Rapid Application Delivery in Action Best Practices From The Trenches

Transcription

1 Best Practices From The Trenches

2 Application development is a hot topic for senior leaders. Whether for business process improvements or for customer engagement, every enterprise is looking to innovate, differentiate, or streamline costs through the release of new apps. But despite the increase in project demand from the business, IT resources have not increased in step. Instead, IT teams are expected to do more with less. That includes maintaining enterprise systems that manage core operations while designing and delivering new applications that lead to the next competitive advantage and market innovation. IT leaders have an opportunity to act as change agents within the business. However, it s only possible if they can find a way to cast off the shackles of their legacy systems to pursue strategic innovation projects. This ebook is designed to help. It provides practical insight into rapid application development and the main use cases, while showcasing best practices from market leaders who have made RAD a reality within their respective businesses.

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Not All Applications Are Equal The Concept of Rapid Application Delivery The Advantages of Rapid Application Delivery The Main Use Cases Best Practices from the Trenches Visual, Model-Driven Tools Sped UPenn Development By 6 Times Business-Led Development Improves Resourcing for NxStage Medical LV= Starter-Kit Template Saves Time Every Project KPN Releases Faster and More Frequently Cloud Deployment Increases Business Momentum At Arch Re Kao Extends SAP Functionality 10 Times Faster A Comparative Look at Development Types Conclusion Best Practices from the Trenches 3

4 NOT ALL APPLICATIONS ARE EQUAL Before we dig into how businesses across industries are increasing the speed of development, we must first review the types of development projects. Not all projects can be completed in the same way, or by the same individuals. Gartner s Pace-Layered Application Strategy best represents this concept by showcasing three unique systems. Systems of record power core operations, such as your ERP or CRM applications. These systems are used across a variety of businesses and industries and vary little between each. Application customization happens infrequently given the scale of these solutions. But when change is necessary, it tends to be executed slowly, given the complexity and potential impact. Systems of Innovation As we move up each layer within this framework, you see greater variation in the types of applications used across businesses. These variations are meant to differentiate you within the market and enable innovation. Consequently, they are highly tailored to unique business models and processes. In most instances, applications that fall within the top two layers require tighter delivery timelines, frequent change and greater business involvement. Stakeholders expect a high degree of speed and flexibility to accommodate new and changing business requirements throughout the process. Thus, without the right approach, these projects simply cannot be pursued in a timely or cost effective manner. This framework helps provide perspective when discussing the speed at which these systems are brought to market. Systems of Differentiation Systems of Record READ GARTNER S PACE-LAYERED APPLICATION STRATEGY Source: Gartner Research December 2010 Best Practices from the Trenches 4

5 THE CONCEPT OF RAPID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT With more projects to balance, including high priority differentiation and innovation initiatives, how is IT supposed to manage? According to a recent Mendix survey, 46% believe that speed is their biggest app delivery challenge. Moreover, 65% of respondents to another survey say that the turnaround expected by the business for custom development projects is shrinking. The concept of rapid application development (RAD) emphasizes the fast and iterative release of prototypes and applications over the time-intensive design and requirements gathering that comes with more traditional development approaches. Biggest App Delivery Challenge 20% 46% 16% 18% Speed Collaboration Control Innovation 65% 0% 100% We strongly agree that the turnaround expected by the business for custom development projects is shrinking. Best Practices from the Trenches 5

6 THE CONCEPT OF RAPID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT: Advantages of Rapid Application Development Rapid application development is particularly well suited for delivering systems of differentiation and innovation. IT teams can build or enhance applications in a matter of days and weeks, rather than months and years. But in addition to the advantage of speed, RAD provides a host of other benefits. Prototype Assessment Most often, users are better at reacting to a live application, rather than creating specifications or detailed requirements documents. By creating a working prototype quickly based on rough requirements, the project team can more accurately assess and adjust needs early in the process. Risk Reduction Most often, users are better at reacting to a live application, rather than creating specifications or detailed requirements documents. By creating a working prototype quickly based on rough requirements, the project team can more accurately assess and adjust needs early in the process. Increased Quality Feedback is critical to success. Sharing prototypes and functionality frequently during a project allows for more testing and feedback. This feedback ensures that functionality is sound before it is released into production. Faster Time to Market Production-ready apps can literally be delivered in a matter of weeks. While the application may still be a work in progress, the business can still benefit from its availability today, while new functionality continues to be released over time. Best Practices from the Trenches 6

