Methodos Sytima

5 Bad Communication Habits You Must Ditch Now!

2015-03-12T23:21:00.001-05:00

Whatever your skill, whatever your trade, whatever your profession you will have to talk to others. At church the other day, our pastor touched up on 5 bad communication habits that we must quit ASAP.

This was very good stuff. I've got to share these with you, so here we go:

Ulterior Motive

Choosing to talk to others only when it suits / benefits us or because we have a hidden agenda is a pattern that our audience (spouse, coworkers, friends, etc.) will pick up on if we do it often enough. This bad habit tends to cheapen the communication and in the long run erodes your credibility with the other party. Stop doing that! Do not just seek conversation only when you need something. Learn to follow up on previous topics. Offer help. Initiate conversation about something positive.

Never Closing the Loop

Whenever communication occurs, disagreements will occur. Choosing not to bring those up again (i.e. not giving closure to the disagreement) will damage a relationship. Stop that! Instead, use those differences to as a bridge. Use those disagreements as a way to keep the communication open.

Fighting

We can get passionate about what we believe. Sometimes, we can go overboard. Many a times this is driven by the desire to be right. Stop! Communication is not about winning. Keep in mind that the relationship itself is important - more so than the fight or the win.

Lying

Lies, even little ones or seemingly insignificant ones tend to lead to the next lie, and the next. Stop that! Do not lie. Period. Honesty is always the best policy and besides the truth is easier to remember than lies.

Interrupting

This is one bad habit with which I struggle, a lot. When the other person speaks, the tendency is to not pay attention to their words. We actively disengage from listening. Because of it, we concentrate our attention to the next thing we are going to say. Stop that! Listen. Actively. Intently. By becoming an active listener we can better understand the other person's argument. Communication can thrive.

There you have it. If you are thirsty for more on this very topic, I have conveniently packaged a Google Search for other articles on this very topic.

Do you have a list of your own? Please, by all means, share it with us in the comments!

DYI SEO - A Few Basic Tips on Search Engine Optimization to Get the Eyeballs Rolling

2015-03-07T22:45:00.000-06:00

You want more hits on the content you publish. You want higher click-through rates. You probably want to make sure your site is Optimized for Search Engines. You want SEO - Search Engine Optimization.

At least for me, this term (SEO) used to be one of those concepts that seemed so sophisticated that maybe I was not going to be able to attain full understanding of it. I mean... If I was to really, truly understand this, I would have to pack my bags, leave behind my loved ones and move to Tibet for 7 years and study with a monk to then come under full understanding.

Then, like with many things in IT, I cracked open an instance of Google Chrome and did a few searches... Then I learned a few things... cool things about SEO and what it entails. The bullet points and links below are the few recurring themes that I was able to come across while researching the concept of SEO from a newbie's perspective. In other words... let me do the math so you don't have to.

I did spend an hour or so reading through the links similar to the ones below. This task definitely increased my understanding of SEO (by a lot more than when I started to write this post). It also inspired me to go ahead and apply several of these tips and techniques to this blog. As a way to measure progress (if any), I went to the Alexa site to rank my blog site. My ego got a little bit bruised when I realized that Alexa ranked my site in the 26,256,809th spot. But then I thought about it for a little bit.... How many sites are on the internet right now? Well... it just so happens that there is an answer for that. At the time of typing this post, there were about 1,230,000,000 sites on the internet. That means if my site is ranked somewhere in the 26 million slot, then my blog site is in the top 2.135% of websites in the world! Not bad for a "once-in-a-while" posting job! (Ego Health Status = OK).

Key Concepts

Very nice basic instruction set from the folks at shoutmeloud.com

Interesting Tips

Free key word checker: SEO SERP Workbench an app for Google Chrome
Plagiarism checkers
(will add other tools as I revisit this post - I want to see how my little SEO improvements increase my site rankings)

Search Engine Specific Tips

Optimize Your Blogger Blogs by changing your template's title.
More Blogspot tips here.
Great things come in threes... so here is one more for good measure.

Finally, in the interest of raising the global intellectual IQ on this topic, if you spot any out-of-date descriptions or erroneous information, please, kindly use the comments section to politely point out the issue (keep drama to an absolute minimum).

Skill Test: Tutoring Business Model

2015-03-03T00:12:00.000-06:00

In a previous post, I discussed the use of fictitious situations to use as a discussion platform to "test drive" the skills and thought processes of a potential candidate during an interview. The example below details the aspects of a solution for Private Tutors.

Discussion Topic: Private Tutoring Services

Context:

Erica is very good at Math and loves the subject. She is a junior in college and has realized that she can help others by sharing what she knows. Two months ago she helped one of her friends with some aspects of a Calculus assignment. She explained the concepts to her friend and was able to get a better grade. Better yet, her friend understood the principles. She credited Erica for it and told many of her friends. Now Erica's phone is ringing off the hook. There are several people that would like her help. Erica thinks that, like her, there are probably many other people around the nation's colleges and universities who could be helping others get better grades.
Pretend, you are Erica's friend who is a candidate for a M.S. Computer Science and she approaches you about how to build a system that can bright students around the country to

advertise their tutoring services
set prices for hours of tutoring
keep a calendar of appointments
collect payments
publish content relevant to a topic in their area of expertise

What to ask the candidate

System Analysis and Design Track

please construct a UML Use Case diagram that shows the main aspects of the system that could satisfy the most of Erica's needs
please construct a UML conceptual model diagram that shows all the aspects of the house in the "tutoring services" portion above.
please construct a UML class diagram that represents the home described above

Data Modeling Track

please, construct an entity relationship diagram (ERD) that can be used to represent the home described above

What to look for

assuming that you know UML, compare and contrast what the candidate came up with and what you would have come up with
pay extra attention to the assumptions that the candidate made. If they do not mention any assumptions, please, simply ask them: What assumptions did you make as you were thinking about this problem?
Use this opportunity to ask questions and experiment / explore what it would be like to work with this individual

Book Review - "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug

2015-02-26T21:36:00.000-06:00

I love to develop software. That is one of the places where I can find my "tov." One aspect of software development that always bothered me was my belief that I could not excel at all areas of the software development life cycle. Let me explain...

If we visualize a software application and break it down in conceptual layers, we could divide that application in the following order:

User Interface
User Interface Logic
Business Logic
Data Access Logic
Database

Many software professionals work well on all the layers. Some of us choose to specialize on a few of the layers and really good work. In my case, I used to feel much more comfortable analyzing a domain and designing a solution for it across the bottom 4 layers (UI Logic, Business Logic, Data Access Logic and Database). I used to consider myself "average" on the User Interface one. I used to think "well I'm not an artist; therefore, I'm not going to be able to put together a good UI."

Fortunately for me, I was wrong.

