11 Questions to ask before embarking on your next business application project. **Download report: Gartner 2015 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Application Platform as a Service (aPaaS) Download this report to better understand the aPaaS landscape and how the right platform can accelerate your software delivery cadence and capacity. http://ww2.mendix.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-q1-2015.html Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mendix LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mendix

2. What makes you different?
 How you support your customers?
Build or Buy?  How you manage your supply chain?
 What information you have available?
 How you price your products or services?
 How you sell your products or services?
Are there solutions  How you deliver your products or services?
available that are industry  How you communicate with your
customers and partners?
standard and work for you
and your competitors
equally well?
Determine what processes
and assets make your
company different.

3. Will your requirements change?
 Do you expect your business or
market conditions to change?
Business, competition,  Do you have all your user
politics, people, markets requirements
solidly defined?
– even the weather  Can you implement all
impacts companies in requirements in one single phase?
unforeseeable ways.  Will your users ever change their
minds?
What does this mean for  Do you have requirements from
enterprise applications? different
user types, locations and business
How do you prepare for units
change? covered?
 Have you built this type of
application before?

4. How are your users considered?
One of the most cited
reasons for failed projects
in enterprise software is  Are users part of the entire
the lack of user process?
 Can users see results early
involvement and the and often?
 Can users provide feedback
inability to respond to easily?
 Can you turn around feedback
changing needs quickly?
 Can users change their mind?

5. How to include your eco-system?
Companies rely on a multitude
of systems to manage their
business and automate many
 Do you rely on data from
processes. other systems?
Many systems have been  Will other systems rely on
input from
around for years and are the new app?
running established back-end  Are multiple systems part of a
processes. However they often combined workflow?
do not support the changing  How do you integrate?
needs of the business and  Are there any other
users. technologies
needed to enable integration?

6. Do you rely on others?
Some systems rely solely on
services provided and
 What type of data will your
orchestrated by other app need from other systems?
systems.  Will external data be combined
with data created in your new
While it is efficient to re-use app?
and integrate with existing  Will users of the new app need
data and functionality, most to create or manipulate data?
enterprise systems are  Are the external systems
needed to create and ready to provide the web
services you need?
manage significant data and
processes.

7. When will you need your next app?
Businesses require new
apps all the time, as
the business moves
forward and responds
to market needs,  Am I the only one that needs an app?
 After a quick and successful implementation will my
competition and users ask for more?
 Will we need similar type of apps in other departments
technical advances. or business units?

8. Enterprise Apps or Website?
Do I want to have an
informational intranet or  Do you have to collect, store
process and analyze data?
document management  Do you have to integrate
system, or do I actually with other systems?
 Do you want to be able to
want to to collect, track, customize processes and
automate and analyze workflow?
complex processes with  Do you need to respond to
business changes quickly?
significant amounts of
data.

9. How do I deploy the app quickly?
 Where will this app be deployed?
Deployment  Who will be responsible for
infrastructure?
issues are the  What’s the purchasing lead time?
 What other software for database,
hidden, and server, security, etc do we need to
purchase?
 What if we don’t know the expected
underestimated load?
 What if we need multiple test
cost and drag on environments?
 What if usage changes quickly?
many projects.  Who will maintain and manage
deployment over the long run?

10. Mobile – what about the back-end?
Mobile apps don’t live  How do I manage back-end data
on an island in the maintenance and reporting for mobile
apps?
enterprise. They are a  Do my mobile apps integrate with
growing and other enterprise systems?
 How many different types of devices
increasingly important do I need to support?
part of workflows and  How do I include activities from
mobile apps in other workflow and
business processes processes
across a company.  How do I manage change as my
business processes change?
 Do I have to treat deployment
differently for mobile apps?

11. How to ensure great user experience?
 Will customers, prospects or
partners interact with the app?
In a world where users  Are you concerned how your app
are experiencing more will reflect on your company’s
and easier to use apps about the brand image?
 Will your users compare this app to
than ever in their apps they have used on their home
personal lives, computer or smart phone
expectations for the user  Are users complaining about lost
productivity by old, outdated
experience of enterprise systems?
apps have grown  Are your users interacting with
exponentially. others?
 Will users trigger tasks or activities
for other users, customers or
partners?

12. How does IT know what’s going on?
IT teams serve a key role in
organizations not only as
technology innovators but
also safeguarding mission  Is everything being backed-up?
critical intellectual property,  Who has access to what?
ensuring compliance with  What if the sole developer of an
regulation and enabling application leaves the company?
 What password policies do we have
efficient and state-of-the- in place?
art operations.  What if we need more processing,
storage or bandwidth capacity?
 What infrastructure software is
in place – is it up-to-date?

13. About Mendix
Mendix is the app platform company for the enterprise. We enable
companies to build, integrate and deploy web and mobile applications
faster and with better results, effectively driving ROI in days not months.
Learn more, join our user community and get started for free at
now.mendix.com
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