Shortening the time from idea to app is important

Great business software applications start with ideas The concept is put to the test, as developers assemble the code and test the software to ensure that it is stable and usable in a production environment. The faster this can happen, the faster you'll see results. After all, if ideas can be tried out on an accelerated schedule, there is room for many more of them to occur.

Shortening the cycle

Having the best people on application development teams often involves bringing in creative individuals with a strong grasp of the industry and the ability to create exciting new concepts for applications, delivering capability that competitors cannot match. These professionals' abilities go to waste, however, if they have to spend a long time creating workable code for their designs. This is especially pronounced if the apps fail in testing and are rejected. Getting to the result faster, whether it's deployment or the scrap heap, gives more time to come up with new concepts.

The answer to the problem could reside in the developers' chosen tools. Prototyping a new software offering is far simpler with Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings that contain a visual programming environment. Most coding is unnecessary to get to the prototype stage with a design and see if it will really prove helpful to end-users. If not, it's back to the drawing board. If so, this useful software is now far closer to release than it would be otherwise.

There is another positive upshot of using simple PaaS interfaces. Not only do they allow software developers to turn their ideas into mock-up apps more quickly, they welcome non-IT personnel into the fold, allowing them to work on their own solutions that suit their roles. Moving this responsibility out of the traditional development section frees up even more creation time.

Welcoming all the new apps

The end results of compressed development cycles are more applications and more great ideas, culminating in capabilities that can put space between companies and their competitors. The application is a common unit of business software today, and offices can operate more efficiently with good software in place. This is a highly contentious age for firms of all types, with efficiency separating the leaders from trailing organizations. App developers have a role to play in this struggle, making PaaS tools important.