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Mendix Dont Get Lost in The App Jungle

Model Driven Development

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Rajesh Prabhu R
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
194 views19 pages

Mendix Dont Get Lost in The App Jungle

Model Driven Development

Uploaded by

Rajesh Prabhu R
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Executives Guide to

THE NEW ENTERPRISE APP WORLD

10
Important Rules that Make or Break the Successful
Development and Deployment of Enterprise Applications

CONTENTS
The App Paradigm Reaches the Enterprise

Consumer Demands for Enterprise Applications

The Pace of Change is Unrelenting

TODAYS MANDATE

The 10 Important Rules

Differentiate Your Business Through Apps

Adapt or Die

Empower the Business

10

App Development is a Team Sport

11

Let Users Take the Starring Role

12

Add Apps & Breathe New Life Into Legacy Systems

13

Remember: Speed is Everything

14

Leverage Mobile to Accelerate Innovation


But Dont Forget the Back-End

15

Its Not About the Size of Your Development Team Anymore

16

10

Dont Complicate Business App Development with


Technology Decisions

17

CONCLUSION: The New Enterprise App World

18

The Executives Guide to the


New Enterprise App World

THE APP PARADIGM


REACHES THE ENTERPRISE
From numerous perspectives, the
environment for corporate IT is
undergoing fundamental changes.
Nowhere is that more true than
in software applications. Only a
decade ago, the momentum, focus,
and expert attention revolved
around multiyear, multi-million-dollar
monolithic systems, like ERP and
human resources automation. Today,
however, the economics are inversed
and the emphasis is on showing
business value quickly, building on
what you have, and supporting users
immediate needs in agile ways.
In an era of financial caution and
risk management, the time, cost,
and risk profile of applications is
radically different than just a few
years ago. The appetite for multiyear/

multi-million-dollar application
development projects is long gone.
Who wants to bring even a $3 million,
three-year proposal to their board?
The fact is, today, companies want
lean, fast, low-risk app development
with minimal upfront capital
investments. Development needs
to be fast, agile, and continuous
without lengthy, discrete versioning
cycles, and cumbersome upgrades.
Instead of predicting the future, savvy
IT strategies are, instead, creating
infrastructures and processes that let
them respond quickly when the future
arrives.

Dont try to predict the future be ready to respond when the


future arrives

The Executives Guide to the


New Enterprise App World

CONSUMER DEMANDS FOR


ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS
At the same time, were seeing
a greater consumerization of
corporate IT. In important and
meaningful ways, the lifecycle and
flow of technology have reversed.
From the first computers to ubiquitous
Internet access to early generations
of cell phones, technical innovations
have traditionally been first adopted
within corporate environments
before they moved down the
cost/performance curve and into
mainstream computer markets.

enter your offices, stores, conference


rooms, and warehouses, theyre
wondering why they cant have those
same levels of functionality and
value in the corporate applications
they use. Thats placing enormous
pressure on CIOs to fundamentally
transform the way they design,
create, deploy, and maintain the
corporate software portfolio.
Outdated tools, methodologies, and
paradigms will no longer suffice.

Driven by relentless waves of


smartphones, consumers around the
world are using billions of apps that
are inexpensive or, in many cases,
free. Theyve been attracted and
accustomed to an almost limitless
selection of simple, immediately
accessible apps. And as these people

Demand for mobile enterprise


apps is transforming the way
corporate IT develops business
software.

The Executives Guide to the


New Enterprise App World

THE PACE OF CHANGE


IS UNRELENTING
Similarly, organizations and enterprises
across most industries are struggling
to respond to disruptive changes in
their business models. Competitive
pressures, open markets, shifting
channel dynamics, changing customer
preferences, increasingly challenging
regulatory frameworks, and other
factors are forcing companies to
fundamentally transform their business
models and structures and the
automated systems that are their
foundation. And as the pace of
business change picks up, so, too, must
the pace of application development
and implementation.
Unfortunately, the demand for new
applications has outstripped most
organizations IT capacity. Tight budgets
are preventing new hires, meaning
many incoming requests from business
units and users are left unaddressed.
And when business conditions enable
new hiring, its often difficult to recruit
candidates with the new skills required
to create contemporary applications
that conform to new technologies,
standards, and user expectations.

development cycle), the complexity of


new technologies and the unwavering
requirement to bring forward the legacy
technologies and functionality that have
supported the business to date.
Collectively, its no surprise, application
development has become a major IT
headache. Today, CIOs need to adopt
new ways of creating applications by
embracing pragmatic agility, speed,
simplicity. The key: a willingness to
foster better environments that let
you anticipate business change (and
not merely react) and that elevate
user experience as the prime design
consideration.

