Sorry Giles.
Thanks for the info. What I was hoping for was some evidence that doing this in
Flex was demonstrably more efficent in development terms than an equivalent
project in other technologies.
If your boss is looking for arguments to support his case, it sounds as though
he wasn't the prime mover that brought flex in or he'd probably already been
aware of the good arguments.
Way before using Flex I used to use a proprietary OO RAD tool that integrated
with databases. At the time I was writing a persistence layer in C++ accessing
a database. The client had a small job that needed doing in addition to the
main project and the GUI developer was too busy with mainstream work. I offered
to do it with the RAD tool. This was sanctioned sinced it was a throwaway thing
and they had little choice. A week or so later the client came to see the
completed application. His comment was "I wasn't expecting to see anything this
sophisticated." which went down well with my management, even though they
didn't approve of the RAD tool (I was the only developer in that company with
experience of it). A while later the original GUI developer left and it took
six weeks (I kid you not) to locate a fault in the C++ GUI code. I said I could
replicate the complete C++ GUI interface (probably getting on for a almost a
year old by then) with the RAD tool within a month. Which I did.
The point is that while management didn't like this tool they could see the
benefits from using it in spite of their prejudice against it. I'd like to say
the whole company used this technology afterwards, but they didn't - projects
were run autonomously and eventually (for other reasons) the project was canned.
In some ways I sense you have a similar situation with Flex.
One thing I didn't mention is this: The management really didn't want the tool
used, so during the project they brought in a couple of guys from another
company who were touting a similar "improved" technology (they worked from a
start-up whose founders had been part of the original development team for the
technology I was using). I had a feeling that management would have been
happier to use this "improved" technology they had found rather than accept
what they saw as defeat by using what they had argued against.
These days I think the way to introduce new technology is to wow and enthuse
the internal development teams with the benefits so they see that it's good for
them to step onboard.
Would you be confident enough to give a lunchtime talk on Flex perhaps to get
them onboard?
Good luck,
Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: Giles Roadnight
To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 8:57 AM
Subject: Re: [flexcoders] Re: Here we go again: Flex Vs Java
Did you mean Giles?
I'll assume you did.
I was recruited as a Flex / Coldfusion developer to replace the old one who
left.
The larger business uses java and has always been trying to get my boss to do
the same rather than doing his own thing.
It looks like it might take a while to replace me so the business has
suggested re-doing the sites in java so that people from other sections can
maintain it if necessary.
Hope that explains it.
Giles
On 9/28/07, Paul Andrews <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "gers32" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <flexcoders@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 6:37 AM
Subject: [flexcoders] Re: Here we go again: Flex Vs Java
>I apologize for oversimplifying. Just trying to give a developer an
> argument his boss will understand. I didn't think anyone would take
> this out of that context.
>
> Chris.
snip web 2.0 stuff
Chris,
It might be interesting to know the background to your project. Did you
choose Flex without your boss realising, or did he sanction it? How has
your
progress been in relation to using other technologies?
Paul
--
Giles Roadnight
http://giles.roadnight.name
