I came across this slideshow from CIO Insight a few weeks ago. The aggressive-looking deck attempts to explain why IT projects fail. I’m always a bit weary of headlines that seem this simplistic, but who knows – maybe they thought up some new ways to blow a project that millions of us hadn’t already avoided, accomplished, or observed. Better yet, wouldn’t it be something if we finally figured out how to diminish the “63 billion dollars” worth of failed projects in the US?

Clicking through the deck, I realized that a majority of these reasons are somewhat interconnected. It’s not just lack of detailed requirements, lack of user involvement, scope creep, bad scoping, poor testing, or lack of executive support. An innate segregation between the business people who use the product, the IT people who build the product, and the business analysts who dance in between – is the root cause of most of these problems.

Enhance Collaboration, Improve Requirements

The logical solution to these failure-inducing practices is visual modeling. By using visual models, both sides of the IT-Business equation have a valuable representation of what the IT project will encompass. By using this method of collaboration, requirements become more accurate. Business people can visualize the processes that the software will benefit, and IT people have a more functional way of communicating their solution.

The Immediate Feedback Loop

If we take one step further into the initial requirements analysis, these visual models can be deployed as applications for an immediate look into future checkpoints in the project. Imagine the following scenario:

Business Analyst: “So the data from your current ERP system will be aggregated and validated in the new system, which will then report directly to their corresponding contacts from your CRM.”
Client: “Right…”
Business Analyst: “Ok, well this is the model with data flows – and this is what the application will look like to the contact in the CRM system.”
Client: “Wait, that’s not all the data they’re going to need. What about integrating the grant management database?”

[A few clicks, a new form, and deploy.]

Business Analyst: “Okay, so now the window shows the corresponding grants for each contact as well.”

Isn’t immediate feedback fun!? It’s a dream for business analysts that has only recently become a reality (in the Mendix Business Modeler, that is). Mendix users never come close to failing a project because clients know exactly what they’re getting and developers know exactly what is needed. So why are so many IT projects failing? The right tools are out there, it’s only a matter of time before they are discovered.

The idea of open source information gathering has been utilized in the scientific community for centuries. It is no secret that sharing information created by communities of experts provides the most productive basis for advancement, regardless of subject matter or field of study. Business engineers developing on the Mendix platform utilize our own MX forum and AppStore to discuss, learn, and share their thoughts for the betterment of their applications. Our Research and Development team use the forum to make the Business Agility Suite better for our users. It is, at its very heart, a cyclical philosophy that mutually benefits those who learn and those who create.

Again, the advocates for open source are vast and ever growing. The following anecdotes aim to portray our wholehearted belief in using open source in the advancement of our technology.

1. Sharing is Caring

The Mendix AppStore is a fantastic example of our own community embracing open source. Most of the content in our AppStore is open source. Our partners have been busy creating interesting software modules that can save other developers time and money. In return, they will have access to other developers applications, widgets, and themes. The AppStore is available to our partners and users now, but will be open to the public soon. Developers also share the ability to make the contents of our AppStore better, as discussed in the following…

2. Concealed knowledge is static knowledge

A century ago, intellectual property laws were all the rage. In many industries, they still serve a valid purpose that may very well foster innovation. For instance, pharmaceutical research must remain concealed in order to protect the value creation that finances it. (Then again, Andrew Witty of GlaxoSmithKline, is placing his bets on open source research to find a vaccine for malaria.) In many cases, however, when knowledge is concealed from the public eye, it remains static and unchallenged, and therefore compromised.

The often overlooked side of what makes an open source philosophy valuable is in the review of content. While creation of content by the masses demonstrates the initial benefit of open source, the ability to have innumerable judges critiquing that very content is equally valuable. Shared content is validated by peers, rather than say, the reputation of its creator. In fact, the MX Forum rates its users based on their contributions. This way, reputation is directly related to the reaction ones contributions receive.

3. Disseminating knowledge is just as important as creating it

It turns out that an open source philosophy contains within itself a similar relationship to that of the chicken and the egg. Which is more important: The supply of new knowledge, or the ability to communicate it? The Internet has given us the ability to communicate and create vast amounts of information simultaneously. Open source philosophy, as it has developed online, has become hugely more impactful as the Internet evolved into its current state. With more access to knowledge comes more knowledge, and with more knowledge comes more innovation. Again, a cyclical growth of intellect is fostered by open source.