Users have a hard time articulating


requirements upfront.

the
the

FUTURE

PAST

When the team is ready to develop,


new hurdles emerge: the inability of
business users to crisply articulate
their requirements (which adds
unnecessary risk and delays to the

The Executives Guide to the


New Enterprise App World

TODAYS MANDATE:
Create Apps Quickly That Support
Your Business & Truly Serve Your Users
Amid an environment of change and complexity, corporate IT strategy can
benefit from a fundamental re-think. The following are four key attributes and
benefits of a contemporary app strategy:

Speed/Simplicity

Social Productivity

Companies need apps in days, not


months. Development solutions must
offer an easy, fast way to build apps
that give business users rapid results
and giving IT the agility to keep up with
the pace of changing business needs.

Todays app-development paradigm


should embrace new abilities for
developers, business experts, and
users to all collaborate easily and
globally in the creation of new apps.

Enterprise Scale

Cloud-Centricity

No corporate app exists in a vacuum.


New apps must integrate with and
enhance and extend the current
app portfolio. They must also
conform to tightly defined and highly
regulated security and administration
frameworks.

Consider a complete environment in


one integrated platform for speed,
flexibility and scalability: component
re-use in an app store model, social
computing components, multi-platform
deployment, mobile and cloud support,
and more.

However, as the app development challenge has gained a certain urgency


within the IT community (and the broader business environment as well), it
becomes critical for evaluators to sift through competing claims, myths, and
facts to gain the clearest possible picture of the potential role of various
solutions within their organization. The following pages describe 10 important
considerations that can make or break the successful development and
deployment of enterprise apps in todays business environment characterized
by competitive pressures and unrelenting change.
The Executives Guide to the
New Enterprise App World

10
Important Rules that Make or Break the
Successful Development and Deployment
of Enterprise Applications

DIFFERENTIATE YOUR
BUSINESS THROUGH APPS

The conventional wisdom is true:


off-the-shelf commercial apps give
you off-the shelf functionality the
same functionality that every
other company (including your
competitor) has. But that wont help
you differentiate your business.
Only custom apps that reflect the
complexities and nuances of your
business can put distance between
you and a crowded market of
me-too wannabes. Thats why its
essential to develop apps that are
true to your business and have the
tailored features and differentiating
functionality that support your

companys unique proposition and


competitive position.
The ability to build apps quickly and
nimbly - but also in a repeatable,
manageable environment - is critical to
achieve differentiation and uniqueness
without the costs and risks of outdated
methodologies, tools, and paradigms.
This strategy helps you increase timeto-market, cost effectively react to
business needs, support the business
without IT resource roadblocks, and
focus on business processes not the
size of your development team.

The Executives Guide to the


New Enterprise App World

ADAPT OR DIE

Contemporary app development


places a premium on agility. In
many ways, the app is not unlike a
living organism: it either grows and
adapts or it dies. Applications
must be designed for today not a
hypothetical future using design
techniques that enable the app to
adapt to rapidly changing business
needs.

creating a continuous feedback


loop between end users (those truly
responsible for deriving value from an
app) and the project team responsible
for enabling that value.
Business needs constantly change
and no app is an island. Each is part
of a larger ecosystem. Development
methodologies must inherently be
able to support changing needs,
shifting competitive environments, and
evolving user requirements with easier
integration to the broader corporate IT
portfolio.

In todays landscape of fast,


lightweight apps, maintaining
an app isnt just processing and
deploying change requests on a
quarterly release schedule. It means

BU
D

DE

IG

L A B O R AT

IL

L
CO

APP

DE

E
AG

PLATFORM

Y
LO

MA

I T E R AT E
The Executives Guide to the
New Enterprise App World

EMPOWER THE BUSINESS

Previously, the complexity of IT meant


that only specialists with years of
training could work in complicated
programming languages even if
that meant they didnt always have
the business acumen or perspectives.
At times, that created an awkward fit
with business analysts and process
experts.
Although it can be a jarring thought
at first, in the forward-thinking
business, IT is successfully and
happily enabling the business to
create the apps they need, when
they need them. With their emphasis
on speed and simplicity, companies
are looking to their domain experts to
take a leadership role in building the

apps that best support the business.


