Software Information |
|
Software Development in 2005 - Back to the Future
2005 - Back to the Future. What does the future hold? A big question and initially the answer is anything and everything. The predictions are sometimes close but most of the time they are far from the reality. Technology has moves on apace and the core players in the various sectors of the computing industry invest in research and development which increases the rate of technology introduction with performance improvements or benefits outweighing the previous technology that customers/users/consumers must take advantage of, or so that is what they tell us. What is the truth? And what is the future? For the developer community I believe that things have not changed all that much other than there a more defined lines to be drawn between types of developers i.e. games vs corporate applications, mobile vs military. These differences are reflected in the methodologies and tools used by each group. However, the principles remain the same, identify a requirement and then satisfy that with some code. The implementation various by user requirements. I spent four years in the late 1980s working on Software Engineering and Systems Engineering products at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). The focus of the team I was part of was to build an integrated environment that utilised Independent Software vendors products in a framework that enabled the output of one product to flow into the others as needed. This was done with customer input through a direct mechanism of regular meetings and information flow to create a generic specification that could be used in industries such as Aerospace, Defense and Telco. This was the time for quality processes, analysis and design methods and a burgeoning open standards movement. This developed into the Open Source movement and the associated issues that brings, but that is another story! The premise of building an integrated environment that encapsulated a range or products from leading vendors in the key parts of the software development cycle was, and maybe still is, the holy grail for software and systems development. Incorporating the process model and flow into the environment enabled two of the critical elements of development, a controlled process management capability and the right tools for the right job. What you find today is an integrated development environment but you cannot use other tools that you currently use to do functions such a requirements tracking, documentation, code management, etc. The important thing to note is that the environment that DEC built, with a range of partners, was used to create the software on the then leading aerospace project, the F22 fighter. It was used in anger and it worked. It may have been ahead of its time but it did the job. The non-technology element that an integrated environment does not adequately address is the people. This is the vital part of this process of any software development project. Instilling discipline across a team is not easy and does not get the focus it should. Many have tried to raise the awareness of the role people play in software development, such as Tom de Marco, and the issue is that developing software is still seen as an artisans job and not a true professional role. The British Computing Society Chartered Engineer status provides for individuals to be professionally qualified but my perception is that the number of people who have taken the time and trouble to qualify is limited. If more projects asked for chartered status of a significant proportion of the project team there would an improvement in the delivery of projects on time and in budget. So what is my point. Well, it seems to me that we have gone backwards with regards to software development technology. The ability to integrate and get individual components from separate vendors to work together is one thing, to get them also to work together with a work flow model is another. There may be suites from individual vendors that offer this but if you want to retain your own environment you may not be able to. This then involves a major change in your development process and teams. No one likes change! So we all stick to our known quantities to keep in the comfort zone. More importantly the role of the human in this complex and technology based process is not fully understood and nor is it managed in a way that achieves the best results. People need encouragement, they need motivation, guidance and above all the knowledge that what they are doing is of value. My view is that all projects now come down to money and time, and whilst these are important from a business perspective, the measurements miss the impact that these have on the people involved in the project. There are changes that must come from the business in terms of measuring quality such as the reliability, use-ability and flexibility of the software as well as the quantitative measurements of keeping to time-scales and budgets. The developer needs to do their bit too in this equation. They must become more professional, become a Chartered Engineer, and be prepared to change and understand the business dynamics, because after all they are paid by delivering code that works. And most people understand that premise. Paul Bellchambers Paul has over 25 years in the computer industry working in the area of software development. He has worked for Digital Equipment Corp, Sun Microsystems, Olivetti Systems and a number of companies developing software applications. He is currently running a new developers website - http://www.thedeveloperscatalogue.com - and he is also writing articles for the site and for other publications including International Developer Magazine.
