Leading Technology in Shipping
A discussion with Ulysses Systems
A discussion on Leading Technology In Shipping needs to address why software is slow to develop. Admittedly, there are several reasons why software is slow to develop. This short discussion lays down elements that would make a system easy to develop and one that continuously evolves. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7034199161109385218
An evolving system
For your software to evolve, you need a platform that allows new attributes to be added without disrupting existing functionality and user interface.
But why is an evolving system important?
Because an evolving system easily adapts to the developing business needs and technology requirements of the marine enterprise. Subsequently, as your business processes evolve you need your software system to evolve. And for a system to evolve, it requires a model of relevance.
In other words, a data model that relates an attribute in one process with an attribute in another process, and, importantly, the combined contribution to a goal.
Your system must be able to find relevance
For example, your system must be able to find relevance between the cost of a propulsion breakdown or an audit failure, if a spare part is not delivered. So, the spares are related to machinery functions that are interrelated by how they affect each other, and also to audits and to ship’s certification.
Without the ability to easily add relationships in a data model, you cannot realistically expand the data model. But if you can’t, you are essentially stuck with functionality you had when you first bought and installed the system!
Abstraction
Another important requirement for an evolving system is abstraction of important components of reasoning. Just as we perceive similarities between reasoning components and we intuitively abstract them, so does software that evolves. For example, reasoning components like a crew scheduling process and many other scheduling processes that have common characteristics.
Data model
An evolving system must also have a data model that links all the functionality of the code with a model of the business. And this combined model must provide facilities for comparison and for additional attributes. If your data model cannot easily expand, as is the case of many non-model based software development platforms, you will need other components to meet client needs.
Integration
Above all, such a system must provide integration of all enterprise software. In fact, to provide coordination, full use of the information in your enterprise and best of breed software, you need a platform that can join everything. This is a subject deserving a full discussion. We also discuss integration on our dedicated Integration web-page.
The first thing to ask
So perhaps the first thing to ask, is, does your software allow for the data model to expand without complexity? And if the answer is ‘no’, then the next question is, “Can I do something about it”? We would be very happy to discuss the matter with you and to show you relevant functionality.
