Defining Data-Driven Software Development

Preface

About This Report

Developers are urged every year to learn new frameworks and languages not only to enhance organizational productivity but also to stay relevant in an ever-changing industry. There’s always a chance, however, that the tools you do decide to learn won’t be around next year. And worse than wasting your time, you wasted the opportunity to learn something more relevant.

As you observe the staying power of NoSQL—and indeed the more mature multi-model database management system—it is natural to wonder: “Should I invest the time to learn yet another technology?”

This report aims to explore both the personal and professional benefits of developing on a multi-model database. As a developer with—ahem—a few decades of experience under my belt, I approached this exercise by looking at the entire development team. I evaluated how a multi-model approach would impact current roles as teams shift from rigid roles in a single-model environment to more fluid ones in a multi-model environment. The end result? We, as developers, move closer to the data becoming its own steward; it’s no longer necessary to stand in long queues waiting for data to be readied. Instead, we can work directly with the data in the same useful forms in which it arrives from its sources and is delivered to its users.

With an understanding of the different ways of modeling and indexing data available to users of a multi-model database, it’s possible to engage in data-driven development, because you ...