May 2010 Archives

There's no better way to try technology out than to build a real-life application with it. Taking an idea for a product and developing it is a great way to understand the value and shortcomings of any new tool.

This is exactly what Justin James decided to do with the Agile Platform and he's journaling his experience of developing his new web app, Rat Catcher, in a series of diary entries that are being published in Tech Republic. You can check out his first set of entries: Diary #1, Diary #2.

The following is an excerpt from Justin's latest experience using the Agile Platform in Diary #3 where he starts by saying:

"The Agile Platform is composed of four major pieces: Service Studio, Integration Studio, Service Center, and the Agile Network. I spend nearly all of my time in Service Studio, which is where the application and data modeling occur, as well as application debugging. You can also publish your application to a server from Service Studio. While Service Studio is an IDE, it uses a paradigm that is very different from any IDE that I have ever used.  The three major functions in Service Studio are data modeling, process modeling, and screen design."

He goes on to describe his first reactions, some of the difficulties he encountered, and how he managed to change his developer's paradigm to really make the most of the Agile Platform. Although a bit technical for some of our business minded readers, I think our developer base will find these articles very interesting.

I'll be curious to see what Justin thinks of version 5.1's new functionality (watch this space for more info on this upcoming release!) For example, the new wizards that will help build the screens from the data model even faster. Justin also hits on an advanced detail when he talks about the "late load" AJAX component, which admittedly was a bit of an odd pattern, and something our developers have fixed in 5.1.

So, this goes out to all of you professional developers; please share your experiences and tell other readers what you like and don't about working with the Agile Platform.  What do you think of Justin's take on the platform? Does it match your initial experiences?
 
Mike
(Follow me on twitter here)

There has been a flurry of activity in the OutSystems offices as we've been setting up new web pages for an experiment we're conducting with Forrester Research's John Rymer. It's a kind of social consulting experiment if you like - where OutSystems is sponsoring some consulting time with John, and inviting anyone (via Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) in the IT world to ask him questions on the topic of  "The Future of Enterprise Applications."

The idea is simple:
 
1) Post your question. You can post as many questions as you like on the subject - or sub-topics like cloud, mobility, tools, agile... (and don't forget to retweet it and follow the hashtag #AskRymer)

2) John will select up to 10 questions to answer, and we will meet with him next week during the Forrester IT Forum in Las Vegas to record his answers for you. (BTW, if you're attending IT Forum, stop by the OutSystems booth and say Hi!)

3) We will post the videos of his answers to the project webpage (and here, no doubt) and then tweet, blog, shout, and jump up and down to tell everyone they're ready!

Both John and the OutSystems gang are very excited to see how this experiment works out. We believe that the online IT community is very vibrant and sure to come up with thought-provoking questions!

So - what questions do you want to ask John Rymer about the Future of Enterprise Apps? Ask him now. 

Earlier this week InfoWorld delivered its findings after reviewing multiple web development tools.  They looked across five key areas to compile the score; Ease of Development, Extensibility, Portability, Documentation and Value.  The products reviewed were Alpha Five Version 10, Iron Speed Designer 6.2.1, Visual LANSA for the Web 11.5, OutSystems Agile Platform 5.0, and MLstate OPA S2 Beta.

Needless to say I was very happy (but not really surprised) to see that the Agile Platform's Service Studio performed top of class.

Now, if we can just get InfoWorld to do a review of the full life cycle aspect of delivering and maintaining a web application - that would change the landscape of the review considerably and I know we would rock again. 

Everyone who is a fan of the Agile Platform please take a minute to go and share your experience with the InfoWorld readers!

OutSystems' own VP Marketing, Mike Jones, recently wrote an article in Dr. Dobb's on the "death" of custom applications in the enterprise world - and it seems to have caused a bit of a debate - both in comments on the article and in an off-shoot blog post on the same subject.

The supposed killer?  Software packages.  But are custom apps really dead? Mike's take is that while software packages were once considered the silver bullet of enterprise IT, this is no longer the case.  Agile development practice, coupled with a strong delivery platform, has pushed custom development back on par with off-the-shelf solutions and, in some cases, has made custom apps a better choice than their boxed counterparts.

• Read Mike's original article in Dr. Dobbs and the reader comments.
• Also, check out the blog post by Ann All of IT Business Edge, and the question she poses; "will Agile development bring back custom software?"

What's your experience with custom applications versus packaged software?  Do you agree with Mike? Join the conversation!

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal recently ran  articles on an important new blood test, called AlloMap, which was developed by XDx, a cutting-edge biopharma based in California. What's AlloMap, and why is it making headlines? From the New York Times article:

A blood test that analyzes genetic activity could let heart transplant patients avoid many of the invasive and uncomfortable biopsies now used to monitor whether their immune systems are rejecting their new organs, doctors said in a study published Thursday.

The study found that patients who were monitored for rejection using the blood test had outcomes roughly equivalent to those of patients who were given frequent heart biopsies.

It's an impressive development in the area of cardiovascular medicine, and according to one doctor quoted in the article, XDx's AlloMap "will cause a paradigm shift in how we monitor for rejection."

So what does this have to do with agile development or OutSystems?

XDx used the OutSystems Agile Platform to create the business application it now uses to track and analyze the diagnostic tests required in clinical studies. The application replaced XDx's former Excel-based and manually intensive processes, increasing their ability to study clinical data in a timely manner. Using Agile Platform, XDx delivered its first application to business users in only 6 weeks - including one week of fine-tuning. XDx's story is only one example of the kind of applications that are being built using Agile Platform, but we think it's a pretty remarkable one.



If you want to learn more about how XDx turned to Agile Platform to meet the ever-changing requirements they were receiving from their scientists, check out the case study, or watch the above clip of Stefan Meier, Principal Software Architect in XDx's Information Sciences Department. You can also read about Stefan's presentation at NextStep in which he discussed the XDx experience of introducing Agile.

We're very excited that Justin James (the author of "OutSystems' Agile Platform: IDE of my dreams") over at Tech Republic is chronicling his use of the Agile Platform to build his personal software project, Rat Catcher, which will help media outlets track down plagiarizers and unauthorized uses of their content. 

He recently posted his first diary entry of working with the Agile Platform, and it provides some great insight for new users.

Lots of people have been tweeting on this article already - what do you think?  Are you new to the Agile Platform?  How does Justin's experience compare to yours? Do you have feedback on features or capabilities of the platform?  Let us know!