Software application development
This blog is intended to provoke discussion and exchange between like minded software application developers, engineers, architects, project managers - and keen hobbyists too.
Friday 30 October 2009, 8:46 AM
If software companies were movie stars…
In the spirit of balanced tech blogging I had two choices to make before writing my blog today: a) an analysis of the latest Business Process Management tools or b) a fanciful blog that asks the question, “if software companies were movie stars, then which stars would they be?”
Well, it’s Friday and BPM is fun stuff for sure, but let’s stick with the movie star idea shall we? So grab yourself a Westler’s hotdog (available in the foyer), turn off your mobile phone and sneak out your giant sized packet of Maltesers as we find out who the stars of the software application development silver screen are.
Microsoft is Kevin Bacon – crops up in just about everything, fairly popular, but there are still plenty of people who can’t stand the site of him. Don’t forget that for every ‘Flatliners’ (Windows XP) there will be a ‘Footloose’ (Paper-Clip) right?
Sun, (we dearly hope is not) Steve Martin – brilliant in his early career but finally sells out to a commercial end game that is only faintly redolent of his former glory.
Sun, (we hope) is Robert de Niro - Truly adaptable, the method actor of his generation. Just when everyone thought he had gone out to pasture in his later years he still produces a surprisingly solid performance, sometimes he just needs the right people to work with. NB: This is not a suggestion that Larry Ellison is Al Pacino.
Serena is also Robert de Niro - Very adaptable - perhaps too adaptable, since it picked up business mashups and Agile before everyone else in its space. But for all those flashes of brilliance, it doesn't seem to know what to do with them.
Sybase is Tom Cruise - Bit of an upstart to begin with, but has shown flashes of brilliance and surprising depth over the years. Amusingly, I was speaking to Sybase about this idea and they would rather be known as Ron Howard - and I quote, “Both went through a rough point, Ron had trouble transitioning from a childhood star to an adult actor and Sybase had trouble keeping afloat during the database wars.” Both came out stronger in the end though I was told. Of course they did! This is Hollywood after all.
Computer Associates is Sir Ian McKellen - rarely in the limelight, often perceived as somewhat old and doddery. Many people still hold him/it close to their hearts though.
IBM is like Marlon Brando - runs a very tight ship and is liable to make you an offer you feel you can't refuse.
Adobe is like Johnny Depp - Looks good, can turn a hand to any role and in certain areas no one comes close
Linux is Keanu Reeves - Flaky and immature to start with but really has developed nicely and become rather cool.
Thanks to everyone who helped with suggestions for this blog. Coming next, when software application development methodologies are like the England first eleven football squad. Suggestions for Wayne Rooney anybody…?
Well, it’s Friday and BPM is fun stuff for sure, but let’s stick with the movie star idea shall we? So grab yourself a Westler’s hotdog (available in the foyer), turn off your mobile phone and sneak out your giant sized packet of Maltesers as we find out who the stars of the software application development silver screen are.
Microsoft is Kevin Bacon – crops up in just about everything, fairly popular, but there are still plenty of people who can’t stand the site of him. Don’t forget that for every ‘Flatliners’ (Windows XP) there will be a ‘Footloose’ (Paper-Clip) right?
Sun, (we dearly hope is not) Steve Martin – brilliant in his early career but finally sells out to a commercial end game that is only faintly redolent of his former glory.
Sun, (we hope) is Robert de Niro - Truly adaptable, the method actor of his generation. Just when everyone thought he had gone out to pasture in his later years he still produces a surprisingly solid performance, sometimes he just needs the right people to work with. NB: This is not a suggestion that Larry Ellison is Al Pacino.
Serena is also Robert de Niro - Very adaptable - perhaps too adaptable, since it picked up business mashups and Agile before everyone else in its space. But for all those flashes of brilliance, it doesn't seem to know what to do with them.
Sybase is Tom Cruise - Bit of an upstart to begin with, but has shown flashes of brilliance and surprising depth over the years. Amusingly, I was speaking to Sybase about this idea and they would rather be known as Ron Howard - and I quote, “Both went through a rough point, Ron had trouble transitioning from a childhood star to an adult actor and Sybase had trouble keeping afloat during the database wars.” Both came out stronger in the end though I was told. Of course they did! This is Hollywood after all.
