Software projects may be started any day of any year. There is no special day that could possibly influence the outcome of the project. What is important is to understand and follow some basic software engineering principles. That said, the ability, know how and experience of the team members always tends to play a significant role in the outcome of the project.
In order to describe some basic software engineering concepts I will provide with a set of scenarios and recommendations which if followed should make most (never say all) software projects a success. So why most software products and projects are a failure? Read along and you should find the answers for yourself.
Software development is both and science and an art. As a matter of fact, most (as was previously stated, never say all) engineering disciplines are both a science and an art. For example, in civil engineering, an architect might design a structure (i.e., building, bridge, etc) which should be strong enough to support the stress and fatigue of it’s intended use and last for the expected / specified lifetime. Structures are designed and built differently based on location. A four-lane bridge for general traffic (automobiles, trucks) is designed and built differently when the intended location is Southern California than when its location is somewhere in Maine. One of the sites the bridge is prone to experience rather warm temperatures, lots of traffic, earthquakes, strong winds, etc, etc, etc. The counterpart in Maine might expect lower temperatures and perhaps salt corrosion if the structure is near or on the water. Both bridges will share some basic requirements but they also have unique ones. Being a layman in civil engineering, I can understand how requirements for structures will differ. That does not make me a civil engineer nor gives me the ability to design one. Read the rest of this entry »
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December 31st, 2011 in
US Economy |
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It is around 02:00 AM CST in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota. Woke up and decided to browse the web for a few minutes. One thing led to another and here I am finishing an entry that I started earlier this week.
Virtualization, as far as computer technology goes, is currently a hot but not a new topic. Virtualization was developed in the 1960’s by IBM to allow very expensive main frames to be shared by multiple users. The reason was simply based on cost. At the time, it took in the order of several minutes to a few hours to set up programs and associated data. Today, on all modern computers, we are able to invoke programs with the click of a mouse or by typing in a second or two a command on a console. Depending on the intended use of the computer, we are able to utilize our personal computers in bursts that may hit close to 100% while remaining most of the time almost idle 0% to 1%. On Windows you can see this by opening Windows Task Manager and selecting the Performance tab. As I am writing this blob using MS Word, I can see a few CPU utilization spikes per minute in the order of 3% to 5%. The rest of the time it is 0% to 1%. What a waste! Of course, when I am working developing software or using other more demanding applications than just a word processor, the CPU utilization may be at 100%. This frequently occurs when I am compiling a program or running tests on software that I am developing. Read the rest of this entry »
A couple weeks ago I finished reading “The Cloud at Your Service” by Jothy Rosenberg and Arthur Mateos published by Manning. The book has about 220 pages. This is quite small for the Cloud topic. The book is geared towards managers and decision makers that have little, if any understanding of what the cloud is and the challenges it poses. After reading the book I would like to add that the book is actually geared for managers that are not savvy on IT or are high-level managers with no former education in Computer Science.
At a high and introductory level, the book provides some good definitions that further open the appetite to pursue more in depth reading on most topics. Being a system architect, software developer and business owner for over twenty years, and the book did not provide much food for thought.
On several sections, it appears that what is stated on a paragraph might be contradicted on other. No good rules of thumb are provided. Perhaps if the book is rewritten to cover better topics in more detail, the book could be useful. Read the rest of this entry »
Most Sundays at 06:00 PM Central Time my wife and I watch 60 Minutes on CBS. Last Sunday’s program had a very interesting segment about political corruption in the USA.
A segment titled “Jack Abramoff: The lobbyist’s playbook” showed to Naïve Americas something that has, is and will continue at the highest levels of politics in our country. When you are not a politician you might be faced by business situations in which you are privy to some information that could make you money called “insiders trading”. For example, if a company is about to purchase a second company, making the stock of the second company be worth much more that its current value, and based on this information which is only known to top executives, you go and buy stock on the second company, you have the opportunity to make a nice profit in a matter of hours or days. The laws of the United States of America forbid such behavior to typical Naïve Americans. As a deterrent such actions are punishable by several years in prison. BUT if you are a politician passing laws that will make a company’s stock go up in price and based on such information purchase stock and after the law is passed, sell it at a profit (insiders trading), you do not have to worry. The law, made by and for politicians, does not consider your unethical and immoral actions as a crime. Read the rest of this entry »
A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend who recommended “A Conspiracy of Paper” by David Liss, published by Random House. That evening I open my web browser and ordered the book via Amazon. I can recall the days in which you had to go to a bookstore and hope you find the book of interest in inventory. Most of the time, you had to drive around the city looking for the book. Now, depending on the time of the day, you are able to order on-line with next day delivery to your doorsteps. It is a nice time to be alive in the USA.
