Oct 16

Web Apps Rule the Organization

IDevelopers show their independent streak, favoring Web-based apps: Big frameworks and multi-layered architectures seem great in theory, but I’ve yet to see them work really well in practice. This seems to be the feeling coming out of this programming survey as well.

“Web applications rule the enterprise. That’s the indisputable conclusion to be drawn from this year’s InfoWorld Programming Survey. Despite imperitives from Microsoft and others that developers abandon server-based HTML apps for fat desktop clients, the ease of ‘zero deployment’ through the browser continues to win the day.

To build those Web apps, significant numbers of programmers favor such humble scripting languages as VBScript and Perl. Contrary to the hype that says Microsoft .Net and the Java elite have a lock on the programming world, many developers have settled on cheaper (and often faster) ways to build the Web applications they need to build.”

Many months ago, I ranted on about how architecture from the top down made my head hurt, and these results bear that out. I said, in part:

“I’m more inclined to believe that for a lot of systems, bottom-up is the way to go. Let business units use what they need, then integrate them with XML and Web services. […]

My old company spent months and months and months trying to work out an intranet strategy. Everytime I thought we were close, the project would get bogged down in architecture-this and integration-that. In an effort to build the perfect system, we ended up with no system.”

I believe this more and more each day. If you’re building a mission-critical CRM app for a massive organization, then go fire up .Net or J2EE or some other monolithic platform. For the lowly department intranet site, get a copy of PostNuke or Movable Type or Zope, and call it good. The end user doesn’t care about architecture, they just want to get some use out of it.

In the end, it comes down to a user looking at a monitor somewhere. Whether you’re using J2EE or PHP, all that matters to the user is what gets presented to the user. For the background stuff that the user never sees, ask yourself if your selection of platform is more driven by what you want, or what they want.

If you like this idea, read this post and this post, as they’re right up the same alley.

by Deane   October 16, 2003 3:59 PM   |

Comments

by Tim,   October 20, 2003 4:12 PM  

I agree that bottom-up development is faster on a departmental level, but something else should be looked into (and yes, I am in IT but I'm not clueless): in our organization, the people who build those bottom-up apps always seem to be ambitious self starters who moveon_ to other offices and other jobs, leaving their app to their colleagues with little or no training in how to support it. These types of orphan apps often end up being handed to IT when problems arise, or if they're not orphaned, some PHB decides the app should be scaled organization-wide and we're tasked to do that.

I don't mean they shouldn't be done! I mean, those are issues that need to be looked at.

Add Comment

Want to advertise on this site? Contact FM.
Web Hosting Web hosting, dedicated servers and Web design services
Laser Toner Cartridges UK laser toner, toner cartridges, hp toner, lexmark toner, samsung toner, canon, toner, epson toner, oki toner, kyocera toner, xerox toner, remanufactured toner, compatible toner
Direct TV Deals Free 4 room direct tv deals. no equipment to buy. free fast professional direct tv installation. this is the best direct tv deal available anywhere.
SEO Article Learn from the experts with our SEO article.
rope light Shopping with birddog distributing, inc., gives you access to the lowest prices, the best customer service and the quickest delivery times possible.
Laptop AC Adapter We offer genuine factory direct replacement AC adapters.
Direct TV Best satellite TV deals.
Direct TV Deals Direct TV programming deals are varied and include packages containing from 50 channels up to over 250 channels.
8mm film to DVD Retain family memories with the only frame by frame digital restoration service in the United States for your 8mm film to DVD today
Rubber Stamp Shop for custom self-inking stamps, hand stamps, address stamps, label stamps, check endorsement stamps, check deposit stamps, date stamps, pre inks, pocket stamps, ink and much more!