Tag Archives: Development

Great Tips for DevOps Teams Running on Kanban

Highlight WIP Bottlenecks

If the team is constantly dealing with production issues, the Kanban board should reflect both new functionality, User Stories and Production issues side by side. Add a “Production Priority” Swim Lane on top of your Kanban board. Visualizing high-priority production issues may have the team reconsider the priority of issues in contrast to new user stories.

Derive Effort Estimations for Input to WIP Prioritization

Team members should use effort estimations to help them prioritize their “Committed” work items. One of the work items, e.g. User Stories, may “cost” disproportionate to the value add, ROI. Focus team member efforts to provide maximum value proportionate to the time spent on work items.

Customizing States for Broad Granularity

New, In Progress, and Closed may not suffice to express work item states. “New” may represent the backlog of items, a queue not yet committed to by a member of the implementation team. Once a team member commits to implementing a user story, “In Progress” may be too wide a meaning, so adding the following states may keep the team in sync with their business process:

  • Committed – team member commits to implementing work item, E.g. User Story, or Task
  • Triage – deeper dive into the committed body of work to confirm crisp “Acceptance Criteria” and perform relative, effort estimations
  • Dev Complete – could indicate code complete, and dev testing conplete
  • Accepted – a “Closed” status indicating the Product Owner has verified the functionality is implemented in line with expectations, I.e. met Acceptance Criteria

Multicolored Cards Enable Teams to Classify at a Glance

Using different colors for Kanban Board cards allows the implementation team to prioritize work; e.g. Infra Task; E.g. User Interface or API stories. On many implementation teams, members might have areas of expertise such as UI or DB. Those members may hone in on items that are more relevant to them.

Tag, Your IT

Applying tags to Kanban board cards is another level of collectively classifying work items on the board, similar to the multicolored card approach but more diverse, not enough stark color contrast to classify.

Agile’s Watergate

A relic of the Waterfall model is the construct of a “gate” process. In order for a project to achieve a milestone, the project/solution would need to achieve certain criteria that would allow it to go to the next phase of the project. For example, going from solidifying requirements in a Business Requirements Doc (BRD) to the software implementation phase.

In Agile, we leverage the Product Owner (PO) and the Product Backlog to determine what gets done and when. A Product Backlog item (PBI) may cover the full lifecycle of a Feature, from requirements to implementation. The Product Owner dictates acceptance of the PBI based on the status/transparency of the Backlog, such as the criticality of the Bugs linked to the PBI. Product quality and implemented functionality are transparent to the PO, who will determine the next steps such as release the software, and/or go through another iteration/sprint. Iterations are a defined cadence agreed to by the implementation team and the Product owner, typically, 2-week sprints.

Agile, Hybrid Environments: Opportunities for Synergy

Epics, Features, Product Backlog Items, and Tasks are object types in a Backlog that enable the PO and the team to link objects and plan over multiple sprints. Epics or Themes of Sprints are “high level”, potentially strategic initiatives. Features roll up into Epics as a part of several sprints. Either Epics or Features may be high enough level to link to Psydo Project Milestones for a product roadmap of deliverables, and solicitation outside the team.

Aggregation of Product Backlog Items, Effort Estimations, roll up into Features, and then up into Epics, which roughly equate to milestone timelines.

The “Definition of Done” (DoD) for a Product Backlog Item may require 0 outstanding Bugs with the severity of “Critical” linked to this PBI. The DoD criteria could be analogous to a traditional Quality Assurance gate.

Tasks that are production rollout activities, without a project plan, should be planned for in future sprints, akin to estimating when items may be completed in the proper sequence. Some of the Tasks may be placed conservatively in “early” sprints and may require items to be “pushed forward” after each of the iterations.

Mobile Phone Carriers Sponsor App Portals with GaaS

The phone carriers like Verizon are putting out their own storefronts to distinguish themselves from other Android based phones from other carriers. So far, with little success.

The secret might be in the game architecture, and not in the storefront to both attract customers and developers.  NVIDIA at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show conference was touting their new gaming as a service.  This architecture enables game developers are able to develop and host their games using hosted cloud gaming servers to maximize the game performance and consumer experience.  The carriers could host these racks in their data centers and offer these services to their developer partners: super fast gaming,  with state of the art technology. The lure for their customers: amazing blazing fast games.

The lure for game developers?   They will be able to access high end graphics capacity, and if the carriers keep pace, and upgrade as new revisions come up.  Developers may salivate at the opportunity to get the access to the latest cloud tech computing.  The chip advantages are not only with the on demand cloud capacity for the gamer’s lighting fast experience, but the abilities of the graphics processors are leading edge in the industry.

