Digital Publisher
Accelerates Development Time by 80% Thanks to Ensono Stacks

The client is a digital publishing and software company that curates, digitizes and publishes collections of historical resources for education and research. The organization uses the latest technology to make digitized primary sources available for use in interdisciplinary teaching and research. It partners with libraries, archives and heritage organizations to digitize a rich array of primary sources—ranging from the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays to the design archives of an office furniture manufacturer to photographs taken during the Mexican Revolution—and much more.

The client’s existing SaaS-based publishing platform included a DAM, CMS and hundreds of published sites (or “publications”), which serve as front-end sites for its clients. The platform was built on a legacy .NET Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework, which had grown organically over about 15 years. This approach prompted a “crisis of complexity” for the client, which meant the legacy technology no longer met its current business needs and would not easily support future growth.

Additionally, the client had recently secured its first non-English speaking client, a development that prompted an urgent need to add multilingual capabilities as soon as possible.

One of the unique aspects of our client’s approach to the redesign was to put its customers and their needs at the heart of the website’s new front end. The goal was to make the new interface reflect how the client and its customers use it daily. The desire was to replicate previous behavior at the front end but implement a modern technology stack to improve security, scalability and stability while gaining a system that supports future business growth.

The client outlined a technology strategy that included a rebuilding of the front-end UI for the published sites on a more modern framework as well as a switch to Azure.  The client engaged Ensono for consultancy services to determine the best stack to put in place and to identify changes that needed to be made and to upskill its in-house expertise. The new front end had to be flexible to fit most use cases and be readily available to internal engineers who would be responsible for ongoing maintenance. It was essential that updates be implemented quickly to support the client’s other planned changes.

The client chose Ensono for consultancy services based on the team’s expertise, successful projects for previous clients, ability to deliver, and capacity to provide guidance for the internal engineering team.

We proposed using Ensono Stacks, our open source “software code factory,” as the tool for bootstrapping the re-platforming of the legacy front-end system. This approach to software development accelerates cloud software delivery performance, reduces risks of building new cloud applications, and increases software teams’ velocity and efficiency.

Additionally, the versatility of Ensono Stacks as a code generator made it an ideal solution to kick off the project. Our team worked closely with the client to analyze its needs and determine a target architecture to replace the existing front-end system.

After our initial analysis, we provided the client with access to 34 Architectural Decision Records (ADRs) as the starting point for building the new code. The full Ensono Stacks ADR catalog and related record keeping (“why the decisions are made”) are based on hundreds of successful client projects.

Using these pre-determined ADRs improved the predictability of the project’s outcome and accelerated the client’s time to market. A set-up process that typically takes up to 2-4 weeks was shortened to 1-2 days by using Ensono Stacks, backed by its ADR catalog. These productivity gains were particularly valuable in the early days of the project when every hour counted.

Next, we worked with the client to define which APIs would drive the new front end and built the codebase against mock data, keeping in mind how the users would interact with the finished product. Ultimately, we delivered a codebase that was reliable and tested to high-quality industry code standards and architectural best practices. In the final stage, we executed a phased handover to the client’s internal engineering team, who would take over ongoing maintenance of the new front-end system.

The collaboration between Ensono and our client provided substantial business value, including:

• Reduced set-up time: The use of Ensono Stacks reduced initial code generation time and costs by 80%.
• More predictable outcomes and accelerated time to market: Client gotimmediate access to Ensono Stacks’ Architectural Decision Records (ADRs) which increased the project’s predictability and sped up deployment.
• Multi-lingual support: Newly added multi-lingual capabilities enabled adding non-English collections to the website and increased the pool for potential clients.
• Improved accessibility: Improved the accessibility of the client’s website.
• Access to quality code standards & industry best practices: Ensono Stacks includes quality code standards and architectural best practices built into the delivered codebase; providing a solid foundation on which to build new software. Additionally, the client’s internal team gained upskilling while working side-by-side with Ensono Stacks team.

Because it is open source, Ensono Stacks is continuously being improved and new ADRs are being added, from which the client can benefit if they decide to use it in the future. We left the Ensono Stacks framework or “scaffolding” in place so that the client’s internal team could use it again for quick-start code generation as they add new features for their clients.

This approach will not only save time, but also derisk future projects by following the built-in industry standards and continued access to the ADR catalog. Additionally, the client’s back-end teams have access to a set of tests that act as a safety net to derisk back-end projects that could have a negative effect on the front-end website.