Software Engineering and Intranets
When talking about investments that make good sense on the intranet, internally-funded and focused software engineering projects receive relatively little attention. No doubt, some people view this as a good thing.
It appears that this situation may finally be ready to change, however. Whereas in the 1990's network hardware, security, and Web browser issues dominated intranet technology roadmaps, the next ten years seem destined to become the decade of intranet application software development.
Where We've Been
Several logical explanations can be offered up to explain the lack of enthusiasm for home-grown software development on the intranet historically. One obvious factor has been rapid evolution in the building block technologies of intranets -- networks, user interface, and document mark-up. A few Web technologies like TCP/IP have been in existence for more than 20 years; but for the most part organizations have been plenty busy the past few years working to standardize on these basics, leaving them little time to consider more advanced development projects.Many organizations view intranet application development projects as having only second-order benefits. Industry observers such as Jakob Nielsen claim, for example, that intranets are under-funded -- suffering from their private, low-profile status relative to, say, consumer ecommerce projects. Software development projects can become expensive, and it might be tempting to believe that low-profile equates to low-payoff.
Other assorted factors also detract from interest in intranet software development. In many organizations, IT departments "own" intranet development but lack the requisite experience in programming languages and tools. Industry vendors offer a variety of shrink-wrapped software applications such as "intranet-in-a-box" packages that promise to have all the necessary functionality already built-in. Horror stories of software development projects gone bad also don't help the cause (even if these projects have nothing in common with intranet development). So obviously, organizations making intranet build-or-buy decisions will naturally be more likely to "buy" under these conditions.
It's never a good idea to put too much stock in predictions of the future, but what might we expect to see change in the years ahead?
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