2013 CES Highlights: A New Take On Remote Controls

I am going through my photos to delete, and deleting CES pictures. I just noticed this neat Android app from the show for a pad device. The application had 5 custom cool, and highly functional remote controls for electronics. I spent time with the development lead, and provided a few pointers, like making buttons, large image buttons available on the remote. The TV user should be able to program these buttons with the user’s favorite DVRed movies, with a thirty second clip of the movie playing, eg. their favorite scene, selected during a playback session. It would be great if I can remember the application name, but it is still not yet released, all of u ambitions programmers.

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Hold on, a Paradigm Shift is here: From Browser to Operating System

In short, with Windows 8, the Internet Portal, Jump Page, or Home Page paradigm shifts toward the operating system being the gateway.  What will this do to the Search and Browser based companies?  It pulls the rug right from under their feet, and thus the push for Google Chrome Operating System to compete.  Read on for an exciting twist of fate.

I was read an article this morning that said Google’s going to start charging usage of its applications. Is Google really trying to challenge Microsoft? Does Google think it is really ready? Using Google’s applications is free is one thing, paying is another. For example, Google+, don’t get me wrong, has a lot to offer, although, how long has it been around? 17 months, that’s a long time, let’s be frank…

Facebook, even in the early days, kicks Google Plus [BLANK] current platform, from the functionality and sexual appeal standpoint. Google has tons of money to catch up and kick Facebook’s but, right? 1 year, and 5 months, and this is the piece of garbage they produced. Wow, I guess Google isn’t made of money, hiring people like we seem to think, by the bucket load.

Then, why do we think they are trying to compete with Microsoft, an established player in the marketplace, and wisdom to evolve with human needs? I would most certainly use Google’s products for free, and I use their search, but to charge for more? I think Google is good to approach.

Although, how many evolution’s of Microsoft have we had of Windows and applications from Windows over Google with all their offerings? Microsoft Windows initial release11/20/85, 15 years. Microsoft Word has the wisdom and product, joined with human evolution, released in 83, two decades ago, generations of human and symbiotic evolution. Two decades of man and the machine, the technology evolving together into an interoperable, interchangeable, systems. Every generation the User Interface and system has had a change, to fine tune to the dynamics with human change. Now Google, just founded on 9/4/98, less than a decade ago, when did they start to show productivity? Also, how long were they focus on their core, Search? Until when? How mature are these tools you will blindly acquire, because guess what, you’ve ‘grown up’ with Google, evolved with it, and the organic tools created, such as document writing, versioning, photos, and so on.

Now Google wants people to PAY for an analogous Windows Word Version 2.0, in exchange for Word 11.0?! Seriously? That’s fourteen versions of evolution, and yes I counted. Now don’t get me wrong, if Google was rolling in it, had enthusiasm and drive like Apple did under Steve Jobs, the resources to do it. 17 months,this? http://bit.ly/QMQYnE People think I went around the bend, Is it the ability to lead a multinational, such as Google wouldn’t you think Google Plus would be stellar after 17 months. Is Google too ‘diversified’? Personally, I look at Google + as the red headed stepchild, which I feel bad about adopting, so I throw it some trinkets. But pay for it, really pay? That statement almost made me smirk. Are you nuts? It is competitive shopping time, oh yes, there are robust freeware and shareware products, cheap, and better. I wonder why we have so much robust free software. Maybe people with jobs, have lots of time on their hands to create products rivaling commercial ones, yeah, that must be it. So why in the bloody hell, G-d forgives me, are we going to pay up to Google? Only game in town to find the products? Google search is our page to go places, right? Now how about the new design of Windows Surface, or RT? Is it a complete game changer from a User Interface Standpoint. Has Microsoft really pushed the envelope of it’s creativity to actually produce a kick a$$ product, and make jump point, portal, or gateway the browser. Oops. Sorry Google. Actually, Microsoft may eventually go back to a monopoly for this is if wasn’t for Android tables, iStuff, and even little Google Chromebook. Microsoft Windows 8 no longer makes a flood gate to the world, in fact, the world is you, as natural and direct as to the applications you want. No more jump page, no more stop gap, or flow control. Our jump pages, or home pages have been the portal to everywhere. Google has been primarily our home page because it is simple. Our portals, jump pages, home pages, same stuff, control where we go, what we buy, and what we see.

