Thoughts about Business applications

Posted on June 17, 2011 by jean-peter Fendrich

(Image via by ralphbijke @flickr)

The way we implement business applications have direct implications on Volvo’s business processes.

If we make the wrong decisions we can make a business process slow, inefficient and inflexible for future changes. What we know however is that our environment is constantly changing. There are some choices that will probably make the application resilient for future changes.

• Mobile First – Build for mobile even if the application is not intended for it.
• Web interface (HTML5) first if possible - Build with a web user interface using HTML5 standards if possible. There a Native smartphone functions that can’t be covered by HTML5. In that case use ordinary App development or a mix.
• Cloud First – . Build for Cloud computing if possible. That means follow the Cloud standards needed for databases, GUI and operating the application. Even if the application is not aimed for Cloud services at this point.

There is probably a slightly higher cost for this but the application will be much more resilient for new decisions.

Another useful approach is “Beta forever”. It starts as a prototype that gets more functionality over time when it is really demanded. Think big- Build small!

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