Nuway Software

NUWAY SOFTWARE Part 1: The "Old" Way Nuway's founders have worked in all aspects of software development: development: •

Contractors for professional services companies

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In-house development team

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Independent Independent consultant consultants s evaluating evaluating vendors vendors & professio professional nal service service companies We've seen it all, and haven't liked what we've seen !here is something fundamentally wrong with the current way software is "eing "uilt:

Professional services In this environment software is written as #uickly as possi"le $ery often shor sh ortc tcut uts s with with sh shor ortt-te terrm gain gain and and longlong-te terrm pain pain and and are are tak taken en !his !his creates a messy, di%cult code "ase on which the solution will rely ince customers typically never look under the hood to see the code, they have no idea how poorly things are running ater, ater, when "usiness "usiness needs change, the softwar software e changes changes are e(tremel e(tremely y e(pensive to implement in lieu of the amount of code that must "e rewritten  !he suggested solution) * complete rewrite o who "ene+ts from this short sightedness)

n!hose develo#$ent ere, ere, develo developer pers s typic typicall ally y skip skip doing doing prope properr design design and docume documenta ntatio tion n "efor "efore e coding coding since since there there are are no sig sign n o points points !his !his makes makes it virtua virtually lly impossi"le to estimate the amount of work and stick to a schedule !his

leads to cryptic solutions that only the original author understands In developer circles this is often seen as .o" security: /I can't "e laid o if no one else can change my code/ With the development team resources always availa"le onsite, there is less of an emphasis on developing 0ero *dministration systems !his approach leads to having valua"le resources maintaining solutions rather than working on new pro.ects

n %oth cases 1very team of developers seems to have their own way of doing things, namely their /development methodology/ 1ven not having a structured development

methodology

is,

itself,

a

methodology

ome of these

development methodologies are "ased on a pick & choose approach of  standard practices 2thers are .ust /we've always done it this way/ !he lack of an esta"lished and consistent development methodology causes pro.ects to "e unsuccessful 3late, over "udget, 4awed5 yet customers are rarely in a position to understand why

TM Par t2:TheNuway

6ncover the issues with the /old/ way

What if there &as a ne& &ay' •

What if software could "e consistently delivered on time)

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What if software always met the user's needs)

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What if software could "e easily changed and e(tended, at any time)

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What if software could "e "uilt faster)

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What if we could look at the mistakes of the last decade and take a dierent path to avoid them)

The N&ayT( •

)o t Ri*ht the First Ti$e oftware isn't /developed/, it's constructed 7iano skills are developed gradually with lessons oftware is constructed, like an o%ce tower, at one time "ased on a "lueprint 8uality software starts with a #uality "lueprint oftware "lueprints are an art as much as a science !here is a "eauty and an elegance in simple designs It takes a senior developer with years of  e(perience to draft simple e(tenda"le solutions to comple( pro"lems 9unior developers are shorter sighted, "ecoming the authors of convoluted systems with large maintenance costs  !he "lueprint is a critical step "ut only half of the entire formula for successful application creation 1ven the right "lueprint in the wrong hands will never result in a #uality product any may claim to "e a"le to get the  .o" done, few pursue the path of Craftsmanship It is not .ust a matter of doing what is in the "lueprint 3the plan5; it is a"out achieving near perfection In home construction, taking shortcuts leads to s#ueaky 4oors and popping drywall plugs In software creation, shortcuts

lead to poor application performance, e(cessive use of cellular data transfer, "ugs, and high cost of change * true craftsman will appear to cost more up front !he primary reason for that is they are guaranteeing the solution will "e done right the +rst time Craftsmanship results in a higher #uality solution with a lower overall cost We follow the 6ni+ed oftware  >ecause this isn't something we /.ust made up/, our clients can rest assured their pro.ect is in the hands of e(perts

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Ti$e and +d*ets are $#ortant oftware is useless unless it solves a speci+c pro"lem, within the "udget and "y a speci+c time 2ur e(perience and process allows us to accurately predict the cost and schedule of your solution and stick to it

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Soft&are Solves Pro%le$s oftware isn't written for software's sake oftware solves pain points within an organi?ation If a feature cannot "e directly traced "ack to "ene+ting a user, it is dropped from the pro.ect

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,ero (aintenance olutions should "e self administrating: "y the users, for the users !he developer should "e a"le to easily remove his or herself from the daily operation of the system with no impact

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Partner With- Not Wor. For  !o understand the "usiness pro"lem that must "e solved, we must completely understand the "usiness We partner with our clients "y learning their "usiness, how it runs, and designing seamless solutions that +t within the greater conte(t

Wh ati saSo f t wa r ePr o c es s * software process, or methodology, de+nes the steps re#uired to create software successfully  !he >rief istory of oftware 7rocess  !eams have "een writing software since the @A's Clearly time has "rought a"out many improvements in technology, language, and tools While these advances are e(citing, the most important part of software construction is /the how/ not /with what/ In the late BA's, three engineers ooch was a founding employee and chief scientist of =ational oftware In the mid DA's =ational successfully negotiated the addition of