IBM equips non-techies with development prowess

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Researchers at IBM have created a web development tool that removes the smoke and mirrors normally associated with programming so that the average business user can create applications to automate everyday tasks to do with data collection and analysis.

The new tool, dubbed the IBM Development Engagement Service (DevEngage), takes advantage of the fact that most users have some experience of wizards that guide them through certain processes.

Once the application has been defined, that definition is submitted to a Java-based server-side back-end so that it can be built using templates. Once construction is complete, the user is sent a URL linking to the web-based form.

DevEngage was created by boffins at Big Blue's Haifa research lab in Israel and is specifically aimed at users in smaller businesses who have the same pressure to be productive but who usually have a much smaller IT department, if it all.

IBM says the new tool is interactive and user-friendly enough for people to cater for their own basic application needs without having to add to the IT department's workload, or indeed having to wait their turn for their request to be fulfilled.

"This new application development tool will let users with no software development expertise skill create online forms with ease that complete routine tasks," said Gal Shachor, the DevEngage project lead at the IBM Research Lab in Haifa.

"IBM wants to ensure users at small- and medium-sized businesses are able to capitalise on modern Web 2.0 technologies in a simple, user-friendly way."

DevEngage is available for download from IBM's early-adopter focused alphaWorks Services.

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