After reading the book "Don't Make Me Think", by Steve Krug, I realized that designing a good user experience it is not ONLY about having an artistic eye. There are many aspects that need / must come together in order to achieve fantastic user experiences.

This book will make you "think" about building user interfaces that engage and capture the attention of users. It focuses on the power of asking questions. Simple yet powerful questions about usability. For me, Krug cleared away the feelings I had about needing to wear a black beret, a tiny goatee and cool-looking, round frame glasses in order to be able to create engaging, useful applications.

After reading Krug's book. I started to seek and devour UX-related resources. I felt encouraged and empowered to awaken more creating abilities within me. My "tov" overflows!

Learning UX: Give it a try... it may unlock the hipster within.

If you have read Krug's book, please, leave a comment and tell us about your experience. Also, if you have used other UX resources... share away!

Principle vs. Style: On which of these two hills are you willing to die?

2015-02-26T00:40:00.002-06:00

In matters of style, flow with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

How can a person decide whether or not to have an argument over any topic? Perhaps understanding the difference between "style" and "principle" might give us a clue.

As a participant in the IT industry, it is very easy to get wrapped up into arguments (and even conflict) about how to implement a solution or why a technology is better than another. Some times, perhaps more than we would be willing to admit, the time we invest (maybe waste) while participating in these discussions could be used in other, much productive, tasks.

For the purpose of this piece, I'm not including arguments that occur between parties who are intellectually honest and genuinely seeking an optimal solution to a problem. I particularly enjoy those types of discussions because at the end of one of them, typically, I end up increasing my knowledge on a topic or cementing the command / mastery I have regarding that topic.

You probably know the type of arguments on which I'm trying to focus. The kind of arguments that lead no-where fast. You can spend 90+ minutes of painful discussion and not be any better off. No growth. No progress. No life.

The question we are then left with is: when is it worth engaging in these types of arguments? Perhaps good-old T.J. (see quote above) can give us a clue.

Before engaging in arguments and spending valuable time, ensure that you are debating what you consider to be a "principle." Make sure you state your position clearly about the principle you are defending. At this point, two things can transpire. Either the principle you are defending is validated or you find out that you were wrong and make adjustments to your thinking accordingly. Either way, you win! Do not forget to:

Be an engaged / active listener. Concentrate on fully understanding what your opponent says and means
Be intellectually honest
Stick to facts, don't rely on opinion
Be courteous
Be respectful

The second you realize you are about to pick an intellectual fight about matters of "style," take a knee. Issues of style tend to be subjective and therefore are governed by what a person's opinion on the subject at hand. These are very difficult arguments to entertain.

If, after taking a knee and considering the potential conflict ahead, you still think that it is worthwhile have an argument / heated discussion about matters of style, consider the following:

Be an engaged / active listener. Concentrate on fully understanding what your opponent says and means
Be intellectually honest
Stick to facts, don't rely on opinion
Be courteous
Be respectful

I'm sure that we can spend the next 3 years adding attributes to this list. I suspect, by now, you get the main point.

If you feel lead, I invite you to share your thoughts or anecdotes about this topic. Let us know how / when you choose to fight for a cause (principle) or go with the flow (style).

Beginner's C# resources and cheat sheet for the VB.NET developer

2015-02-25T23:52:00.000-06:00

My experience as a Microsoft developer goes all the way back to Visual Basic 3. When .NET came out, I naturally transitioned to VB.NET. I received advice, years ago to also learn C# along-side VB, but I did not listen to that advise. In late 2013, I started the transition to C#. Although, the craft is not mastered yet, I am getting much better at it. If you are in the same situation, the following notes highlight tools and references that helped me grow in this area, my hope is that these can assist you in your practice. Feel free to comment and share other tips / tricks / tools that have helped you in your own journey to become a sharper C# developer.

On-line Resources

C# Language Reference
VB.NET to C# code translator
LINQ 101
UI

XAML

WPF
Silver Light

Presentation Patterns

MVVM
MVC
MVP
Caliburn.Micro

Suggestions on Layered Architecture

UI
UI Controller
Business Logic
Data Access Layer
Database

StackOverflow.com

99% guaranteed that someone has asked the same question you have in mind (maybe I'm over emphasizing for effect)

and last, but not least, when all else fails, Google.com
This search engine is also getting a lot smarter too: Bing.com

Skill Test: Sushi Restaurant Model

2013-12-04T21:08:00.000-06:00

Discussion Topic: Sushi Bar Restaurant Model

Context:

Margo has a successful sushi-bar restaurant business. However, it is not automated. She would like to introduce automation to how her business can interact with customers. She would like a system that:

allows the sushi chef to plan the sushi menu for a given period (daily, weekly, bi-weekly) basis of the different dishes that the restaurant will serve on a given day. A dish is comprised of a number of ingredients. Margo and her staff chef decide how many servings of a particular dish they will serve on a given day. Based on that serving count, they will create the shopping list for that period. Every dish type that has no meat will have a fixed price (at the discretion of the Margo or the chef). Every meat-based dish will have a variable price (only Margo can set the price on each day).
allows Margo and / or chef to set the price for each dish. There are 5 price categories for a serving of a dish: top-shelf, premium, yum-yum, muy-rico, and not-too-bad. Each price category will be served on a saucer plate color-coded for the price: red, yellow, orange, blue, and green (respectively)
When a dish is built and apportioned into servings that dish must be served on the plate of the corresponding color that was determined during the menu generation process
Allows a customer to check-in by using either the mini-kiosk located at the table or by interacting with the system via a phone app
Allows the customer to place their order of drinks
As the customer consumes the serving on a sushi plate the system keeps tally of the color of the plate and how many plates the customer has consumed
Allows the customer to check out, pay for the meal (based on consumption) and add any gratuity. On Sundays, gratuity is automatically added to the meal if they consume more than 10 servings of a given dish. They amount of the gratuity is set at 10%, but the system should allow Margo to configure it when needed.

Feel free to edit this to your needs and set up aspects of the problem to cater for the type of skill you are looking for

What to ask the candidate

System Analysis and Design Track

please construct a UML conceptual model diagram that shows all the aspects of the house in the "context" portion above.
please construct a UML class diagram that represents the home described above
please construct a UML system sequence diagram that illustrates any of the interactions listed above that you consider interesting
please construct a UML use case diagram based on the description above
Would make any modifications to the system behaviors described by Margo? How would you go about suggesting any modifications to Margo and the chef?