7 THE CONCEPT OF RAPID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT: The Main Use Cases Clearly rapid application development is beneficial. However, it is not appropriate for all applications. The Gartner methodology from earlier in this ebook provides a useful framework for this discussion. Consider the three system layers and the amount of control that you need to hold over system design, versus the speed at which you need to bring the new feature or application to market. Generally, systems of record represent larger, more stable applications that require significant IT control. Moreover, they change little over time. Combined, rapid application development would not make sense in most instances. However, systems of differentiation and innovation are often started as prototypes that require constant iteration. To succeed today, IT leaders must weigh the needs of the business with the time, cost and complexity of traditional approaches. Rapid application development empowers more stakeholders across the business to participate in the development process, making app delivery faster and more collaborative. Best Practices from the Trenches 7

8 BEST PRACTICES FROM THE TRENCHES While rapid application development may not be appropriate for all scenarios, it does speed the design, development, and delivery for projects that prioritize faster time to market, frequent change and more collaborative development. This section describes best practices from the trenches. We ll highlight how IT teams have delivered game-changing applications despite the volume of projects in progress, and within a fraction of the time they originally thought possible. Each story highlights specific rapid application development best practices. Combined, users can see the ideal approach for light-speed development efforts. LIGHT-SPEED DEVELOPMENT INCLUDES: Visual, Model-Driven Development Tools Business-Led Development Practices Pre-Built Templates and App Stores Iterative Development Cloud Deployment Fast integration Capabilities Best Practices from the Trenches 8

9 VISUAL, MODEL-DRIVEN TOOLS SPED UPENN DEVELOPMENT BY 6 TIMES Forrester VP and Principal Analyst John Rymer noted that, If we rely solely on coding, we re going to fail. It s too slow. It s too inflexible. While traditional coding provides IT with a high degree of control, it s time-intensive. Additionally, because of the complexity, it s limited to highly-skilled professional developers, a scarce resource within most enterprise organizations. However, coding is not always necessary. App platforms with visual development tools make it easy for business users to create their own applications without writing code. Not only can more individuals across the organization participate in development, but the actual time required to design, develop, and deploy apps is significantly reduced. Best Practices from the Trenches 9

10 VISUAL, MODEL-DRIVEN TOOLS SPED UPENN DEVELOPMENT BY 6 TIMES Take a look at The University of Pennsylvania s Quattrone Nanofabrication lab, which needed to overhaul archaic systems and manual processes for scheduling, billing and analytics. According to Noah Clay, director of nanofabrication at The University of Pennsylvania, traditional development and integration times would have been anywhere from six to 12 months. Instead, the team defined the business logic through model-driven development tools that helped non-technical users visualize their requirements in a workflow setting. Three lab engineers with no programming experience built the new system of differentiation in a few weeks, without writing a single line of code. The new app saves the lab a week of work each month through greater automation, while enhanced analytics are expected to generate opportunities for future grants. According to Noah Clay, director of nanofabrication at The University of Pennsylvania, traditional development and integration times would have been anywhere from six to 12 months. GET THE FULL STORY Best Practices from the Trenches 10

11 DEMOCRATIZING DEVELOPMENT IMPROVES RESOURCING FOR NXSTAGE MEDICAL In the past, the complexity of IT infrastructure meant that only highly-skilled specialists could develop applications. However, rapid application development tools help level the playing field by providing a common visual language for building apps. This enables more individuals from the business to participate in development efforts. And business and IT teams are taking full advantage, looking to domain experts to take the lead in building applications. The IT team at NxStage Medical has released 5 new applications over the past year. Each new application took no more than a few weeks. Duane Dumont, vice president of IT at NxStage Medical, knows the value that comes by democratizing development efforts. He s found a way to give the business more of what it needs, without increasing headcount. And for NxStage Medical, that means finding better ways to connect doctors, nurses and patients for their home hemodialysis treatments. The IT team at NxStage Medical has released 5 new applications over the past year. Each new application took no more than a few weeks to build and, what s more, a substantial part of the development work was performed by an analyst outside of the IT department. By empowering others across the business to build applications, NxStage Medical gains additional development resources without compromising quality or governance.by democratizing some application development processes, Duane s team has increased overall output and can now better enable the fast-growing business. Best Practices from the Trenches 11

