Software Engineering - Business, Processes and Technology

CIOs Strategic Approach or a company without a strategy!!

2008-08-17T19:31:00.000-07:00

One of the most challenging task a CIO (for a geographically dispersed company) faces is the standardization of processes, organizational hierarchy and aligning of business with technology. I have written and preached a lot about how IT can be an ROI house as opposed to a cost center. The need for CIOs is to understand the business perspective and be able to communicate technology business terms (doesn't this sound like a job interview objective :)???).

Its very difficult for technical guys to move astray from technology and not think of the technologically perfect solution but at the end of the day its all the more important to see how much money was lost/gained. YES..a technologically sound solution would lead to that but that is also one of the reasons why most of the technical projects move out of the scope and not deliver on time. Its not the technology that "you" like or want to see implemented, its what your customers (internal or external) want. Listen to Sales/Business/COO/CFO/CEO. Try and align Technical Goals with the Company's business goals i.e. institutionalize. At the end of the day its the company's bottom line that matters...try to make your company's positive!!!

But what if the organization doesn't have a CIO or an overall technology head??? This is a complicated one. Every location has its own technical culture - also keep in mind the target market's technological infrastructure as well as the market's technical trends. To make that work the CEO or COO needs to ensure a standardization plan or guidelines for all the location heads to follow. In any case a CIO is important if you company is technology centric.

If your technology doesn't align with the customer's technical strategy, you won't be able to sell it..

STAY ALIGNED AND FOCUSED...that is what will sell

http://www.mysoftlinks.com (Networking for software professionals)

2008-01-28T21:43:00.001-08:00

Its true that software professionals build so much for rest of the world but they rarely make something for themselves (COZ THEY ARE BUSY MAKING STUFF FOR OTHERS!!! ;-)). Well, now that someone did think of writing for the software professionals, why not advertise it??

"SOFTLINKS" is an online networking community dedicated specifically for software professionals. It helps them grow and rest of the software industry (recruiters, HR/Hiring managers or companies) find targeted software talent. Sounds pretty cool to me...

FINALLY (SIGH!!!), someone lookin out for us....join now..http://www.mysoftlinks.com/

DBA-2 Published by Microsoft

2007-12-05T21:14:00.000-08:00

I am grateful to Microsoft for publishing the DBA-2 framework. This is a framework that not only makes great sense technically, but it also caters for the financial management of the developement projects at enterprise level. Here is the link to MSDN: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb892771.aspx

My Latest Venture...I should take a break...;-)))

2007-11-12T19:00:00.000-08:00

Its been quite sometime since I wrote anything. After the Magic City Technology Council (http://www.bhm-tc.org), I couldn't find a place to meet Software Professional, share Software Engineering, Technology Business and Management, Career Advancement (while staying in the same job and company of course ;-)) or just get to know what other people are doing in the great big world of technology...as always I am also interested to know what other new ideas are emerging in the adventurous world of Technology Entrepreneurship. So I decided to start something online that will help all of us manage our software related contacts within our industry and even outside (if we want to) and also linkup with opportunities (since every second software professional I've met has got a business idea). So its not a people to people networking as many other websites are doing...its more of a people to opportunity linkup.

The main goal is to cut down many hard and painful steps involved in networking with someone (through an existing networking website) who you think, may have an opportunity for you (or not) and finally realizing it wasn't what you were looking for. In this genius idea (I must say ;-)) opportunities will be clearly defined and you can connect with the opportunities directly and as I wrote earlier would cut down all the painful steps of guessing and assuming....

Now, where I really had to think was the Definition of all the opportunities that people can come linkup with... I have defined some (+ more) and am looking to define as many more as I can...If you have an idea, please email me or write to me and I will add to the web tool we are building...Remember...this is again a free venture that I am taking on...JUST FOR THE SAKE OF SOFTWARE COMMUNITY...

Right now we are at yahoo groups and a very interesting and comprehensive website is being developed by a group of software programmers, including me. You can join here (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/swlinks/) for now and post opportunities or linkup with opportunities. Let me know what you think about it and how we can improve upon the idea...all professionals related to software in ANY WAY can be a past of this group...sales/HR/Tech Support/QA/Developers/Executive or C-Level Management etc...

Let me know what you thing

Want to be an Entrepreneur?