My motivation for writing this post came about when our forum, the MX Forum, was featured on OSQA – The Open Source Question and Answer System – well, forum. This site is an interesting demonstration of open source philosophy, as it literally centralizes open source forums within its own open source forum. Since the team at Mendix applauds open source philosophy, we were happy to provide our forum to its visitors. If you’re looking for our source code, you can find it here.

The community of business analysts in the United States and abroad is taking notice of their impact on the world economy. Not long ago, the idea of a business analyst was new – sitting on the border of technology and business, sharing lunch with both ‘geeks’ and ‘suits,’ and creating value with only the uncanny ability to collaborate between these corporate cultures.

These collaborative colleagues will continue to develop alongside, and in between, new technology and new business.  The growing popularity of agile methodologies and visual modeling software motivated me to put together this deck of five simple steps to a future focused business analyst.

1. Track and Trace

The Google Maps add-on brings a heavy dose of visual functionality to any application. Addresses entered into the application populate the ever-expanding map automatically. Using this add-on as a track and trace module, supply chain managers can get visual representations and real time updates of their shipments. Shipping logistics can now be measured within the application and used in conjunction with another popular app – the Carbon Reductions Suite.

2. Track Asset Ownership

In many industries, accurately managing and reporting who owns what is elemental to successfully providing value to their clients. For example, an underwriter may want to see what kind of risk they are insuring for their client who owns multiple assets. Now these applications can segregate the who, what and where of assets being tracked in the system. And because these applications integrate with any IT environment, any preexisting enterprise systems will now gain this feature.

3. Territory Heat Map

Another great use for the Google Maps add-on is, albeit simple, the territory heat map. Want to know where your customers are located? Hook this feature into your Mendix CRM system and you have a regional heat map of where you do business. Need to know which regions your sales support is going to? Now you’ll have a visual display of spend activities.

I am sure that our insightful users will think up more ways to use this add-on, and as more developers get creative with map functions, the Business Agility Blog will aptly report them. Check back for more updates on the Mendix AppStore and the infinite ways our users are reaching new heights in business agility.

It’s always nice to read about companies that agree with our sentiment about software modeling. In this case, the almighty Google has introduced ‘App Inventor’ to the world, fueling discussion between the masses similar to those we’ve prompted for years. As for the idea of providing nontechnical people a tool for creating applications, we agree that abstracted software development is a trend bigger than all of us – Google, Mendix, and everyone in between.

In an unexpected and commendable twist of fate, the users and believers, members and readers of Mendix just may know a thing or two that Google hasn’t calculated into its plan. We have heard the thoughts of our technical veterans, who dispel our modeling beliefs faster than they can address a letter or open their watch.

In the case of App Inventor, these applications serve the masses of the Android market – an interesting group of people even less technically savvy than our own modern business engineer. The reactions to App Inventor are altogether predictable; one of my favorites here…

“Great. Now any schmo can claim they have created a “program” just like any schmo can click the shutter of a digital camera and claim they have made a “photograph.”

And then there are the future-minded individuals who offer yet another perspective…

“So why assume that somehow coders/programmers are more creative than non-programmers, or that they automatically do a better job? I’ve used plenty of apps for computers that were solidly coded but their UI bordered on inscrutable. This may very well *raise* the quality of apps, because people with a good idea can build it themselves instead of trying to get a programmer to understand what they want.”

Either opinion is as well argued in the countless threads of comments about Google as they are in our own experience with modeling. The difference between modeling business applications and modeling for your cell phone brings an interesting question of value to mind:

What makes software valuable?

A. Its ability to solve a problem.
B. The speed at which it can solve a problem.
C. Both. The positive change that is attributable to its implementation.

In enterprise software, the answer is undoubtedly C – a combination of the speed at which it can be implemented and its ability to solve a problem for an organization. If it doesn’t solve a problem, there is no reason for it – and if it can’t be implemented, it won’t be… simple as that. In the Android market, it seems as though Google wants these apps to solve an immediate problem that developers haven’t thought of or had for themselves. In the case of personal electronics, where utility is equivalent to profit, the answer is still C.

