant element of the customer service puzzle right now, with analyst Freeform Dynamics suggesting as much as 60% of users rarely or never take advantage of advanced services such as information, navigation and social networking.

Expect that picture to change and quickly. As stated above, individuals are already consuming media on mobile devices and that is simply the starting point, with mobile usage expected to grow by as much as 60% by 2011.

Such growth needs a strategy. Do not make the mistake that many firms made on the transition from old world selling to web-enabled delivery. Too many companies bolt internet and call centre offerings to existing face-to-face services.

Integration should be your watchword and you should identify the existing services that your customers could use to connect with you through a mobile device. People use mobile phones on the move and on an ad-hoc basis.

The success of the apps service on Apple’s iPhone shows that individuals are simply looking for useful tools that can help them fill otherwise dead time. Such tools could be games or enterprise apps, but they might be a sales channel to your company – and you need to plan accordingly.

Analyse mobile devices, speak to your customers and develop an interface that helps your customers speak to – and buy from – your business. Such developments could take the form of an advocacy network on Twitter, where customers help to spread the benefits of your service.

The developments could also take the form of mobile payments, one of the fastest growing areas of online purchasing. Think, plan and integrate your customer delivery interface across all channels.

You have been warned. Don’t get left behind in the old world because the age of mobility is fast approaching.

Further reading

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2009/07/mobile_devices.html

http://www.freeformdynamics.com/fullarticle.asp?aid=705

Now is the time to find a competitive advantage

“The choice is no longer whether to do SOA or not do SOA. It’s how to do it,” said Gartner research vice president Paolo Malinverno at the analyst’s recent Application Development and Integration Summit.

With Gartner estimating as much as 80% of large enterprises already use SOA to become more efficient (see further reading, below), how can you use service orientation to create a competitive advantage?

The short answer is presentation, the oft-too forgotten area of SOA. Many businesses working on service orientation still forget to place enough emphasis on the presentation layer, which is your front-end interaction with the client. It is a surprising – and frankly baffling – oversight.

In a tough economic climate, it will be tough enough to keep hold of cash-poor customers – and when it comes to grabbing new clients, your IT budget might not stretch to heavy spending on technology. The answer to such problems is simpler than you might expect.

Too many firms still struggle with complexity. When times are tough and the business needs more information quickly, many IT leaders turn to technology, adding additional layers of systems and processes.

The approach is nothing short of madness. Cash is already tight – and if you are struggling to find something, why add more and more layers that will only further obfuscate the issue at hand?

Aim for clarity, not complexity. SOA can help you make best use of your existing resources, avoiding the necessity to splash out on new IT kit. More specifically, now is the perfect time to look to at the SOA presentation layer.

Such a focus will allow you to focus on your interaction with your clients and improve business services, without upsetting existing back end systems. An open presentation platform – like our edgeConnect technology – will allow you to manage a complex array of channels, providing continuous improvements in customer service.

Finding an SOA presentation layer model that works means you will be able to quickly roll out an approach for each local market that integrates existing components, from back-end systems to front-end interfaces.

Get your service-oriented strategy right and you will also be able to create an easily repeatable configuration for new business practices. Rather than developing new systems for new initiatives, your winning configuration should be applicable for a range of business processes.

Fast, agile and easily repeatable, successful companies are concentrating on the SOA presentation layer because it gives them an inherent competitive advantage in the fast-changing information age.

Further reading

http://www.itpro.co.uk/612049/enterprises-ignore-soa-at-their-peril

 

WYSIWYG is dead go with the flow

Since the birth of window based user interface (MAC, Microsoft Windows) application designers have adopted the What You See Is What You Get approach to creating User Interfaces. Visual Basic was one of the early tools to provide a canvas onto which a screen can be drawn by simple drag and drop of screen elements on top of the canvas. “Property” sheets allowed these controls to be specialised/designed further for example change font, size, captions etc. This paradigm of development has since stuck with us, and this post questions whether this is right and whether this is the future?

Most corporates have started to standardise front end screens to be developed in browser technology for the right reasons such as; cross platform, ease of distribution, zero install. As expected tools vendors have provided good support for browser application development. However does the WYSIWYG paradigm apply? Should you still create browser screens in the same way as desktop applications?