Anyone remember a few years back, there was so much competition for the portal to the Internet, the jump or home page? Simply a text box and a picture, got you started, and it was like you evolved with a User Interface. Google began slightly to add on features, such as email, photos, but they were so minute, so undetectable. Google built an evolutionary platform literally from the ground up, a picture and a text box for a home page. Based on this assumption of human and machine evolution correlate to one another through user interface, ease of use, and paying it in kind. So then, primates, homosapiens, whatever, how long will you think it will take to evolve Google? George Carlin style answer: as long as it takes for humans to evolve, a 1:1 correlation. Are you going to really wait for Google to catch up, and since Windows 8 has entirely redesigned the paradigm of the machine, the portal may be superfluous, hence the push for Cromebooks. Hey, Android has a huge market share now after they by passed iOS, and Android help them do that. There are lots of Androids out there, as I told Ms. Whitman, and her predecessor, but you have to practically give away your Windows 8 OS, and mobile phones, and it’s an instant game changer. You don’t roll the dice; you sit out from the game. How would you react if you were at the helm of Microsoft, or Google?

Look, I am not trying to take sides, just state the obvious.  Also, I don’t care who threw which spear first, Google Chrome, but what I do care about…What I do care about…?The Doctor Who episodes.  Yep, maybe the kids, sometimes the wife.

Mobile Devices, Larger RAM, Multi-level caches, and Multi-core chips

As with everyone else on the market creating these devices, it occurs to me that as mobile devices contain more and more memory, e.g. 1 GB RAM on the Samsung Galaxy S III and Apple iPhone 5 as well as adding CPU cores, especially with touchscreen keys  and gestures, as well as ‘core or bundled applications’, it IS increasingly important to manage memory in mobile systems the way desktop or server systems manage memory. See Multi-level cache and Multi-core chips in the Wikipedia article CPU cache as two levels of complexity in working with expanding CPU and RAM sets.  A person is already able to create delays in touch typing in these cool new devices as they have several to many applications running in parallel processing data. Beyond expanding the capacity of these devices, CPU and memory management has to be a key factor in maintaining the stability of these devices. Maybe this is already implement although not transparent in the specifications I have seen.  Although at present, not as important, or glitzy in marketing literature to sell more devices, or currently negligible to the non-power user, it will become increasing transparent.  At this stage, we are just ‘throwing bodies’ at the problem, i.e. adding more CPU and Memory capacity.

 

Google Project Glass / Glasses and 3rd Party Application Development

Google’s Project Glass, or Google’s augmented reality glasses, I wonder, as propably others, if ANY 3rd party developers will be allowed develop and roll out applications just as they have done with Google’s Android OS, and Google play.  There may be liability concerns with applications, and how developers and their users engage in their use.  It should be very interesting if 3rd party application developers, any, are allowed to develop and roll out apps.  I can think applications will certainly go beyond what pop culture is expecting.  If Google allows for any 3rd party applications, with development toolkits and a simulator just as it does for Android OS, it will streach all of our imaginations what the system and its users are capable of.

The list of applications is extensive from your basic set (i.e. checking email) to:

  • Partnered with a Lucas Films licensee, use small plastic force feedback sticks, the handle of a light saber and leverage Force Feedback for game play with the glasses for the ‘light’ of the light saber (game)
  • Just like there are apps for speed traps, and social network GPS network location check ins, application developers could really be ‘creative’ with this one, and some could similarly border the ‘speed trap’ legality issue.
  • And finally, what parts of the spectrum will Google Glass allow the user to detect.  I can see, excuse the intended pun, enabling the user, with an app, to view alternate parts of the spectrum, not visible light, and their could be a tremendous set of applications for this last point.  If Google doesn’t include it, alternate competitors could, and there is an opportunity.  Baby steps.
  • The visible spectrum, with a creative application developer, could filter or disect    parts of the view-able spectrum, and apply it to specific applications. Polarize me, Scotty!

Mobile Advertisers and Affiliate Network Continued Expansion

Mobile Adverting, Cost Per Acquisition, will grow and continue to apply to In-App purchases, from appliances from a distributor catalogue to a mobile application, virtual products, relatively open landscape for advertisers and reliable, affiliate networks should bloom. Good brand, easy integration capability affiliates are an exclusive membership, primarily an oligopoly at this point, ripe for expansion and VC.

http://allthingsd.com/20120910/exclusive-google-offers-exec-eric-rosenblum-leaves-for-mobile-ad-start-up/