Product Review and Software

Outsystems

Technology and Product Review for Application Lifecycle Management Tools: OutSystems

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools are important for ensuring software quality and trustworthiness. They track applications throughout their entire lifecycle, from requirements definition and design to development, testing, execution and maintenance (Search Software Quality, n.d.). ALM also entails documenting and tracking modifications to applications. This ensures all software components meet the acceptable configuration requirements all through an application's whole lifecycle. More importantly, using ALM software can minimise time to market, enhance collaboration across the software development process, increase compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards, and enhance project visibility and stability (Search Software Quality, n.d.). With growing operations, it is important for Aberdeen Software to adopt a suitable ALM tool, particularly against the backdrop of increased cyber security risk. The organisation must ensure its software products are properly configured and of the expected quality.

There are numerous ALM tools out there in the market, making choice of the appropriate tool quite difficult. The choice of ALM software should be informed by the organisation's specific needs and demographics. Indeed, the wrong choice of ALM software can result in waste of money. One tool the organisation can use is the OutSystems Platform, an ALM tool developed by OutSystems, an American enterprise software firm with operations globally. Targeting clients in diverse industries ranging from banking and insurance to high tech, healthcare, education, energy, and retail, the platform enables software developers to build and deploy applications on-premises, in the cloud, or in both. Key features and capabilities of the platform include full support for the management of the whole application lifecycle, native support for agile software development, security functionality, batch processing capabilities, support for custom application development, multilingual support, full mobile application development and tracking, as well as full access control (OutSystems, n.d.). The platform also enables real-time application monitoring, integrated debugging, application change management, and integrated user feedback.

OutSystems offer several benefits. With its full-stack visual development features, the platform provides unbeatable speeds; enabling software developers build more quality applications faster and implement modifications easily (OutSystems, n.d.). In addition, the platform integrates with virtually everything, from enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions to customer relationship management (CRM) applications. The platform can as well support numerous devices, ranging from Android and iOS to Linux and Windows devices. This is a particularly important benefit as application incompatibility can be a major hindrance. Further, the platform offers a rewarding user experience, particularly due to its single-click deployment as well as drag-and-drop features (GetApp, 2017). These features enable application developers to build applications that will offer the same experience to their clients.

Another benefit is that OutSystems is a low-code development platform (OutSystems, n.d.). The platform enables developers to easily extend their applications with their own programming code (Java, HTML, SQL, and so on). Moreover, since the platform is free from lock-in and proprietary data models, developers can expect smooth executions. The platform also offers unbreakable deployment, enabling quick implementation of application changes and reduced maintenance costs. More importantly, the platform focuses on important performance metrics. With the platform, the developer ensures their applications are running at peak performance all the time. The developer also monitors applications on real-time basis, enabling greater visibility of performance and quality deficiencies or areas for improvement (GetApp, 2017). Continuous improvement is particularly important in today's constantly changing world. As business needs change, so must software. Indeed, lack of agility can be costly to the organisation. An organisation must implement software changes as fast as possible.

In spite of OutSystems's unique features and benefits, a number of deficiencies cannot go unmentioned. A major limitation relates to cost. Indeed, licensing the software can be quite expensive compared to other options in the market. Nonetheless, the relatively high cost of the platform can somewhat be justified by its unique and more competitive features. Another challenge is that it may be quite difficult to move forward in the event of disconnection from the tool. Due to the lots of code generated when using the platform, it may be quite hard to resort to other tools once accustomed to it. Other weaknesses include difficulties implementing some use cases, fairly limited user interface (UI) widgets, lack of a robust native reporting solution, weak automated testing options, as well as tedious source control (Capterra, 2016; GetApp, 2017).