Software modeling, agile development, and business agility sit on a branch of software’s family tree that is growing eagerly. Our clients increase their bottom line because we’ve given them a tool that allows organizational evolution to mirror environmental change, AKA business agility. Google on the other hand, provides a tool for consumers to create added utility on their own mobile device. In either case, the end user is given a more direct role in creating their application.

Changes in application creation are never taken lightly. As one commenter puts it…“Creation? Man should not meddle with such power.” Here at Mendix, we will always stand behind the idea that abstracted development isn’t a way for business people to take work from IT people; it is a way to enable better collaboration between the two. Google has a solid track record of introducing game changing products to their enormous market, and when they back our own ideas as closely as App Inventor does, we look forward to playing the new game in ours.

Three of the most exciting entrants in the Mendix AppStore portray the vast array of industry verticals these developers are working in. Each piece of software will allow application developers to speed up their process and increase their ROI. Mendix Partners, in addition to the Mendix services division, have aptly shared their creations with the Mendix Community for the betterment of agile software development.

Google Maps

Business engineers and developers can now incorporate the world into their applications. The process of adding Google Maps into a web application has been demonstrated in front of a live audience in only minutes. Adding this functionality to a Mendix-built application is as simple as looking up the Google API and downloading the free add-on via the Mendix AppStore. The uses for this feature are nearly endless, ranging from CRM mapping to logistical routing in a user friendly interface.

HR On-Boarding

A human resources On-boarding solution has also been added to the AppStore. The On-boarding portal enables a shorter time to maximum productivity, increased employee retention, and a more engaged employee overall by creating an automated, single point of entry for new employee intelligence. The application offers the supportive tools to automate basic processes such as form completion, email reminders and benefits enrollment – making human resource data management simple. Additionally, the Mendix platform allows this system to work on top of preexisting SAP applications.

Carbon Reduction Suite

Initiatives in environmental sustainability are at an all time high, and information technology solutions to track these initiatives are a priority to many developers using the Mendix platform. A Carbon Reduction Suite, created by Cape Groep, has been provided to the Mendix Community via the Mendix AppStore.

The Carbon Reduction Suite consists of four central components: The Carbon Product Footprint provides insights into the real cause of CO₂ emissions. The Carbon Corporate Footprint explains the cause of CO₂ emissions within a company as a whole. This is useful for setting up a CO₂ administration for minimizing your carbon footprint.

The Carbon Product Indicator calculates expected CO₂ emissions, providing a method of determining the most sustainable choice of transportation. Finally the Carbon Product Forecast offers customers insight by using their order history simulations to show the effects of their transportation choices in relation to CO₂ emissions.

These three examples are just a few of the highly functional applications available in the Mendix AppStore. Mendix will continue to focus on growing its partner network, and expects the AppStore to grow in parallel.

As our US office watches these games with a keen interest in the cultural phenomenon that is “voetbal” – our Dutch counterparts are virtually cut off from reality, entrenched in their teams every move. And they should be, for the Netherlands is now in the World Cup Final, one win away from immortality.

So America, what’s the deal? Why can’t we get into this sport the way we do American football, hockey or baseketball? I ask the same question to the programmers who defy software trends and ignore the strengths of modeling. Is increased ROI and shortened time to market a moot point? Are fast-paced, sometimes violent games with minimal commercials too much for US audiences? I think not.

Fortunately, we are in an era of change for both of these cross cultural intersections. According to Google Trends, Americans have been consistently more interested in soccer over the past two World Cups. Unsurprisingly, software modeling was at its most popular after the tech bubble, and is gaining in popularity after a low point in 2008.  There is no obvious correlation here – but the team at Mendix is riding these trends like a wave to utopia, filled with soccer parades and modular software. Geeky, I know.

As we watch the World Cup Final this Sunday, Americans will tune in to the European equivalent of our Super Bowl, NBA Finals, and Stanly Cup combined. Which will come first – the US winning the World Cup, or the World Cup winning the US? We look forward to finding out, as we continue to enlighten our readers on the promises of business modeling. Though we can only watch and hope the popularity of soccer grows in the US, we are downright certain that the future of modeling software is a bright one.

