Adding Too Much
Ryan on Jun 29, 2004 3:12pm
I posted this to our internal site at work today and thought it interesting enough to open up to the readers of the site...all three of ya ;)
Maybe I don\'t know the real world, or maybe its just that it doesn\'t make sense to me. Or maybe its because I am new to the world of application development, but I am seeing alot of applications being written, (not necessarily by our company), that try to answer all questions to all problems.
Here\'s a good example:
I\'ve always wanted to write a helpdesk application, not because there is a shortage of them, just a shortage of good ones.
On the high end, we\'ve got Remedy...its huge, expensive but at least it allows one to make it as simple or as involved as one feels the need. However, to do this takes quite some time and alot of effort, all at a cost. Therefore, I guess my gripe is more with the \"open-source\" world, especially in the field of helpdesk apps.
Either you\'ve got people trying to integrate bug-tracking with call tracking, (or helpdesk incidents, etc) or helpdesk incidents with asset tracking etc. It seems that using some of the apps that are out there, rather than force you to change your process, they allow you to bend and twist your existing process into something that fits the tool. What you end up with in the end is a process that no longer really fits and a tool forcing you into that corner.
I\'m not saying I have the answers, I don\'t...but in my mind your process should drive the tool. Using a minimalistic approach eases the situation and through extension with plugin-modules etc, you can begin to fit the tool to your process without completely warping the tool\'s functionality.
In my warped little world, if one was writing a helpdesk app, you\'d start with just that; a tool that allowed you to record user information, problems, resolutions and status tracking. Then add your extra functionality if need be, but don\'t bloat with things that you may need but someone else probably won\'t use.
By using a minimalistic approach, I think you will end up with a more flexible, more *useful* application in the long run. Simply lumping a whole bunch of functionality or \"mini-apps\" under one umbrella really doens\'t make a whole lot of sense to me. This goes for web-base apps just as well as stand-alone. (I think I am the only one enthusiastic about stand-alone anyway).
To me, alot of this sounds obvious, but a quick search through freshmeat for helpdesk apps really shows what I am talking about. Nothing really ever seems to \"fit\" quite right.
I\'d be curious to hear comments from those in the \"real world\" as I have had relatively limited exposure. I am sure someone has touched on this before, or is perhaps reading this saying \"Duh!\" but I haven\'t seen evidence in many places, (again, not necessarily with our company), that this is in fact *obvious*
Just my 2 Mhz...
Maybe I don\'t know the real world, or maybe its just that it doesn\'t make sense to me. Or maybe its because I am new to the world of application development, but I am seeing alot of applications being written, (not necessarily by our company), that try to answer all questions to all problems.
Here\'s a good example:
I\'ve always wanted to write a helpdesk application, not because there is a shortage of them, just a shortage of good ones.
On the high end, we\'ve got Remedy...its huge, expensive but at least it allows one to make it as simple or as involved as one feels the need. However, to do this takes quite some time and alot of effort, all at a cost. Therefore, I guess my gripe is more with the \"open-source\" world, especially in the field of helpdesk apps.
Either you\'ve got people trying to integrate bug-tracking with call tracking, (or helpdesk incidents, etc) or helpdesk incidents with asset tracking etc. It seems that using some of the apps that are out there, rather than force you to change your process, they allow you to bend and twist your existing process into something that fits the tool. What you end up with in the end is a process that no longer really fits and a tool forcing you into that corner.
I\'m not saying I have the answers, I don\'t...but in my mind your process should drive the tool. Using a minimalistic approach eases the situation and through extension with plugin-modules etc, you can begin to fit the tool to your process without completely warping the tool\'s functionality.
In my warped little world, if one was writing a helpdesk app, you\'d start with just that; a tool that allowed you to record user information, problems, resolutions and status tracking. Then add your extra functionality if need be, but don\'t bloat with things that you may need but someone else probably won\'t use.
By using a minimalistic approach, I think you will end up with a more flexible, more *useful* application in the long run. Simply lumping a whole bunch of functionality or \"mini-apps\" under one umbrella really doens\'t make a whole lot of sense to me. This goes for web-base apps just as well as stand-alone. (I think I am the only one enthusiastic about stand-alone anyway).
To me, alot of this sounds obvious, but a quick search through freshmeat for helpdesk apps really shows what I am talking about. Nothing really ever seems to \"fit\" quite right.
I\'d be curious to hear comments from those in the \"real world\" as I have had relatively limited exposure. I am sure someone has touched on this before, or is perhaps reading this saying \"Duh!\" but I haven\'t seen evidence in many places, (again, not necessarily with our company), that this is in fact *obvious*
Just my 2 Mhz...
comments:
