Here is an interest article from sdtimes about SAP’s 7 Drivers of Development Innovation.
To summarize:
- Interview users for requirements, not executives
- Ensure you have an application layer separate from your UI (sometimes called Service Layer)
- SaaS works. i.e. hosted software works
- Use in-memory databases
- Speed matters
- Don’t focus on UI glitz
- SOA will accelerate software development
I’m not entirely convinced about point 7 but the other points are certainly sound.