Data Modeling Track

please, construct an entity relationship diagram (ERD) that can be used to represent the home described above

What to look for

assuming that you know UML, compare and contrast what the candidate came up with and what you would have come up with
pay extra attention to the assumptions that the candidate made. If they do not mention any assumptions, please, simply ask them: What assumptions did you make as you were thinking about this problem?
Use this opportunity to ask questions and experiment / explore what it would be like to work with this individual

Skill Test: Model of a Library System

2013-12-02T21:42:00.000-06:00

Discussion Topic: Library System

Context:

The town of Anyville has raised enough funds to build a custom system to support the activities of the town's library. The system in question will need to be able to administer the creation of new patron's accounts. After an account is issued, then the patron will be allowed to check out any of the resources stored in the library. Every resource kept in the library (book, periodical, digital media, computing devices, meeting rooms, maps and reference materials) can be checked out or reserved for patron's use. The system must allow for the easy process of returned material and help library staff to return materials back to the correct shelf location. The system should also allow the body of material to be accessible to be searched on-line. Patrons with "good user standing" status can reserve materials on-line and pick up at the library. Only books and digital media (CDs, DVDs) can be reserved on-line. All other resources have to be requested in person at the library. The system should allow managerial reports to present delinquency status and trends over time. Also, it should provide managers with a report listing out the top 5 most sought after resources in the different classification categories. The system should also be able to produce alerts at the point of check out or on-line reservation about a patron's delinquency status.
Feel free to edit this to your needs and set up aspects of the problem to cater for the type of skill you are looking for

What to ask the candidate

System Analysis and Design Track

please construct a UML Use Case diagram of the most important use cases of the system
please construct a UML conceptual model diagram that shows all the aspects of the house in the "context" portion above.
please construct a UML class diagram that represents the home described above
please construct a UML system sequence diagram that illustrates interactions of major aspects of the system

Data Modeling Track

please, construct an entity relationship diagram (ERD) that can be used to represent the home described above

What to look for in your candidate's answers:

assuming that you know UML, compare and contrast what the candidate came up with and what you would have come up with
pay extra attention to the assumptions that the candidate made. If they do not mention any assumptions, please, simply ask them: What assumptions did you make as you were thinking about this problem?
Use this opportunity to ask questions and experiment / explore what it would be like to work with this individual

Skill Test: Model of a Book Store

2013-12-01T22:25:00.002-06:00

Discussion Topic: Book Store

Context:

RareBooks.com specializes in rare books. They cater to the amateur and old book collector enthusiasts. They are in need of a system that allows them to collect, update and show their current collection of books. Books are cataloged by the standard library cataloging system. For each book they have they need to track the book's title, author, year of publication and how rare the book is (one-of-a-kind, scarce, common). The system should also be able to tell which rack and bin the book is stored in the vault and how was the book acquired (drop-by donation, antique store purchase, well known benefactor donation) and which community / town was the origin of the book. The system should also help manage the semi-annual book donation drive in three of the surrounding communities. The system should also provide the ability for other similar shops to perform searches on the collection of books held at this location. Since this is the largest such rare book library in the country, they get to decide the interface by which other rare-book libraries get to perform searches in the catalog
Feel free to edit this to your needs and set up aspects of the problem to cater for the type of skill you are looking for

What to ask the candidate

System Analysis and Design Track

please construct a Use Case diagram of a system that would support the requirements of RareBooks.com
please construct a UML conceptual model diagram that shows all the aspects of the house in the "context" portion above.
please construct a UML class diagram that represents the home described above
please construct a UML system sequence diagram that shows the interactions of other rare-book libraries as they search RareBooks.com's collection of books

Data Modeling Track

please, construct an entity relationship diagram (ERD) that can be used to represent the system requirements described above

What to look for in your candidate's answers:

You can choose which area you would like the candidate to elaborate more on (i.e. CRUD capabilities, external party service interface, a mobile implementation of this system)
assuming that you know UML, compare and contrast what the candidate came up with and what you would have come up with
pay extra attention to the assumptions that the candidate made. If they do not mention any assumptions, please, simply ask them: What assumptions did you make as you were thinking about this problem?
Use this opportunity to ask questions and experiment / explore what it would be like to work with this individual

Skill Test: Model of a House

2013-12-01T22:09:00.001-06:00

Discussion Topic: A House

Context:

Consider a standard family home. This home has 4 bedrooms (one of them is a master bedroom [20 x 20] with a walk-in closet and a full bathroom). A large guest room [20 x 20] and 2 smaller bedrooms [15 x 15]. This home also has a large family room with a fireplace and a large kitchen that opens up to a full size deck (200 sq ft). It also has a finished basement. There are 2 rooms [15 x 15] in the basement and a large rec room with a wet bar adjacent to it. There is also a full bathroom in the basement.
Feel free to edit this to your needs and set up aspects of the problem to cater for the type of skill you are looking for

What to ask the candidate

System Analysis and Design Track

please construct a UML conceptual model diagram that shows all the aspects of the house in the "context" portion above.
please construct a UML class diagram that represents the home described above

Data Modeling Track

please, construct an entity relationship diagram (ERD) that can be used to represent the home described above

What to look for in your candidate's answers:

assuming that you know UML, compare and contrast what the candidate came up with and what you would have come up with
pay extra attention to the assumptions that the candidate made. If they do not mention any assumptions, please, simply ask them: What assumptions did you make as you were thinking about this problem?
Use this opportunity to ask questions and experiment / explore what it would be like to work with this individual

Your app is mobile, now what?

2013-12-01T21:20:00.000-06:00

I'm in a Microsoft Windows development shop. All layers (UI / UI Controllers / Business Layer / Data Access / Database) are built with Microsoft products. We now have some folks working on what's the best technology stack that we should adopt to provide mobile capabilities for some of our apps' features and functionality, but which way is the right one to choose?

The fork on the road for this choice has many options. To get an idea of the amplitude of choices you can visit www.propertycross.com. The creators of this site (Colin Eberhardt and Chris Price) have come up with a very simple business problem domain: how to show properties for sale in a given location or geographical location via any mobile device running the Windows Phone, Android, or iOS platforms. They then proceeded to provide solutions (in some cases recruiting extra help) to that "business problem" in several mobile Frameworks (including native implementation for each platform). They use lines-of-code metric in order to make comparisons between the code that is generated for each of the Framework-specific implementations. For each implementation, PropertyCross.com shows you the total lines of code that are common across the platforms and how many lines of code each of the platform-specific implementations took. They are also tracking any bugs pertinent to each implementation. For more specific requirements about the business problem that PropertyCross.com is trying to address, please visit the following link.

I am not, by any means, a mobile application expert, but I can become a good observer/follower of the experts on this field. As I try to educate myself on this domain, some aspects become critical criteria for making a choice:

what are the business objectives of the "go mobile" initiative

if the business objectives for the mobile effort are not clear it will be very difficult to have a mobile solution that adds positive cash flow to your enterprise

which mobile framework offers support for or the implementation of a presentation pattern: MVVM, MVC, MVP, others?

taking advantage of a presentation pattern can positively impact the amount of common behavior that an application can share as it is implemented in distinct device platforms

which framework aligns best with your current technology stack as far as the talent and know-how you already have

it would be more efficient to minimize the amount of retooling that you need to achieve in order to produce a mobile app

what device features are needed to implement the solution?

if the solution relies on device features like GPS, camera, gyroscopes, motion sensors, peripherals (i.e. credit card reader), then you are better off writing native code to the device
if, on the other hand, your solution does not require any of these device-features, then you should consider reducing your development costs and sticking with a non-native pure Javascript/HTML5 type of solution - don't go to crazy with bells and whistles though, remember JS code execution is interpreted.