In a recent blog post on Modeling-Languages, well-known blogger and technology expert Jordi Cabot interviewed our own Head of Research and Development; Johan den Haan. The conversation uncovered some interesting insights into the evolution of the Mendix platform, and its place within accelerating technological trends.

To start, where did the idea come from?

We know that Mendix software is differentiated by its simplicity and its ability to utilize collaboration between business users and software developers. By giving business users a more important role in the overall application development, the end product is more satisfactory.

Sounds logical, right? So here’s what Johan had to say about the initial motivation behind the product:

“The first motivation was trying to automate the development activities they were doing over and over again, this is one of the main reasons for MDD [Model Driven Development]. But afterwords we saw that current MDD tools were oriented to developer productivity and in our opinion one of the main benefits of MDD can be, if you create the right tool, that domain experts can be involved in the development projects. Communication with users could be much easier. Therefore, the main motivation is to create a tool aimed not to developers but to business engineers (people with analytical skills but not necessarily with a background in IT) who can model the application and add customer value.”

Ok, easier said than done. How can business engineers pull this off?

It’s all about visual modeling. With pictures, you start out with the big idea and drill down into the details. With words, you start with the details and then gain the big picture later. Johan seems to agree:

“The most important thing is to provide visual models. I know there is a lot of discussion on textual vs. graphical DSLs but visual models are easier to grasp for non-technical people.”

And the end result? Is software development changing before our eyes?!

It seems like more businesses are catching onto the value in abstracted software development that allows end users to participate. It’s faster, cheaper, and more satisfactory. It’s like building houses from bricks made of sand, rather than building them from the sand itself. Johan, on the benefits of Mendix software:

“We really aim at bringing software development to a higher abstraction level. We target domain experts. We don’t generate code that then needs to be edited, compiled, deployed… We just want to model and run. People do not need to know anything about software development to build an application. It’s just one click deploy.”

Johan goes on to provide his thoughts on the future popularity of Model Driven Development…

“There will be a growing adoption of MDD but people won’t call it MDD. It’s more a movement that includes what I see as the three main trends in the evolution of software development: cloud (avoiding infrastructure issues), MDD and app stores (in a broad sense: building an application from scratch but by combining pre-built components from other sources).”

The thought-provoking interview hits on many subjects we’ve covered in the business agility blog. Johan provides valuable insights from behind the scenes about visual modeling, cloud computing, and the evolution of the Mendix platform from day one until now. Don’t hesitate to read the full interview, and check back often for more posts in the business agility blog.

The medical device industry has found itself on the front lines of the battle for Transparency. Legislators, backed by the public’s trepidation, have mandated that all medical device organizations are to report their expenditures to health-care professionals (HCPs). The Physician Payments Sunshine Act of 2009, a piece of the overall health-care reform, aims to air out the relationship between sales representative and health care professionals. Massachusetts and Vermont are the first two states to require reporting of these metrics, and by 2013, these laws will be enforced at a federal level.

Changing Tendencies of Med Device Sales Reps

The rationale for such laws exists, as the connection between HCP purchasing tendencies and sales budgets, have become peculiarly correlated over the past decade. The US is consuming these products at an all time high, and as the government gets comfortable in the health-care realm, more regulations and policies are to follow.

Data Dilemma for Medical Device Compliance

So what does this legislation mean for the business engineers of these organizations? Medical device organizations will find themselves between a rock and a hard place, so to speak, as they have never been asked to report this data before. Many of these organizations have minimal IT resources, making it even more difficult to comply with the new regulations.

Enter the SpendValidator^TM, a pearl of an online application that facilitates the compliance process. This is a new way of thinking about your enterprise compliance solution. Focused on the medical device compliance data dilemma, SpendValidator^TM adds value with its ability to validate and enrich HCP spend data. A two pronged proposition makes SpendValidator^TM a simple decision for compliance managers:

1. The solution enables data validation, both manually and automatically, that may be incorrect or inconsistent
2. The agile development platform is nimble enough for mandated deadlines and changing regulations

Business Agility by Necessity

When compliance is the primary motivator for technical improvement, organizations have a need for both speed and accuracy – two attributes that rarely go hand in hand when developing software. Then again, these organizations are some of the most resourceful and resource-full entities in the United States economy.