MORE RESOURCES: Software vendors dump open source, go for the cash grab Computerworld 15 Biggest Software Companies in the UK Yahoo Finance AI hallucinates software packages and devs download them – even if potentially poisoned with malware The Register GM loses another software leader amid more reorganization Detroit Free Press Progress Software Confirms Bid to Acquire MariaDB The Wall Street Journal Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. to Acquire The Gearbox Entertainment Company Inc., Developer of Highly ... Business Wire EVs, software spur higher automotive sales for microchip makers Automotive News Productivity Boost: Real Uses of AI in the Software You Already Have Legal Talk Network NAB 2024: RT Software Announces New Partnership with Videodata Sports Video Group 7 No-Brainer Software Stocks to Own Now InvestorPlace Unpleasant Surprises Could Be In Store For Paycom Software, Inc.'s (NYSE:PAYC) Shares Simply Wall St These 2 DevOps Stocks Are Must-Owns for Software Investors, Says Wall Street Analyst - Yahoo Finance Defense Modernization Caucus aims to help military cut through red tape, acquiring emerging technologies and software 13newsnow.com WVEC NAB 2024: Evertz Highlights New Features for Its Software-Defined Video-Networking Solution Sports Video Group Can Genesis Succeed Where Lexus and Infiniti Struggled? EVs and Software Could Be the Ticket MotorTrend Global Legal Practice Management Software Market Projected to Reach $4.74 Billion by 2028 Yahoo Finance We Need to Decarbonize Software IEEE Spectrum Software Stocks Give IBD 50 Something To Chew On As Charts Start To Look Better Investor's Business Daily RLDatix Finalizes Acquisition of Breitenbach Software Healthcare IT Today Rebellion Defense Secures GSA Contract to Provide Software Services to Government Clients ExecutiveBiz JFrog Software Supply Chain Report Shows Most Critical Vulnerabilities Scores are Misleading - CTech AI Facilitates Rapid Development of Diabetes Prevention Software, Study Finds The Healthcare Technology Report. Do Analysts Expect Paycom Software Inc (PAYC) Stock to Rise After It Has Gained 8.87% in a Month? InvestorsObserver Beacon obtains FDA clearance for SleepStageML software Medical Device Network SPH Engineering presents Drone Show Software 4.3, elevating Drone Shows to new heights DirectionsMag.com Marc Havercroft Appointed Senior Vice President of International Sales at WorkForce Software Business Wire Porsche partners with Applied Intuition to develop and deploy vehicle software Automotive Testing Technology International Marelli has developed a Light Domain Controller to enable software-defined vehicle architectures StreetInsider.com NXP Breaks Through Integration Barriers for Software-Defined Vehicle Development with Open S32 CoreRide Platform GlobeNewswire Elon Musk Pushes to Increase Use of 'Full Self-Driving' Software as Tesla Sales Cool The Wall Street Journal The Government's Struggles With Outsourcing Software Development The New York Times Hedge fund Citadel makes a rare software engineering hire from Twitter/X eFinancialCareers Smiling Friends Training Software: Ready to Start Helping People? Bleeding Cool News GE HealthCare launches PVA urology-based AI software feature Medical Device Network NXP Launches Open S32 CoreRide Platform for Software-Defined Vehicles - News All About Circuits Case Study: Sintavia Extends Vertical Integration Strategy to Software Digital Engineering 24/7 NAB Show: Pebble Launches PRIMA Software Platform TV Technology Battery Ventures Announces Strategic Investment in AdaCore to Propel the Future of High Integrity Software ... Business Wire Local startup launches AI productivity software aimed at blue-collar service companies RichmondBizSense Insta360 Studio: free software gets significant update by Jose Antunes - ProVideo Coalition ProVideo Coalition New software boosts accuracy of tech to measure crop health hortidaily.com Premarket Mover: TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE, INC Common Stock (TTWO) Down 1.32% InvestorsObserver Abrigo acquires TPG Software Retail Banker International Competitor Analysis: Evaluating Adobe And Competitors In Software Industry - Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Benzinga Garmin announces first software update for new smartwatch with fresh features and bug fixes Notebookcheck.net |
RELATED ARTICLES
Spyware, Adware, etc. -- Terms and Common Sense When reading an article where some term is used often, it is useful to make sure the author of the article and you mean the same. Not surprisingly for those who still remember English lessons at school, every noun ending with "ware" is a mixture of objects having something in common--usually used for similar purposes. .NET :Solving the Multiple Inheritance Issue Under .NET Platform .NET platform does not support multiple inheritance. Can Group Collaboration Software Meet Business Needs? According to a survey conducted by InfoTrends/CAP Ventures entitled "Content-Centric Collaboration," 51 percent of businesspeople utilizing technology such as Microsoft Office and e-mail collaborate almost daily as a part of their business operations and need group collaboration software to support electronic collaboration.The report indicated that the need would continue to grow over the next year. CRM 101: Customer Relationship Management for Beginners Customer Relationship Management, abbreviated "CRM," is the term for a business strategy that is designed to improve customer service. CRM is also designed to increase customer satisfaction and gain new