Theyre shifting the responsibility to
the business and process experts
because creating apps on a business
unit level create flexibility on a
business level.
Instead, IT focuses its talents and
expertise on areas suited to its unique
responsibilities: orchestrating an
innovative application environment,
fostering best practices for application
development, providing technical
expertise where needed, operating
world-class infrastructures for users,
enabling enterprise-class data
integration, and managing the risk
profile of the operation.

The Executives Guide to the


New Enterprise App World

10

APP DEVELOPMENT IS A TEAM SPORT

Success in building business apps


is predicated on a unique ability to
support collaborative development
that supports and incorporates
the perspectives of developers,
business experts, analysts, and users
throughout your organization. Whats
more, that team collaboration can
easily extend beyond your walls to
integrate the contributions of key
customers, partners, and other opensource communities of development
teams at peer organizations.

Thats because contemporary apps


are rooted in reusability. Developers
take advantage of what others have
done without reinventing the wheel.
Frameworks and components are
shareable in an app-store model. For
instance, if your app needs a shopping
cart, you dont have to reinvent it.
Instead, you customize an existing
one from one of your previous apps or
from a component thats available to
you from peers and colleagues in the
development community.

The Executives Guide to the


New Enterprise App World

11

LET USERS TAKE THE STARRING ROLE

For decades, companies and experts


in the IT industry have paid lip service
to the notion that the user experience
is important to the development
process. But the results seldom
reflected that philosophy. Instead,
users found monolithic complexities,
significant functionality compromises,
unmet requirements, interface
shortcomings, and other frustrations.
Today, its essential, to activate your
user community. They know what
they want. Enable them to provide
real-time feedback and listen to
them. Business app developers
need to involve users in continuous,
real-time development cycles. Gone

are the days of annual user groups


and feedback that ends up in a black
hole. With social-media principles
and components, users can provide
immediate feedback and contribute to
the design and development as they
happen.
Today, theres a new generation
of information worker call him
the Facebooker. He is tech-savvy,
app-driven and not terribly patient.
Like a true member of Generation
Y, hes been raised on and attuned
to constant feedback. In todays
paradigm, this user isnt a customer,
hes a part of the development team.

The Executives Guide to the


New Enterprise App World

12

ADD APPS & BREATHE NEW LIFE


INTO LEGACY SYSTEMS

For decades, companies and experts


in the IT industry have paid lip service
to the notion that the user experience
is important to the development
process. But the results seldom
reflected that philosophy. Instead,
users found monolithic complexities,
significant functionality compromises,
unmet requirements, interface
shortcomings, and other frustrations.
Today, its essential, to activate your
user community. They know what
they want. Enable them to provide
real-time feedback and listen to
them. Business app developers
need to involve users in continuous,
real-time development cycles. Gone

OLD

are the days of annual user groups


and feedback that ends up in a black
hole. With social-media principles
and components, users can provide
immediate feedback and contribute to
the design and development as they
happen.
Today, theres a new generation
of information worker call him
the Facebooker. He is tech-savvy,
app-driven and not terribly patient.
Like a true member of Generation
Y, hes been raised on and attuned
to constant feedback. In todays
paradigm, this user isnt a customer,
hes a part of the development team.

NEW

The Executives Guide to the


New Enterprise App World

13

REMEMBER: SPEED IS EVERYTHING

Perhaps the greatest hidden danger


of traditional app development is
the uncounted opportunity cost.
While companies are rightly seeking
to create high-quality, enduring,
on-target apps for their businesses,
theres also the unacceptable
possibility that, while youre spending
months and months creating that
application, the market has shifted
and your app requirements are
suddenly off-target. Your strategy
needs to change and youve sunk
millions into an app thats outdated
before it ever launches.

Dont let the perfect be the enemy of


the good. Successful apps that make a
difference for the organization are the
result of a rapid development cycle
and speedy execution. And in a model
where users provide continuous
feedback and business developers
can constantly adjust and refine their
applications, the best strategy is to
address your immediate needs quickly
and learn, improve, and expand.
Launch now then steer and adapt as
needed.