Are there other criteria that you would include in your top 3 or top 5 for developing mobile applications? What are some of the challenges (as you see it) that companies are facing today as they choose to go mobile?

Toosl for the job: UML Artifacts, and other Techniques I Always Carry

2013-11-24T23:00:00.000-06:00

To understand an existing system or a problem domain one needs to break it apart into smaller pieces. UML Artifacts have been my tool of choice for decomposing a system or understanding a business problem and designing a solution to address the issues that come up.

The UML Artifacts I commonly use in almost daily basis include:

When doing analysis:

The Use Case diagram is a very powerful tool for obtaining a very quick assertion of the context under which a system or a business process needs to reside. It is very easy to construct. It is also very easy to explain to a business user who has not necessarily been exposed to diagramming tools for analysis and design of systems. It communicates a lot of important information about behavior and who/what (actor) needs to interact with the behavior (use case).

Conceptual Models help take the main concepts depicted on a Use Case diagram and represent them in perspectives that relate them. Also, they are a great way for identifying possible candidates for behavior assignment later on in the development process.

The State Machine diagram is also a very useful tool for understanding the initial condition (state) of business domain entity and how it can be modified as actions are taken on it. This diagram has helped me identify business rules and conditions for taking or not taking actions that can make changes on the state of domain entity.

System Sequence diagrams are also very useful when clarifying, at a high level, steps and interactions between entities involved in a system.

In my experience, these tools allow for almost instantaneous feedback about how well I am understanding the domain, the actors in it and the behaviors that the system needs to implement. It is not uncommon that after drawing one of these diagrams on a whiteboard, the people present in the room can

resolve conflicts or differences of opinion
highlight better designs or ideas for implementing a solution
identify questions that require other resources that may not be present at the time
get every one on, literary, the same page

When doing design:

The UML artifacts that are used more commonly in my daily work include:

Refined Use Case diagram, with a refined Essential or Detailed Use Cases
Activity diagrams or Class Collaboration Diagram (now a probably "old school" artifact) for more complex or difficult areas of a system
Software Design Patterns - these are high caliber type of tools. These are "tried and true" type of solutions to apply for a specific type of problem. They come in many families:

Creational Patterns
Structural Patterns
Behavioral Patterns
Concurrency Patterns

A word on ERD's

One other artifact that is part of my "must know" tool set is the Entity Relationship diagram (my favorite is Martin's notation - Crows Feet). I use this mostly when discussing a system with IT-oriented audience. A lot of times we end up interacting with colleagues and discussing an existing system or new business domain and the conversation invariably turns to the data model that supports the system. It has become very useful for me to understand how to represent a data model in a diagram.

In more broader terms, the main point is to keep in your tool set a battery of techniques and strategies to help you acquire as much relevant information about a system or problem domain, with the highest degree of clarity, in the shortest amount of time. In my experience, this set of information gathering techniques has worked wonders.

What other tools of choice in your tool set have produced similar results?

Test the quality of your assumptions as you analyze, design, code, test and deploy/ship your next app.

2013-11-17T22:59:00.000-06:00

As you prepare to tackle a new project, you probably make sure all the proverbial IT ducks are in a row. From skills sets, tools in both hardware and software, environments, connections... the list seems endless at times. You always make sure to acquire the highest quality of tools and skill sets that your budget can buy. Have you ever considered to inspect the value or the quality of your assumptions as you step into a new project? Failure to keep assumptions in check may lead us to have faith in pursuing a goal of oversimplification, or worse, believing in a myth!

What you assume or assumptions you fail to verify can have a significant impact on the quality of the overall solution you are delivering. In the business of Software Engineering, it is not easy to divest ourselves from assumptions. Some times, that is all we have at the beginning of a project, no matter how big/small. That level of risk is probably acceptable as we try to get a software project up and running, but it must not be the end of our quest for improving the quality of our assumptions.

Based on the work done by Magne Jørgensen, what follows are examples of assumptions that tend to cloud our judgement, especially when we are under pressure to deliver high quality software, cheaply and in the shortest amount of time possible.

Most Communication Is Non Verbal
Brook's Law: "Adding man power to a late software project makes it later."
45% of software features are never used
Factor of 10x increase of error correction in SDLC phases
Productivity ratio of 1:10
Non-Falsifiable Claims

All of these have their own interesting considerations, perhaps worth their own post. However, we'll only concentrate on the last one for the rest of this one: Non-Falsifiable Claims. These are the statements that you may hear from a project stakeholder where they offer a statement that may seem true. How do you handle such statements? Do you accept them? Do you challenge them? How do you challenge them? Jørgensen suggests several reasons why myths and oversimplifications (like the ones listed above) occur, among them:

Confirmation bias: "We see it, when we believe it"
Poor studies
Misunderstood or over-generalized research results
Usefulness bias: when any claim supports our belief we tend not to corroborate its validity
Insufficient check of the validity of a claim
Desire for simple formulas to solve a problem (deterministic relationship)
Belief in authority
Repetition: the more frequent a claim is repeated, the more we believe it

Fortunately for us, there are ways to combat these problems and ensure we are self-aware of the quality of the assumptions we make. According to Jørgensen here are some tools we can use to improve the quality of our assumptions:

Understand the meaning of the claim or assumption. What does it really mean? Is it possible that the assumption is false?
Think about what kind of evidence you would need to find in order to confirm an assumption. When you do, look for such evidence.
Do you have a preexisting bias towards the assumption?
Is the assumption based on a statement from an influential stakeholder?
What is the quality of the evidence that supports the assumption? Who collected it? What was their motivation for it? Is there any evidence at all that supports the assumption?
What does the full body of evidence about the assumption say? How strong is it? If the context of the assumption changes does it still hold true?

As you continue to improve the quality of your IT projects, make sure you keep front and center the level of quality of the assumptions you or the stakeholders make. Learn to check them and reconfirm them as often as possible.

Source:

Jørgensen, Magne. 2012. MS. Simula Research Laboratory, Oslo, Norway. Myths and Oversimplification in Software Engineering. Simula Research Labs, 15 Aug. 2012. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.

Simple Cost Benefit Analysis for the Software Developer

2013-11-12T22:10:00.001-06:00

I took some college courses about finance a few years back. Little did I know that the knowledge I acquired during those sessions was going to become handy during a discussion about the best course of action on a project we were reviewing. In this case, the conversation went something like this:

We need to add functionality "x". If / when we do this our application will perform much better and it would clean up our design.

