Our approach to software development is the result of nearly 30 years of experience in large-scale, enterprise-wide application creation. Given the exponential growth of the Internet over the past several years, today our development process in Petersburg, Va. and Bangalore, India is focused solely on developing applications with Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2008 and its .NET technologies. 

This web-based development framework allows us to use multiple programming languages (C#, C++, VB.Net, ASP, etc.); SQL Server for database design and management; SQL Server Reports for business reporting; and Team Foundation Server, the comprehensive project management system that serves as a collaboration engine and a centralized data warehouse.

Our development process starts with a solid development environment featuring:

• A secure central server with off-site redundancy backed up daily
• A VPN to client systems
• Off-shore development environment via Citrix server
• Code that is managed and secured in our U.S. headquarters

We adhere to a strict and rigorous development process modeled on the agile method, which focuses on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. This includes daily builds, and frequent testing and review.  We design and code by:

• Creating unit test plans
• Creating system architect document
• Assigning tasks
• Creating pages, stored procedures, and programs
• Addressing design anomalies
• Creating site map
• Providing periodic status updates
• Creating test plans
• Executing test plans
• Recording bugs
• Managing bug resolution
• Bug fixing for unit testing, functional testing, release testing and user acceptance

In our Bangalore, India office, which focuses on programming and coding, we provide our developers with continuous training programs to ensure our development methodology is strictly followed at all times. This in turn provides our clients with significant cost savings throughout a project’s lifecycle, while maintaining careful management of the overall project by our U.S. management team. We offer great value to our clients with this hybrid on-shore/off-shore development system.

At BandyWorks, we develop most of our applications with Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2008 Team Edition. It features a project management technology called Team Foundation Server (TFS).  We asked Vinodh Kumar Lingi Chetti, Applications Technology Manager at BandyWorks, about this powerful development tool. 

How does TFS help us deliver a higher quality product for our clients?

TFS enables team-wide collaboration by providing a unified team server for all project artifacts and support for team communication, including work item tracking, reporting, version control and more. It helps us to drive predictability, manage team workflow, ensure quality, integrate most effectively, and make real-time decisions.

With TFS, our development teams can focus on delivering high quality software in any stage of the software development life cycle. It provides us and our clients with the best tools, processes, and guidance to help everyone on the team improve their skills and work more effectively together. And most important, it results in successful application development projects and programs, allowing our clients to generate a substantial return on their investment in improving their operations.

How does TFS affect Source Control?

We have improved our quality and development time directly because of the use of TFS. It was very difficult to manage source code and schedules across international teams without TFS. We are able to not only link tasks together with source code management, but we also link our project schedules directly with TFS. 

TFS helps Source Control in many ways. With Check-In, multiple files can be checked in at the same time and assigned to multiple tasks. Each check-in process will create a ChangeSet with a reference number that is published. This can be used at a later point in time to view the contents of a check-in, and associate to a work item or build. It can also be used the same way a label would be used. For example, “Get me all the source code as of ChangeSet 155”  would include the image of the entire source branch (not just the changed files) as of that moment.

With Shared Locks, we can provide another developer access to a locked file in order to do some modification, and it will be merged when we check in the files. We can also create a check-in policy and assign the policy to the check-in process to make sure that the file containing coding standards are followed, and that the code should be reviewed by team leads. 

With check in and check out we are able to manage code from four different locations all over the world. The process used to be nearly impossible with VSS, and now with TFS it takes just minutes each day. 

By Tom Bandy

This Op-Ed piece recently appeared in “Chamber Comments”, the quarterly publication of the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce.
Our headquarters is in Petersburg, Va., and I have the privilege of sitting on technology education advisory groups at nearby Virginia State University and John Tyler Community College. Recently each advisory group met to discuss current and future activities in their respective programs, and I was extremely impressed with the amount of work being done to enhance Information Technology and Computer Science offerings for students at these schools.

Although I am not involved at another area school, Richard Bland College of The College of William and Mary, I am very familiar with the good work President James McNeer has done there to enhance all aspects of that college for students, faculty, administration and our community as a whole.

All three institutions are fantastic assets for businesses and organizations operating in the Tri-Cities. They are instrumental in helping area businesses grow by providing the highly educated workforce we need to become stronger and more competitive. As this region of the state continues to grow, we are going to be increasingly reliant on these institutions to channel their graduates in our direction so we have an abundance of human capital to foster growth of our businesses.

In order for these schools to be successful in technology-related education, however, they must have the involvement of our local business community, particularly ones that are in the technology business, or ones whose day-to-day operations are dependent upon a number employees to manage the information technology function of the company.

