Posts by dchassels

What's dying on the vine and rhymes with IBM?

Lack of R&D in Enterprise software will be costly...

The IBM emphasis seemed to switch to end to enterprise software delivery with little support for R&D on real innovation. They have over decades made acquisitions in this sector which by definition is "old" technology and related delivery models. Powerful marketing messages have a limited life if not supported with reality .......looks like time is up....

Enterprise software is at a tipping point with emphasis on digital which requires a very people driven approach. There are very significant long overdue changes coming which will see a commoditized approach that delivers customisation something that will further hurt likes of IBM.

UK public sector biz keeps French giant Atos buoyant

Atos who fail to adopt cost saving software for UK Government ...now we know why!

Agility without anxiety

Agile treats the symptom it a cure that is needed

There have been many articles that puts "agile" into perspective to counter the zealots who have over hyped this “IT” initiative – so what’s new! The fact is for business there is no need to code which is expensive to build and to change. Listen to leading analyst Naomi Bloom http://bit.ly/ckeutZ There is now the new alternative “definitional object model driven development”. Naomi is standing up and making some brave and hard hitting statements in particular this http://infullbloom.us/?p=3222 the “object model driven” future for enterprise software creating a “moat” for vendors to cross.

“Writing less code to achieve great business applications was my focus in that 1984 article, and it remains so today. Being able to do this is critical if we’re going to realize the full potential of information technology”

“….how those models can become applications without any code being written or even generated”.

“If I’m right, you’ll want to be on the agile, models-driven, definitional development side of the moat thus created…..”

In a subsequent tweet author said “It really matters how your vendors build their software, not just what they build” and Michael Krigsman a leading analyst tweeted referring to the article “Pointing to the technical foundation of future”.

This is highly disruptive but it works and has been proven but there are those that like to keep the old ways……

VCs snaffle £200m of UK taxpayer gold ... to bet on high-risk biz

"Jargon" rules

Good article but again HMG focus on institionalised innovation and fail to recognise real issue of commercialisation. All their initiatives in "IT" are failing. Skunk works, Innovation launch pad, Solutions Exchange and even the GCloud -all PR jargon! No one made responsible so guess what it does not happen!

CSC faces £1bn write-off over botched NHS IT project

The result of buying old clunky inflexible COTS?

Anyone seen ISoft? - It was awful from day one and did not reflect how people work. Another example of a big service company suckered into buying old inflexible COTS. Likewise HMG need to learn there are better ways? 2012 will see Agile Software the a new alternative to COTS and custom coding yet build any business application core code does not change, no code generation or compiling. HMG need to become the intelligent buyer http://bit.ly/nQOAzE – maybe the big SIs (and that includes you IBM) need to learn as well?

Microsoft Visual Studio to end dev and ops 'ping pong'

But what happened to Bill Gates' holy grail of software?

In 2008 Bill Gates indicated work on "code D" - quote “Most code that’s written today is procedural code. And there’s been this holy grail of development forever, which is that you shouldn’t have to write so much [procedural] code,” Gates said. “We’re investing very heavily to say that customization of applications, the dream, the quest, we call it, should take a tenth as much code as it takes today.” “You should be able to do things on a declarative basis,”

“We’re not here yet saying that [a declarative language has] happened and you should write a ton less procedural code, but that's the direction the industry is going,” Gates said. “And, despite the fact that it’s taken longer than people expected, we really believe in it. It’s something that will change software development”

This Visual studio seems someway short? Has Microsoft abandoned this "dream"? It would change their business away from traditional developers but they as ever would not be first. The good news is it has been developed in UK by a SMB innovator Procession which started some 10 years before. The result is a profound as indicated by Bill Gates in that for business software there is now a new alternative to COTS and custom coded solutions. This new “paradigm” results in the core code not needing to change and no code generation or compiling to build exactly what the business requires; both at original build and for future change. The gap between business and IT is thus closed with no more “ping pong” with code developers.

This is based upon on some very simple principles that first people create all source information and that there are relatively few work task types including the user interface that can address all business logic. Such logic never really changes what has changed is the technology led delivery mechanisms. So it is important that these two key aspects are separated to allow both agility in the software and also recognise upgrades to delivery technologies are inevitable and should have very little if any effect on the business application. All build takes place via a graphical interface a bit like visual studio on steroids! This is all very simple in concept – some would observe “too simple” for an industry that has thrived on complexity?