But the cost to analyze, design, code, and test would be very expensive. You know development hours are expensive! How about we "throw more hardware" at the problem?

It has got to be cheaper than coding it right. Besides, we do not want to over engineer something if we don't have to. Right?

So we decided to do the math and see if the assumptions held up...

Mo' Hardware... Mo' Hardware...

After running some numbers we listed the following costs for the option to add more hardware at the problem:

Monthly cost of virtual server - $125
Monthly cost of SAN space - $0.85 x GB x 40 = $34
# of virtual machines needed 10 (at least)
Total Yearly Cost for this setup: $19080 (Payment [Pmt] at perpetuity)

(10 boxes) x (12 mo) x (125 virtual box) x (40 GB) x (0.85 x GB)

Assuming the following:

our company's return on investment is 8% (r - interest rate)
our hosting service would increase their rates at 0.25% x year (g - growth rate)
we would continue to pay for these boxes for ever

What is the Present Value (PV) of this set up? Well, it just so happens that there is a very simple calculation for these parameters. It goes something like this

PV = Pmt PV = $19,0800 PV = $246,193.55

(r - g) (8% - 0.25%)

As you can appreciate, the cost of of throwing hardware at the problem is almost $250K!

The Development Route

Our preliminary estimates indicated that this effort could be fitted on a regular development cycle (8 business weeks) and could be addressed, comfortably, by allocating between 2 or 3 dedicated development resources. Our internal, company-wide, average, blended rate for development has been set at $62.50 per hour. This yields the following calculations:

Avg. Dev Cost = (6.5hr x day) x (40 days) x ($62.50 x hr) x (2.5 FTE)

Avg. Dev Cost = $40,625

As you can see, the development cost for this effort alone is less than 1/5th of the TCO for renting the hardware.

The moral of this story is to challenge the premise that not doing the right thing, when comes to software development could be more expensive than the seemingly cheaper option. Do the math and argue with science facts not fiction.

Follow this link for additional resources related to calculations related to the Time-Value of money.

CSLA 4.0 Implementation - Update #4

2013-11-12T20:44:00.000-06:00

CSLA:
The location of choice to learn about this technique is Rocky Lohtka's CSLA site. There is also more descriptive information on wikipedia.

It is not easy, but we are (even at this early stage) able to see the potential for making an investment on architecture that offers a logical separation of application layers (UI, UI-Control, Business, Data Access, and Database) that can be deployed in a multiple variety of physical configurations.

The links offered at the top of this page are a great start. There are also a variety of videos on YouTube where the author of CSLA discusses some of its aspects. One interesting aspect of CSLA is the vibrant and helpful user community. It is very supportive. You can take a tour of that community at the CSLA user group forums site.

If this is interesting to you, our recommendation is to really understand the software development principles that CSLA is designed to solve. Rocky himself warns that this is not for everybody or that it should be taken as the last word on SDLC. The first e-book (Using CSLA 4 - CLSA.NET Overview) is a great starting point (specially chapters 2 and 3). In there, Rocky describes the philosophical foundation and makes the case for CSLA. For more information on how to get started with CSLA, please, follow this link.

If this is something you choose to investigate further, you can download the CSLA libraries here. One word of caution (and a mistake we made) is that if you do not have a perfect understanding of .NET 4.0 and higher features (i.e. how to use generic types, XAML, binding, WPF, SL, LINQ, Entity Framework, WCF, Unit Testing, among others), just downloading the code and start learning CSLA by looking at code examples will be a hard, frustrating, and steep road to manage. After trying it that way for a couple of weeks and getting no-where-fast, we decided to purchase a copy of the learning materials and have experienced much more success in learning and taking the steps implementing this.

CSLA 4.0 Implementation - Update #3

2013-11-12T20:34:00.000-06:00

As it is with any new technology, there is a ramp-up time to get proficient at it.
So far, the skill (learning C#) I was expecting to take me a long time to feel "semi-productive" with has taken a lot less time than I had anticipated. The skill (MVVM implementation) I thought was going to be easier to acquire has taken me longer. I'll go through each of the technologies I had to deal with in this journey and come back to this post to add or clarify certain items.

C#:

This one was, to me, the most intimidating, but once I got past the major "grammar" rules (how to declare a variable, how to do an IF block, a FOR loop, a FOR EACH loop, etc.) it was a breeze. I would say that Lambda expressions are the most non-intuitive ones, but once the structure of them is commited to memory, it becomes easier to read and understand the purpose of the instruction. Overall Level: Easy.

XAML (WPF / SilverLight):

I have wrestled with this animal before. It took some time to get reaquinted with it. The most challenging piece was to remember to correctly segreggate the scope of the items defined on the CollectionViewSource. Once those, scope levels are defined and you provide a naming convention that provides you with a good understanding about the data contained in that ViewSource, then you are set! In addition, there are plenty of great examples online to better understand working with XAML.

MVVM (BxF Implementation):

The principle behind this pattern is great! However tracking it in code and appreciating its behavior from reading code is a bit tricky. I ended up drawing UML diagrams to get a static (conceptual model) and dynamic (system sequence diagram) view of how the pattern is implemented with BxF. I am in the process of refining a series of documents to help understand this a little easier for some of my colleagues at our shop. I'll re-post with those materials later.

CSLA 4.0 Implementation - Update #2

2013-11-12T20:28:00.000-06:00

This post contains a list of resources that can help with the learning curve for adoption of CSLA 4.0. It is based on the items listed on Update #1. I will continue to add resources to this list as I come across them.

Microsoft WPF Technical Site

UI Design Patterns

UI Pattern Options

VB.NET to C# code converter

CSLA

Other Links of Interest

101 LINQ

Our CSLA 4.0 Implementation - Update #1

2013-11-12T20:25:00.000-06:00

During the first third of 2013 I learned a lot about CSLA. Most importantly, during that time I realized how much is there to know about this framework.

1. It is not just an ORM tool. It is a framework for developing Business objects based on an Object Oriented Analysis and Design approach (i.e. object-oriented application vs data-driven application).
2. It has a learning curve, but it is worth the investment in it.
3. It follows 4 "simple" steps:

Rely on the Use Case (or User Story) to understand and identify the entities and behavior that the Use Case requires
Identify the required object attributes and CSLA stereotypes for the entities identified
Identify other auxiliary classes that are needed to accomplish the use case (i.e. other classes required to implement Software Patterns)
Determine if there are opportunities for behavioral reuse

4. It will be easier to learn if you already know / understand:

WPF or SilverLight
Model View View-Model presentation pattern
C# language (although you can still use VB.NET)
.NET framework
n-tier architecture
Windows Communication Foundation

5. Requires a lot of reading. If you are drawn to new learning and understanding new software development approaches, this part is the "fun part".
6. Install the demos, read, read, and read some more.

