Development train wrecks can be fixed: Forrester
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Apparently failed IT development projects can be fixed if managers are willing to follow a new process, according to Forrester Research.
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Users should install the critical fix as soon as possible, software giant says.
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The company managing Rio Tinto iron ore&#39;s rail lines in the Pilbara, in north-west Western Australia, says equipment failure rather than human error is to blame for a major derailment last week.
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REPAIRING wrecked companies is a tricky task, whether they are in fashionable businesses like telecoms, or deeply unfashionable metal-bashing.
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(InfoWorld) - Two U.S. government agencies are embracing performance-engineering processes and application testing throughout the development cycle as a way to avoid costly fixes after deployment, officials there said Wednesday. Representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said they've deployed performance-engineering software in recent years, and it has helped cut down on problems after development. "If you catch an error in development, the cost is the cost," said John Chambliss, manager of the IRS WAN management team. "Once you get to [operations and maintenance], it's about 100 times the cost." For the past two years, the IRS has used application performance management software from Opnet Technologies in Maryland to fix problems in the development of its portals that allow Web-based tax filings, Chambliss said at Opnet's annual conference in Washington, D.C. If electronic filing doesn't work, the IRS has major problems, he said. The IRS uses Opnet's software on in-house development and also encourages outside developers to use it, Chambliss said. The IRS has run into several IT problems in recent years. In 2006, the agency paid out more than $381 million in improper tax returns because of problems with a new Web-based version of software that detected fraudulent returns. Carolyn Aragon, enterprise operations center manager for the Forest Service, said her agency has been using Opnet application performance management software for about eight months. The agency has used the software to help with the development of two applications, including one that allows vendors to create invoices for firefighting services, she said. Chambliss and Aragon, along with representatives of Opnet and three private customers, participated in a forum on successful implementations of application performance management software. One of the major advantages of application performance management is testing how changes to software will affect how they run, added Peco Karayanev, senior systems engineer at National Instruments, an engineering design testing vendor. Application performance management helps the company roll out changes "without completely destroying the service we're providing customers," he said. It's sometimes difficult to get developers to buy into application management, added Farid Dana, director of Dell's global operations for telecommunication networks. "You don't tell them it's [application management]," he said. "You tell them its application enhancement. Then, they're receptive." While the forum participants sung the praises of application performance management, many organizations are still looking at the technology. "We're at that stage in the adoption curve where it's getting out there," said Alain Cohen, Opnet's president and CTO. In many cases, an organization needs to run into serious problems with application development before they see a need, Chambliss said. Cohen agreed. One large company used "war rooms" during their application development, he said. Instead of a typical war room, where an organization would map out a strategy, this company's war rooms were places where employees would argue about who's to blame for an application's failure, he said. Application performance management can pinpoint problems in development and "the 'blamestorming' can stop," he said. "Some organizations need to get burned before they say, 'Okay, maybe we need to go back and call Opnet.'"
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No more huge deals but plenty of consolidation in the software industry, Forrester Research reports.
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Software maker aims to fix one place where leaks could occur, but the proposal itself may not be so bulletproof.
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These guilty parties must work together to fix the housing fiasco.
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NASA officials have said they have completed improvements that will prevent the falling debris problem that destroyed space shuttle Columbia.
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Michael H. Hugos says IT has to be flexible enough to roll out applications using new infrastructure long before the old infrastructure is mothballed.
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Consistent with the cyclical nature of IT spending, where periods of digestion and refinement follow periods of heavy technology investment, Forrester Research Inc.
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Borland Software this week stood atop its soapbox preaching the evils of software projects gone awry, with projects beset by issues such as last-minute changes and differing perspectives on the potential success of development efforts.
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Rail industry experts research ways of preventing trains derailing in the event of a crash.
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Shire and Noven will fix an annoying foible of their ADHD patch.
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Travel: When burnout hits, even the most robust business traveller needs a pitstop, Max Levene notes.
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Human error caused the crash that left 80 percent of staff without access to benefits payment processing systems at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) last month, supplier EDS has acknowledged.
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The fixes come about eight months after a security researcher told the database software maker of the problems.