Browser applications typically use a “flow layout” whereby the screen layout changes according to the size of the browser window. This is very useful because users could have different screen sizes, or browser settings (e.g. lots of toolbars) or even be viewing the application on a mobile device. Using a flow layout means that screen layout will change according to the users browser window size, thereby automatically handling each of the differences above.

Using this approach however means that creating a screen using a drag and drop approach onto a canvas does not necessarily give you a view of the final screen layout, hence you have to question whether now WYSIWYG is the right development paradigm for browser applications.

Another issue is that different browsers sometimes interpret the browser differently, causing screens to appear in differently across different browsers.

There is also the issue that “look and feel” is actually separated from the screen code into a style sheet, and a screen may be presented using different syle sheets, Hence displaying a form could be drastically different depending on the stylesheet used ( some great examples of this can be seen at http://www.csszengarden.com/ ).

With the above in mind is it time for a new approach? Perhaps using a more “real time design” approach. With such a tool, users would create screens and then run them to see how they would be rendered in different browsers, devices and screen sizes. With the proliferation of devices a multi-channel approach is becoming core to many organisations, and in such a world screen sizes will vary greatly, a new approach is required for creating screens because now the paradigm has changed to What You See Is What You Might And Most Probably Wont Get.

Project failures can be good news

When it comes to software development, the latest research from the Standish Group presents very little in the way of good news. Failures are up and projects are considered less successful.

Just 32% of all projects deliver on time and on budget, with required features and functions (see further reading, below). Standish estimates that 44% of software projects are late, and over budget, and another 24% fail and are cancelled prior to completion, or delivered and never used.

The figures do not make impressive reading for IT executives, especially at a time when the business is putting pressure on the technology department to deliver more with less.

One thing is for certain; the current economic climate definitely does not help. Standish suggests the recession has helped push IT project failure rates higher and estimates that as much as 20 to 25% of failures during the last two years could have been caused by the economy forcing project cancellations (see further reading).

The upside is that IT departments are being persuaded, or even forced, to re-evaluate technology initiatives. Projects that might previously have stumbled towards completion are being canned as a result of the recession.

Good IT can help users work more effectively and efficiently, saving the business time and money. Bad technology is a money pit and too many IT executives end up pouring good money after bad, attempting to fix projects that do not provide a usable interface.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. While new economic realities help executives cull costly IT projects, remaining projects will still regularly fail to meet user expectations, as the Standish report confirms.

For your remaining projects, look for specialist approaches and tools that can help ensure your projects run in-line with user demands. An agile development approach will help you to make such tests on an iterative basis.

edge IPK offers such a strategy, its Early Visualisation Approach (EVA) provides an agile development lifecycle that allows business analysts to focus on online and offline front end applications.

Supported by the edgeConnect platform, which enables much faster entry points to development than traditional tools, analysts estimate EVA can reduce development cycles by as much as 85%.

With project failure rates rising and IT executives struggling to justify the cost of technology initiatives, investing in an iterative development approach could be your must successful decision of the year.

Further reading

http://www.cbronline.com/news/software_project_failures_hit_5_year_high_220609

http://www.cio.com/article/495306/Recession_Causes_Rising_IT_Project_Failure_Rates_?page=2

Arise, Sir Presentation Architect!

Someone, somewhere is always willing to step into the limelight. In an age of celebrity culture, where self-promotion almost seems like the key to success, the real stars can sometimes get hidden beneath the hype.

The same is true in the world of IT. The input of real experts is sometimes drowned by the deafening noise emanating from a combination of technologists pushing their latest concepts and executives that are concerned about business alignment.

Now is the time for the real experts to stick their heads above the parapet. In an age of on-demand computing and web-based interaction, the architects that develop your interfaces have never been more crucial.

For a start, our interface for interacting with computers is changing. Where once applications sat on our desktop, more and more users are interacting with applications through the browser. The broad range of next generation browsers – such as Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox – show how the web can be a platform for business computing, not just searching and browsing.

Ajax and Flash have given developers the opportunity to develop cool web-based applications, many of which work more smoothly than their desktop-based cousins. Those developments are only likely to get more impressive, with platforms like Adobe AIR and Mozilla Prism allowing users to connect to their web applications through the desktop.

