Lean Startup with WebObjects
- 1. MONTREAL 1/3 JULY 2011 Lean Startup with WebObjects Paul D.Yu FDL Solutions, Inc.
- 2. Agenda • Define lean startup • What or why not WebObjects/WOnder • At the Beginning of the business • Development • QA • Production
- 3. What is a lean startup? • Use of free and open source software, • Application of agile software development methods, and • Ferocious customer-centric rapid iteration, as exemplified by Steve Blank's Customer Development process • And minimize venture capital investment
- 4. Purpose of a Startup? • Make Money!!! • Some money from a many of people = good business • Does not have to be the $100M business • Not build it and they will come...
- 5. Free and Open Source Software • The idea is to minimize the upfront investment in development tools and infrastructure • Lower the costs associated with getting revision 0 out the door
- 6. Agile Development • Agile development can be traced back to Chrysler Financial’s eXtreme Methodology • They used NeXTSTEP!!!
- 7. Customer Centric Development • Listen to your customers • Build what your customers want quickly • If your customers feel that you are listening they will tolerate bugs • With each release cycle the product gets better
- 8. Avoid VC $$$ • Once you take VC money, you are no longer working for yourself… • Founders often are left without a chair
- 9. Choose Your Partners Wisely • Choose your partner like you would choose your spouse… • May be not • Easier to get together, a lot tough to get divorced
- 10. Lean Startup is a Business • Not just about software development • Also product deployment and operational maintenance • Also customer support • Especially business development and sales • There is the whole business to run!!!
- 11. Convergence of Events • Cloud Computing • Software as a Platform • Software as a Service model • Open Source technologies and tools • Pay as you go… • Mobile computing
- 12. My Lean Startup • EOModel Design Started December 2008 • First Prototype/Demonstration February 2009 • First Customer Usage April 2009 • First Customer Check May 2009 • Self-funded with consulting work
- 13. MONTREAL 1/3 JULY 2011 WebObjects and WOnder Why did I choose to use WO and WOnder for my lean startup?
- 14. “Provides the first two floors of a five story building” Steve Jobs
- 15. WebObjects • Not exactly open source • But essentially free • Single unified stack instead of separate stacks that must be integrated • “The ocean is broad AND deep”
- 16. Why WOnder? • Open source • Fix problems with underlying WO • So many features beyond basic WO • Once you WOnder, you’ll never go back...
- 17. Rapid Iterations • Quick iterations in the same direction may be easy • Remember every iteration cost money • But what about Changes of Direction? • Technology innovation • Business/customer requirements
- 18. WO and WOnder Architecture and Options Multi-headed • Multi-headed Hydra Hydra MVC • Perfectly positioned for iOS and JS- based rich-client architectures with ERRest • Allows for flexibility (turning) as the future changes
- 20. Challenges of using WebObjects • WebObjects is DEAD! • Not Open Source or Doesn’t cost $50,000 • Tough to sell in the corporate bureaucracy • Need to know a lot: from css down to EOF • “Apple eats its own dog food”, but it is not the same as ours
- 21. Challenges of using WebObjects • No Marketing Air Cover for the technology!!! • No Corporate Sales Force for the “product”!!! • No apparent technology movement of WO from Apple • No coherent WOnder direction
- 22. Challenges of using WebObjects • No documentation • No good examples • RoR is better • Lack of available developers • Lack of training facilities • A lot to learn the entire stack from css to EOF...
- 23. The Opportunities of Using WebObjects • But lean startups are not large corporations • WebObjects and WOnder is still one of the BEST tools and architecture in the market place • For a lean startup, WebObjects and WOnder allows a very small team to get produce very powerful and scalable systems very quickly • But you have to know WebObjects already????
- 24. MONTREAL 1/3 JULY 2011 At the Beginning A lean startup
- 25. First things first • Build the business case • Can you make money if you invest your time and effort into this venture • Either you job or business • Charge one customer A LOT of $$$ vs. Charge A LOT of customers a little
- 26. Second things second • Design the EOModel • Build an application architecture with a solid foundation to build from, see beyond fluffy bunny presentation • Then build the rest of the house based on your vision for the product
- 27. Then • Seek out your local university or chamber of commerce to get incubator/advice for entrepreneurs • Rapidly build the product and release it in the cloud • Get people to use it and pay you to test your application...
