Helping Users get Solutions Faster (=Cheaper)

For many years users have exploited various shortcuts because we (the IT guys) cannot get the solutions to them fast enough at the speed of business. Everyone knows that a very famous shortcut was when they started ordering Excel & 1-2-3 on the departmental budget. And we all know about the 3GLs and 4GLs.

Since then, and seemingly always, they have the desire to make their own solutions, if not the know-how.

In the last few years a Microsoft platform offering called SharePoint has gained widespread deployment, if not acceptance. In a few organizations I have consulted in, the users tell IT they want it. In some environments, marketing just tells IT to put it up and they say they will learn it themselves. I have seen these types of projects crash as often as succeed, but it does give some measure of the hunger.

SharePoint has a massive front-end, administration and development surface area. We will not cover very much of it. The focus will be on user-perceivable function and architecture.

One of its capabilities is the ability to create so-called no code solutions or almost no code. These approaches still have many kinks to work out, but I believe that it does point towards a future where (a new kind of) business analyst and some educated users can use these tools and the platform to create prototypes, if not applications, in the timeframe that business requires.