Computer Associates is Sir Ian McKellen - rarely in the limelight, often perceived as somewhat old and doddery. Many people still hold him/it close to their hearts though.
IBM is like Marlon Brando - runs a very tight ship and is liable to make you an offer you feel you can't refuse.
Adobe is like Johnny Depp - Looks good, can turn a hand to any role and in certain areas no one comes close
Linux is Keanu Reeves - Flaky and immature to start with but really has developed nicely and become rather cool.
Thanks to everyone who helped with suggestions for this blog. Coming next, when software application development methodologies are like the England first eleven football squad. Suggestions for Wayne Rooney anybody…?
Wednesday 28 October 2009, 1:28 PM
Symbian SEE & the salmiak salted liquorice
It’s tough to add much to the already very extensive ZDNetUK report on the Symbian Exchange and Exhibition (SEE), but for the record I was there too and I had some interesting meetings with Symbian employees, partners and other IT press too.
Before I get to the tech, one word of advice if you do attend a trade show in the mobile sector. There will always be a strong likelihood of Scandinavian clients at a mobile show and very often they will fill their stand’s sweetie/candy bowls with ‘salmiak’ salted liquorice. I unwittingly ate one yesterday and thought I’d just put a stink bomb in my mouth. It’s seriously stomach wrenching, please take heed.
After the stench of sour and putrid salted black sugar had left me, I was able to sit down with Shaun Puckrin who is Symbian’s global head of community support. Sensing pretty clearly that the themes for this show are the Horizon application publishing programme, the stress being put on the Symbian Signed application testing scheme and general device compatibility all round, I wanted to try and get something extra.
Puckrin made much of the fact that Symbian is encouraging a number of different runtimes today. While it is still early days for some developers seeking to monetise their apps using different runtimes, Symbian is putting itself into a position to consult with individual programmers as to how they might best improve their chances of commercial success.
Of course some developers will not be interested in making money and will approach their projects from an open source perspective from the start. Symbian says it’s just fine and dandy with this approach too and will allow “some” of this content to make its way through to Horizon for the greater good of the code. Although one would imagine they would never want a situation to develop where rather too much free software was getting all the attention.
When it comes to the Horizon directory, Puckrin said that he likes to describe it as the ‘yellow pages of Symbian applications’. Although he did admit that with 80,000 different applications in the Symbian application store that there has been ‘discoverability issues’ to date.
Eluding to the need for some sort of ranking system so that users can find the most popular applications in this labyrinth, Puckrin also said that future roadmaps would (he hoped) also include some kind of aggregation system so that users can more quickly pinpoint which apps are available from where at any given time.
I asked Puckrin to leave us with a ‘walk-away’ thought from the show, ideally something sweeter than salty liquorice. According to Puckrin, if there are three things developers should think about with regard to Symbian over the next year it is the following:
1- Symbian is the biggest mobile application development opportunity in the world in terms of physical shipments.
2- Symbian 3 (due Q2 2010) will include the Qt libraries for Symbian and Symbian 4 (due Q4 2010 will feature a new UI layer developed in Qt.
3- Symbian is striving to work with OEMs and operators to reduce barriers to development.
Well, one and a half to two out of three ain’t bad I suppose, there had to be some corporate schmaltz in there somewhere, this is a tradeshow after all. It’s a good event though, work the trip – just bring your own polos or gummy bears that’s all.
Before I get to the tech, one word of advice if you do attend a trade show in the mobile sector. There will always be a strong likelihood of Scandinavian clients at a mobile show and very often they will fill their stand’s sweetie/candy bowls with ‘salmiak’ salted liquorice. I unwittingly ate one yesterday and thought I’d just put a stink bomb in my mouth. It’s seriously stomach wrenching, please take heed.
After the stench of sour and putrid salted black sugar had left me, I was able to sit down with Shaun Puckrin who is Symbian’s global head of community support. Sensing pretty clearly that the themes for this show are the Horizon application publishing programme, the stress being put on the Symbian Signed application testing scheme and general device compatibility all round, I wanted to try and get something extra.
Puckrin made much of the fact that Symbian is encouraging a number of different runtimes today. While it is still early days for some developers seeking to monetise their apps using different runtimes, Symbian is putting itself into a position to consult with individual programmers as to how they might best improve their chances of commercial success.
