The Brave, New World
It is a brave, new world with apologies to Alduous Huxley and his morbid look into the future of 'alpha' and 'beta' societies. No, this brave, new world is one that only shares Mr. Huxley's sentiment of "ending not mending" in its recourse for things that break. ERPs. Data warehouses. Websites. Flash. Silverlight. Windows whatever. iPad, iPod, iLimited because iLefthanded when using the iPhone These are some of the items that break bringing business users to a screaming - err- screeching halt (or both).
History has propelled a world to not only seem smaller and faster, but far more sophisticated in what it expects as technology evolves in its own generational leaps. Thinks about it - in 1995, how many people carried laptops and cell phones? Cubicles and offices were occupied by users working in green screen environments - monitors and keyboards only. The word 'desktop' actually meant the top of a desk and a 'live meeting' would at least imply two or more people face to face.
Now, laptops have allowed the office footprint to shrink and virtualize the worker. Cellphones can carry editable documents and spreadsheets, presentation materials, audio/visual media recording and playback, and browsers that are fed web access over the carrier's network or the device's wifi connections. We no longer call first - we usually will text, email or 'facebook' as a means of not only talking to our friends/family but also our clients.
Applications? They are no longer just finance, publishing or supply chain. Now it is an enterprise framework with modules that ultimately will allow businesses to be more vertically and geographically diverse in both market and people focus. Reporting replaces queries. Guided AD Hoc has edged OLAP. The business user is the ultimate supplier and consumer of data and they want accessibility to propel productivity. SOA is the modernization of legacy apps. If they can be launched as a web service, then no more client installs - updates can be done holistically, with no client to worry about. Even the data is being structured in new and more efficient ways - DB2 is a prime example of this as version 9 features the ability to store as XML, opening up efficiency and application options.
It's not personal, it's just business.
As the functions of the aforementioned iPhone(and its competitors - Droid, Blackberry), social networking and the overall web 2.0 world have quickly integrated, even entangled themselves in the user community that fuses personal with business. The expectation of being functionally self-sufficient is as expected in the world of enterprise applications as it is in using eBay. The virtual office worker is mobile and needs the power to ask questions of the data, understand it and strategize. The question is not where will the limit be in their requirements, but how adept will they want to be in achieving the vision of their next steps. The user is not going to stop at guided ad hoc reporting....they will bridge into ad hoc application development. And the Brave, New World has built the framework for this to happen.
They way it was(and still is...for now)
Remember the trip back to 1995? While the recall is still fresh, visualize the IT departments of corporate America - Baby Boomer management and Generation X staff. Big help desk groups with a few developers and code assurance personnel made up the desktop and application core support. As '95 rolled to '96 and into the next century, the application developers grew and a new focus was emerging on data - interoperability and integration was the underlying buzz to a world focusing on faster internet access thru increasing bandwidth. The average IT department headcount would triple in size between 1995 and 2005. W2 would be replaced with 1099s, pushed by senior management needing to set timetables for delivery of applications while mitigating their own operating cost exposure through less obvious line items for contract services as opposed to those more 'personnel' related. Eventually the 1099s virtualized, moving offshore because of lower rates than those that were domestic as well as visa sponsored.
The result? Applications that would take 18-24-36 months to deliver, initial budgets were exceeded and the 1099s that were to go away once the project delivered? They lingered even longer, either supporting the code as bugs were uncovered(even when user acceptance had been validated) or evolving version 1.0 upward as the technical landscape or user requirements changed. A volitile decade to kickoff the 21st century would end in a recession, leaving the business landscape in a zero growth, zero development mode due to IT budgets being dramatically cut. The 1099s and some W2s would be left in an open market, fighting for jobs but honing their skills. And collaborating.
It's GUI, not Gooey!
The browser development is easy to understand, but the database? How can a user build their own repository that will also hold the extensibility for changes? That is not complicated, really. Oracle and Microsoft have featured wizards and connections to application builders for a decade. Newer companies with agnostic relationships to databases, such as Ironspeed, Out Systems and Caspio bridge the application builder to the database of the user's choice. Overall, the extensibility of the data repository is key. If the app builder cannot aid the repository in periodic changes
What about taking the new app's data and putting it into a data warehouse? Wherescape has made rapid development of data warehouses a reality. While this will still require a technologist, it all but eliminates the need for consulting or off-shore resources.
Every cloud has a silver lining...this one actually turns out to be gold
So what does an unemployed developer or architect do with their time between job searches and interviews? They get involved in the communities of collaborative development - open source. Many entered into these communities as contributors, hoping to network as well as develop their technical repertoire. But, they did so much more - they built, they debugged, they modernized and they stabilized. Mostly, they delivered agnostic solutions that were low in cost for acquisition and maintenance and reasonable in customization and ongoing support - provided by the heavily involved developers, of course.
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) conducted a survey of CIOs in 2009 and found that 30% of respondents modified or planned to modify IT policies to allow for open source applications to be used in test or production environments. This represents a 300% increase from similar survey responses in 2006.Not surprisingly, technology leaders cited two elements that influenced the new policy change: the economy and the quality of product.
So, why no nerds?
Web 2.0, Dynamic HTML, Ajax, Bindows, HTML5 - they all bring the power of building to the browser, under the control of a mouse. Drag and drop is no longer the movement of items on the desktop, but now it means build. The developers and architects have built the functionality for users to arrange their application components in their Economic conditions + more open source collaboration +Web 2.0 + quality solutions + lower cost of ownership = happy customer. Telephone AD Hoc requests are still a standard as business users convey their wants and needs to the information technology department. Constant validation of the vision conveyed by business becomes a lengthy and costly process as I.T. departments have outsourced many of their staff positions and/or applications, creating an unintended barrier between the user and technologists.
Companies like Digg and Awareim have brought the power of Web 2.0 and application building to the business visionaries, allowing them to build the applications, data repository and even apply styling of their choice. In that scenario, I.T. becomes more refined - focusing on the administration and development of existing applications and systems while extending the capability of application development and usability to users - no coding required. Now, the user application vision evolves quickly without the additional expense of I.T. staff time or contractor cost.
No nerds, does not mean no LOVE of the nerds. Simply put, No nerds means organizations become more agile and cost efficient while meeting the ever-changing needs of their current and future clients. So where do the nerds go? There will always be a place for technology expertise. The 'No Nerd' approach extends the capabilities of technology to the medium to small business without the cost of an expensive I.T. staff. By providing that type of model, the experienced technologist will find opportunities with technology providers or even entrepreneurial opportunities to start their technology firm. Win-win for everyone.
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