The software industry has been trendy for decades. Now that the days of green screens are ancient history, and Steve Jobs has contributed black iTurtlenecks to the fashion lexicon, computer fashion is visual as well as intellectual.

There are many examples of compu-fashion.  For several years after the Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) architectural standard was first published, seemingly every Java-powered enterprise web site used EJBs, whether or not they were appropriate.  WebLogic sold a lot of expensive software, but that clunky architecture was inappropriate for most of the business problems it was intended to address.  EJBs were supplanted by Spring, a technology born in reaction against EJBs.  Ironically, Spring is now widely misused just as EJBs were.

...Which brings us to Flex, an example of Rich Internet Application technology.  RIAs offer the possibility of engaging applications which provide an interactive experience, with good graphical presentation.  Well-designed RIA applications can provide more sophisticated user experiences than traditional software can.

"Is it a difficult technology to learn?," ask programmers.  It is not too difficult to churn out the same old stuff using new technology, but it is another matter to produce software that behaves fundamentally differently than what came before, and provides unique value.

Business Intelligence software is by nature interactive.
Recently I have been developing Flex applications for business intelligence users.  BI digs through data and generates insightful charts and summaries, and users are able to explore the data interactively.  Before BI, business users expected up-to-date charts, graphs and tables, and valued flexibility in their reporting requests. BI users understand their data much better because they interact with it.

Specifying requirements for BI is fundamentally different than for 'traditional' software.  It is not sufficient to merely describe the set of inputs and the resulting charts or tables that are desired.  If that is all you want, then you are missing the opportunity to interact with the data, which is the point of BI.  When gathering requirements, one question that I ask BI users is "what should each step in the work flow teach?"

Every problem looks like an RIA nail for the Flex hammer.
The greatest benefit that RIA technology could be expected to provide for static reports would be fancier buttons on the input screen; that would not provide additional bottom-line functionality.  RIA's strength is in the quality of the user interaction.  Here are some types of business applications that RIA technology is uniquely well suited for:

• Non-static data visualization, including drill-down, filtering and sorting data
  
• Animating relationships between inputs and outputs
• Data management
• Collaboration
• Audio and video
• Work flow

So your user wants to use Flex for a non-interactive business application.  Why not program Excel to crunch the numbers and display a graph instead?  RIA technology should not be used unless the application will take advantage of the benefits that the technology can provide.  Fashion changes quickly, and RIA technology changes fastest of all at this time in computing history.  RIA programs often look dated after less than a year.  There is no point in being fashionable, unless the application is art for art's sake.

Your comments are invited :)

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