Typically, workflow software has been applied at the desktop. This is changing with the advent of components. Just as middleware is necessary to integrate components, workflow, and business process flow, software is the mechanism that ties pieces of business applications to business practice. Corporations looking to increase the reuse of key software assets while moving to a model that ensures faster time to market for applications in the future should investigate components. It is imperative that organizations stop writing applications as though they were finished products.
Applications are in fact ever-changing business assets.
No one would ever assert that a company should keep its products and services untouched over time. Yet the software designed to run those businesses is traditionally written as if it were cast in stone. Components are the best and most pragmatic technique for coordinating business realities with software productivity. Judith Hurwitz is president and CEO of Hurwitz Group Inc., a technology and management consulting company based in Newton, Massachusetts. Send a letter to the editor .