Of course some developers will not be interested in making money and will approach their projects from an open source perspective from the start. Symbian says it’s just fine and dandy with this approach too and will allow “some” of this content to make its way through to Horizon for the greater good of the code. Although one would imagine they would never want a situation to develop where rather too much free software was getting all the attention.
When it comes to the Horizon directory, Puckrin said that he likes to describe it as the ‘yellow pages of Symbian applications’. Although he did admit that with 80,000 different applications in the Symbian application store that there has been ‘discoverability issues’ to date.
Eluding to the need for some sort of ranking system so that users can find the most popular applications in this labyrinth, Puckrin also said that future roadmaps would (he hoped) also include some kind of aggregation system so that users can more quickly pinpoint which apps are available from where at any given time.
I asked Puckrin to leave us with a ‘walk-away’ thought from the show, ideally something sweeter than salty liquorice. According to Puckrin, if there are three things developers should think about with regard to Symbian over the next year it is the following:
1- Symbian is the biggest mobile application development opportunity in the world in terms of physical shipments.
2- Symbian 3 (due Q2 2010) will include the Qt libraries for Symbian and Symbian 4 (due Q4 2010 will feature a new UI layer developed in Qt.
3- Symbian is striving to work with OEMs and operators to reduce barriers to development.
Well, one and a half to two out of three ain’t bad I suppose, there had to be some corporate schmaltz in there somewhere, this is a tradeshow after all. It’s a good event though, work the trip – just bring your own polos or gummy bears that’s all.
Monday 26 October 2009, 9:47 AM
Now where did I leave my Computertastaturreinigungsmittel?
Having been involved with a German publishing project at various times this year I have been fascinated with the use of the German language when it comes to IT. As most readers will know, if the Germans can interconnect three words into one extra meaty term then by and large they will do it.
Suddenly ‘computer keyboard cleaner’ becomes Computertastaturreinigungsmittel, which just sounds superb. But paradoxically, when they don’t have a completely new word, they seem to rely on using the English. Backup seems to be backup, shut down is often shut down – and so on.
Of course much of this is due to the abundance of English language software applications, not to mention the fact that almost all code is written with English (or should I say American?) at its core. Add to this the fact that Language portal Englishenglish.com reckons that, “More than 80% of home pages on the web are in English, while the next greatest, German, has only 4.5% and Japanese 3.1%.”
But why do I rant thusly? Well, I had it in mind that Germany shares so much of its IT backbone with the English-speaking world but rarely seems to drive any IT delivery of its own. Excepting the German offices of all the major international IT companies, what have these Romans ever done for us?
I spoke too soon of course, Deutsche Telekom last week launched its Softwareload (yay! one word not two!) download service in the UK. Softwareload.co.uk contains software applications for work and home and customers can apparently store their purchases securely on the site. But other than a neat electronic distribution service, is anything actually new here?
The company says that, “Products available at launch span categories such as anti-virus and security, data protection, photos and graphics, plus personal interest, leisure, Internet and browser software. Customers can store their purchases for up to one year in the ‘My downloads’ section and this service is free for customers signing up before the end of 2009 and £4.99 thereafter for 12 months.” What they mean is the storage option is free, not the software I presume.
Softwareload says its target market includes frequent Internet users who may not be experts but probably have some experience downloading software in the past and want a single portal for finding applications. The company’s argument rests of high Internet penetration in the UK and the frequency with which British users typically order goods and services online already. For that reason, they have extended their business model to hit the UK market it seems.
For mass market software application distribution there could more of a market here and Softwareload could do well. If you look at how the supermarkets dominate our food and drink consumption today, customers are certainly keen to have one-stop-shops as much as it pains me to even write the expression. Should application developers be aware of this trend when if they are thinking about going to market with the next big thing?
Suddenly ‘computer keyboard cleaner’ becomes Computertastaturreinigungsmittel, which just sounds superb. But paradoxically, when they don’t have a completely new word, they seem to rely on using the English. Backup seems to be backup, shut down is often shut down – and so on.
