Application development

Helping clients build the best software systems is the core of our business; it’s what we have spent most of our time doing for the last 16 years, whether that means an enterprise business application, or an iPhone app. To that end, we work with the latest in tools, languages, patterns, and platforms – whoever makes them – and test their strengths and weaknesses to be sure we can always recommend the most appropriate fit. You’ll sometimes hear our people say that we are language or platform agnostic.

But rather than agnostic, it might be better to say we’re curious. ThoughtWorkers like nothing better than to discuss (well, argue!) about whatever language / platform / project method is gaining buzz in IT. If you’ve heard about it, we probably have people around the globe debating and testing whether it has any real-world applicability.

When we first heard of Ruby, for instance, we were curious. Is there substance to the buzz? ThoughtWorkers looked into it based on their client situations. And the ideas came in - low-cost internal prototypes; web-based apps with aggressive time-to-market needs; and so on. And now ThoughtWorks and clients have created some industry-leading applications, in lightning-quick timeframes, using Ruby/Ruby on Rails.

The bottom line

The optimal choices depend on your situation. And while we keep our options open because of that, we do work closely with vendors as well as Open Source projects. We’re a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, for instance, and we’ve adapted Agile methods and tools to take advantage of key features of .NET. ThoughtWorkers have also created some of the largest Java applications and systems in the world. And we’re known to use and contribute to Open Source technologies and frameworks, such as Selenium, because of their demonstrated value within IT organizations.