This is the tenth post in a series of blog posts discussing Lean Architecture principles. Each post discusses one principle. Applying these principles results in an architecture (process) that is better connected to the business, better able to deal with change and more cohesive. The tenth principle we discuss is called "Architecture emerging from Projects". One of [...]

Recently, Andrew Phillips, VP of Product Management at XebiaLabs, and I had the opportunity to speak with Mike Vizard, tech journalist for IT Business Edge. We had a great conversation about automating application deployments and Mike’s article provides a nice look into our discussion. In the last paragraph, he brings up an interesting point, saying “there [...]

People use metaphors to understand something or to have something better understood. Metaphors in software development are ubiquitous, as in the computer world in general. Especially people who are in the business of software development, but don’t have experience actual software development, often use various metaphors to better grasp what [...]

In an attempt to better understand the ideas behind 'Life Beyond Distributed Transactions, an Apostate's Opion.' by Pat Helland, I'm going to try to explain how the concept would work out for a time-honored example: the good old transfer of money from one account to the other, the archetype of all distributed transactions because we [...]

This is the ninth post in a series of blog posts discussing Lean Architecture principles. Each post discusses one principle. Applying these principles results in an architecture (process) that is better connected to the business, better able to deal with change and more cohesive. The ninth principle we discuss is "Comprehensible over Comprehensiveness". Documentation is important in architecture. Architecture is [...]

How did we end up here? Fifteen years ago, at the end of the two-tier client server age, people started to realize the importance of distinguishing between at least three different layers in the architecture. A business layer, providing a convenient API allowing you to address a particular business concern, a data layer storing related data, [...]

This is the eight post in a series of blog posts discussing Lean Architecture principles. Each post discusses one principle. Applying these principles results in an architecture (process) that is better connected to the business, better able to deal with change and more cohesive. The eight principle we discuss is called "Focus on the value [...]

Sometime in the bright future, you will be able to deploy the same virtual appliance containing your application to all your target environments without adjustments. For the time being, however, deployments to traditional DTAP1 landscapes almost always mean "tweaking" the application and associated configuration and resources to match the target environment - think endpoints, properties [...]

Virtualization and cloud computing have exploded over the past few years. A recent study shows that 90 percent of businesses have implemented server virtualization at some level and Gartner estimates the current market for cloud services is $46.4 billion and will reach $150.1 billion by 2013. With other estimates saying business applications can be made [...]

This is the seventh post in a series of blog posts discussing Lean Architecture principles. Each post discusses one principle. Applying these principles results in an architecture (process) that is better connected to the business, better able to deal with change and more cohesive. The seventh principle we discuss is called "Architecture Initiated by Business [...]

Working in multidisciplinary teams is common in Agile. In practice this means that the team consists of people with different skills, but work in the same dimension (for instance software). What about cross dimensional teams? In cross dimensions teams not only the skills differ, but also the area of expertise. For instance developing an electronic [...]

IT organizations often face issues when deploying applications in an Agile environment, in part, because there are more releases to deploy. Due to the nature of Agile, development teams are able to deliver working tested software in much shorter iterations. While this is great for the company, as they can have better flexibility and shorter [...]

Last December I wrote my first part on the Future of Deployment explaining the difference between big ol' servers with a gazillion applications and lots of new shiny small servers with each its own application. This time I'm going to go to the cloud or your virtualized servers and give you my vision of how [...]

The Dutch NoSQL community is alive! Now, if you are new to NoSQL and you happen to have a Relational Database background, then rest assure: the NoSQL movement is not a militant group trying to get rid of SQL altogether. The N.o. in NoSQL represents: Not only. In the NoSQL community, we are looking at alternative [...]

This is the sixth post in a series of blog posts discussing Lean Architecture principles. Each post discusses one principle. Applying these principles results in an architecture (process) that is better connected to the business, better able to deal with change and more cohesive. The sixth principle we discuss applies to the process of architecting and is called “Iterative Architecture Development”.

There are many misunderstandings about Agile and what it is or is not. I’ve met some people who were really convinced that ‘Agile’ and ‘Scrum’ are like synonyms. Or who think ‘Agile’ is a synonym for ‘flexible’. Both are not true. If Agile would have just been about flexibility or responsiveness, I [...]

In this episode of the middleware pitfalls top-10 we want to discuss the merits of a clean and standardized set of (test) environments. Some refer to such a set as DTAP, an acronym for Development, Test, Acceptance-test (or pre-production) and Production. From here on the text contains capitals to indicate an environment. Basically the [...]

Story planning is a technique to facilitate commitment. The ultimate goal of Story planning is to make a sprint planning that is really understandable and clear for every body. Something you understand so good that you can really feel whether it is doable or not. This is what you need to be able [...]

This is the fifth post in a series of blog posts discussing Lean Architecture principles. Each post discusses one principle. Applying these principles results in an architecture (process) that is better connected to the business, better able to deal with change and more cohesive. The fifth principle is called "Just in time, just enough". The [...]

Summary In the first part of this review (the JavaEE6 back-end) I created a small application which is a JSON REST service to be used as back-end for a JavaFX front-end. This second part of my review covers a small review of JavaFX, to see if it meats my requirements as front-end for my personal finance application [...]