Application Templates: Fast, Better, and Cheaper Systems
J. Debra. Hofman · DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) · 2011
Organizations today are undergoing massive transformations in the way they are structured, managed, and operated.The ability to develop and change their information systems quickly and often is increasingly important.Two primary approaches to systems development have existed to date: build or buy.Our research over the past two years suggests that a third alternative is emerging which can enable organizations to both develop and change systems faster.This is a "template" approach, which cor^hines most of the best aspects of the other two.Templates are existing systems, built with the aid of "CASE" tools, which are being changed at the design level, and thereby customized for a new organization's use.This paper discusses the use of the template approach by three companies, as well as the rapidly growing template marketplace.All three organizations cited significant reductions in the time and cost of delivering their systems, as well as improvements in IS-business relationships and the ability to learn new business methods and technologies.At the same time, there are some issues in pursuing a template approach today, including supply, CASE tool acceptance, and competition from other approaches.Thetemplate market is currently in its infancy, but is becoming increasingly active as software package vendors, tool vendors, and custom software consultants begin offering templates or announce plans to do so.From what we have seen, the template alternative clearly warrants attention today.Until the mid-1980s, when Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools were introduced, this entire process was completely manual.Programmers took the specifications from the design stage and wrote the program code line by line.Today, in a major variation of traditional custom development, a number of organizations are utihzing CASE tools to help automate the process.Thesetools assist developers in producing a computer-based design of the new system, expressed in diagrams and/or text.This design outlines the data relationships, the process flows, the screens, and the programs.The diagrammatic and textual representations are referred to as models.Most CASE tools also provide the ability to then convert the design automatically into code.Minimal, if any, hand-coding is necessary, thus ehminating a major step (step 4 in Exhibit 1).Maintenance is also greatly simplified (step 7 in Exhibit 1).Rather than changing the code to mirror a change in the business, the change can be made at the design (model) level and the code can be automatically regenerated.Exhibit 2 summarizes the advantages of CASE.However, while the use of CASE tools has steadily increased, it has not increased at the rate originally forecast.Some of the reasons for this slow growth rate include the cost of the CASE software and training, a significant learning curve, and the difficulties associated with making the necessary changes that are required within the IS organization.