Technology Services

Custom Application Development and Architectural Guidance Capabilities

Introduction

For every business problem, there are multiple technical solutions. Sometimes, an existing product offers out-of-the-box functionality to support the business requirements. However, a business typically needs functionality not readily available by these products. In this case, custom application development is required, involving either extending existing products or by building a complete solution. Given the numerous frameworks, platforms, patterns, and techniques to choose from, selecting an optimum architecture or implementation can be very challenging. Architects must make informed decisions with respect to many aspects of an application’s architecture while understanding the impact to rest of the architecture.  Areas of consideration include:

• Presentation Tier
• Business Tier
• Data Tier
• Service Tier
• SOA
• Passing data between tiers
• Performance and scalability
• Security
• Maintainability

RDA has a wealth of experience in weighing architectural drivers such as business needs, technical requirements, time to market, cost, and maintainability to arrive at best of breed solutions that complement the client’s overall technology strategy.

 

Architectural Design

RDA excels in architectural design by placing the architect as the conduit between the business problem and the technical solution. Once the technical and business drivers are weighed, best of class products are identified and evaluated for inclusion in the architecture. Proofs of concept and archetypes are developed to mitigate risk early in the design process. Proven practices are then brought to bear in developing a complete architecture design.

 

Development Process

RDA has experience with multiple development processes, both agile and traditional. We work closely with clients to recommend an appropriate development process based on the client’s strategy. RDA adopts existing processes in mature client environments. Our expertise includes:

• Agile
• Scrum
• Extreme Programming (XP)
• Rational Unified Process (RUP)
• Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF)
• Test-Driven Development (TDD)
• Traditional
• Waterfall
• Spiral

Consistency and Maintainability

Consistency in implementation can be challenging, as different developers have learned different methods of implementing a given piece of functionality. Learning a new method is time-consuming. There’s much to research and digest for the scenario at hand.

RDA provides guidance using proven practices. Our goal is to ensure that functionality is consistently implemented across the solution. We ensure consistency and maintainability through:

• Coding Standards
• Templates
• Reference Architectures
• White Papers
• Presentations
• Blog posts
• Proven Practices
• Code Samples

RDA’s Architectural Guidance team has worked with Microsoft’s Patterns and Practices team to develop automated guidance such as the Smart Client Software Factory.

 

ALM (Application Lifecycle Management)

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), the coordination of development activities to produce software applications, is becoming increasingly important as organizations work to cut costs and further their competitive advantage. ALM seeks to resolve many of the major stumbling blocks in modern software development, such as disparate tools, fragmented workflow, siloed communications, and incomplete or non-existent testing. Microsoft Visual Studio Team System embraces ALM, and provides an integrated, unified, and highly customizable platform to achieve process predictability, ensure quality, automate builds and integration, and make real-time project management decisions. To help organizations achieve process success, RDA provides ALM assessments, lunch and learn workshops, process management coaching, and expert Visual Studio Team System consulting including installation, configuration, customization, and training.

 

Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development

RDA has worked with several customers to develop Internet-capable applications that deliver a rich UI experience. There are several options today, including WinForms, Windows Presentation Foundation, ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, and Silverlight. Several factors play a part in choosing the best option. Occasionally, the same application requires multiple presentation-level deliveries: maybe an ASP.NET application for external customers plus a WPF application.

Contact an RDA Account Executive to get started.