Host the system on some servers and make it accessible to people via web browsers. Use existing software objects and procedures for administrative tasks like user logins and system backup and recovery. Congratulations; you've just developed Version 1.0 of a new business application system. It's a stable and scalable 80 per cent solution that business people can immediately put to use and start generating value.

If you stick to a 30-day development schedule to do all of these steps, you'll find it's a lot easier to stay focused on the most important system features and a lot easier to resist temptations to complicate the design and programming of the system. Tight time frames are actually a good thing (I know this is counterintuitive...); they save people from wasting time on over analyzing things, from arguing about minutia, from persistent scope creep, and from attempting tricky and complex coding.

Tight time frames also make it easier for business and technical people to come to consensus on system features; time is short so people have to focus on the most important stuff. And remember, whatever is left out of the first version, you can always come back and add on in the next version. Many times you will find it is just as well you don't try to develop complex system features anyway because it turns out people don't really need them (or don't understand them and can't use them).

If what I've said here makes you angry, consider the source of your anger. Is it because this approach robs you of time to play around with cool new technology and write clever, complex code that you can brag about to your friends? But clever complexity is actually nothing to brag about; it is just a sign of an incompletely solved problem (elegant simplicity indicates a well solved problem). Believe it or not, business value is inversely related to system complexity.

If you're interested in this approach and wondering if it could really be this straight forward, yes it is (and I bet you already suspected as much before you even read this). This is what it means to be agile; it's very powerful. So don't listen to those angry people who want you to believe otherwise.