During the year, my hope is to narrate an account of our experience in learning and implementing CSLA 4.0 fully.

Story about implementing CSLA in our IT shop

2013-11-12T20:17:00.000-06:00

For the past couple of weeks we've been doing a "deep-dive" research on CSLA 4.0 and what it can do.
Just to give a backdrop context, at my place of work, we have implemented a flavor of the CSLA.NET 1.0-ish release (back in the early 2000's). It has been stripped of many of its original components (i.e. Remoting, DataPortal, among others). Our CSLA "flavor", has been mainly used as an ORM (object - relational mapper) framework not as a business object framework. Many of the teams consuming the framework have opted for using the CRUD mechanism. Very few take advantage of the n-level undo, the broken rules capabilities, or the use of more complex object graphs and business functionality. We have journeyed through our development cycles under those conditions without rocking the proverbial boat too much during that time.

Now CSLA.NET 4.0 version has been out for a while and we have picked up a book on it and started to take a new, fresh look at it. My initial reaction was to jump into coding some examples but so much has changed and matured with this new version. This version is also pushing me in a new direction about technology that I have been neglecting. C# was new for me, I was mostly a VB.NET guy. It was extremely easy to switch over, for the most part. The most difficult concepts to grasp were:

Lambda Expressions (it will be a while before I can call that skill "mastered")
LINQ Expressions (here is a great set of examples that helped me get over that difficulty)

One realization during this experience is that the CSLA author, Rocky Lhotka, does not consider this framework an ORM tool. He's very specific about making that point. He considers this framework a tool for generating high quality business objects that can help an enterprise encapsulate standardized, repeatable and reusable business rules and behavior within a business domain. The framework does not advocate any particular ORM mapping strategy (although the examples on the sample code assume the use of Microsoft's Entity Framework ORM). There is so much to learn and so little time to do it in the midst of everything else that is going on in our shop. I will try to do regular posts on our experience and if you happen to catch this column and have other intersting aspects to contribute or share, please, do!

The idea is to get better at this, a little bit more, one day at a time.

How-To: Test-drive Software Developer's Skills BEFORE Hiring the Candidate

2013-11-10T19:45:00.002-06:00

The Problem...

In a previous post, we listed out some thoughts and considerations about hiring the ideal candidate for a job opening at your IT shop. In there I made my lame attempt to coin a phrase: Hypothetical Scenario Modeling or HSM for short. While it is probably a very long shot for this to become a "coin-able" phrase, with this post, I'll attempt to describe how to use the HSM approach.

Let me tell you a short story of how this approach evolved. Our IT shop had a new opening for a developer and I was asked to conduct the interviews. So my in-box got filled with resumes from many individuals. I needed to narrow down the list to start the interviewing process. We reduced the original list down to 3 candidates and conducted the conversations with them. They all seemed very nice people and seemed knowledgeable on the topic. They also were very eloquent and gave us the impression that they could be a good fit within our shop. So we made our decision and and finally narrowed down to 1 person. It was hard to do! After all, they were all knowledgeable and sounded like they knew their "stuff." Right?

After a few weeks, which turned into months, we realized that the candidate we picked was not the right choice. The person struggled to follow our ERD models. They claimed they knew UML. They had no clue what a UML was. Clearly, we should have chosen a different candidate, but which of them was the right choice? We wished we could peek inside the brain of the person and really test drive their skills. How could we do that in a 60 minute interview?

A proposed solution...

Come up with a made up scenario, a short story if you will, that can be analyzed in a short span of time and a quick design could be derived from it. It does not have to be THE perfect design. Just something that can allow you an objective picture of what it would be like to work with this candidate and a peek at whether or not the candidate has the skills or techniques listed in the resume they gave you. The way to use this aproach goes something like this:

Prior to the interview

You, and whoever else will participate in the interview, should read the short story
Come up with your own representation of the model - how you would design a system to support the situation described in the short story

ERD or
UML Conceptual Model

Come up with some assumptions you are making about the situation
This exercise works best when you and at least one (at most 2) of your colleagues participate in the interview with the candidate.

During the interview

Ask the candidate if they would play along a small exercise. Explain to them that you have a short story that you were hoping they would read and then participate in mock-design session
If they say "no", then you have some part of the answer on whether or not you would want to hire this person. You also have the choice to continue with the interview at that point.
Assuming the candidate engages in the discussion

Allow some time for them to read and become familiar with the scenario described in the story. Allocate between 15-20 minutes for this part. The story has to be short enough to allow ample time for the candidate to read it and think about it for a few minutes
Have the candidate sketch their proposed design on the whiteboard or a piece of paper
Ask them to come up with a design (expressed as an ERD or a Conceptual Model) that could support the scenario the story describes
Listen to them as they walk you through it
Do not argue about a better way to do something. Remember the goal here is to see how they think and how well the can apply the concepts / techniques they listed on their resume
Ask questions if you need to clarify something the candidate said (remember no arguing)
Take notes about things you liked / disliked
Ask the candidate what assumptions they made as they thought about the design they came up with. If they bring up the assumptions they made before you ask (or even better if they start their discussion with the assumptions) award big bonus points for it!

After the interview

Huddle up with your colleagues and discuss what you thought about the candidate:

Do you see yourself working with this person
Compare your interpretation of the design with the candidate's. Award points for the interesting differences between their interpretation and yours. Avoid awarding points for the similarities. You do not want 2 of you at your IT shop. You want diversity of perspectives
Compare the design that the different candidates came up with
Look for elegance and simplicity

There you have it: a way to test-drive the skills of a software developer candidate who is applying for a development position at your IT shop.

May the best candidate win!

For ideas of modeling scenarios that you can use during your interviews, please, consider the ones listed below:

model of a house
model of a book store
model of a public library
model of tool rental business
model of a tutoring business
model of a video store
model of a sushi-bar restaurant
model of a bug tracking system
model of a personal property inventory
model of parcel shipping business

Agile Note Taking for IT Consulting Sales Professionals

2013-11-09T16:18:00.000-06:00

If you are the sales executive for an IT consulting firm, this post might be for you. Especially if you are looking for ways to improve your own methodology for capturing better information about your clients or potential clients.

The Problem
Over the years, I have interacted with many different sales reps from many IT consulting firms. During that time, I was able to appreciate many different approaches on:

the kinds and relevancy of the questions they ask
how they record answers to those questions
their ability to communicate how they can help
the "repeat index" - how many times I end up answering the same questions

You probably have your pitch already crafted and you also understand very well the capability offerings of the IT consulting firm you represent. However, if you are not able to accurately capture and organize the information that your potential customer is sharing with you, you could loose a very big opportunity. Even bigger problems pile up if you are not able to find, recall or even understand the collection of random, unorganized notes you took during the first encounter with that sales lead. The worst case scenario occurs when your prospect starts to wonder if you were even present the last time you spoke. That is typically when they start to tune you out.

