Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
ernments, and probably more than 150 total industries. Assembling these
patterns may require forensic analysis of samples of legacy applications.
2.
Once the basic design is selected, engineers work out any special features
that might require manual customization or new development. But prob-
ably these will be rare and if they occur will be less than 5% of the total
application.
3.
Because the costs and schedule benchmarks for the applications used as
patterns are known, engineers can predict the costs and delivery time of
the new application using a straightforward process. This would be very
similar to buying a new automobile that has optional features. There are
standard price lists for each feature.
4.
Because the designs are accompanied by bills of material, the next step
will be merely to select the standard reusable components that will be
needed to complete the application. In fact, this step could be fully auto-
mated: every design will have a full parts list of standard modules needed.
5.
Assuming that the application is going to be fully constructed from stand-
ard pieces, robots or some other form of automation will carry out the ac-
tual development of the application or connect the modules. Human deve-
lopers might be needed to create the original modules for the first time,
but once something reusable has been created, the development effort is
trivial and can be fully automated.
6.
Of course, it will be necessary to test the completed application once it is
put together. But as the test cases and test suites are also reusable and in-
cluded in the parts list, testing, too, could be carried out by robots or auto-
mated means. Samples of reusable data could be used to perform end-to-
end testing of the application.
Human software engineers will still be needed to create truly unique applica-
tions and to design the reusable modules. This is the same kind of situation as seen
in the circuit design world for building new computer chips and new integrated
circuits. Each reusable software module is similar to a small integrated circuit.
There may also be a need for human software engineers and database special-
ists to assist in migrating legacy data to the new application. Legacy data migra-
tion is a complex and difficult task that today can take many months for large data-
base applications.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search