Jim Lawrence
accessd at shaw.ca
Thu Nov 14 15:15:57 CST 2013
Hi All: An interesting news article was posted and it clearly differentiates the new programming methods over the old. http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/11/tech/web/alternate-healthcare-site The US ACA application is going through some incredibly difficult growing and deployment problems. The new ACA system is an example of old style program development. New system development is not the same thing. There are thousands (hundreds of thousands) of various components, for every type of system but unlike the old methods each of these components only performs a single task, but they do that task very well. Most of these modules are OSS in nature so the cost of using them is relatively inexpensive. Three developers have created a working application that would supposedly do much that the ACA system would do and better, using the new methods. They did not so much as program the new system as assemble the new system from OSS components and they just provided the glue. Much like building a toy using Lego bricks. http://www.thehealthsherpa.com Building a huge complex proprietary system can be done but it can take thousands of programmers, millions of dollars and can take years to debug. OTOH, assembling an OSS system from components only require a few developers, only costs a few dollar and all debugging has already been done. Given the two ACA development methodologies, there is no clearer example of the effectiveness of one system over the other. Jim