Spare yourself Sprint 1 (and more ...), a case for PaaS.

So you've got the GO to create your business App.

You've wanted to use digital to improve collaboration, to accelerate that process, you're ready to go.

You are about to draw your first storyboard. All bets are it will be - quite usually - the login screens : login, create account, reset password, failed login, change password, ...

Not too hard, but longer than expected and no specific business value. Probably your whole Sprint 1, will be spent on steps that have already be solved. Frustrating, a slow start when you're claiming the benefits of Agile. And that's not the only feature like this.

You'll save time building it with a PaaS, Platform As A Service, like Servicenow and its mobile studio or Salesforce, or even BeOperational. They are enterprise software that let you easily build your own apps, by assembling and configuring ready-to-use blocks, like lego, input forms, lists, actions.. and make apps quickly with little or no code.

Let me make a case for using a PaaS, rather than a development team, the latter would have to re-do so many classic capabilities :

See, enterprise applications have an increasing number of must-haves :

• Easy login. Integration with you company's user directory and Singe-Sign-On has already been done. No need to redo it.
• Collaboration (comments) You want users to write comments, to have discussions around each record in the application. You also have to want a feed of recent comments and activity a la social-networks. That's a big block, requiring thought-out data structure, impact on the UI.
• Search, auto-complete, filtering. There are many ways to access as fast as possible to your data. You want them all.
• Mobile powers. Mobile is not just about a touch screen, it's about its sensors: Camera, GPS, Barcode Scanner. The PaaS enables you to access them, and make the make the usable, displaying maps for example.
• Mobile Sync. All new business applications are web-based. But Mobile can go "offline", and you need to code synchronisation and conflict resolution. Servicenow has taken care of this with Offline mode.
• Notifications. It's been a long time since "Notification is the new interface". Doing it yourself require a cross platform SMS and notifications provider, messaging APIs, connectivity to email servers... That's also the case for Email-to-app and other messaging, chat-bot like features.
• Data imports, exports, API, Reporting... These are all bricks, that quickly become required in you business. Sprint after sprint of features that are relatively standard, and key in the success of you app. These are a few click away on a PaaS.

You're also sparing yourself Sprint Zero, typically dedicated to architecture, and getting prerequisites like a software and hardware stack ready. That's all chosen and packaged, even invisible.

Also, your application can be made by a much smaller team, a less technical team, meaning that it is easier to interact with the business team, on top of delivering visible business features more quickly.

The era of anytime, anywhere, any device computing, has created a set of opportunities, of valuable features that matter. They are now standard expectations.

PaaS will get you there fast.

PS : I'd like to improve this article, please send me comments.