Paul Scusa, our Director of Software Development (my boss) announced some pretty significant news to our entire software team today: we're going to J2EE and Flex, and will be implementing the Rational Unified Process.

Of course, I'm thrilled. If you've been following my blog, you'll know that I've been burning the midnight oil for some time now, evaluating Macromedia Flex and the Rational Unified Process in preparation for a J2EE push. It's always great to see hard work pay off.

I certainly was not the only person involved in the decision making. My counterparts Earle and Jesus at Westgate have put in a lot of time and effort looking at options and evaluating tools and technology, and without the feedback of the team as a whole it would have been a much harder decision for senior management to make. Of course, it also took a huge leap of faith from Paul and our CIO (Stacey Jackson) to sign off on this initiative and feel confident about the ability of our teams to adapt to the new technologies and put them to use.

Change is always a little scary (no matter how good the change may be), but the overall attitude of the development teams appeared to be positive and optimistic. We've got a long road ahead of us, but the expectations Paul and Stacey set for the gradual roll out are realistic enough that we can meet them without too much strain.

I'm certainly excited to be a part of this process, and I can't wait to see the look on the faces of our users as we deliver our first applications on the shiny new technology platforms.