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Build your application faster than you think
August 25, 2017

Build your application faster than you think

Kaisar Hossain (MBA PMP, 6 Sigma, Scurm/ | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Appian

There are lots of materials online. However, it would be easier for users to have specific training and/or specific videos based on the projects they are working on.

However, we are having 3rd party vendor (Bits in Glass Inc.) to provide us with support in Appian development.

We are also going through various Appian training videos available online such as YouTube.

With the help of a 3rd party development company (Bits in Glass Inc.), we are building an application (called SADIE - Special Authorization Digital Information Exchange) for EAP program (EAP - Exceptional Access Program) under MOH - Ministry of Health, Ontario.

This SADIE application will help doctors, prescribers and other users to request special drug to the MOH for review / assessment for approval. With Appian we are building related UIs to record patient, drug, prescriber etc. information and utilize 'Rule Engine' to do the 'Automated Assessment' of all the requests for the special drug from the prescribers and related users.

Here are some facts based on my involvement in the SADIE project:

* I am not part of the programmer / coding team.

* I am a business system analyst.

* I communicate the business need to the coder and help them come up with mock-ups / wireframes based on the business needs / workflows etc.

* I produce various artifacts such as System requirement specification documents.

Hence, with that involvement, I find the coders are swift / quick enough to produce the wireframes / mock-ups and demo us the functionality of the application in order to ensure buy-in from the customer (here, Telus Health & MOH - Ministry of Health, Ontario).

  • Easy to implement workflow.
  • Easy to build wireframes and UIs.
  • Option to utilize various build it objects and apply those on the UIs.
  • Limitation of objects capability such as 'Date / Calendar' object.
  • Limitation on the number of pages to be displayed. Here, total / max. number is 5 main pages / tabs.
  • Limitation on displaying / positioning of sub-tabs below each main page / tab. it is only possible to display the sub-tabs below the main page / main top level tab, and if the number of tabs are increased, the UI / sub-tab display becomes busy / cluttered with the title.
  • Although I don't have direct access to ROI assessment, I feel if projects are managed well, Appian has the ability to deliver applications / deliverables quick enough to ensure quick ROI.
As a matter of fact, I was not part of the selection process when Appian was selected for SADIE project. Appian was selected because of its quick application development capability. I heard - someone from the 3rd party development company mentioned - that anything can be built between 4-6 months (of course, enough time and adequate resource availability are factors to consider).

Well suited:

* to build app based on business processes / workflow management
* to build UI quickly and easily
* environments where time is critical (i.e. organizations that have limited / less time to build application)
* RAPID / AGILE development

Less suited:

* limitation on Optical Character Recognition / OCR; Optical Form Recognition / OFR; AODA compliance etc.