Of course much of this is due to the abundance of English language software applications, not to mention the fact that almost all code is written with English (or should I say American?) at its core. Add to this the fact that Language portal Englishenglish.com reckons that, “More than 80% of home pages on the web are in English, while the next greatest, German, has only 4.5% and Japanese 3.1%.”
But why do I rant thusly? Well, I had it in mind that Germany shares so much of its IT backbone with the English-speaking world but rarely seems to drive any IT delivery of its own. Excepting the German offices of all the major international IT companies, what have these Romans ever done for us?
I spoke too soon of course, Deutsche Telekom last week launched its Softwareload (yay! one word not two!) download service in the UK. Softwareload.co.uk contains software applications for work and home and customers can apparently store their purchases securely on the site. But other than a neat electronic distribution service, is anything actually new here?
The company says that, “Products available at launch span categories such as anti-virus and security, data protection, photos and graphics, plus personal interest, leisure, Internet and browser software. Customers can store their purchases for up to one year in the ‘My downloads’ section and this service is free for customers signing up before the end of 2009 and £4.99 thereafter for 12 months.” What they mean is the storage option is free, not the software I presume.
Softwareload says its target market includes frequent Internet users who may not be experts but probably have some experience downloading software in the past and want a single portal for finding applications. The company’s argument rests of high Internet penetration in the UK and the frequency with which British users typically order goods and services online already. For that reason, they have extended their business model to hit the UK market it seems.
For mass market software application distribution there could more of a market here and Softwareload could do well. If you look at how the supermarkets dominate our food and drink consumption today, customers are certainly keen to have one-stop-shops as much as it pains me to even write the expression. Should application developers be aware of this trend when if they are thinking about going to market with the next big thing?
Thursday 22 October 2009, 11:39 AM
BlackBerry developer relations: the state of the nation
After recently taking a technological quantum leap forward and getting myself down to Staples to buy my first white board, I was pleased this morning to mark in a meeting for next month with Mike Kirkup who is RIM’s director of developer relations.
Opportune timing perhaps given that this Thursday also sees the London leg of the BlackBerry Innovation Forum held in the salubrious surrounds on the Sofitel London Heathrow T5.
Although the ‘Who Should Attend’ section of this event’s website lists an unsurprisingly broad spectrum of potential user types, it is probably IT administrators who would get the most from the day I would guess. As RIM puts it, this event will allow you to, “Go away with ideas and inspiration for developing a mobile strategy for your organisation.”
If that question was at the forefront of your mind, would you bother going to a single OEM brand-specific event though? With BlackBerry’s relative popularity I guess it’s fair to say perhaps yes.
So what else is going on in the BlackBerry world right now from a developer perspective? The company’s application storefront, named BlackBerry App World, was opened up to developers at the start of this year and since has expanded into Europe and Latin America as a channel for third-party software to be delivered to the public.
But just how vibrant is the activity here and how successful is it? I managed to get some comment direct from RIM in line with today’s event.
“BlackBerry App World has opened the door to another channel for our growing partner and developer community to market and, for some, sell their own applications directly to BlackBerry customers. The catalogue comprises both consumer focused tools and business apps and is growing at a phenomenal rate. Right now we’re also seeing more and more customers download tools that are relevant to their needs and lifestyle,” commented Rory O’Neill, senior director of Business Marketing, EMEA at RIM.
RIM also points out that the ‘double-whammy’ of two BlackBerry devices being launched in the past week, namely the BlackBerry Storm2 and the BlackBerry Bold 9700, also presents a new opportunity for developers. Well, in fairness, RIM would say that any new device presents a new opportunity for developers wouldn’t they?
But there could be more to that comment as both devices come sporting a new OS – namely 5.0 - which is the first BlackBerry OS to support Gears and SQLite for BlackBerry Widgets. This is good news, as the more subtle undercurrents of development come to the fore and are supported by a new OS, they can manifest themselves as fairly meaty augmentations – and in this case I would argue that they do.
To encourage developers to embrace the new OS the folks at RIM have also launched an update to its Java Development Environment 5.0 with new APIs and a new UI. Extra side dishes with a tasty garnish all of their own perhaps? Certainly a full meal at the smorgasbord table of BlackBerry application development one would imagine.