The book deals with a conspiracy in London in the 1700’s. The book is quite engaging. I could not put the book down. Read the thirty-six chapters (about 440 pages) in a couple weeks. Given that I work full time and spend reading technical books for a few hours a day, for my standards, this book was quite interesting and kept me glued to it.
The plot has to do with several murders, stocks, and ethnic backgrounds. The book is based on the first stock bubble in history. The book was the first of a series written by David Liss. It received a New York Times Notable Book award. I highly recommend it.
I read about three non-technical books a year. I did enjoy this one.
The Naïve American
About a week ago my wife was watching ABC World News with Diane Sawyer on standard television. Two of the stories were rather interesting specially when viewed in the light of the current economy in the United States.
The first dealt with the amount of savings that would be made (in the order of billions of Dollars) if our government decides to replace the use of Dollar bills with Dollar coins. The savings are based on the replacements costs of the One Dollar bills. As far as consumers is concerned, there is little, if any, impact on carrying one Dollar bills or one-dollar coins. I am not a young pup so my habits may differ from the younger generations; nevertheless, I typically use a credit card for most (with few exceptions like the occasional lottery ticket which must be purchased using cash) of my purchases. My wife and I try to keep the card with a zero balance so we pay it in full each month. A nice feature of using a card for purchases is that at the end of the month you get an itemized list of purchases. If I use such approach, I would assume that most Naïve Americans would be fine with using coins instead of bills.
So why the switch is not a reality? The issue as usual is special interests. One has to consider the companies involved in providing the materials (i.e., ink, paper, plates, print press, etc) for the One Dollar bills. We also have to consider vending machines. Most are configured to accept bills. Few are ready to accept one Dollar coins. As usual, special interests pay off politicians and who cares about then Naïve Americans that got them elected in the first place. Read the rest of this entry »
I just (actually I did a few weeks ago but had no time to write this blog entry) finished reading “Simply SQL” by Rudy Limeback, published by SitePoint Pty. Ltd in Australia. The author was born in Germany, currently lives in Canada and I purchased the book via Amazon, which was delivered, to my home in Apple Valley, MN. It is amazing how small and interconnected the world has become. Read the rest of this entry »
My wife and I go to the Albertville Premium Outlets located in Albertville, MN two or three times a year. We live in Apple Valley, MN, which is about 60 miles away from the outlets. We do not shop the stores in Albertville too often because it is a long way and we need to justify the savings. Our car uses about five gallons of gas on a round trip. At $4.00 on average per gallon, it costs us about $20.00 just in fuel. To make economical sense, we would have to make sure that the savings are overwhelming. We need to save about $100.00 for us to justify the trip. This is why, sometimes if I just need a box of boxer shorts, we just stop at the closer, more convenient and with more variety to chose from, Mall of America in Bloomington, MN.
Yesterday was one of those days in which driving made sense. Drop the dogs at the sitter around 10:00 AM and headed to Albertville. The first store we visited is Polo Ralph Loren. For the first time we found boxes with six white t-shirts. Picked up a couple. We added some other items and got in line at the cashier. While our items were being scanned, the attendant made the comment that the 30% discount would be applied to all items after ringing them. A lady at the cashier next to us turned around and handed us a coupon she had printed on her computer. The page has a Polo Store additional 20% discount on all items. The coupon was only valid on purchases totaling over $100.00. Her total just made it up to $80.00 so she was kind enough to pass it on. We handed the coupon and the attendant obliged by giving us an additional 20% off. That was great, we picked up items marked down 30% off and we gout an additional 20% off. My wife and I were happy to receive 30% + 20% == 50% off. We paid and moved on to the next store. Read the rest of this entry »
A friend recommended the book “You Can Negotiate Anything” by Herb Cohen published by Bantam Books in 1980. Went ahead, open my trusty web browser and ordered the book from Amazon. Usually I am in no hurry to receive books so I typically order them using FREE shipping. That allows me to finish whatever I am reading at a time. I always keep a set of a couple dozen books in my queue. Some on my night table (get a lot of slack from my wife) and a second set downstairs in my office.
Besides the general treatment on how to negotiate which according to the author is based on: intelligence, power and time two (2) things mentioned were quite interesting and close to me. The first relates to the fact that things do not just happen because you know you have the truth and knowledge to backup your position. I have learned through life that this a very important point to always consider. I personally have a hard time accepting this due to cultural and family values. Read the rest of this entry »
