April 09, 2009, 3:39 PM — Mashups democratize the relationship between IT departments and end-users, says Mike Ogrinz, author of Mashup Patterns: Designs and Examples for the Modern Enterprise. For years, developers have been crying, "Separate your business logic from your presentation logic!" and yet who maintained both artifacts? The IT department. Mashups finally resolve this state of affairs and empower users to create solutions for themselves - a kind of usability nirvana.
This is part of a regular series that highlights new books and their authors. Also in this series: Nelson Ruest and Danielle Ruest with 5 Rules for virtualization success, Joel Scambray on exposing the hacker's advantage, and Scott Hogg on IPv6 security. (You can find all the installments in this series here.)
"Enterprise 2.0" is based on importing technologies that have been successful in the consumer space into the modern organization. The goal is to apply the advances inherent in "Web 2.0" to tangible business problems. At the forefront of this effort are Enterprise Mashups. Many of you will be familiar with mashups based on sites that show you nearby restaurants or cheap gas on a Google map. However, these simple examples barely hint at the potential business benefits. Using new mashup tools and platforms, enterprise software developers and - most importantly - business users can unlock a world of disparate resources and shape them into their own personal solutions.
What do you like best about mashups? Mashups democratize the relationship between IT departments and end-users. For years, developers have been crying, "Separate your business logic from your presentation logic!" and yet who maintained both artifacts? The IT department. Mashups finally resolve this state of affairs. The best shepherds of business needs and requirements are the business users themselves! As a strong proponent of user-friendly software, I think empowering users to create solutions for themselves is a kind of usability-nirvana.
Words of advice for those just getting started with mashups: There are a lot of tools out there, and almost a complete lack of standards. Don't fall prey to a slick advertising campaign or sales pitch. You need to do your own due-diligence and make sure the mashup platform you adopt is both easy-to-use and also fulfils your technical requirements. And don't put security and governance on the back-burner. Excel-based solutions are notoriously thorny because they can spread across an organization without any supervision or control. Don't let this happen with mashups. IT has decades of expertise in managing solutions development and they should be engaged early to help implement your firm's mashup environment.
5 keys for success
- Stop viewing resources (Web sites, spreadsheets, PDF files, etc.) intended to be user-facing as something that only a person can consume. Imagine what you would do with the resources "behind the glass" if you could get to them. Mashups make this possible.
- Partner with IT. Mashups aren't just for empowering end-users, they can help IT work faster. An IT-centric pilot is a great low-risk technique for exploring mashup technology.
- Credit your sources. If you mash-in data from other places and don't take this step, those other resources might be shut-off one day if no one realizes they are critical to your solution.
- Find the ROI. Doing mashups for the sake of mashups won't be successful. Start with use cases that have a clear return-on-investment attached.
- Choose your platform wisely since standards are only just emerging. Hit up potential vendors for a free pilot. Times are tough for everyone right now, mashup vendors included. Get them to prove their product, ideally by tackling a project already on your plate.
5 don'ts
