CAN YOU ASSEMBLE A “CUSTOMISED” TRAIN IN JUST A FEW HOURS WITH A FEW SKILLED WORKERS?

1. IF RAILWAYS CAN DO IT EVERYDAY, WHY CAN'T SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS? CAN YOU ASSEMBLEA “CUSTOMISED” TRAININ JUST A FEW HOURSWITH A FEW SKILLED WORKERS?

2. How do we apply it to Software Development? Railways can do it because ofThe “Modular” Approach

3. THE “MODULAR” APPROACH • Build individual, self-contained carriages. • Enable connectivity across carriages. • Place & move the carriages on a flexible, common rail. • .

4. THE “MODULAR” APPROACHFOR SOFTWARE • Build individual, self-contained carriages. • Identify individual output elements, action elements, operations & processes. • Find commonalities across them. • Decide optimum number of code-units of optimal size. • Make each code-unit “self-contained”.

5. Examples of individual, self-contained carriages. • All screens have common items like textboxes, labels, listboxes, etc. • Can we write a common code which will read screen definition & generate screen dynamically? • Many times, we need actions like “Show orders of chosen customer” or “Show outlets in current area”. • Can we write common code which will handle all such “Show X for chosen Y” requests ? • A common routine to save ANY entry into ANY table? • And more ambitious – can we accommodate ALL types of transactions in a single database table?

6. THE “MODULAR” APPROACHFOR SOFTWARE • Enable connectivity across carriages. • Make each code-unit “easy to connect”, by standardising connections. • Make error-detection simple, visible & mistake-proof. • Provide “auditable” log.

7. THE “MODULAR” APPROACHFOR SOFTWARE • Place & move the carriages on a flexible, common rail. • Add a process to connect the code-units, as per need. • This process should be able to add, delete or bypass any code-unit, as per need. • Keep process definition separate from the code-units.

8. Example of connectivity across carriages. A B C D E • Visualise a process having 5 steps, in which step “C” is exercising credit control. Conventional approaches Modular Approach A B C D E A Monolithic OR Hard-wired B C D E

9. Example of connectivity across carriages. A C B D E A B C D E A A C C B B D D E E • Change request – “Activate Credit Control before step B (“Invoicing”) instead of step D (“Delivery”). Conventional approaches A B C D E After 3 years, … … the system HAS TO BE redesigned.

10. Example of connectivity across carriages. A C B D E A A A A C B C A B C B C C D E A C B D D D D D E E E E E • How Modular Approach handles changes … Conventional approaches Modular Approach Monolithic OR Hard-wired