# \[OT\] What's so special about Rails?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-whats-so-special-about-rails/108358>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 2, 2007, 7:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-whats-so-special-about-rails/108358 "2007-07-02T19:00:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2007, 7:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-whats-so-special-about-rails/108358/1 "2007-07-02T19:00:39Z")

</div>

In one of my next articles for O’Reilly, Boss will ask CB or Paul to put  
together a **short** ‘argument’ that he can use with his management and  
business customers to expand the IT group’s use of Rails. What follows  
is my current stab. Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks,  
Bill

=========================================================

What’s so special about Rails?  
The Business Edition

Rails allows project teams to communicate more effectively and  
efficiently, to reduce the waste that miscommunication causes, and to  
reduce the costs of insuring against it. It does this by fundamentally  
enabling the use of working prototypes and automated tests in our  
development process.

Prototypes are the most effective way to gather and validate the needs  
of consumers of I.T. systems. Business analysts can be quickly trained  
to produce Rails prototypes. And Rails prototypes aren’t “throw aways.”  
They’re working Rails applications that the programming team extends to  
make “production ready.”

Automated testing is the most efficient way to execute large numbers of  
tests. In addition, experience has shown that the development of  
automated tests, done concurrently with the development of the code to  
be tested, increases the both the efficiency and effectiveness of the  
development process. Automated test capabilities are an integral part of  
the Rails framework. Testers can be quickly trained to produce  
automated test suites with Rails to deliver, along with the  
customer-validated prototypes, to the development team. Those tests  
provide guidance to development and provide assurance to the customer  
that the completed application will perform as required. The  
development team extends that test suite as it extends the prototype,  
providing ongoing assurance that the application performs both as  
required and as designed. And all of the tests can be delivered with  
the completed application to the Operations team to help them validate  
that the production environment is configured correctly and that the  
application is functioning correctly prior to “going live.”

Because business analysts and testers can use the same tool set the  
developers are using, Rails makes possible a level of communication that  
we’ve never had before. Our entire project team can “talk the same  
talk” and “walk the same walk.” Used with intent and discipline, Rails  
can produce teams that are connected from idea to implementation;  
delivering more value, cheaper and faster. That’s special.