Author Archives: gl152180

In modern society mobile electronic devices such as smart phones, tablets, and laptops are important part of our life. We are very much depending on these devises which are powered by internet. We get instant, live information about the weather, traffic, we check our bank accounts on fly and we make transections, we buy, sell and communicate through these devises. And every time we use these devices we leave the permanent digital footprints which can be traced back us. It is like we are writing our digital diary or biography without really giving it attention and most importantly without knowing where this diary is. We know that data or in other words the diary is out there, we are creating them every day, but we do not really know the exact location, form or shape of the diary. It is dispersed all over the digital highways and the worst thing is this data is wildly available for inserting parties. Furthermore, there are many companies who target these data; their main business is to collect our digital footprints, give it some form or shape and sell it to other parties. We are creating the date, but it does not belong to us. For example, we know that Google saves and collects all the searches we do, but these data does not belong to us, nor we have any rights on it and we do not even know for what this data are used. I could imagine if someone can look to my Google search history just only past 10 years and combine these data with today’s sophisticated logarithms probably these someone would have full profile about me. As more we are enjoying the benefits of technology, we are generating more data and more vulnerable and easy targets we are becoming.

Security and Privacy is big issue today’s society. People are conserved and sometimes even paranoid that they have been watched and they have been followed. I think we need much better security and privacy laws and much batterer regulations and enforcements. Especially to regulate the companies that collect and sell the data about us.

In general there are many forces that have social impact such as politics, natural disasters, economics, epidemics and etcetera. All of these aspects could have and most cases do have technology factor.   Technology plays role in every social force. It goes so deep that it even effects our personality, our mood, and selection of people we choose to communicate. We become so dependent on technology that sometimes it even blur if we control the technology or it controls us. There is no doubt that technology shapes our society by effecting our culture, our values, and life style.

One of the interesting characteristic of technology is that while it brings the benefits for society and solves the problem it creates other problems and issues simultaneously. For example, it creates the efficiency, but wipes out the jobs, it connects the people but alienates at the sometime, and it gives the opportunity to poor but widens the gap between reach and poor. These are the organic consequences of the technology, but technology also can be viewed as powerful tool that can be used for bad or good things depending on intention. For example finical institutions use technology to make their service more flexible, robots and convenience for their costumers, but hackers could use exactly same technology to create the computer viruses and system frauds. In other words, technology creates the huge risk that it will not be used as intended. As a matter of fact, managing this risk become part of our everyday life.

The big questions when discussing the social effects of technology is if it is possible to find the golden middle ground where the society will be able to harness the benefits of technology while avoiding the side effects and reliably controlling the risk factors.

In today’s fast passed, data driven business environment, information technology plays the crucial role in any industry. Accurately planed and implemented Information systems enables business entities to create, distribute and exploit knowledge that gives the companies competitive advantage.

IT Governance is a mechanism that controls IT/IS planning, implementation, investment and decision making.

According to IMB the IT governance should

1)      Establish chains of responsibility, authority, and communication (decision rights)

2)      Establish measurement, policy, standards, and control mechanisms to enable people to carry out their roles and responsibilities

It is been well demonstrated that organizations that lack effective governance suffer from low performance, heightened risk exposure, and resource allocation.

IT governance is not simply a concern of IT department. It is the concern of whole organization as IT governance main objective is to align business strategically, empower and support business initiatives, while providing security and efficiency.

As IT governance plays such a huge role to organizations success, top management’s involvement is important. Board level IT governance is prescribed by normative publications such as the IT Governance Institute’s (ITGI, 2003) Board Briefing on IT Governance (BBIG).

Board level IT governance has a poor chance of being implemented and being effective if board members don’t pay attention to IT due to a lack of appreciation for its strategic significance or due to a lack of adequate IT knowledge. Therefore, it is important that organizations prioritize their IT strategy when selecting their leadership team.

Cost of failed software projects and their negative effects on business organizations clearly demonstrates the importance of software project management. There has been many debates if the software project can be managed as any other project, meaning fallowing general project management standards and methods or is software project requires special approach. Recently I read the article about the software project management -published by one of the leading companies in the field, QSM (Quantitative Software Management http://www.qsm.com/resources/research/research-featured-research), which states nine key factors to consider when launching the software projects. In my blog I will briefly summarize these nine factors:

1)      Software Development is not Manufacturing

Developing the software is often a discovery process. Initial requirements are at a functional rather than an implementation level. The higher the level of the requirements the more time and effort is spent determining what to do and how to do it.

2)      Schedule and Cost are not Interchangeable

The relationship between schedule and the cost/effort required to complete a software project is profoundly non-linear. When a schedule is shortened to meet a deadline, the team will not function as efficiently. The quality of the delivered product will also be degraded due to the increased communication complexity and reduced testing. Unrealistic schedules are the number one cause of project failure.

3)      The Best Data for Comparison is Your Own

Many companies do not record, analyze, and use the schedule, cost, and quality data that all projects generate. This data forms a composite picture of how an organization develops software. With it, strengths and weaknesses can be identified, estimates can be grounded in reality, and achievable targets set for improvement.

4)      Don’t Get Lost in the Details

When initially planning a software project it is important to focus on the large questions

• Do we know enough to make an intelligent estimate?

• Are the project’s schedule, cost, and quality constraints achievable?

• Can we staff this project?

• Is there an agreed upon change control process in place?

Most projects are over budget, exceed their schedules, and don’t meet customer expectations. This is because they did not address the big questions that focus on feasibility before addressing the minutia.

5)      Change Doesn’t Come Free

Software projects are a delicate balance of tasks to complete, staff to work on those tasks, and time in which that work is done. A change to any one of these affects the other two

6)      Plan and Monitor your Plan

Every project should have a project plan that specifies

• What will be delivered

• Staffing

• Schedule

Here is critical to have historical data discussed in factor #3

7)      An Estimate is not a Project Plan

Estimate provides the big picture of a project and the level of risk for any particular solution. A project plan provides the detail of that project: what the individual tasks are, roles and responsibilities, and the critical path. Estimates and project plans are complimentary.  

8)      There’s a Lot More to Software Development than Coding

Majority of work in a software development is not in the coding. Requirements gathering, analysis, design, project management, configuration management, documentation, system and integration testing typically require 70% of a project’s total effort.

9)      Plan for Project Measurement

Software measurement and analysis don’t just happen. Like any business initiative, they need clear objectives, senior leadership support, established roles and responsibilities, standards, and knowledgeable staff. By itself, project measurement does not fix anything. If your productivity and quality are poor, measuring them does not remedy the problem. However, measuring them will tell what they are so that you have a quantitative basis for evaluating the effectiveness of your improvement strategies.

Many of these nine factors can be used just about any project, however software projects do require some specifications which make the software project different than any other project.