Capgemini Lab Cuts Software Development Costs

Services company Capgemini is launching its Rapid Design and Visualization Lab designed to help software organizations cut development costs by up to 50 percent.

Paris-based Capgemini designed the lab based on the expertise of technologists and behaviorists and unveiled the RDV Lab in Chicago Oct. 8 following a 12-month beta period during which four clients used the lab to do ERP (enterprise resource planning) application development.

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Company officials said the RDV Lab is designed around a Capgemini methodology that combines the latest simulation and communication tools with new research on how people create complex software. The company estimates that 60 percent of such programs—including ERP, Web 2.0 and SOA (service-oriented architecture) initiatives—need to be re-worked following misunderstandings between project managers who write the specifications and the engineers who build the programs.

The RDV is designed to help all parties get the software right the first time, said Corey Glickman, rapid design and visualization leader for Capgemini.

Glickman said that during the beta period for the RDV Lab, some of the projects achieved a 50 percent reduction in development costs and a 20 percent reduction in total project time.

Clients using the RDV are taken through a four-step process that includes user observation, validation of options, simulation of options and execution.

Moreover, the RDV Labs layout promotes collaboration among parties that usually do not work together, including business teams, IT, on-shore and off-shore developers, project sponsors and users.

"With software projects jumping so many languages [and] cultural and time zone hurdles, its no wonder that programs get lost in translation," Glickman said. "The RDV lets designers substitute images for nouns, animation for verbs, and a full-blown simulation for a phone book of instructions."

The technology and methodology used in the RDV will be made available through all eight of Capgeminis Accelerated Solution Environments nationwide.

Although the RDV initially will focus on the development and integration of ERP applications, the design of Web 2.0 programs, and emerging technologies, down the road the RDV Lab will be used to model not just software, but business processes and different go-to-market approaches as well, Glickman said.

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