Underlying such developments is the progression of broadband and wireless networking. Long gone is the time when domestic internet users had to rely on dial-up access and painfully slow web browsing. The average UK broadband download speed is now above 4.3Mbps (see further reading) and the government continues to work on its plan for a highspeed broadband network, with a universal 2Mbps broadband link “virtually everywhere” by 2012.

Such developments mean more and more of your customers will be online. And in an age of constrained financial returns, your customer has just become even more important. Clients will quickly change supplier if they believe they can get a better deal or a better experience somewhere else. Strong customer advocates are likely to be your quickest way to retained clients.

So, ensure your front-end – your window on your business and its services – is usable and reliable. This means presentation architects must be close to the business. The user interface – or presentation layer – is the face of the business and the significance of individuals in such architecture positions is unlikely to diminish.

In fact, the importance of presentation architects is only likely to increase as more internal and external users rely on usable web-based interfaces to communicate with the business.

Want to get ahead? Then look after your presentation architect

Further reading

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2009/07/06/top-10-uk-broadband-isps-by-speed-june-2009-league-table.html

http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2245052/brown-lays-plan-digital-britain

Buying usability

Buying online should be convenient and simple. Rather than having to traipse around town centres or retail parks in the pouring rain, customers should be able to buy from the comfort and convenience of a broadband-connected computer.

Time and again, however, many users are left frustrated by a poor quality customer experience. In an attempt to boost customer satisfaction, how can businesses balance design, security and usability to ensure a high quality experience?

Your first port of call should be the town centre. Think of your favourite shops and think about how they draw customers in, while keeping practices safe and secure. And the most successful shops are not always bright and flashy; sometimes calm and sedate is best.

Not every customer will have a high-speed connection, offering fast download speeds and an enjoyable experience. Load you site with power-sapping graphics or video and you will soon leave clients dismayed and disappointed.

Instead, keep things simple and enjoyable. Signposting should be clear, advertising unobtrusive and inconspicuous. Security, meanwhile, should not act as a significant barrier to purchasing.

Research shows that one in 10 consumers have defected to another company after feeling frustrated at the security procedures on a site, while 31% would use a site less frequently if they encountered login problems (see further reading, below).

The answer, as ever, is finding the right balance. Wherever possible, security features should be hidden to ensure that layers of passwords that can cause frustration do not complicate online purchasing.

When you look to refresh your security measures, aim for techniques that subtly ensure the customer is the right customer. Find ways to monitor behaviour discretely, such as checking IP addresses are consistent.

And when it comes to refreshing the look and feel of the web site, remember that usability is king. Adding more buttons to an interface is not necessarily a good thing; simplicity and standardisation will keep clients happy.

Find strong customer advocates that know your business and its potential weak points. Ask them what they believe needs to be refined and tuned. As in the case of a high street shop front, your customers need to like what they see.

If they do, they’re more likely to have an enjoyable experience – and to make that all-important purchase.

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Further reading

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/analysis/2245457/security-versus-usability

Technologies for the new age of mobility

The talk of the IT industry is that we are about to enter a new age of mobility. But as the market for mobile phones and chips is actually falling, it is important to seek the deeper trends beneath the vendor puff.

 The semiconductor industry posted a decline in revenue for only the fifth time in the last 25 years in 2008, according to Gartner. The analyst reports that global mobile phone sales are being hit even harder, with a record 8.6% drop in sales during the first quarter of 2009.

 But not all areas of device manufacturer are struggling. The new age of mobility requires a new age of mobile devices, with technologies and applications to match.

 Gartner says sales of multimedia-enabled smartphones – such as Apple’s iPhone or RIM’s BlackBerry – rose 12.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2009. In fact, smart devices should account for at least half of all mobile phones by 2012.

 So, why the rush to smartphones? And from accelerometers to micromachines, what are the technologies that will drive the next stage of device interactivity?

 Apple’s iPhone uses an accelerometer to automatically reorient the screen to landscape when the device is tipped on its side. Nintendo’s motion-sensing Wii controller uses an accelerometer, too.

 Consumer demand for smarter applications on interactive devices means growth will continue, with market researcher iSuppli expecting the market for accelerometers to almost double by 2013 and hit $1.7bn.

 It is not just about mobile gamers, either. Due to the continuing spread of consumerisation, businesses are being forced to find innovative ways to adopt the collaborative and interactive technologies that many employees now take for granted.

