The Need for Speed

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The Need for Speed!

• Steve Nelson

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Internet Startup Failure 2000

• More Internet startups failed this year than ever
  before
• Why did this happen?
• How can we (web developers) prevent this next
  year?

3
Internet Startup Success 2001!!!

• Spend less time developing our applications in
  general. Fusebox has cut our time in half, can
  we cut it in half again?
• Produce higher quality applications in less time
• How?

4
How Fast Is Fast Enough?

• What if one person could build a complete version
  of your ENTIRE application in 5 days?
• That would be sweet, huh?

5
Thats Absurd!

• Come on Steve
• Think about this
• Before Fusebox, you may have been writing messy
  code. By simply having a system (Fusebox) for
  writing CF your development time gets cut in half
• Can we refine our Fusebox process and make
  development even faster? ABSOLUTELY!

6
What About the Quality?

• Dont rush your application development, thats
  not the point
• Improve your Fusebox development

7
Software Development Lifecycle
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Specifications Design

• Fusebox makes Specification and Design incredibly
  easy
• Your specifications designs need to be so good
  that a developer can immediately build from them
  without asking major questions

9
Five Day Development Cycle

• Specifications Design are the most important
  part
• We need to get Specifications Design down to 1
  day for ANY application
• Being able to do this will not happen overnight,
  although with practice it will get easier

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Whats the Difference?

• Specification What the client wants
• DesignHow you will build what the client wants

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Specification Ingredients

• 1 cup of CF developer
• 2 cups of Clients
• 1 HUGE whiteboard(s)
• 3 lbs of brains (human is best)
• 600 lbs of ideas

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Focus on One Circuit at a Time

• Break out all the circuit applications you will
  need FOR VERSION 1 on the whiteboard
• Be sure to include the most necessary circuit
  applications that will take the application to
  the next level

13
Draw Various User Flows

• One by one, go through each circuit application
  and draw the user Fuseaction flow
• This should be a downward flow
• Dont worry about loops

14
Determine Security Rules

• Which users will be allowed to view the various
  Fuseactions?
• Place a number(s) for the groups that can access
  the Fuseaction, and list a reference
• Use 0 for a Registered Public User

15
Example Specification

• Here is an example Forums Specification (see
  attachment)

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Figure Out What Is Missing

• Now is the hard part. This takes practice.
  Figure out what you left out of your spec
• The most commonly left out area are the
  administrative Fuseactions. Clients will 9/10
  times forget to tell you these.

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Write Down Full Specification

• A FULL specification is more than just a 2 word
  description. It is a few sentences describing in
  plain English what each Fuseaction does.
• (plug SecretAgents.com will offer a complete
  Fusebox Specifications/Design tool early October
  2000)

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Thats It for a Specification

• Once the specification is written down you will
  have a basis for what you are attempting to
  complete for that particular version
• From there you can move onto the design

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Design Ingredients

• 1 cup of you
• 2 liters of the caffeine of your choice
• 1 brain full of CF/Fusebox experience

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Focus on File Break Down

• Each Fuseaction needs to be broken down into the
  various necessary files
• Does the display require a qry file? Dont
  forget those file!
• Do your actions redirect the user to another page
  after an insert or update? Try url_ files
• Dont waste time with psuedo code! Just be able
  to explain each file in words

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Database Design

• Are you working from an existing database? Or
  are you starting from scratch?
• What tables will be necessary to do each
  Fuseaction?
• Database design is an iterative process and you
  will most likely change your database design
  after building. Think of those changes as
  versions, just like your code

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File Details

• For each file in your Fuseactions write out a few
  sentences on how it will work
• This is the hard part of design but gives the
  biggest payoff
• This will only be viewed by you and your
  programmers, GET TECHNICAL!

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Now Begin Coding!

• With your list of Specifications you can
  instantly write your Index.cfm files
• With your list of files, you can create all the
  necessary files and simply translate your plain
  English descriptions into CFML
• 5 days doesnt look so absurd anymore!

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Conclusion

• Developers can help to prevent so many businesses
  from failing next year by speeding up our
  development process
• Specification Design are often left out, if
  done properly your development process will be
  cut in half!