Web 2.x Blog

I have been involved with an resource management development project (together with 2 of my other colleagues,we spawned the project collectively) in my company lately. Perhaps the most distinct part is that the development team is not made up of hardcore programmers. While coming from a technical education background (computer science, information systems), the majority of them have been in job descriptions that are not very technical in nature (think of your ordinary business analysts or functional specialists).

The project started off with a discussion of using Java/J2EE, and having experienced the richness of RoR, I have set the direction for the team to use Ruby on Rails instead, with the promise of the following:-

1. Easy to learn (only need to learn one framework)
2. Faster delivery of product
3. Agile programming
4. FUN !

*This is not another J2EE Vs RoR debate.

At the initial development planning, everyone is worried sick that how on earth we are going to be delivering something in a short period of time that we promised to the company. The requirements itself almost sounded like you need to have a few years of development experience (well, in a typicall J2EE world). Here’s the result thus far:-

1. In week 1 and 2, the team took the time to learn Ruby on Rails from scratch (myself included, having the opportunity to develop a blog and social bookmarking engine before). Some of us doesn’t even have any industry programming experience.
2. In week 3, things are slowly taking shape. Basic interface with functionality is built in.
3. In week 4, we have managed to pump out more code and the application is seamingly usable.
4. In week 5, we demo-ed the prototype, and exceeded the original expectation made with the stakeholders.

Tags: IT strategy, Ruby