Chapter IV-3. Development

Construction of the application is the next phase of the system development. Tatam System Consultants (TSC) has used a number of different languages throughout its history. This exposure has allowed the company to discover a number of different coding methodologies. The introduction of ColdFusion MX (CFMX) has caused TSC's architect and developers to slightly alter their approach to ColdFusion development. With CFMX there can now be a clear separation of the business logic from the display of data. As they (the development Team) have developed a number of solutions in Java, they are familiar with the concept of structuring an application into production.

In today's environment, a system needs to be robust and scalable. For a solution to be scalable, it needs to have the capacity for future growth. This growth could take the form of more functionality or of the ability to cope with heavier traffic. A system needs to be able to accommodate changes to the look and feel of a user interface, or existing functionality may need to be altered due to such factors as new specifications or a change in business policy or legal requirements.

Segmenting the application into data, logic, and display portions assists with its scalability. This partitioning gives the ability to change the data access, the business logic, and the way in which information is displayed, with minimal disruption to the application. The capability to call a method and receive its results, without being exposed to how those results were determined, has tremendous benefits. It gives the developer the power to create systems that are built on reusable code or existing components, and even to extend general components with customized code.