The Executives Guide to the


New Enterprise App World

14

LEVERAGE MOBILE TO ACCELERATE INNOVATION


BUT DONT FORGET THE BACK-END

Its no secret that the smartphone has


become the most-rapidly adopted
technology in human history. Literally
billions of consumers around the
world carry raw computing power
and storage that would have been
unthinkable even 10 years ago. And
those consumers and employees simply assume that you can respond
to their devices with functionality
and optimized user experiences that
provide the simplicity and power they
expect.
Unfortunately, its all too easy to
become distracted by one-off
mobile projects that respond to
pressing short-term needs. Yes,

you need quick and smart answers


to respond to the mobile challenge.
But just as important, you need a
strategy to develop apps that are
integrated with your overall business
processes. That means mobile users
cant be an afterthought in the app
design and development process.
They must be built into your strategy
without awkward, ill-fitting mobile-only
adjuncts. The right platform ensures
that the enterprise app portfolio
is mobile-savvy, mobile-centric,
and mobile-optimized through a
transparent, multi-platform, write-oncerun-anywhere strategy.

The Executives Guide to the


New Enterprise App World

15

ITS NOT ABOUT THE SIZE OF YOUR


DEVELOPMENT TEAM ANYMORE

Yesterdays answer to the app


backlog was simply to throw more
bodies at the situation. And when that
became cost-prohibitive, the answer
was found in low-cost offshore talent.
Seemingly overnight, vast armies
of programmers in India, Eastern
Europe, China and other low-cost
locations arose to help enterprises
build applications. That presented
logistical, managerial, cultural, and
linguistic challenges that often offset
the favorable economics.

the challenge than simply throwing


more bodies at the problem. You
dont need brute force you
need savvy innovation and agility.
And to solve business problems,
you need business-centric not
technology-centric thinking.
Leverage technology to empower
your business and process experts.
Youll be surprised by how much they
accomplish without needing a huge
development team.

But today, experienced organizations


understand that theres more to

The Executives Guide to the


New Enterprise App World

16

10

DONT COMPLICATE BUSINESS APP DEVELOPMENT


WITH TECHNOLOGY DECISIONS

As they reach this inflection point


this imperative to quickly and closely
align IT with business needs many
IT organizations are giving careful
consideration to a new paradigm for
corporate application development
that has emerged as one of the
fastest and most cost-effective
technologies: Platform as a Service
(PaaS). With PaaS, the developer
can access a suite of cloud-based
development tools and infrastructure
to develop, test, deploy, and maintain
new generations of cloud-based
applications. PaaS offerings provide
all of the underlying infrastructure,
security, fail-over, and other services
that, previously, IT was required to
create and maintain themselves.

The most compelling and valuable


PaaS strategy is the one that most
effectively supports the needs of
the business and focuses on the
product the business needs: the
application. To be effective, PaaS must
abstract the underlying technologies
of infrastructure and software
development to provide a platform
that frees developers to focus more
of their time and talent on creating
differentiated added-value for the
organization and, for the first time,
allows business experts to drive the
creation of the business applications
they need when they need it.

The Executives Guide to the


New Enterprise App World

17

DONT GET LOST IN THE


NEW ENTERPRISE APP WORLD
Its critical to empower business
owners, but you cant overlook
the need to manage security, IT
governance, efficiencies, and
costs as well. Dont get lost in the
new enterprise app world of usergenerated apps on a myriad of tools
and standalone technologies that
are impossible to track and manage.
In the long run, they can run up
huge costs to maintain, control,
manage and upgrade. The smarter
approach is to create and deploy an
environment/ platform that provide:

Dont forget, app development is


not only about the infrastructure. Its
also about embodying a user-centric,
business-centric philosophy that
leverages your business process
strength. In this model you are
working from the premise that all
software should be easy to try, buy,
use and create. You dont need to
do it all today. With the right tools
and environment, you achieve a
level of agile, incremental evolution
that lowers the stakes but raises the
speed and puts innovation on the
fast track.

Speed/Simplicity
Social Productivity
Enterprise Scale
Cloud-Centricity

The Executives Guide to the


New Enterprise App World

18

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