Executive Summary

As a manager, you will probably have at least some involvement in the management and staffing of an XML development project. In most cases, the addition of XML to the technology mix requires more than developer training and tool acquisition. While the use of XML can fit into almost any well-defined process, you will have to make some adjustments.

The extent of these adjustments depends on the gap between the special needs of XML development and the accumulated experience of your team. If your existing processes and staff are not suited to XML, the cost of implementing the first application will be particularly high. To estimate the gap, you should first categorize your application based on its general use of XML. While large projects may use XML in more than one way, these different applications of the technology usually occur in distinct subsystems. The general applications of XML are the following.

• Content Documents. Documents used primarily for the exchange of information among people.

• Business Documents. Documents representing business entities and intended for use by both people and applications.

• Data Documents. Documents used primarily for the exchange of information among applications.

As discussed in Chapter 5, schema design really defines the intention of XML and determines into which category a particular application falls . However, by now you know enough about XML to predict roughly how a potential application will use it before designing schemas. Table 6-1 summarizes the development process and staffing requirements for each of the categories. The first part of this chapter covers these requirements in detail.

Table 6-1. The Development Process and Staffing Requirements

	Content Documents	Business Documents	Data Documents
Resemblance to Existing Processes	Developing interactive Web site	Automating cross-functional business processes	Programming client-server interactions
Key Process Steps	Stylesheet design Repository integration	Schema adoption Back-end integration	Document processing Application integration
Key Staff	Producer bearer Information designer Layout designer	Standards Business analyst Architect	Data designer Library developer Application developer

The recommended process and people changes for these three categories provide general preparation in guiding XML application development. However, there are also a number of specific issues that commonly arise on XML projects. The most prominent include Development Team Cohesion, Version Skew, Open Source Management, Business and Development Focus, and Cooperation with Other Parties. Particular preventive techniques offer another form of preparation. The second part of this chapter describes these five common problems and the recommended remedies.