APEX acknowledgement

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I was giving a presentation to a manager deciding the path for his projects. For me Oracle database and APEX is the obvious choice. I really can't recommend anything else. You can read a lot about both on the official pages, specially on features, new features and why to chose APEX. But coming from other databases and programming languages I have to highlight following points.

Focus on solving business issues

First of all, APEX is a true low code platform. Less code means less time, which means less complexity (and less bugs, less technical debt), which translates to less cost. It is secure and responsible out of the box. You can build apps very fast, not just the prototypes, but the full apps. Not in months, but in weeks if not days.

I always suggest to my clients to use the native APEX components as they are if they can. This way, you safe even more time and the outputs across applications will be consistent.

The more time your developers save on mundane jobs, the more time they will have to solve your business problems, the more problems they solve and their outcome will be better.

People (resources) and create high quality, maintainable code

Frankly, it is hard to hire senior or even expert APEX developer. They are rare, they are busy, they are expensive. And they don't know everything either. But you don't need superstars to create an app. It is certainly good to have one senior per team, but more important is to follow some guidelines.

Even in APEX you can write a hard to maintain, hard to change app. But with some guidance it is much easier and consistent across the apps. And you know what? I would rather fix app created in APEX than in any other technology.

You have to ask yourself what will you do if your lead developer leaves. If he leaves you with a clean code you still might be in trouble, but at least other developers will be able to pick it up. If he leaves you with a pile of crap nobody understands, then it might be easier to just start over.

You can nurture your own APEX developers. A good start is to hire a guy, who has some ideas about web development and basic SQL skills. You can quickly teach him the rest. For example we hired a guy, former manager, 65 years old with no Oracle experience. He was crushing it after a month thanks to a clean app structure, some mentoring and mainly his dedication to learn new things. After another month, he was independent and he is a great team asset now.

You need two things to succeed. Great technology and great personality. You have the technology. Hire the personality. Build a team where members helps each other.

Keep customer happy

With APEX you will spoil your users for sure. Now they will know that features don't take weeks, but hours. They will demand more. You will faced questions why it takes longer than few minutes to do. You might even end up on a live coding sessions with them, adding a chart here, button there... You will get instant feedback and they will wont instant change. Together you will create something they really want and there will be no surprise at the end of the project. Which is really great.

And if they want to contribute and get their hands dirty, it is perfectly fine. APEX is ready for citizenship developers.

Thank you

I was recently awarded a Member of the Month 2022 award of April for this blog. Thank you.

It is a great honor to be part of the APEX community. It is certainly something not common. Great people created APEX and great people gathered around to make APEX even greater. People helping each other for free. People, who are not just colleagues, but friends.