Task Orientated Applications Leads To Next Generation Business Applications

PRLog (Press Release) - Nov 08, 2006 -
According to the UK’s leading Task Orientated Applications (TOA) software development specialist, Procession plc, the time has come to separate ‘information’ and ‘technology’ in application building and hand the business process back to the business stakeholder.

“The key is to recognise that it is people and their daily tasks that are both the source of information and the main drivers in any business,” said David Chassels, Procession’s CEO.

“In reality, there are less than 15 task types in any business, which can handle any eventuality,” he explained. “By expressing these tasks as data, we can build applications in a data-centric environment which, in one development environment, contains all today’s requirements of business process management (BPM), rules, state, time and user interface.

“For over 15 years, Procession has pioneered the people and task approach to application development,” Chassels stated. “Procession has been well ahead of its time – earning an accolade from Oracle in 2003: ‘Procession has re-written the rule book for application building’.

“And, while we are still seeing the industry giants ‘thinking about it’ - we already have ‘it’!” he added.

Last year, IBM and SAP published a joint paper (‘BPEL4People’) looking at people and the task concept. Earlier this year, Microsoft’s Bill Gates acknowledged: “We're flooded with information, but that doesn't mean we have tools that let us use the information effectively these products would bridge the gap between information workers and the information they need to be more effective.”

Most recently, John Wookey, Oracle’s Vice President of Application Development, stated that: “There is a next generation of application expectation that users are going to have about how they get their work done."

“Procession’s new white paper summarises why and how application development will change, based upon real experience and knowledge of the now possible,” Chassels explained.

Copies of the white paper are available on request from Procession or from Procession’s website (www.procession.com).

End


Notes for Editors:

The White Paper
The paper summarises the current situation: technology has driven the business application industry but has yet to fully acknowledge the way business really works. It argues that the time has come to separate ‘information’ and ‘technology’ in application building and hand the business process back to the business stakeholder. There is increasing recognition of the relevance of Human Interaction Management Software (HIMS). The logical next step is at the application level where the only interaction that people have is via their allotted tasks in the business.

At the core is the need to recognise that it is people and their daily tasks that are both the source of information and the main drivers in any business. The reality is that there are less than 15 task types in any business, which can handle any eventuality. By expressing these tasks as data, it is possible to now build applications in a data-centric environment which in one development environment contains all today’s requirements of business process management (BPM), rules, state, time and user interface.

This Task Orientated Application (TOA) approach effectively separates these business fundamentals from the technology led delivery mechanisms, thus taking application development to a new paradigm, which will ultimately see application software become a commodity. The TOA approach effectively closes the gap between business and IT.

The paper concludes by supporting Nicholas Carr’s view - ‘IT doesn’t matter’ – which was published in an article in the Harvard Business Review in 2003.

With a TOA approach, technology becomes subservient to the business. It is how you differentiate the running of your business that matters. A TOA does just that for business people through simple business thinking and logic.