I've worked for a number of years with Alpha for a couple of companies, so I know what I'm able to accomplish and what's outside my range. That said, there's a genuine and wise question around business continuity. I know of the wide array of people on this forum and groups like IADN who are active with Alpha, so I know I'm not working with a dying technology platform. But if I build the most amazing Alpha application in world history and then I get "hit by a bus," they're stuck without a plan forward.
If I wanted to hire one of you to build an application for me, that seems reasonably clear. But I'm curious how some of you independent developers or in-house developers have protected your companies and clients from business continuity risk. Do you have others on retainer to step in if needed...? Do you just get several people's word that they can pick up where you leave off...? Do you just document more thoroughly and give your clients a link to this forum...?
I'm just curious if best practices for ensuring client confidence have emerged for any of you.
easy to determine what they do (ex: gl.today() or nextpayday() ).
in the hospital, but I will not die.
We have three developers in the company and only work in house, so that covers most of it. but we have done work with an outside company that develop alpha applications, so there is some backup there.
Our bigger worry is actually Alpha disappearing. But then we keep all the data in MS SQL Server, and try to keep as much business logic in the database through constraints and triggers stopping crap getting in.
for day to day continuity we run on IIS, this is in a virtual machine on top og Hyper-V and is replicated to another server at a separate physical site on a 5 minute schedule. Same for the database. Hyper-V core is what we use for this and its free.
Given we are a small business we are kind of covered.
I think the biggest thing would be to have a relationship with the folks at AlphaSoftware and also stay in touch with IADN as you mentioned. Make a plan with the company that you are developing for, so that they know what steps to take when you are "hit by the bus".
Take a look at this thread "What happens if I fall under a bus?