Today’s BlackBerry forum seems to be very use-case based with lots of presentations devoted to lovely subjects like ‘mobile workforces in practice’ and that sort of thing. Personally, if I’d had to pick one track throughout the day I would highlight A Strategic Approach to Mobility by Marc Van Der Laan – RIM’s director for application & mobility planning. The blurb reads, “Now is the time for you to look at your architecture and see where consolidations can be made in server hardware or more efficiency can be gained by mobilising additional applications to mobile workers.”
New devices, new OSs, new application development streams and cocktails and canapés in Terminal 5, what more could you ask for? A little less gloss perhaps, but then this is the salesy end of mobile – the only question then is, when will mobile become a fully embedded computing necessity if it is not already today?
Opportune timing perhaps given that this Thursday also sees the London leg of the BlackBerry Innovation Forum held in the salubrious surrounds on the Sofitel London Heathrow T5.
Although the ‘Who Should Attend’ section of this event’s website lists an unsurprisingly broad spectrum of potential user types, it is probably IT administrators who would get the most from the day I would guess. As RIM puts it, this event will allow you to, “Go away with ideas and inspiration for developing a mobile strategy for your organisation.”
If that question was at the forefront of your mind, would you bother going to a single OEM brand-specific event though? With BlackBerry’s relative popularity I guess it’s fair to say perhaps yes.
So what else is going on in the BlackBerry world right now from a developer perspective? The company’s application storefront, named BlackBerry App World, was opened up to developers at the start of this year and since has expanded into Europe and Latin America as a channel for third-party software to be delivered to the public.
But just how vibrant is the activity here and how successful is it? I managed to get some comment direct from RIM in line with today’s event.
“BlackBerry App World has opened the door to another channel for our growing partner and developer community to market and, for some, sell their own applications directly to BlackBerry customers. The catalogue comprises both consumer focused tools and business apps and is growing at a phenomenal rate. Right now we’re also seeing more and more customers download tools that are relevant to their needs and lifestyle,” commented Rory O’Neill, senior director of Business Marketing, EMEA at RIM.
RIM also points out that the ‘double-whammy’ of two BlackBerry devices being launched in the past week, namely the BlackBerry Storm2 and the BlackBerry Bold 9700, also presents a new opportunity for developers. Well, in fairness, RIM would say that any new device presents a new opportunity for developers wouldn’t they?
But there could be more to that comment as both devices come sporting a new OS – namely 5.0 - which is the first BlackBerry OS to support Gears and SQLite for BlackBerry Widgets. This is good news, as the more subtle undercurrents of development come to the fore and are supported by a new OS, they can manifest themselves as fairly meaty augmentations – and in this case I would argue that they do.
To encourage developers to embrace the new OS the folks at RIM have also launched an update to its Java Development Environment 5.0 with new APIs and a new UI. Extra side dishes with a tasty garnish all of their own perhaps? Certainly a full meal at the smorgasbord table of BlackBerry application development one would imagine.
Today’s BlackBerry forum seems to be very use-case based with lots of presentations devoted to lovely subjects like ‘mobile workforces in practice’ and that sort of thing. Personally, if I’d had to pick one track throughout the day I would highlight A Strategic Approach to Mobility by Marc Van Der Laan – RIM’s director for application & mobility planning. The blurb reads, “Now is the time for you to look at your architecture and see where consolidations can be made in server hardware or more efficiency can be gained by mobilising additional applications to mobile workers.”
New devices, new OSs, new application development streams and cocktails and canapés in Terminal 5, what more could you ask for? A little less gloss perhaps, but then this is the salesy end of mobile – the only question then is, when will mobile become a fully embedded computing necessity if it is not already today?
Wednesday 21 October 2009, 3:44 PM
Mind mapping software as a lifecycle management tool
Mind mapping is the kind of term that would normally make me switch off immediately. It’s right up there with ‘blue sky thinking’ and ‘call to action’ as some of the most unnecessary management-speak I’ve heard in a while. So is it a worthy concept or just hogwash?
Coined in the sixties by educational consultant Tony Buzan, mind mapping is described as diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. From this point you can probably see why it has some potential for management within the software application development lifecycle.
But is it popular? Well, according to analyst David Tebbutt from Freeform Dynamics, “Over sixty commercial applications are available for the PC, the Mac and the web. A sprinkling of others are available for the Pocket PC, iPhone and BlackBerry and you'll even find open source and freeware versions.”
