Friday, June 08, 2012
Online Seniors? What?
There are over 21 million ‘online’ seniors (65+) only in US and can you imagine their digital trend: see below
Picture Source:- Forrester Blogs 
Amazing potential and incredible opportunity....Entrepreneur within is jolting me :-)
- Manav Ahuja
Saturday, April 28, 2012
SQL structures in Business Intelligence (BI) Testing - Top "10" learnings
Business Intelligence Systems are designed to provide strategic information for analysis. Some of the features of Business Intelligence Systems are:
1) Database designed for analytical tasks
2) Data from Multiple Source Systems
3) Read-Intensive Data
4) Availability of Current and Historical data
5) Ability for users to initiate reports
A few of the common terms used in BI space are:
a)Source Systems
b)Staging Area
c)Data Extraction, Transformation and Loading (ETL)
d)Enterprise Data-warehouse (EDW)
e)Reporting (Drill through reports)
f)UI components such as – Cubes, Dimensions & Measures
g)FACT tables, Dimension Tables
....etc
With the basics out of the way, lets jump on to core of the post – Top 10 potshots for solid SQL Structures:
1.Alias Names should be consistent across different SQL’s and should be sensible. Have a standard for alias names. For example –All fact tables should have alias names starting with ‘F’ and all dimension tables should have alias names starting with ‘D’. This enhances debugging
a.Fact_Company FCOM
b.Dim_Company DCOM
2.Use ‘ISNULL’ clause whenever there is data comparison between 2 columns. The SQL server does not compare NULL values. Hence if the NULL value is converted to some numeric/text value we can compare those records as well
3.Add appropriate comments wherever required
4.To make the SQL statements more readable, start each clause on a new line and indent when needed. Following is an example:
SELECT EMPID, FIRSTNAME
FROM DBO.EMPLOYEE
WHERE TITLE LIKE SALARY% AND COUNTRY=‘ABC’
5.Use DISTINCT clause only in SELECT statements if there is a possibility of duplicate rows. The DISTINCT clause creates a lot of extra work for SQL server and reduces the physical resources of other SQL statements.
6.Avoid ‘NOT IN’ condition as far as possible because it offers poor performance. Instead use one of the following
a.Use EXISTS or NOT EXISTS
b.Perform a LEFT OUTER JOIN and check for NULL condition
SELECT STG_EMP.EMP_ID
FROM DBO.STG_EMPLOYEE STG_EMP
WHERE EMP_ID NOT IN (SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID FROM DBO.DIM_EMPLOYEE)
Runs Slower Than
SELECT STG_EMP.EMP_ID,DIM_EMP.EMPLOYEE_ID
FROM DBO.STG_EMPLOYEE STG_EMP LEFT OUTER JOIN DBO.DIM_EMPLOYEE DIM_EMP
ON STG_EMP.EMP_ID=EDW.EDW_EMPLOYEE_ID
WHERE EMPLOYEE_ID IS NULL
7.Avoid using ORDER BY in the SELECT statements unless it is really needed because it adds a lot of extra overhead
8.UNION combines the result sets of 2 or more "select" queries. It removes duplicate rows between the various "select" statements whereas “UNION ALL” query returns all rows (even if the row exists in more than one of the "select" statements). Use UNION ALL instead of UNION when you are sure that the result sets of select queries are distinct. This prevents the UNION statement from trying to sort the data and remove duplicates, which hurts performance.
9.Avoid using SELECT *. Always write the required column names after the SELECT statement, like:
SELECT EMPLOYEEID, FIRSTNAME
This decreases the unnecessary disk I/O
10.When there is a choice of using the IN or the EXISTS clause in SQL, prefer using the EXISTS clause, as it is usually more efficient and performs faster. Consider the following example
SELECT STG_EMP.EMP_ID
FROM DBO.STG_EMPLOYEE STG_EMP
WHERE EMP_ID IN (SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID FROM DBO.DIM_EMPLOYEE)
is less efficient than
SELECT STG_EMP.EMP_ID
FROM DBO.STG_EMPLOYEE STG_EMP
WHERE EXISTS ( SELECT 1 FROM DBO.DIM_EMPLOYEE DIM_EMP
WHERE DIM_EMP. EMPLOYEE_ID = STG_EMP.EMP_ID)
Bonus Tip - When there is a choice of using the IN or the BETWEEN clauses in your Transact-SQL, use the BETWEEN clause, as it is much more efficient.
Disclaimer: The best practices listed are a result of my learning’s from encounters with seasoned DWBI geeks.
-Manav Ahuja
1) Database designed for analytical tasks
2) Data from Multiple Source Systems
3) Read-Intensive Data
4) Availability of Current and Historical data
5) Ability for users to initiate reports
A few of the common terms used in BI space are:
a)Source Systems
b)Staging Area
c)Data Extraction, Transformation and Loading (ETL)
d)Enterprise Data-warehouse (EDW)
e)Reporting (Drill through reports)
f)UI components such as – Cubes, Dimensions & Measures
g)FACT tables, Dimension Tables
....etc
With the basics out of the way, lets jump on to core of the post – Top 10 potshots for solid SQL Structures:
1.Alias Names should be consistent across different SQL’s and should be sensible. Have a standard for alias names. For example –All fact tables should have alias names starting with ‘F’ and all dimension tables should have alias names starting with ‘D’. This enhances debugging
a.Fact_Company FCOM
b.Dim_Company DCOM
2.Use ‘ISNULL’ clause whenever there is data comparison between 2 columns. The SQL server does not compare NULL values. Hence if the NULL value is converted to some numeric/text value we can compare those records as well
3.Add appropriate comments wherever required
4.To make the SQL statements more readable, start each clause on a new line and indent when needed. Following is an example:
SELECT EMPID, FIRSTNAME
FROM DBO.EMPLOYEE
WHERE TITLE LIKE SALARY% AND COUNTRY=‘ABC’
5.Use DISTINCT clause only in SELECT statements if there is a possibility of duplicate rows. The DISTINCT clause creates a lot of extra work for SQL server and reduces the physical resources of other SQL statements.