A Proposed Solution
If you think you could use some help with your documentation, and organizing skills, then keep reading because this post is about finding a better way to record, organize, share and learn the info you are able to extract from your customer.

Preparation (before the meeting)

For first time meeting with potential client

Even before you meet with prospect, start a file to collect info about that firm. Understand what they do. What is their business? What is their industry? What is their size? Locations? Are they global?
If you use Google Chrome, or any other browser, create a folder for them to collect interesting links about them.
You can use this research time to prepare a list of questions when you do visit with them
If you find them on social media (Twitter, FB, LinkedIn), follow the company. If you find the person you are meeting with on Twitter, follow them.
Make time to meet with a Systems Architect in your consulting firm and show them what you have found and see if there are interesting questions that they would want to ask about your prospect.

For subsequent meetings with client

Review your notes
If needed, make time to meet with your trusty Systems Architect to discuss any interesting things that have come up in the past or may come up in your next meeting.
If your contact has a LinkedIn account, evaluate if this is a connection worth establishing.

Take Notes (during meeting)

Be an Active Listener
Perfect your note taking skills

The mind and spoken words will always go faster than the speed at which you can write. Try using Mind Map Techniques to get better at taking notes.
You can practice this technique by choosing a topic you know very little about. Go to YouTube and find 5-10 minute videos on the topic. As you watch the video, take notes using the Mind Map notation. Practice, practice, practice.

Gather Up Thoughts (post-meeting)

Document and Archive

Do not procrastinate on this step
While your thoughts are still fresh, take some time go over your notes (ideally the mind map you drew). Base on that you can write up a better summary of your visit.
Consider creating simple, but technically oriented UML diagrams for

documenting a system you discussed with your client

UML Use Case Diagrams are excellent for this

documenting series of interactions your client has with their clients, partners or other third-parties

UML System Sequence Diagrams are a great tool to illustrate these interactions

A Systems Architect at your firm may be able to help you get better at using those UML artifacts

Catalog the business contact information of your client if not done already
As you go through the information you collected, you may have additional questions. This could be a great way to stay in touch with your prospect and reach out. Make sure you don't pepper them with too many questions though.
Make sure you file all the new information you have in the folder you created during the preparation step

Share With your firm's Solution Architect

Again, make time to meet with a Solutions Architect in your consulting firm and show them the new information you have learned.
Use this time to discuss in more detail how your consulting firm is able to help your potential customer
Ask your Systems Architect what questions would be interesting to ask or what information you can share with your prospect the next time you meet
Your Systems Architect may be able to help you refine your documentation, specially the UML artifacts.
Make sure you update your file with any changes or additions after this discussion with your Solutions Architect.

Repeat

Next time you meet with your potential customer or a new lead go to the "Preparation" step and repeat!

In conclusion, the real trick is about improving your ability to record and organize information you collect from your current or potential customers. Over the course of a few visits, you will amass a very valuable package of information about each of your customers. You will forge a good relationship with your colleagues, and most importantly, your customers will start to notice that you really know their needs.

How we chose to implement the data center move (part 2)

2013-11-08T23:43:00.001-06:00

Continued from Part 1

Dealing with our new hosts

From day 1, I thought this new high-tech relationship was not going to last too long. I was proven wrong on my initial reactions. The vendor provided their "A" team. They were very quick at turning over the servers in the PROD environment.
We ran into a few hick-ups (a couple of defective parts network configuration and reordering problems). Other than that we had a relatively good start. I was impressed. Over time me level of confidence grew as we were knocking down issues that would come up. One by one the servers of our data center environment were being turned: VM hosts, Databases, Web Servers, App Servers, etc. We had to step up and install our software and unit test it.

Building the environment

What a ride! The first thing the team tried to figure out was how to organize the 1001 steps we needed to do and in what order. We decided to organize the "punch list" in the order of dependencies for our environment to work. We decided to make sure that for everything to work correctly at the new location we needed (an over simplified list):

The network hardware to be operational and available (both internal and DMZ networks)
initial estimated SAN space was ready to go
The VM Host was installed
The Domain Controllers to be installed and configured
Database servers operational
Application Servers operational
Web Servers operational
Virtual client machines operational

Once all those components were in place we were ready to start our unit tests. One of the benefits of the frameworks we use in our environment allowed us to, over time, create a battery of software unit tests (over 700 and counting). This unit test library allowed us to test in a semi-automatic fashion a decent chunk of the functionality that our QA/Testers were going to cover. Our unit test suite gave us better confidence of overall progress.

Scheduling Testing

In our case, we have an in-house development shop. At the time it was all on-shore development staff. Therefore, in addition to the obvious PROD environment, we also had to take into consideration our QA and DEV environments for this move.

It was challenging to schedule testing around development timelines and scheduled releases of the core apps that we maintain. The time and schedules of Business users, Testers, Developers and QA process colleagues had to be orchestrated just right, almost like the orchestration of a big marching band. What I'm getting at, in so many words, is that you better get a hold of a very good (perhaps even great) Project Manager.

Make sure this person is very seasoned in that trade and most of all, if by any chance there are any treacherous political waters in your organization, do everyone a favor and make sure your PM is aware of them. You most definitively don't want this person to jump into your data center migration project without a nav-chart!

Scheduling User Acceptance

Write this down in an 8.5 x 11 in. piece of paper, in nice big bold font: Some things will go wrong. After you do that, then put it away in place that you can have easy access to. This will serve as a reminder of this fact.

Now the trick... no... better yet... the art of this matter is to communicate, with your utter most politeness, to the business users this inescapable condition. Many of them will understand the situation and maybe even draw up a page like that for themselves. However there is a fraction, about 3.45% of your audience who will not. Make sure you order extra patience as you deal with them. To those folks, you will need to have that discussion over, and over, and over... well, you get the picture.

The big milestone here is to get the group to agree that the mission is a "GO". Resist with all your might any pressure to commit to executing the cut over to the new Data Center if you have division and difference of opinions among the team members. For those who have any reservations on committing to a "go" ask them the following, as needed (some of the following is borrowed from the Core Protocols - check it out at the McCarthyShow.com):

"what is the technical reason why you oppose the 'go ahead'" (or any other aspect of the project)
"in a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being 'I agree with everything'), how would you rate this issue"

as they are answering, do not let them use comments like the following:

"I can't put my finger on it, but something is not right"
"I have a bad feeling about this"
"We've never done it this way before"
Respectfully, point out that those are not "technical reasons"

a follow up question to that is:

"What would it take for you to give it a 10?"

To any one offering negativity or annoying whining comments with something like "I knew this would happen / fail", immediately counter with

"If you knew this, why did you keep quiet?"