customers, thus increasing a business' revenue. Imagine if Everyone Working In Your Office Was In Synch? Microsoft-Outlook is a pretty amazing program. So much more than simply an e-mail client, it provides a task list, a powerful calendar with recurring scheduling capabilities, wonderful electronic sticky notes, mail-merge capability with MS-Word support and so much more. Great Plains Sales Order Processing and Invoicing Modules - Tips For Consultants We'll give you non formal view, based on our consulting practice.Common Features. Cisco Certification: Introduction To ISDN, Part III Configuring PPP PAP AuthenticationNow we know how the ISDN link comes up (interesting traffic), and some scenarios that might cause the link to stay up, we need to look at ISDN authentication schemes. The two methods Cisco certification candidates must be familiar with are PAP and CHAP. Microsoft Great Plains e-Commerce - additional considerations for programmer Microsoft Great Plains, designed back in 1990th as database transferable and graphical platform independent ERP application - Great Plains Dynamics/Dynamics C/S+/eEnterprise. For eCommerce developer the most important is to understand Great Plains tables structure and business processes in Sales Order Processing, Accounts Receivables, Inventory Control (inventory items allocation, backordering, etc), posting to Bank Reconciliation and General Ledger. Online PowerPoint Presentation - Convert PowerPoint to Flash Although we don't know whether Microsoft ever envisioned such a big market about PowerPoint on its first release. Today this software is impacting profoundly on education and corporation's activities in the way that nobody could ignore. Software Automation Helps Increase your Bottom Line When you own a small business, time is money. And every time a task that should be automated is handled manually, it wastes your time and your business loses money. Microsoft Great Plains Reporting - Overview for Developer Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Healthcare Preventive Maintenance Software Healthcare facilities such as clinics, hospitals, and biomedical laboratories can benefit greatly if up to date CMMS software is used. Healthcare CMMS programs will help with the maintenance of the building, alerting workers when items such as automatic doors, light fixtures, and plumbing structures are due for checkups. Collaboration Software: Index of Collaboration Software Technologies Collaboration SoftwareCollaboration Software, also known as group collaboration software or groupware, is software which allows cooperation on a business document between multiple parties on multiple computers. Collaboration software also allows the integration and merging of document changes and versions on a business document. Microsoft Great Plains Distribution, Barcoding, Consignment - overview for consultant Microsoft Great Plains - ERM from Microsoft Business Solutions and formerly Great Plains Software is pretty generic with its standard set of modules: GL, BR, AR, AP, IV, SOP, POP and US Payroll. However, having about twelve years of implementation and customization history - Great Plains Dynamics, Dynamics C/S+, eEnterprise being Great Plains Dexterity written application has been and still is attractive core platform for third party software development companies to write vertical and horizontal modules, written as well in Great Plains Dexterity. Photoshop Files and Formats People often ask me: What image file formats will Photoshop open or save in? What are the advantages/disadvantages?Photoshop has the capability to open and save many different graphic files. Here are some of the most popular ones. eStore Advantage - Extending Microsoft eConnect for MBS Great Plains eStore Advantage allows front-office applications to communicate with back-office business environments. It has a built-in support for electronic payment processing, and serves as a core integration platform for Nodus Technologies front-to-back office connectivity suites including RMS and CRM Advantage. Adware and Spyware What is 'adware'?Adware is basically software or scripts that are hidden on your computer, that make advertising show up all over the place. It may be an extra menu in your web browser, icons appearing on your desktop, bookmarks or favourites appearing out of no where, and pop up ads that seem to come from no where!What is 'spyware'?Spyware is similar in nature to adware, however I feel its purpose is slightly more sinister. Know-how in Microsoft Publisher For those who still don't know, Microsoft Publisher helps computer users to easily create, customize and publish materials such as flyers, brochures, catalogs, newsletters and websites. It provides tools to create professional and compelling marketing materials that will help you take your business further. Great Plains DOS Support - Notes for Consultant Great Plains Accounting, accounting package for mid-size and small companies was in its peak of popularity back in earlier 1990th. It first had DOS interface, later on migrated to classic Windows version (remember earlier event driven Windows and its strange and at the same time revolutionary programming model - guys who remember Borland C++ and Microsoft C++). Crystal Reports - Geterogeneus databases: SQL Server, Oracle, Unidata, Btrieve - Tips For Developer Crystal Reports is the most flexible tool on the market and it has market recognition. Multiple software vendors offer Crystal Reports as the main reporting tool: Microsoft, Best Software, Oracle to name a few. |
home | site map |
© 2006 |