2007-08-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

Editorial for the latest edition of Entrepreneur had some interesting quotes, thought I should add some of here - Also comment if you agree:

1. Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won't, so that you can spend the rest of you life like most people can't

2. I am not judged by number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed. And the number of time I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times In can fail and keep trying

3. If it hasn't been done, it can be done. If someone else has done it, you can do it. But - is it worth it?

4. If you are in the front of the dog sled team, the view never changes

5. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve

6. When you come to the end of the rope, tie a knot and hang on

The "Phase Out Phase"

2007-08-17T13:20:00.001-07:00

This post is the result of a discussion I had with a Sales Executive of a software company. We were talking about the process for the software product's "Phased Out" version replacement by the latest release of that product. Many a times we think about SDLC as four phases (or sometime five phases), but we often miss out on the last phase that will help us retain customers. It is relatively easier to make a customer but really difficult to maintain them (renew licenses etc). This is delicate process where we want create the need for the new release. I am not referring to an update or a defect fix or the next minor release. I am referring to the next mass release the company is/will plan.

There are different scenarios i.e. do we want to update the existing one or do we want to replace the existing one. You may want to replace the product due to different reasons i.e. current release is not up to the technological standards for delivering a customer focused "latest" feature set, the current underlying technology for the product is not compatible with the new OS or simply because we want to move to Dot Net since our competitors are using the .Net marketing "buzzz" words!

The strategy can also be to capture bigger and wider markets (or market share). In that case we may have to create the demand first and this may very well be through the existing customer feed back or "demand" for new features. This may also be due to a shift in the market place created by the competitors. In either case the process and convincing customers can begin with business strategy alignment with the market place as well as the technical goals alignment with the business goals. The rest is dependent on the the strategic vision.

DBA2 Website

2007-08-12T19:27:00.000-07:00

I have always been trying to figure ways out to bridge the gap between technology and the business processes. Its one thing to look at how the business process for SDLC can be improved, I am talking about how the entire business cycle for an organization can be automated using one framework. Yes, a framework for business management infrastructure "processes" automation!
This is the primary reason I worked on writing something like DBA2 (Dymanic Business Management Application Architecture" framework. Since it will be published soon and I do intend building upon this framework (of course with a team of professionals who have better brains on their shoulders than me :-)) I have decided to put together a website for the framework. The website will have the latest updates on the framework, best practices on implementing the framework and also the team members who are helping me develop this. The website is http://www.dba-2.com. The website doesn't have a whole lot on it right now but I will add details to it very soon.

I am looking for the team to now...I have Awais Shibli (Phd. student with MS in Software Engineering in Sweden), Waseem Ahmed (Project Manager at USDA) and Geoff Brantner (Marketing and Content Management). If you are interesed in joining the team read the framework and post a comment here.

Thanks,
Moiz

DBA2 (To be) published by Microsoft

2007-08-10T10:10:00.001-07:00

I posted about my DBA2 framework (http://moizahmedblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/visibility-in-software-development.html). I got a green signal from MS publishing this framework. I will add the link here soon.

About this Blog

2007-07-28T15:07:00.001-07:00

Okay, I deleted my account by mistake... The blog is still there but I can't get to it now. Yes, I know...blogger support is the most complicated and unavailable as I have experienced. I emailed them and posted messages but no response. So I created a new blog and copied all from there to this blog. Sorry for any inconvinience. I will of course get something of my own soon and put all this there. Thanks for all your emails and support!

The old blog is at: www.moiz-ahmed.blogspot.com

MS BizTalk and Enterprise Application Integration

2007-07-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

I have been working with BizTalk (with no formal training) quite extensively since last few weeks. We are using this as the middleware for an EAI project. Some interesting things I noticed about it are:

It looks simple

Looks easy to use

Easy to create simple solutions

Some what complicated to actually make the developed solutions work

The main goal for a middleware in this case is to implement business processes through orchestrations (guess that is the purporse..right?) and transform incoming some vendor application data formats to a standarized data format for the message bus developed specifically for the Enterprise Application Integration Architecture. Once it comes to web services it get a little more complicated, but just picking up a file and routing it through multiple business process based on the content (content based routing) is actually not very difficult. BizTalk is solution development is very tightly integrated with .Net and its very easy to implement .Net classes (specifically XML) in the solutions. You use VS.Net 2005 to develop the solutions by using BizTalk SDK and projects. This compiles into a dll and you can either deploy the solution from VS or just create an application in the BizTalk Administration console and bring in the dll. I can go into details if some one wants that. This is how a simple biztalk orchestration looks like (this is from a msdn sample project):

BizTalk only Talks XML ;-) so you need to learn that in order to actually develop a standarized communication infrastructure for the EAI (i.e. the Communication Bus). From there on its should be down hill. You do need to understand how to design the orchestrations, I would highly recommend some kind of business case -> UML -> Technical Structure kind of approach. Lots of discussions and then ensuring how you will bring in the "Incoming" messages and where to i.e. Message Box or Web Services and how/where these will be routed to i.e. SOAP over http or handed over to another orchestration etc. You can download BizTalk sample from: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/biztalk/aa937647.aspx. Of course you will find tons of information and help on BizTalk over the internet. Just Google!
I will add a lot more on this i.e. EAI soon...so till then CHAO!!