How can a business get involved?  A number of ways come to my mind, including having company management, especially Chief Information Officers and heads of the IT function, participate in the shaping of the curriculum at our area colleges. This can be accomplished by volunteering for an advisory board or committee, by periodically meeting with faculty members or administrators, or by volunteering to be a guest speaker during a class. 

Faculty and administrators need our input in order to continually revise and update course offerings as new technology is introduced into the business world. We can be a valuable asset interpreting and explaining why a new form of technology will be important for students to learn and understand. 

Probably the most beneficial help we can provide is to offer internships or part-time jobs for students who are focusing on IT or Computer Science. In this economy, many businesses are operating with as few employees as possible in order to keep costs down, and IT departments today are stretched.  What better way to address that problem than bringing in a young, enthusiastic college student to support the IT staff in your company, or to have them help begin a new technology initiative that has been delayed due to manpower or dollar constraints?

For the student, it will be a very important and valuable experience to be part of a business, even for only a short period of time.  New graduates will be more successful in their first jobs when they already have had the experience of being a member of company’s IT department.  They will understand how a business operates, how the IT function can be a great enabler of the business, and how employees at the company interact with each other, with management, and with customers.

If you want to get involved with VSU, JTCC or RBC, here is a brief overview of the IT and Computer Science programs at each school as well as contact information.

Virginia State University: In 2007 VSU opened a new three-story, 77,000-sf building to house the School of Engineering, Science and Technology.  This year there are more than 1,200 students enrolled in the school, which includes the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, and the Department of Engineering and Technology. Degrees available include Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Industrial and Logistics Technology, Manufacturing Engineering, and Electrical Engineering.  Contact: Dr. Dawit Haile, Chairman-Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, 804-524-5920 or dhaile@vsu.edu. 

John Tyler Community College:  At JTCC various IT programs are offered that allow students to pursue a four-year degree after earning an Associate degree there, or move directly into IT or business-related employment after earning an Associate degree or a Career Studies Certificate. Students intending to enter the workforce after one or two years can specialize in Cisco Network, Computer Applications, Network Support, and Program Development.  JTCC has become a Cisco Networking Academy and started its first class for Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) last fall.  The Associate in Applied Science degree includes a fourth semester internship. Contact: Dr. Mark Cohen, Professor, Information Systems Technology, 804-594-1491 or mcohen@jtcc.edu.  

Richard Bland College:  RBC is the only state-supported junior college in Virginia. Students there have access to the latest technology to enhance their learning experience, and the Computer Science curriculum is continually being updated and revised.  RBC offers an Associate in Science Degree, and the college’s Computer Science Department includes courses such as Computer Concepts, Computer Applications I and II, and Computer Programming I and II, which are designed for those planning to major in computer science in their junior year.  The college has wired and wireless capability in its new residence halls, and the library has been expanded to include numerous workstations and availability of professional assistance, with all new equipment. Contact: Dr. Vernon Lindquist, Provost, (804) 862-6210 or vlindquist@rbc.edu 

Entrance to Virginia State University’s new Engineering Building

Bangalore office employees along with Owner/GM Tom Bandy, who worked in our Bangalore office during the month of August.

In addition to our Petersburg, Va. headquarters, we also have an owned, dedicated office in Bangalore, India currently staffed by 13 BandyWorks employees. The office is managed by an experienced and talented team of IT and business professionals, and business professionals. Our development staff there includes senior software engineers, senior developers, developers, DBAs, testers and web designers.

Bangalore is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is India’s third most populous city with approximately 5.3 million people, and is home to some of the most well-recognized colleges and research institutions in the country.

Numerous software companies as well as aerospace, telecommunications and defense-related organizations are located in the city. Bangalore is known as the Silicon Valley of India because of its preeminent position as the nation's leading IT employer and exporter of IT products and services. With an economic growth rate of 10.3% annually, Bangalore is the fastest growing major metropolis in India and is the 28th most populous city in the world.

In 1985, Texas Instruments became the first multinational corporation to establish operations in Bangalore. Other Information Technology companies followed suit and by the end of the 20th century, Bangalore had firmly established itself as the Silicon Valley of India. For awhile after Microsoft Corp. set up its software development center in Hyderabad in 1998, it looked as though Bangalore was losing out on new foreign information technology investments to Hyderabad, which is the capital of the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh, and to Chennai, the capital city of another neighboring state, Tamil Nadu. By 1999, however, the trend was reversed when Intel Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., ZiLOG Inc. and a number of other companies set up design and development centers in Bangalore. Since then the city has retained its place as the center of India’s information technology industry.