Online publishing is an evolving industry, and an important aspect of that evolution is the ability of the supplier community to innovate. This means not only technology innovation but innovation in process and business models; the ability to offer publishers greater efficiencies in the publishing process and more choice.
To date, publishers have had a rather limited choice when it comes to placing their content online. It was either a case of using an aggregated portal, which meant sacrificing control over functionality and user experience, or bespoke development, which would give you that control, but at the cost, usually, of a substantial investment in time and budget, and the risk that you might get it wrong. Software design is not a simple thing.
Now the choice has widened. ’Rapid‘ processes and methodologies offer a new set of options.
Rapid thinking in e-learning
Rapid has been big news in e-learning for the last three years or so. In the context of the e-learning industry it means rapid production of learning content, using template-driven tools, and with a fair degree of DIY going on within the Learning department. In the context of online publishing, where authoring is more usually the preserve of … surprise surprise, authors, Rapid thinking has a more useful application in platform development.
The 80–20 rule
At the heart of Rapid thinking is a version of the Pareto principle (80% of your success comes from 20% of its causes). When you apply this to looking at bespoke software developments you see that a disproportionate amount of time and resource is taken up on a project by those features in a specification which lie outside the ordinary, and call for the developer to start with a blank sheet of paper, where more common featuures can be more easily provided because there is usually a previous exemplar (‘here’s one I made earlier’) to start from.
In publishing, content comes in all shapes and sizes; bespoke development is sometimes absolutely called for because needs dictated by the content really are too specific and individual to permit use of an ‘out-of-the-box’ solution. But more often we see that a more pragmatic approach to features specification can have quite dramatic effects on reducing both the time and the cost of development. By jetisoning a few of the nice-to-haves, it really is possible in some cases to achieve 80% of what you want for 20% of the cost – and have your platform up and running in weeks rather than months. Faster deployment can also mean iterative development, another important Rapid concept – but that’s for another post!
In the meantime, for a concrete example of how Semantico has applied Rapid thinking to its own services, take a look at our new SIPP Rapid and SIPP Rapid Plus propositions.
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Richard Padley
Managing Director,
Semantico