Getting started with Mendix is easier than you think

Starting with new technology is always exciting. Where do I begin? What does it involve? What will I have at the end? Understandable questions, and ones we get regularly. The nice thing about Mendix is how easy it is to get into. In fact, you can have the basis of your application up and running within a few minutes. In this article we show you how easy it is to get started with Mendix.

You can build an app in Mendix in just two weeks

At JAM-IT we work in periods of two weeks (a sprint). The goal is to deliver a working product, or part of one, at the end of those two weeks. And we always manage it, in fact. These are the steps we go through together with you:

1. Deciding what kind of application it should be

First of all, you need to know in broad terms what your app has to be able to do. What is the goal of the application, and what will the core functionality be?

2. Setting out the minimum requirements

Next we look at which functionality is needed to go live with a first version. We record in a project management tool what we will deliver at the end of this sprint. That way the expectations are clear to everyone.

3. Creating a basic app in Mendix (in a few minutes)

In Mendix you have a basic app up and running within a few minutes. That is a great strength of the Mendix platform. Normally you first have to arrange things like hosting, databases, backups, logging and security. That takes quite a bit of time (and money). In Mendix you click a few buttons and it is all taken care of for you. After that you have a robust foundation to build your application on.

4. Adding functionality

Mendix is a low-code platform. Platforms like this are very visual and offer ready-made building blocks. You can combine them by drag-and-drop. Coding is only needed when you deviate from the standard. That means we can often build in the functionality you want very quickly.

5. Taking the application live

Has everything been tested and are we ready to go live? That goes very quickly too. Version control in Mendix means we can easily roll out new versions and go back to older ones if we need to.

6. Monitoring

After go-live we keep a close eye on the health of your app. Mendix makes this easy with clear trend graphs, automatic alerts, live logs and debugging options. These tools help us to track down problems quickly and keep the app running smoothly.

Start small

We understand that having a large application built in a new platform all in one go is daunting. Fortunately, that is not necessary at all. You can happily start small in Mendix. Digitalise a small, less important process in Mendix first, for example. Or move only part of a process into Mendix and let the rest carry on the old way (we recently wrote this article about that).

Starting small brings a number of important advantages:

• It feels far less overwhelming
• You get results very quickly, which lifts the energy in your team and keeps stakeholders happy
• You can test and gather feedback before taking the next step

That last advantage in particular matters enormously. After every step you learn new things and can adjust course. As a result you end up with a much better application than if you had done everything in one go.

We would be happy to show you how simple it is

Not sure whether Mendix is right for your organisation? Put us to the test. We can show you what is possible in a single day.