12 LV= STARTER-KIT TEMPLATE SAVES TIME EVERY PROJECT Reusing widgets, templates and application components is a great way to increase developer efficiency, ultimately reducing time to market. And what better way to speed development, than by utilizing these pre-built components from an app store, whether a community app store provided by a vendor or a private enterprise app store for sharing within your organization. For an example of this in action, the LV= fast track innovation team is best in class. LV= Insurance knew that pre-built widgets and components would be imperative to their rapid app delivery processes. To avoid repeating the same initial tasks on each new development project, the group developed a starter-kit including a company theme and all the required components to kick-start a project. This template was published in the company s private app store so that any person developing a new application can easily find and use the module. Best Practices from the Trenches 12

13 LV= STARTER-KIT TEMPLATE SAVES TIME EVERY PROJECT We no longer need to spend time setting up mandatory elements, such as user confirmation, password reset, theming, etc., says Mohammed Siddiqui, analyst developer at LV=. This pre-built module saves 3-5 days per project. Overall savings are staggering. Two weeks after making this app layout, LV= tested the starter-kit. We saved 40% on delivery time and were able to deliver a pilot app within one week, says Mohammed. In addition to time savings, business engineers are able to better focus on solving the business problem. We saved 40% on delivery time and were able to deliver a pilot app within one week. Mohammed Siddiqui Analyst Developer, LV= FIND OUT HOW HE DID IT Best Practices from the Trenches 13

14 KPN RELEASES FASTER AND MORE FREQUENTLY Just as rapid application development calls for speedy delivery, it also demands agility. In many cases, the initial release of an application is just the beginning of an iterative approach to delivering the right long-term solution. Thus, the true power of rapid application development is its ability to pivot midstream in response to user feedback and changing business needs. A great example of iterative development comes from KPN, a supplier of telecommunications and ICT services in the Dutch, German, and Belgian markets. Looking to create a new Radio Access Network inventory administration app to support the addition of 4G to its mobile service offerings, the company needed to move quickly to take advantage of a market opportunity. It offers a really iterative development process, which gives us great flexibility for the future. Ton Verhoef Product Manager, KPN KPN used a rapid application development tool to build an app that could be easily adapted over time. Best Practices from the Trenches 14

15 KPN RELEASES FASTER AND MORE FREQUENTLY It offers a really iterative development process, which gives us great flexibility for the future, said Ton Verhoef, product manager, radio tooling & IT at KPN. Because the model is the working application, you can build prototypes, make changes quickly and seamlessly grow to the final production application. In the past, it took 6-8 months of development time on the old Radio Access Network inventory administrative app before KPN could roll out a new version of its network. Now, the new app can achieve the same results in less than two months. In addition to speeding app delivery, the company can now start new service roll-out 4-6 months earlier than was previously possible, helping KPN to remain competitive and innovative. Traditional Development Mendix Development GET THE FULL STORY Best Practices from the Trenches 15

16 HOW CLOUD DEPLOYMENT INCREASES MOMENTUM AT ARCH RE The benefits of rapid application development are mitigated if they don t extend across the entire application lifecycle, including deployment. The ability to deploy apps with a single click whether to the cloud or on premise makes delivery faster and easier to manage. And with easier app delivery, IT groups can keep business momentum going, just like Arch Re Facultative. Arch Re Facultative is a supplier of property facultative reinsurance in the US and Canada. The group builds and deploys custom reinsurance programs for risk verification and instant quoting based on its clients unique characteristics and pricing structures. They needed an automated solution to verify and quote prices to provide external underwriters convenient access to this offering. At the same time, the portal had to be flexible enough to support the changing business requirements. Cloud deployment eliminated significant cost, resource and maintenance effort which we did not want to burden our business with. Phil Augur COO, Arch Re Best Practices from the Trenches 16