Mind mapping software is said to deal with ideas management rather than process management. As a process it even claims to help people such as dyslexics to be able to visualise concepts more clearly. So who makes it and is it of any real worth?
Mind mapping vendors like to label their technology in the business process management application category. Our random OEM vendor du jour for this blog is MindGenius due to the recently released Version 3 of its business mapping application. According to its makers, inside this product you will find tools for analysis, task management and brainstorming.
Having just bought my first whiteboard from Staples and feeling pretty darn pleased with my home office’s new swanky corporate look and feel as a result – I do have to step back and say that this sounds like a whole bunch of whistles and bells.
Indeed, Freeform Dynamics’ Tebbutt has pointed out that, “Mind-mapping started out as a very personal thing. The aim was to enable you to take notes effectively, learn quickly and plan easily. When personal computers came along, outliners grabbed our attention first, then the more graphical mind-mappers came along. As screens got bigger and resolution improved, so the visual mappers came into their own. But most people were either ignorant of the technique or they saw nothing wrong with sticking with paper and coloured pens.”
But surely there is more substance here than I am making out. There is a market for business process management software and I have written about it before. There is also an interminable debate centred around when and where we will ever find the holy grail of application lifecycle management.
Giving voice where it’s due, Dustin Newport, commercial director for MindGenius is quoted as saying, “The ethos for MindGenius has always been about facilitating the journey from unstructured data capture through to analysis, actions and ultimately results.” Not quite so fluffy after all then.
So your team leader announces a team huddle and walks in with a huge box of Krispy Kreme donuts to let you all know that a new mind mapping strategy is being put in place to help everyone meet the wider project goals more accurately.
Does everyone jump up in the air and whoop with delight? Or do you all feel the hideous internal crushing feeling of another process being brought online to mess up your already fragmented mix of currently deployed software development methodologies.
You decide.
Coined in the sixties by educational consultant Tony Buzan, mind mapping is described as diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. From this point you can probably see why it has some potential for management within the software application development lifecycle.
But is it popular? Well, according to analyst David Tebbutt from Freeform Dynamics, “Over sixty commercial applications are available for the PC, the Mac and the web. A sprinkling of others are available for the Pocket PC, iPhone and BlackBerry and you'll even find open source and freeware versions.”
Mind mapping software is said to deal with ideas management rather than process management. As a process it even claims to help people such as dyslexics to be able to visualise concepts more clearly. So who makes it and is it of any real worth?
Mind mapping vendors like to label their technology in the business process management application category. Our random OEM vendor du jour for this blog is MindGenius due to the recently released Version 3 of its business mapping application. According to its makers, inside this product you will find tools for analysis, task management and brainstorming.
Having just bought my first whiteboard from Staples and feeling pretty darn pleased with my home office’s new swanky corporate look and feel as a result – I do have to step back and say that this sounds like a whole bunch of whistles and bells.
Indeed, Freeform Dynamics’ Tebbutt has pointed out that, “Mind-mapping started out as a very personal thing. The aim was to enable you to take notes effectively, learn quickly and plan easily. When personal computers came along, outliners grabbed our attention first, then the more graphical mind-mappers came along. As screens got bigger and resolution improved, so the visual mappers came into their own. But most people were either ignorant of the technique or they saw nothing wrong with sticking with paper and coloured pens.”
But surely there is more substance here than I am making out. There is a market for business process management software and I have written about it before. There is also an interminable debate centred around when and where we will ever find the holy grail of application lifecycle management.
Giving voice where it’s due, Dustin Newport, commercial director for MindGenius is quoted as saying, “The ethos for MindGenius has always been about facilitating the journey from unstructured data capture through to analysis, actions and ultimately results.” Not quite so fluffy after all then.
So your team leader announces a team huddle and walks in with a huge box of Krispy Kreme donuts to let you all know that a new mind mapping strategy is being put in place to help everyone meet the wider project goals more accurately.
Does everyone jump up in the air and whoop with delight? Or do you all feel the hideous internal crushing feeling of another process being brought online to mess up your already fragmented mix of currently deployed software development methodologies.
You decide.
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