Development Intellegence

2007-07-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry for being so lazy...but here is the document that I was referring to in my earlier post about development intellegence: http://bhm-tc.org/Documents/developmental-intellligence.pdf. I will write more about this and other software engineering processor development models.

Visibility in Software Development Projects..... Invisible?

2007-07-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

I've always thought of how we can achieve visibility in software projects? Its nice to use PM, Defect Management, Issue tracking tools and of course, (all time favorite) excel spread sheets but once it comes down to managing all of these together we are talking about either lots of manual labor or high cost software. Something like MS Team Foundation Server or Borland's Star Team. The cost for these tools is enormous. If you have that kind of money, get them but remember its not the right kind of tools that get the job done, its the right use of right kind of tools that produce results.Now, if you don't have that kind of money here is something that I have been working on for some time now. I call it "DBA2" i.e. Dynamic Business Management Application Architecture Framework. The framework is a combination of Business Processes and software's back end technical architecture. Architecture and Design has always been very interesting for me. For an architect I think its important to understand the different scenarios while you work out the technical requirements part of the system. One has to understand the bridge between the functional and technical requirements. Architects have to understand programming, then again its important for an architect to understand cross platform or platform independent semantics as well. Its important for an architect to think visually, again be able to map that bridge from functional aspects of the system to the technical details. Having the ability to work productively with the programmers is good but be able to work with analysts and visually define the system before you get with the programmers is also important.Now to relate that DBA2 (I mentioned earlier) with the business process and functional units in a business: It combines intelligent software units to the status, messaging and application behavior aspects. This helps in communication between units. The basic concept is that each unit we design has the ability to intelligently survive on its own and be able to manage its functions without external help but for a stable system it needs the ability to work with other units, that is where status, messaging and behavior comes in. The smallest unit of the framework is called an "element", which combine together to make an "Entity" which from the functional aspect relates to a business or sub-business process and so on and so forth. There are stages that are the tiers for the framework etc.
You can read the paper here or http://www.bhm-tc.org/Documents/DBA2.pdf.
The framework allows the architects and even the developers to not only focus on the specific tasks at hand but at the same time be able to look at the bigger picture during the development of the software thus giving full visibility over defect management, QA and timelines. If you know where you are going...you will get there in time and with minimum problems...right???
So lets discuss this framework if you have time!!
Like always thanks for looking at the bridge between technology and business.

Enterprise Application Integration and SDLC Processes

2007-07-28T15:00:00.002-07:00

Okay, I finally have some time to write today, I have been working on Enterprise Application Integration Project with SOA. Its been an interesting journey though, we looked deeply into MS BizTalk and how it will help us manage the Enterprise Service Bus. I think the main components of an EAI is the messaging middle tier and how it handles communication with subscribing components of the EAI. The interesting part is that we have so many of these available that it sometimes becomes difficult to select the one you really need. Also with so many of middle tiers around, each vendor has developed their own terminology - another problem?? Of Course, how do you standardize industry wise (I will discuss that in a later post). Now I came across an interesting concept from Borland the other day. As we all know Borland had developed its Software Engnieering Process and Development Life Cycle management tools division and is focusing on marketing those tools now. I read an article that decribes DI (Development Intellegent) i.e how to gather statistical data from the development life cycle, create trends and use that to maintain and improve data i.e. create intellegent statistical model to improve upon the efficiency of delivery of your software projects. I will post or link to the document here as soon as I figure out how. I will be leaving for Philly in a day or two for a client meeting but will do this as soon as I come back.

Here we go!!

2007-07-28T15:00:00.001-07:00

Hello Friends,

I was thinking of doing this for quite somtime now (well start blogging...what else?), but the new job, move to the lone star state (city of Houston), selling a house and what not delayed the plans. I am still waiting on my movers....well what can I say...I will NEVER even think about moving with this company again. Anyways..where were we??Oh yeah! so here I am, this is the first blog of hopefully many more to come. What are these about? Well we will have stuff about Software Engineering Processes, Requirement Analysis, Delivery/Implementation, PM and Published Articles, Presentations, Research Documents etc. I will also try and write something about Business Processes(Re-Engineering), Software Engineering and Aligning IT with Business Strategy. So stay Tuned ;)