It will be interesting to see how they prepare for, and react to, political forces lifting the veil on their spend activities. Check out what the brains at Mendix are doing to facilitate medical device organizations under the watchful eye of Washington.

Johan had prepared a presentation that focused on improving productivity, business and IT alignment, as well as the quality of software development. As the audience mostly consisted of programmers, his ultimate goal was to discuss with attendees the future of software development, and whether it will involve modeling or programming.

The presentation started with an introduction to why software should be developed more cost effectively, faster and above all, better. Johan illustrated this idea with  several recent articles from industry magazines about failed software development projects.  Proving once and for all that although much has improved throughout the last decade, software development is still failure-prone.

These failures indicate that although much has been done, we should be looking for a new boost in productivity. During his presentation, Johan explained that MDD (model-driven development) infuses the development adrenaline that the doctor called for. Although some visitors were skeptical about this statement, Johan proved otherwise to the audience by building an application from scratch using the Mendix platform in less than 15 minutes.

Using widgets and styling themes from the recently released Mendix App Store, Johan showed the audience what this productivity boost could look like using the Mendix platform. With only a few mouse clicks he embedded Google maps in less than a minute, then restyled the complete application in the Apple Macbook’ start up theme, further impressing the audience.

The most interesting points of discussion were questions regarding how to  treat requirements that cannot be modeled ( the biggest Achilles’  heel of the  so called 4^th generation (programming) languages, 4 GL for short) . Johan explained that this is no longer an issue, or at least not on the Mendix platform, due to the ability to add custom java code to your model. He even illustrated this by adding some custom Java to the application he just had developed.

What the future of software development will look like, nobody knows. Our gut feeling is that MDD will prove to be a valuable driver of productivity, business alignment, and quality within software development.

The economic crisis has encouraged companies to take various measures. Declining investments and redundancies were unavoidable for many, but signs of recovery are beginning to show. It is too early to say that the economic crisis is over. Still, one thing is certain: the future is coming and it is time to take action! This conclusion was the basis for the theme of the VNSG congress “Ahead with IT” held in April at the MECC in Maastricht, Netherlands. As we whole heartedly agree with the theme of the congress, Mendix was invited by our newly acquired partner, TopForce, to showcase an HR On-boarding portal (Powered by Mendix) on top of SAP.

HR On-boarding portals in a recovering economy: A source of opportunity

The first signs of recovery are usually the addition of a significant amount of new jobs generated by sectors across the economy obviously this stream of new employees needs to be managed. Research conducted by the Aberdeen Group, a leading provider of fact-based research focused on the global technology-driven value chain, concluded that implementing an On-boarding strategy that starts with engagement and thrives active collaboration from all relevant parties in all aspects of the business, will yield significantly better results in terms of profitability and customer satisfaction. Engaging the new hire early on in the On-boarding process will lead to:

• shorter time to maximum productivity
• better employee retention
• a more engaged employee

The On-boarding portal created by TopForce enables all of the above by creating an automated, single point of entry for new employee intelligence and offers the supportive tools to automate basic processes, such as forms completion, email reminders and benefits enrollment – making human resource data management a piece of cake. And finally, the icing on the cake – literally, is that the platform allows this system to work on top of preexisting SAP applications.

Our solution attempts to make change…
Visitors were interested in our solution and commended the look and feel as well as the usability and flexibility. We were lucky to be able to show just how flexible Mendix is, and how useful the HRM portal could be for upper management who need to stay well informed.

The VNSG congress was a successful one. For some impressions, check out the pictures and movies from the event. As the reactions were so overwhelming we decided to organize a webinar where we will showcase the HR On-boarding portal again. We’ve also published an SAP factsheet and a webpage especially for everybody interested in learning about how functional and valuable On-boarding portals could be.

In a recent conversation with a friend of mine, the topic of cloud computing arose in regards to his family business. His father owns an art handling business that is becoming one of the more technology advanced entities in a world of otherwise mechanical, labor intensive processes. The players in this industry are responsible for shipping priceless art around the country.

Historically, this industry has been geographically skewed towards metropolitan areas with strong museum and art communities. Private art collections were growing rapidly during the economic recession, making management at the company increase its priority on these more geographically spread out customers.

