Building an Application
In the TenFold Way, after an ApplicationsSurvey, you already have a considerable portion of your applications semantic (applications description) in the TenFold Dictionary. As you build your application, TenFoldTools use TenFold Dictionary information (especially the logical database description) to minimize data entry by suggesting most values for you.
TenFoldTools follow basic principles
| Principle | Description |
| Describe, not program | TenFoldTools let you describe applications behavior instead of programming it. Describing happens in minutes, hours, and days; programming happens in days, weeks, and months. |
| Empower IT professionals | TenFoldTools supercharge IT professionals with descriptive development tools instead of tedious, detailed, programming tasks. Descriptive tools free IT professionals to focus on applications benefits, features, and behavior instead of repetitive, technology details. |
| Let business people develop applications | TenFoldTools are non-technical so business people can actively help IT professionals and do most aspects of applications development and maintenance. When business people participate, the traditional requirements gap disappears. |
| Slash requirements gathering time | TenFoldTools make it easy and fast to describe an application. Speedy Try-it; Improve-it cycles discover TrueRequirements in an Extremely Rapid Applications Development (XRAD) process so an application is exactly what the business needs. |
| Describe an application quickly | TenFoldTools suggest most functionality from a few keystrokes and let an applications developer override suggestions, so with little typing you use ShowMe to refine each service as you describe it. |
| Prevent description errors | TenFoldTools validate your applications description as you enter it, so your applications description cannot contain typographical errors or be inconsistent. An application renders exactly as you describe it. |
| Customize easily | TenFoldTools let you provide details for precise look, feel, and functionality. So you enter little, have something running and demonstrable, and refine look, feel, and functionality as you choose. |
| Make changes rapidly | Since TenFold renders each applications service from its description, you only change descriptions to change applications behavior. |
| Make maintenance productive | TenFoldTools help you find quickly the parts of your application to change or enhance. Building a TenFold-powered application is fast and changing one is fast too. Describing is faster than programming. |
| Manage development | TenFoldTools provide tools to manage applications development by tracking changes and moving them through a controlled, audited, quality-assurance process and ultimately into production. |
| Put administrative tools in each application | TenFoldTools automatically include transactions and capabilities in each application to make it easy to manage, administer, and use. These administrative tools appear the moment you start building to manage security, monitor performance, load balance, and prepare for production. |
TenFold Way tools help manage the applications build phase
| Principle | Description |
| Project WorkPlan |
The Project Manager and each project team member follow a Project WorkPlan, published in the ApplicationsSurvey.
Typically, the Project WorkPlan schedules the project team to finish building the complete application roughly half way through the Build phase. By scheduling the first Try-it; Improve-it session for the Build-phase mid-point, the project team plans to determine TrueRequirements and implement them in last half of the Build phase. |
| AnticipateAvoid report |
Between ApplicationsSurvey completion and start of the Build phase, the Project Manager conducts an AnticipateAvoid meeting and publishes its results.
AnticipateAvoid identifies project and technology risk areas and a plan to avoid each risk. |
| Project Kickoff presentation |
An important principle of the TenFold Way is open communication with stakeholders, project staff, and business people interested in the project so everyone knows what is going on.
The tempo of a TenFold project is significantly faster than a traditional applications development project with programming-intensive technology, so good communication is essential. |
| ProjectFacts |
At the start of a project, the Project Manager publishes (and maintains throughout the project) a ProjectFacts document that communicates essential project information to the project team and stakeholders.
Excellent communication facilitates the fast TenFold project tempo. |
| ProductionFacts | Before the mid-point of the project Build phase and before the first Try-it; Improve-it session, the project team creates the Production ProductArea and documents essential facts regarding Production ProductArea management in the ProductionFacts document. |
| ChangeLog |
Production environments use a ChangeLog to record each, even-minor, production environment change, such as production computer, database server, and web server hardware and software changes, new applications versions, et cetera.
Production-application management relies on ready access to complete change records. The project team begins the ChangeLog when they create the Production ProductArea and tracks changes thereafter. |
| IncidentLog | When anyone notes performance, reliability, or other production-applications issues, the project team records each incident in the IncidentLog and tracks it until resolution. |
| Try-it; Improve-it Presentation |
At the mid-point of the Build phase, the first applications version is typically finished and ready for Try-it; Improve-it cycles with stakeholders. This presentation sets stakeholder expectations for the Try-it; Improve-it process.
Stakeholders try the application in its Production ProductArea and gain confidence in its production-ready stability and performance. Improve-it changes migrate quickly to the Production ProductArea to showcase speed-of-change and build confidence that changing a production application is fast, easy, and reliable. |
| UseCase approvals |
Continuing Try-it; Improve-it cycles discover TrueRequirements and lead to signed approval of ApplicationsSurvey UseCases.
The project team strives for formal UseCase approval as part of the process of building confidence in a new TenFold-powered application. |
| FlashReports |
Each project team member provides a written summary of daily project progress, plans, priorities, and problems in a nightly FlashReport e-mailed to other project participants.
Because TenFold projects move so quickly, each team member needs a nightly update from other teammates so clear communication does not lag. |
| Weekly Status Report | Each week, the Project Manager formally documents project progress, plans, problems, and priorities so stakeholders have a timely review of all project aspects. |
Special tools make high-speed TenFold applications building successful
Typically, with excellent communications, close project WorkPlan attention, and multiple techniques for sharing TenFold-powered applications progress and stability, the Build phase finishes on-schedule with significantly greater functionality (power) and quality than anyone expected.