Three tips for starting a WebSphere project

As a Web development and Java consultant, iSeries programmers and managers often ask me: "What is the best way to get started?" This tip offers some advice to project managers and is based on my experience building dozens of production WebSphere applications.

Tip 1: Pick your project

If this is your first project and you don't have experienced assistance, make sure the project is small and manageable. Your team will have to learn Java, HTML, WebSphere, SQL, and JavaScript. Combining this learning curve with the requirements of a large project can result in many issues, such as improper design classes, poor performance and usability issues. It is much better to take your "learning lumps" on a small project rather than a large one where mistakes are much more costly.

You should also make sure that your users will be happy with a browser/HTML-based user interface (UI). Browser interfaces are not as rich as desktop applications, so make sure your users understand that. For example, browser applications typically don't support drag and drop.

Get help if you need it
If you don't have the luxury of picking a small application and need to develop a larger more critical application, you should consider getting help. There are many professional services organizations you can tap for assistance, including the company I work for. Here are some of your choices for heavy-duty Java and WebSphere needs:

Use DICE and Monster
Other useful tools available include Web sites such as www.dice.com and www.monster.com. These sites provide the ease of placing a job posting with specifics on potential employee qualifications and certification. Starting at $305 for 30 days, DICE will post your position to millions of qualified IT personnel. Monster's cost starts at $365 for 60 days with discounts provided for multiple postings. If you don't want to weed through all potential applications or e-mail, you may a

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lso buy the rights to view certain resumes instead of posting a job. The cost of this is around $400.

Get help with graphics
AS/400 programmers (including me) often struggle when designing graphical user interfaces. We are skilled in accessing data, concurrency, and business rule validations, not Photoshop and graphics. If you find it difficult making applications look decent check out Elance. This site offers a multitude of illustration, animation, logo creation and many other creative services for those of us who are not so artistic.