So, in a beautiful demonstration of agility, the company adopted cloud computing technology to make opening new offices a piece of cake. The company orders ‘thin client’ computers, configures them to spec at the corporate office, and ships them to a new office overnight – (they are a shipping company after all).

Here at Mendix, we love to see collaboration between business people and IT people. In this case, the IT Manager and the CEO of the company were well advised to open new offices – and the ‘office-in-a-box’ system seems to work wonders for technologically slow industries such as the art handling industry.

The IT guy doesn’t have to travel to the new office; he just maintains the entire system from the corporate office. As you can imagine, the cost savings are significant enough for even a technologically slow industry to implement this process. A central source of data within the company provides valuable information to upper management. Tracking CO₂ emissions, order frequency, and a host of other industry specific measures also increases the value of cloud-based business agility.

Not to be forgotten is the increase in revenue by being agile, even geographically agile in some cases, is the primary reason for this blog. Small and medium businesses will become more agile with similar strategies, and likely prove that serious business agility management always wins the race.

The Apple iPad has finally hit shelves and we’ve started to see these two dimensional planes of touch screen bliss in unsurprisingly tech enthused hands. The early adopter is an interesting species, a collector of obsolete technology sometimes – they still get their hands on the industry changing gadgets first. As the iPad matures, whether product or phenomenon, its presence seems to have already shaped the landscape for tablet computing.

The iPad will make sense for business owners when developers learn the needs of users and find new synergies that make products like these feasible. Regardless of whether numbers (ROI) or words (client satisfaction) prove this feasibility, tablets will make business sense once the moderate sized populaces get their hands on them and work together. In the meantime, the all knowing customer relationship management system serves a perfectly agile, cloud enabled candidate for the iPad.

Smartphones made having information at your fingertips a competitive factor in even some of the most unlikely industries. How will a huge increase in size and functionality effect this professional-to-handheld relationship? In terms of staying up to date with client relationships, the average smartphone user will be first entertained, then amazed, and finally functional and used to the technological transformation. As we said in February, Mendix applications have proven more than happy in the new venue.

Those agile business people out there will see the ever present early adopter and wonder about these possibilities. Web clients and customer relationship management may just be the first steps in yet another Mac backed revolution. We’ll keep you posted with more Mendix applications that end up on tablet devices. Keep us posted on all the unlikely, yet expected, industrious places this little game changer pops up in.

The MBA cohort from Curry College (Milton, MA) was introduced to Mendix during our Management of Information and Technology course. During this class our cohort had been broken up into teams combining 4-5 varying backgrounds. After a brief introduction to the Mendix model driven application Professor Akram Ahmed challenged our groups to develop a business model and create a Mendix solution to support it.

from L to R: Han Pieter Duyverman (Mendix), Professor Ahmed Akram, Joe Mearn, Marc Lehane, Pat Casey, Jon Bulman, Vincent de la Mar (Mendix)

Our group, the Step Dads consisted of Marc Lehane (Curry College- Business Management), Joseph Mearn (Hamilton College -Economics), Jon Bulman (Westfield State College -Business Management), and Patrick Casey (Colby-Sawyer College-Business Administration). Most of this team had very little experience in database creation or any sort of IT implementation. Through the basic logic we learned during our program and software operational overview we had one day in class, we were able to design and implement a basic operational customer management system.

Together we proposed and offshore gaming facility who hosted our customers pro football betting action. In this imaginary business we would ask that our customer supplied up front a payment of $5000.00 to create an account. Through the use of the “Micro flow” feature we were able to create logic that most companies would need an experience programmer to create. Based the weekly game results, the Mendix program would determine the winner of every betting option. From there the customer’s betting table would update and determine the transfer value for the customer’s account. At the customer screen, the built in microflow would look to the betting table and summarize the individual’s activity (total transfer amount) and reflect it on the customer.

Though this is a basic business model, we were able to develop it in under two weeks and under 16 working hours without any formal training. The Mendix website helped us teach ourselves through use of their forum and tutorials. We feel as if we were given more time we would have been able to develop a program at par with one that companies would have to invest large amount of money into and spend months and months to implement.