Freedom End User Programming for the Web

1. Freedom End User Programming for the Web Asaf Adi, Maya Barnea, Nili Guy, Samuel Kallner, Yoav Rubin, Gal Shachor IBM Haifa Research Mount Carmel, Haifa University Campus, Israel

2. Web 2.0 • The promise: • Oriented around the end user • End users actively contribute to applications on the Web • Situational Applications help the long tail • Applications that would never be dealt with by traditional IT • Often built by the end users themselves • In practice • End users contribute content • Blogs, sites such as You Tube, Flickr, etc. • Lack of contributions of applications • Application development still requires programming • Tools exist to simplify the effort • Improve programmer productivity

3. Today’s Times • Much is changing • New customer demands, new business models, emerging economies • Financial Challenges • Global economic shifts, erratic fuel prices • Can be still profitable • IF, one responds to the above challenges • However • IT still not productive enough • IT focused on strategic applications • Web 2.0 paradigms could have helped • Many applications need only be “good enough” • Users want to be self sufficient • Many tools require to much “programming” • Other tools and technologies are not scalable enough • Microsoft Excel is great unless many need to update the spread sheet

4. A new business landscape is emerging which requires more frequent and fundamental business model innovation Global Economic Shifts Erratic Energy Prices Information Explosion New Business Models New Customer Demands Emerging Economies 98%1 3X1 Increase in gap between expected change and ability to handle change Of CEOs plan business model changes 1 – IBM Global CEO Study 2008 WebSphere Inner Circle - IBM Confidential

5. Goal Driven Development (GDD) • A development process in which the user’s end goal is in the center • All non-goal related details are hidden • Especially technical ones • GDD Tools: • Are Goal oriented • Are targeted at a specific user set • Have a set of abstractions and metaphors specific to the problem being solved • Are easy to use

6. Target User Roles Business User Skilled Business User Business Developer Professional Developer • Business goals only. Trying to get their job done. Applications or solutions are a means to an end. May want the ability to customize their environment using non-IT tools. • Skills – experts in their business tasks, use computers, browse the web, but no development skills, even HTML. No desire to learn either. • Business goals. Department ‘guru’. Can use more sophisticated tools to enable Bus to accomplish tasks. Often needs to automate repeatable processes. • Skills – experts in the business, not a developer type but understands technology and is willing to spend a certain amount of time to learn the tools if the payback is quick and large enough. • Mix of business and IT goals. IT part of their role, but work closely with the business users. Need to quickly turn around applications for their internal customers. • Skills – Web technologies– HTML, XML, CSS, Script (JavaScript, VB, LotusScript). Domino developer. Not a Computer Science Major. Could be a system admin. • IT focused. Build anything to meet the business sponsors needs. Don’t want to focus on the smaller projects, in general. • Skills – J2EE (Java, JSP, Portlets, Servlets, EJBs, Database). Use WID. Can build anything they need. Computer Science major. Understands object oriented programming techniques. Source: Lotus Software Application Development Tools User Research, Sandra Kogan, 2004

7. Freedom – A set of Web Application Development Tools 7

8. Freedom IDEs • Are all web based • No lengthy install • User can immediately try and get feedback • Easy to use • Simple things are very simple • Functionality scales with moderate extra effort • Hide appropriate details from the user • Different tools expose different levels of abstractions • Freedom Templates • Only points of variability are exposed • Freedom Composer • Only the contents of the form being built is exposed • Not even the “Submit” button is exposed

9. Freedom IDEs • Based on Web 2.0, AJAX based technology • RIA experience • More responsive to the user • Lower load on the server • Work with an application meta model • Application specific artifacts generated from templates on the server • Easily tailored to a specific deployment scenario

10. Demo: The Alligator Banking Corporation Silver Asset Program • Jane Smith is the district manager for the Alligator Banking Corporation Bank (ABC Bank), a bank with branches throughout Florida and Georgia. Jane Smith is responsible for forty branches in southeastern Florida. • ABC Bank had developed a Silver Assets program for its baby boomer customers • Jane decided that her district would go one step beyond the Silver Assets program and institute a breakfast seminar series on investing for retirees. • Asked each of the forty branch managers to work with: • Potential customers • Local organizations that serve well off seniors (e.g. museums, golf clubs) • Locations that can hold monthly breakfast meetings • Breakfast seminars should be organized by the local branch reps. Agreement with local providers should be approved by the branch manager and a breakfast seminar should be approved by Jane • Jane would like to receive reports on event participation and new bank customers resulting from the event.

11. Freedom – Human Based Workflows • Various business processes are built around forms. • A form is “submitted” and subsequently handled by many people • Most tools today reflect the “State Diagram” of the process • In an XML file that needs to be written • In a GUI in which you use boxes, circles, and arrows to draw a state diagram • Freedom has a different approach • The user simply works with the form • Declares what happens when buttons are pressed

12. Demo Part Two

13. Thank you • Samuel Kallner • Freedom Project Leader • kallner@il.ibm.com • Asaf Adi • Manager of the Simplified Middleware & Tool group • adi@il.ibm.com