17 HOW CLOUD DEPLOYMENT INCREASES MOMENTUM AT ARCH RE The team utilized a rapid application development platform to quickly build the reinsurance program portal. The app was delivered by a team of two business engineers through weekly iterations of the application. They worked collaboratively with business experts for general business requirements, as well as program experts for client-oriented input and feedback. Phil Augur, chief operations officer at Arch Re Facultative, explains how instant, one-click deployment further GET THE FULL STORY helped build his team s momentum. Cloud deployment eliminated significant cost, resource and maintenance effort which we did not want to burden our business with. Now the team can focus on the business benefits, more specifically on building a continuous development path that keeps the group adding value back to the business. Best Practices from the Trenches 17

18 KAO EXTENDS SAP FUNCTIONALITY 10 TIMES FASTER Traditionally, businesses required significant time and investment in order to customize systems of record. However, as business needs continue to adapt over time, IT can no longer rely on slow moving customizations. Instead, rapid application development tools can more easily extend the functionality of rigid systems, without costly customizations. By creating a new application that sits on top of the system of record, the business can extract the information required for new apps and even write new information back into the underlying system. Kao, one of the world s largest companies and a leading manufacturer of premium beauty-care brands, leads the charge in this arena. The company needed to extend its existing SAP system with a mobile order-entry app. With a rapid application development tool, Kao was able to easily integrate SAP, delivering the new app 10 times faster than estimated using other methods. Each of the app s 12 interfaces to SAP were developed within 2-3 days (rather than the 30 days quoted). Since we have the integration with SAP in place, we re already thinking about how we can build applications to support our business. Dan Gordon App Group Manager, Kao Best Practices from the Trenches 18

19 KAO EXTENDS SAP FUNCTIONALITY 10 TIMES FASTER The user-friendly app is fully integrated with SAP, providing realtime access to inventory information and immediate entry of their sales orders. In addition to increasing time to market, Kao s IT team has dramatically increased productivity across their 300 reps. With the new ipad app, sales reps save up to two hours per day. We were able to get this application out extremely fast, and moving forward, we can react quickly to business requests for changes or new solutions. Since we have the integration with SAP in place, we re already thinking about how we can build applications to support our business. Dan Gordon, Application Group Manager for Kao. Traditional SAP Integration Mendix SAP Integration Best Practices from the Trenches 19

20 A COMPARATIVE LOOK BETWEEN DEVELOPMENT TYPES Rapid app delivery platforms enable companies to get more done with fewer resources. Designed for IT teams that need to quickly build, integrate, and deploy applications, they are changing the way business and IT work together. We ve shown examples of IT leaders who have already embraced new platforms to enable rapid application development. To further illustrate this point, take a look at the numbers from global system integrator Capgemini. To quantify the efficiency of The Mendix App Platform, Capgemini initiated a study to look at how project teams measured the amount of time it took to complete one function point, a standard representation of application development productivity. Hours Per Function Point ABAP C# Java Mendix The chart illustrates four Mendix projects, all completed by Capgemini for this study. The study found that while C# and Java are often considered the work-horses of enterprise application development, these languages took professional implementation teams 15.5 hours and 10.6 hours per function point, respectively. Finally, each function point developed in Mendix required only 2.5 hours, demonstrating a significant increase in productivity. Platform Best Practices from the Trenches 20

21 CONCLUSION Today, every enterprise is looking for new software and applications to improve and innovate business practices. And while rapid application development is not appropriate for every IT project, it does provide significant time savings for applications that fall within the systems of differentiation and systems of innovation pace-layers. The quantity of innovation projects is on the rise, but so too is the potential value that IT can bring to the business: Utilize a RAD platform in conjunction with Gartner s Pace-Layered Application Strategy to more easily classify systems and determine the relevant resources required. Deliver and iterate prototypes and applications quickly to better meet the demands of the business. Empower business users to build their own apps so that IT developers can focus on the more difficult aspects of development projects. Get first hand insight into a rapid application delivery platform. Start building with Mendix Today Best Practices from the Trenches 21

22 mendix.com Mendix is the app platform company for the enterprise. We enable companies to build, integrate and deploy web and mobile applications faster and with better results, effectively driving ROI in days not months. Learn more, join our user community and get started for free at now.mendix.com. Mendix Inc All Rights Reserved