Java designer: Focusing on creative solutions

Bastiaan Rodenburg is a Java Designer with Info Support. His most recent project involved the construction of a dossier system for a bank’s insurance department. "The bank wished to have more opportunities to provide service to its customers, and fewer filing cabinets full of dossiers", Bastiaan explains. "Java offered an excellent technological environment for their needs." As a Java Designer and Implementer (programmer) Bastiaan was involved in the entire project.

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Object orientation is very similar to actual practice

Bastiaan is a specialist in Java. One of the enthralling sides of this programming language is its object-oriented structure, a significant difference from other programming languages, such as Microsoft’s Visual Basic, which is more process-oriented. "Obviously both approaches have their advantages", according to Bastiaan. "But the benefit offered by Java lies in the great similarity of its object-oriented structure to actual practice.

For example, in an actual situation an "order" object is issued by the "customer" object and is then passed by the "department A" object to the "department B" object. This similarity makes it easier for me, as a designer, to discuss the system with the people who will ultimately make use of it – and it makes it relatively easy for them to start working with it. As a designer I find this important, since the increasing complexity of information technology may not result in end-users who can not recognize themselves in their work."

Standard solutions

Java offers more than just a programming language. The manufacturer, Sun, has devoted a great deal of attention to the provision of standard solutions (DesignPatterns) for building and maintaining applications within application servers such as IBM Websphere, BEA WebLogic, etc. This set of standard solutions is referred to as J2EE. "J2EE not only offers proven and cost-effective solutions to the client", according to Bastiaan. "It also makes the work of designers and implementers more interesting, since the standard work has already been done for them. This enables them to focus on the problems that require a creative solution for the specific client."

The J2EE DesignPatterns play an important role in every project. "The functionality and the preconditions to be met by the software for the project determine the J2EE components that will be used", Bastiaan explains. "The client ultimately makes the decisions, but it will be self-evident that the designer endeavors to assist the client as much as possible in making the decisions." During the recent documentation project the bank decided to opt for JSPs and Servlets. Bastiaan notes: "The system could have been expanded by, for example, the incorporation of Enterprise Beans in the design; however the client made a carefully-considered decision not to do so."

In his experience, decision-making moments of this type often determine the success of the collaboration. "Clients must be able to make clear what they want, and I must be able to make clear how they can achieve their wishes." In Bastiaan’s perception everything went well with the documentation project. "In the opinion of the client he had sufficient knowledge to enable him to decide on the design."

Agreeable variation in the work

On completion of the design, however, Bastiaan's work was not yet over at an object level. In addition to his role as designer, he also took an active part in the next stage of the project as a member of the four-man implementation team. "This offered me an agreeable variation in my work, since I was involved in the project, both as designer and implementer. It doubles the involvement in the ultimate result. Moreover a project can benefit from the involvement of the designer in the implementation, since in practice there will always be a number of components that need to be modified or changed. In some respects an iterative method is actually preferable for the achievement of an application that offers a maximum of functionality."

The project, once completed, delivered a documentation system to meet all clients' needs and requirements. Bastiaan concludes: "For me it was an ideal project since, as designer/implementer, I bore a great responsibility throughout the project. And then you see that with good technology it is really possible to achieve something.”

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