Build e-business apps faster
IN E-BUSINESS, time to market is paramount. In the new digital economy, new Web-based applications must be delivered more rapidly than traditional enterprise applications, and they must satisfy the needs of more demanding users such as customers and business partners.
But delivering large and complex e-business applications at Web speed without sacrificing quality is a daunting task even for the best IT organizations. The risk of failure is high. Many organizations are discovering quite painfully that lightweight software development approaches, successful on small e-business systems, do not scale well to large and complex e-business initiatives.
To deliver large e-business applications faster, better, and cheaper, your application development group must shift away from traditional methods. Instead of large teams, rigid requirements, and a linear progression toward a single, long-term goal, Web application development projects should be characterized by small teams, flexible requirements, and iterative development, which involves adding application functionality, getting user feedback, and refining requirements through a series of shorter delivery cycles.
Increase parallelism
By breaking large development projects into smaller subprojects that can be tackled simultaneously, the work can be completed in a shorter time frame without cutting corners or rushing the job. That is why one of the best approaches to compressing the development cycle of large e-business software projects is to increase parallel development. Large, complex Web applications are broken down into smaller chunks of functionality that are designed, developed, and tested in parallel and in short time frames ranging from one to six months, versus six to 18 months for traditional projects. Dividing large projects into subprojects also allows you to take advantage of smaller, more manageable development teams.
Keep development teams small
Small, high-quality, multidisciplinary development teams of six to 10 people, composed of analysts, designers, programmers, and user representatives, are highly recommended in fast-paced e-business development environments. When developing in crunch mode, it is not always easy to put people first. Nevertheless, keeping developers happy and motivated is key to ensuring e-project success. Keeping teams small helps encourage the teamwork and clear communication necessary to keep development projects on track.
The demand for higher-quality Web applications has driven many organizations to experiment with "new" approaches to software development. One approach that is getting a lot of attention is called pair programming, a fundamental principle of the XP or "extreme programming" school of thought.
In this method, each pair of programmers uses one computer to design, program, and test together. Proponents suggest this approach improves software quality (fewer defects, better
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