Launch Day

Make sure you don't pick any of these points in time for your launch day (in no particular order):

Month-end Ledger Closing
Quarter-end Ledger Closing
Year-end Ledger Closing
If happily married, your anniversary date or your spouse's birth day

As all your processes and services cut over to the new Data Center, you can breathe a sigh of relief (assuming no major show-stopper issues appear) around the following points in time:

after the first 24 hours
after the first week
after the first month-end closing
after the first quarter-end closing
after the first year-end closing

Dealing with the fallout

As we mentioned earlier, some thing(s) will go wrong.
Some pointers that can help:

Be prepared
As bugs and issues star coming, use the same approach that you developed for the staged tests

record
triage
assign severity
assign resource to oversee resolution
PM must periodically check for status changes

We used a SharePoint site for tracking / monitoring issues throughout the project. It saved our rear ends many a times

Setting up the Disaster Recovery

This portion is slightly easier since you can decide the level of involvement:

no DR site

I would not recommend this
No Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) needed
Make sure you also keep, at all times, a polished version of your resume, just as a precaution

DR site-lite

The minimalist approach to DR configuration
CBA would be great

SLA-based DR site configuration

Based on the SLAs that are important to business, prioritize the configuration of your DR site
Dude, you gotta do a CBA for this

Mirror the configuration of your Data Center at a separate building

This means you have A LOT of resources for this project... so go to town!
This also means that you will pay through the nose for a bunch of expensive resources that will be sitting idle for a good chunk of time
"CBA? we don't need no stinkin' CBA!"

Lining up the Decommissioning and Tear-down of your Legacy Data Center
If you have a great PM on the project, there will already a crew scheduled to stop by your legacy Data Center room and tear it down the first week after the first month-end closing. Ours got tore down in about 4 days. It went very fast.

Closing the Project

Here are some suggestions:

Take some time off
Recognize team members on professional sites when appropriate
If there was ever a reason to go out with a big team to a nice place for a meal, please do! Preferably, after the first 7 days of the data center running smoothly.

Happy moving!

365 Days Hiatus... How long will it be til the next post?

2011-08-25T17:43:00.000-05:00

Hello again...
It is amazing how the subconscious mind works. I have been neglecting typing anything in this blog for a staggering 365 days (to the day). Coincidence? I think not.

"So what have I been up to" you may ask? The easy, simple, and effortless answer is "not much." The honest answer requires more time to type. My hope is to engage this blogging thing for a few more days than the last time. It seems to me that the end of August and the beginning of September, every year, something comes in the air and inspires me to write. We'll see what happens this time.

Many things in the proverbial "docket" this season. Hope I have the time to get to writing about all of them. Let's see. This time we'll have some writings on:

System architecture
Hiring Employees or Consultants
Business Analysis
Analytic Processes
Solution Design
Data Conversion Environments
Mentoring / Inspiring / Un-inspiring others
Some Ramblings (on principle!) and
My Philosophy (or pseudo-philosophy)

Three Legacy System Conversion Scenarios You are most Likely to Encounter

2010-08-24T23:25:00.000-05:00

Let's dive right in...
The project I am currently working on will require among many other things, the assimilation of a variety of source systems into a single system. Many of the systems that are scheduled for conversion are owned by our organization. Some others are owned by a "third party." How to address each of them will vary. The next few paragraphs try to relate some of those thoughts. Perhaps you might find some merit in that or chip in you own?

Friendly Conversion:
These kinds are the ones where you find a culture that is eager to embrace the change. You are in the best position if that is the attitude of any/all IT team members involved in the conversion and the business users who will be using the new system. The battle for winning the hearts and minds of the users and the IT group that will help you and your team is already done. I believe that is the hardest part of a system-to-system conversion effort. Everything else is just pesky detail work. Now, please, be careful as you navigate through this environment. The last thing you want to do is to ruin that Utopia state.

Hostile Conversion:
This is the one situation that you will find when both the user area and the IT group that owns the maintenance of the Source System are not willing to give that up. I mean "who are you to come in here and tell me how to run my shop (my department, my ). This one is probably the worst of the worse cases. Pretty much your only weapons are the truth (be honest 101% of the time even in your sleep), your dignity and your integrity.

Friendly-Hostile Conversion:
This is to catch those cases (arguably the majority) where you find a combination of the previous 2 scenarios I mentioned. You will find yourself most of the time.

In the upcoming posts I'll dissect these in more detail and share some personal anecdotes. I'd love to hear about your own if you care (or dare) to share.

Top 20 Enterprise Architecture Definitions

2010-08-22T22:14:00.002-05:00

One of the things that bug me about EA is the many shapes, ways and forms that it can have. You get 100 Enterprise Architects and ask them to define what EA is and you'll get 100^100 responses (give or take a few).

Since there are so many responses out there, I will do some of the math so you don't have to. I will start cataloging them for you. To help with that task, I will engage in a search for the best definitions out there (according to me). I'm going to start with the top 20. An together we'll perfect that list. Are you in?

While listening to the McCarthy Show (it is a great site worth your while), I learned that it is infinitely more efficient to perfect something than to create something. So, I will find top 20 EA definitions that I like and together (you and I) will work on perfecting this list.

Simple ground rules: If you think a definition needs to be bumped because there is one better, then post your comment with the relevant link and our expert panel of judges (me and the next 4 readers who would like to volunteer) will make a determination about adding it. All submissions will be accompanied with a post in this site and, if selected, a re-post will announce the new change to the list.

Without further ado, here it is (last updated as of August 22, 2010):

Enterprise Architecture: As MIT sees it. Follow it here. These guys also added a compendium of other EA definitions. All are neatly organized in easy to follow PDF files. I smell treasure trove!
Enterprise Architecture: The way IBM sees it. Follow it here.
Enterprise Architecture: What doe ORACLE have to say about it? Follow it here. Did you know that Larry Ellison owns the CUSTOMER table of their internal data model. Way to go Larry!
Enterprise Architecture: As Microsoft sees it. Follow it here.
Enterprise Architecture: How about we toss a "world view" of EA and let the Institute for EA Developments have a crack at it. Follow it here.
Enterprise Architecture: << not defined yet >>
Enterprise Architecture: << not defined yet >>
Enterprise Architecture: << not defined yet >>
Enterprise Architecture: << not defined yet >>
Enterprise Architecture: << not defined yet >>
Enterprise Architecture: << not defined yet >>
Enterprise Architecture: << not defined yet >>
Enterprise Architecture: << not defined yet >>
Enterprise Architecture: << not defined yet >>
Enterprise Architecture: << not defined yet >>
Enterprise Architecture: << not defined yet >>
Enterprise Architecture: << not defined yet >>
Enterprise Architecture: It is as easy as city planning (by Technometria). Follow it here.
Enterprise Architecture: As defined by ViewDeck. Follow it here.
Enterprise Architecture: The Wikipedia Definition. Follow it here.