- 28. MONTREAL 1/3 JULY 2011 Development Environment
- 29. IDE • MacBook Pro OS X 10.6.7 • Eclipse Helios Service Release 2 (~/Appications vs /Applications) • WOLips • JRebel • Subclipse moving to EGits • Workspace Mechanic
- 30. Additional Tools • Subversion Clients • svnX • Versions • GitHub Client • Gitbox.app • Tower.app
- 31. Version Control Issue Tracking • Subversion, but thinking of migrating to private Git Server • Gitolite on CentOS • Jira 10 person license, but really using OmniFocus • Confluence 10 person license, but really using Yojimbo, Notebook
- 32. Database • MySQL 5.+ • MySQL Admin • DbVisualizer • Local tunnels to Production, Staging environments
- 33. EOF and Database Independence • EOModel with Prototypes • Porting from MySQL to other DB’s should be no problems
- 34. Why DbVisualizer? • Connections • Development • QA • Production
- 35. Development Databases • Production Replicated for testing • Sales Demonstration • Simple Switch of the jdbc property in Properties.<me> file
- 36. MONTREAL 1/3 JULY 2011 QA/Training Environment
- 37. Continuous Build Server • MacMini moving to Cloud Server • Jenkins • Manual task to pull from Wonder • Job to build project(s) from svn, moving to git • Scripts to push to Stage and Production
- 38. QA Clients • OS X Firefox, Safari • Parallels with Virtual Machines • Windows 7, IE 8 • Windows XP, IE 7 • iPAD Safari
- 39. Training Environment • iWEB Server (seems cheaper than my production environment) • CentOS • Oracle Java VM 1.6+ • Project Wonder wotaskd and JavaMonitor • MySQL on the same machine • Deploy Apps to /opt/Local/Library/WebObjects
- 40. Training Environment • Dedicated URL for testing ERRest client applications
- 41. Training Environment • Experienced major performance issues with undersized training environment • Concurrent simultaneous users… • Don’t want to interrupt production • Don’t want to corrupt production data
- 42. MONTREAL 1/3 JULY 2011 Production Environment
- 43. MONTREAL 1/3 JULY 2011 Production Environment At the Beginning
- 44. Virtual Server Per Customer Virtual Virtual Virtual Server Server Server per per per Customer Customer Customer
- 45. MONTREAL 1/3 JULY 2011 Production Environment Now
- 46. Current Production Environment Apache 2 + Application Server Database Server
- 47. Production Environment • SliceHost is the ISP • Database Server on a 512 MB slice • Web and App Server 2GB slice (2 IPs) • Ubuntu 8.+ • Apache2 • Project WOnder wotaskd and JavaMonitor • Nagios
- 48. Production Environment Merging Databases • Contracted with Kieran Kelleher • Kieran designed an automated script to merge the three production databases into one • oldId vs newId • Run many times to verify correctness • Run once to migrate
- 49. Production Environment • SliceHost backup service is nice, cheaper than EC2 • SliceHost create new slice based on backup is nice • SliceHost being replaced by RackSpace • So will be migrating • Canadian client says there are laws governing where the data can reside, so not all cloud = cloud
- 50. Turning on EO Migration • Discussions of “White Labeling” • Requests for local installation, traditional software license • Would not be able to deal with manual upgrades to the database!!! • Bit the bullet and turned on Migration
- 51. Approach to EO Migration • Existing Database • Generate EOMigration from current EOModels • Extract Database Content for “reference” data • Manually set the production environment to migration 1 or correct version for all models, so migration will NOT run • Tested against a new database to create state 1 • Modified EOModel to create revision 2
- 52. MONTREAL 1/3 JULY 2011 Additional Tools Startup is not just about the technology
- 53. Other Tools • Verizon FiOS • WebEx or GotoMeetings • GotoWebinar • Grasshopper • Constant Contact • SalesForce.com • Google Analytics
- 54. MONTREAL 1/3 JULY 2011 Credits Travis Britt, Kieran Kelleher, Pascal Roberts
- 55. MONTREAL 1/3 JULY 2011 Q&A