 The use of accelerometers is part of a broader use of micromachines, a set of minute components and a microprocessor that allow mobile devices to act smart. Certain micromachine technologies, notably inkjet printing, are already commonplace in business.

 Technology firms are now finding other pioneering ways to ally micromachine and mobile technology. Take Texas Instruments, which is pioneering the use of micro projectors and digital light processing in portable devices.

 Or computer giant IBM, who continue to work on the Millipede data storage project and which aims to provide data density of more than one terabit per square inch.

 Such developments help to illustrate why traditional semiconductor revenues are struggling and sales of smart devices are soaring. Micromachine technology means that a new age of mobility is fast approaching.

  

Further reading

 http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article6360594.ece

 http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10251217-64.html

http://www.pcworld.com/article/165694/mobile_payments_will_double_by_2012_researcher_says.html

What will happen to the in-house IT professional?

The new generation of all-knowing users are the future of your IT department, using development tools – such as spreadsheet macros, process models and collaborative wikis – to create winning applications.

As a recent Forrester report suggests (see further reading, below), such business people do not want to be developers; they just want to get things done. And in a new age of collaboration and consumerisation, taking development into your own hands is sometimes seen as the quickest route to usable apps – especially in a slow-moving corporate leviathan.

It sounds like a double-headed winner: businesses get to implement software quicker and users get the applications they need. But not everyone is smiling. After all, what does the rise of end-user development mean for existing IT professionals?

The simple answer is professionalism. While it is great that users can help the business create the applications they need, such users are unlikely to be skilled technology experts.

Just like ‘Sunday morning mechanics’ can run a simple oil change for their car on the drive way, significant problems and modifications are likely to require the skilled intervention of a specialist engineer.

As the Forrester report suggests, end-user enthusiasm can lead to poorly designed, insecure and unscalable applications. The problem is then inherited by the application development professionals, who are left to pick up the pieces of bad business practice.

Do not let it get to this stage. Continue to embrace end-user development because your internal customers know what tools they need and their interaction with collaborative technology means they are only likely to become more IT-savvy.

Rather than letting users develop applications in isolation, IT professionals should take on a new management role, helping end-users to hone their contributions so that the business receives usable and scalable applications.

IT professionals have untapped skills, such as the ability to understand the technical rules that underlie business processes. Marrying such professionals with end-users will allow line-of-business employees to work with freedom and without fear of compromising established best practice.

In short, technology professionals need not fear the upsurge of non-technical development. Well-schooled end-users will allow for the development of technical tools that hold real value for the business.

The process will also allow IT professionals to engage with individuals across the company and prove the benefits of the much-maligned technology organisation.

Despite the rise of end-user development, the role of talented technology professional is more indispensable than ever.

 

Further reading

 http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,54191,00.html

Making BrITain Great Again

Making BrITain Great Again - Well done Stephen Kelly of Microfocus for putting his foot forward for IT in the UK ! At last some recognition that IT has a key role in growing our economy and that we should not resolve ourselves to losing such an important skill set to the rest of the world. The industry needs to embrace this opportunity with two hands and support this initiative as some politicians have. What is good about this manifesto is that it start at the grass roots of bringing more skilled professional through academia into the industry right through to startups and at the very top level the role of large IT companies. Some of my observations from speaking to our “target market”: Students selecting a career still perceive IT as a “geek” career whilst the biggest shortfall is in people that can translate business into IT solutions. This is a role that requires both business awareness and IT awareness, people in these roles are typically paid a premium and a role that is not normally offshored or outsourced. Manchester University has recognized this and created a combined business / IT course, but more has to be done about raising awareness. In the world of startups these companies rely on venture capital at all stages of their growth. However many Venture Companies actively encourage the outsourcing of product development to ensure their “investment” is being spent wisely. Enhancing the government R&D Tax Credit and making it easier for IT Companies would make a positive difference to relying solely on venture capital. Speaking to a number of startups often the barrier to the R&D Tax Credit being claimed is the simple definition of “innovation”. Questions should be asked as to why VC’s are more risk averse in the UK than the USA and what can be done about this? The manifesto also addresses one of the key issues of “growth”. We have great software innovations here but crossing the pond generally spells the end for many of these companies are they exhaust their hard earned venture capital and profits in trying to break out of the UK. We have to look at more ways we can help companies become global successes, afterall you can only name less than half a dozen companies in the UK that can claim Global success.