long live the apps... no, not really

Application: "A piece of software designed and written to fulfill a particular purpose of the user."
(Oxford American Dictionaries)

What now if that "particular purpose" grew out of former restrictions imposed by available technology, basically an old habit?

Will not the "application" in question, even if better than the last one, never really attain the core underlying "purpose of the user"?

Long distance communication once had only one technology available - pen and paper.

Then technology arrived - and fulfilled the purpose of the user, the good old habit - to write letters. Long distance communication long forgotten as the underlying purpose. Thus we see word processing applications coming out in new and fancy forms - last as a web based service - still requiring a revisit for all kind of tasks belonging to different processes, effectively complicating any effort to create proper flows.

The technology have given us some glimmer of hope - e-mail, chat, wikis, blogs - so why is the word processor still alive and kicking?

Ditto for accounting - modeled upon paper based ledgers - disentangling accountable events from the flow - again. The accountable event (procuring a part) on it's own, the entering of the invoice in a completely different and separate process - inefficiency come to mind, error prone and open to fraud necessitating more fun processes like the SOX. Hmpf.

And CRMs, and ERP... did I mention Calendars and it's leather-bound father?

That's why I suggest reading between the line - or ask "what for?" more often. "I need a CRM!" sounds to me like "My office is a mess, things are forgotten, process is less than good, I've heard that a CRM can fix that!"

Or, "we need a word-processor!" which in my ears sounds close to "hey, do not mess with my habits!"

But that may be my dubious mind playing me a trick...

Nevertheless, old habits are not necessarily good, why not stop a second and question this fulfilment of old habits? Cannot hurt.

Go look for the core purpose of an organisation I would suggest, humbly of course.

That's why I question the wisdom of "solving a problem" as a business leading light - the user sees a problem as a result of bad... eh, old... habits, the real core issue long forgotten.

That's why I question middleware and most takes on SOA - it only cements the use of "applications" designed by old habits and makes life more complicated.

Rethink the applications - long live the applications. That's better.

Comments

[john]

Sig

I've been following the thingamy story since we met at a geek dinner in London last summer and chatted about tagging. It's fascinating but at times impenetrable and I wonder if the latter matters.

I am not a professional systems user so I am not surprised to be bewildered when reading your discussions with IT experts but I was interested to read Niko struggling in his words to explain Thingamy.

I am ignorant about software development processes, but I'd be interested to know if you think it is normal for people to struggle to encapsulate an evolving concept at this time; whether that is an indication of the breadth of what you're trying to achive or a concept that has not crystallised sufficiently; and whether it will become much more important to be able to capture the essence of Thingamy when it comes time to "market" it?

[sig]

John,

interesting! Exactly same questions I am struggling with these days, only inching forward as I gather experience.

And to your two last questions: Both a resounding yes!

I have not yet crystallised the... ehh... presentation/definition/wordy description sufficiently (the concept is pretty muuch clear as water, for me that is :) - and it might even never happen as different people see it differently - if you saw a hammer for the first time you might use it as a weapon, or a destruction tool, or... and they could all be good uses ;)

And yes, just the notion of replacing most enterprise used systems and change the way we do things every day... hehe... what can I say?

[Little update: When doing a demo - then the "ahh!"s come - so in essence it has to be seen... no words can replace that.]

As you pinpoint, I have a daunting task ahead of me - but luckily I have the help from many friends out there that offers some of their time to me doing a demo, or even trying their hand on it all by themselves completley in the dark!

(Learned one thing for sure, face-to-face training the first hour or so is a must!)

Wow you got me started there, the prod is much deserved, thanks!

Think I will take the ball running and do a proper post :D