Skill Test: Sushi Restaurant Model

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 Sushi-Bar Restaurant Model.

Skill Test: Model of a Library System

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 Library System.

Skill Test: Model of a Book Store

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 Book Store.

Skill Test: Model of a House

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 House.

Your app is mobile, now what?

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?

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

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:

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

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!

Simple Cost Benefit Analysis for the Software Developer

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?

CSLA 4.0 Implementation - Update #4

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

CSLA 4.0 Implementation - Update #3

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.

CSLA 4.0 Implementation - Update #2

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.

Our CSLA 4.0 Implementation - Update #1

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:

Story about implementing CSLA in our IT shop

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.

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

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.

Agile Note Taking for IT Consulting Sales Professionals

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Three Legacy System Conversion Scenarios You are most Likely to Encounter

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?

Top 20 Enterprise Architecture Definitions

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).

Automating ETL to do OLTP to OLTP - Part 2

Let's see where did we end up last time... Ah yes! We were talking about the "T" in the ETL process, otherwise known as "Transformation."

If you are picking up this topic out of order, I encourage you to go hop over to our first blog on it. You may get there quicker by following this link.