What Is Assembled Application

background
In the wave of digital transformation, the problems and challenges faced by enterprises in the implementation of digital transformation are very obvious, including:
- High delivery cost, low quality and low customer satisfaction
- The code is difficult to reuse and cannot form an effective precipitation
- Unable to form industry competitiveness, unsustainable, etc.
Under such circumstances, how to reduce delivery costs, improve delivery efficiency, improve customer satisfaction, and achieve sustainable capability precipitation has become a top priority for digital transformation implementers.
Assembled Application Concept
In the context of enterprise digital transformation, "assembled applications", as one of the important strategic trends in 2022, was officially released by Gartner.
What is an assembled application? Quoting the official document concept: "In an ever-changing business environment, business adaptability requirements can lead enterprises to move to technology architectures that support rapid, secure, and efficient application of changes. Assemblable application architectures enhance this adaptability, while assembling The implementation speed of new functions will be 80% faster than that of competitors.” Do you feel dizzy? Simply understand that modular applications are actually a new technical framework for application development, and the introduction of “modularity” The concept enables the technical team to develop applications more efficiently and agilely.
assembled unit
After understanding the concept of assembled application, we must clearly know what the assembled unit is. The assembled unit proposed by Gartner is called PBC (Packaged Business Capability). The informal Chinese translation is called a packaged business capability, and the corresponding concept in Yunqiao is a component. To judge whether a component is qualified or can be assembled, it can be referenced from four dimensions, modular, discoverable, autonomous, and choreographed;
modular
Modularity is the key to assembling. Whether planning an application, organization or business model. Each component that makes up the entire system must be a unit with independent and complete business logic. The granularity of the business unit is very important. Too big is not enough to improve the agility of the development process, and too small is not enough to ensure the integrity of the business within the component.
discoverable
Once the component is developed, can the delivery team find it quickly? Is the documentation of the component clear and complete enough for the delivery team to accurately assess suitability? The discoverable high-level requirements include the operational characteristics of the component, including resources and performance.
autonomy
Each delivery project has its particularity, and often only a few components are selected or replaced with other external systems according to customer requirements or practical constraints. Autonomy means that a component can function independently of other components and can be replaced with minimal retrofitting.
Programmable
Basic orchestration needs to support industry-wide protocols, not limited to specific programming languages. Orchestration is also reflected in the ability to support observation and tracking, security, and support for DevOps.
Assembly process
The assembly process needs to be determined according to different scenarios and different users, such as:
• Development framework - If the assembler is a programmer, the orchestration can be done by writing code and calling the API provided by the component.
• Integration Frameworks - If the assembler is an experienced programmer, some integration frameworks are available for orchestration.
• Page construction/form construction - If the assembler is a business person who does not understand technology, he can use low-code or no-code platforms for layout. Most low-code platforms support calling external APIs.
Through assembly, the UI of multiple components can be assembled into a front-end system; specific business processes can also be completed through assembly API.
Yunqiao
Earlier, we mentioned a lot of concepts related to assembly applications, and the real product is Yunqiao.
The cloud smart platform develops business application systems in an assembled way, abstractly assembles the reusable codes in many project practices according to "certain standards", and then assembles the output according to different needs. The delivery efficiency is greatly improved, and developers are invited to perform component precipitation and component reuse in an open form. Core competencies include:
• Quick assembly applications
• Customized development
• One-click deployment to the cloud
• Component-level O&M