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Skopos Consulting
Our idea of Proof-Of-Concept
We have completed several succesful Proof-Of-Concept projects. One of them was with a major Belgian bank that wanted to assess the feasibility of deploying branch office software via an intranet, using Web
technology. The project focused on one particular application, and explored the performance and the scalability. The idea was for the bank's client to walk into any branch office and be able to inquire about bonds,
loans etc. and place orders if desired. The back end of the application ran on one of the bank's mainframes, while the front end was a Java applet, running in Netscape or Internet Navigator, equipped with Sun's Java
Plug-In to iron out the different levels of Java support that existed at the time. The Web server was Lotus Domino Go, running on an IBM RS/6000. Communication with the mainframe was done via CICS, with the Java
Gateway for CICS and a CICS client and server on the RS/6000. The architecture of the application could accomodate other means of communication with the mainframe application, such as MQSeries, Tuxedo and an
internally developed middleware product.
The results of the project were considered satisfactory, and the outcome may have influenced the bank's decision to firmly choose for Java as their development language.
To understand better what we mean by a Proof-of-Concept project, have a look at IBM's guidelines for a POC project at http://www.software.ibm.com/ad/certify/poc.html We think it has some very good recommendations, and we do use it as a guide.
This material is "recommended reading" for IBM's VisualAge certification programme, and several exam questions gauge the candidate's understanding in this area. We are certified for three VisualAge products: Java,
C++ and Smalltalk (and several others, see the complete list elsewhere on this page).
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