6.Avoid ‘NOT IN’ condition as far as possible because it offers poor performance. Instead use one of the following
a.Use EXISTS or NOT EXISTS
b.Perform a LEFT OUTER JOIN and check for NULL condition
SELECT STG_EMP.EMP_ID
FROM DBO.STG_EMPLOYEE STG_EMP
WHERE EMP_ID NOT IN (SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID FROM DBO.DIM_EMPLOYEE)
Runs Slower Than
SELECT STG_EMP.EMP_ID,DIM_EMP.EMPLOYEE_ID
FROM DBO.STG_EMPLOYEE STG_EMP LEFT OUTER JOIN DBO.DIM_EMPLOYEE DIM_EMP
ON STG_EMP.EMP_ID=EDW.EDW_EMPLOYEE_ID
WHERE EMPLOYEE_ID IS NULL
7.Avoid using ORDER BY in the SELECT statements unless it is really needed because it adds a lot of extra overhead
8.UNION combines the result sets of 2 or more "select" queries. It removes duplicate rows between the various "select" statements whereas “UNION ALL” query returns all rows (even if the row exists in more than one of the "select" statements). Use UNION ALL instead of UNION when you are sure that the result sets of select queries are distinct. This prevents the UNION statement from trying to sort the data and remove duplicates, which hurts performance.
9.Avoid using SELECT *. Always write the required column names after the SELECT statement, like:
SELECT EMPLOYEEID, FIRSTNAME
This decreases the unnecessary disk I/O
10.When there is a choice of using the IN or the EXISTS clause in SQL, prefer using the EXISTS clause, as it is usually more efficient and performs faster. Consider the following example
SELECT STG_EMP.EMP_ID
FROM DBO.STG_EMPLOYEE STG_EMP
WHERE EMP_ID IN (SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID FROM DBO.DIM_EMPLOYEE)
is less efficient than
SELECT STG_EMP.EMP_ID
FROM DBO.STG_EMPLOYEE STG_EMP
WHERE EXISTS ( SELECT 1 FROM DBO.DIM_EMPLOYEE DIM_EMP
WHERE DIM_EMP. EMPLOYEE_ID = STG_EMP.EMP_ID)
Bonus Tip - When there is a choice of using the IN or the BETWEEN clauses in your Transact-SQL, use the BETWEEN clause, as it is much more efficient.
Disclaimer: The best practices listed are a result of my learning’s from encounters with seasoned DWBI geeks.
-Manav Ahuja
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Testabulous 2012
Wow, what a hiatus it has been. Almost an year since i last posted. With dawn of new year, atleast i hope to work on one of my resolutions - to blog as frequently as 1/month and not 1/Year.
With that promise, lets break the hiatus with a new year note to our community.
This post has been unique right from the point when I thought I need to break monotony with a new year wish to the this point when I am penning without a concrete plan. I am letting my thoughts wander and just don’t want to say “Wish you an interesting new year”.
Alright, taking a leaf from Stevie’s (Steve Jobs) presentation style, I will ask(and answer) three questions to help carve an ecstatic 2012 for the testing community we all are championing.
1.Whom are you serving daily?
My thoughts: You are serving the testing artists, who look for better thoughts, those who enjoy the better thoughts and those who think we have better thoughts.
2. Who the hell cares about the testing artists?
My thoughts: I do and daily remind myself to do that! I believe Testing is a craft…only a few respect, most others think “Anyone can do testing”
3. When testing industry has crossed $13B USD(source Internet), why still people think “It’s just freaking QA/testing(used interchangeably)” or "Anyone can do testing"?
My thoughts: I feel it’s the mindset that have existed for ages. Remember the old 70’s – 80’s (atleast that’s what I do), common perception for teaching was similar, it was considered to be the worst but easiest option available to people who could not become Engineer/Doctor/CA(in some pockets of our society though). Maybe, that upbringing is so ingrained that people have not outgrown the rusty thoughts. With premise remaining same, the teaching has just been replaced by QA/Testing in IT industry. These people who are at helm think, anyone can do QA/testing because it’s just freaking QA/testing.
I am sure, above three questions must have provoked some thoughts and maybe ignited some passion to help our community. It’s because each one of us have the authority and responsibility to help our community garner much needed respect. I hope we will see QA/testing become poster child of IT industry during our lifetime.
Wishing you and your family an un-parallel 2012.
Thanks for your time,
- Manav
With that promise, lets break the hiatus with a new year note to our community.
This post has been unique right from the point when I thought I need to break monotony with a new year wish to the this point when I am penning without a concrete plan. I am letting my thoughts wander and just don’t want to say “Wish you an interesting new year”.
Alright, taking a leaf from Stevie’s (Steve Jobs) presentation style, I will ask(and answer) three questions to help carve an ecstatic 2012 for the testing community we all are championing.
1.Whom are you serving daily?
My thoughts: You are serving the testing artists, who look for better thoughts, those who enjoy the better thoughts and those who think we have better thoughts.
2. Who the hell cares about the testing artists?
My thoughts: I do and daily remind myself to do that! I believe Testing is a craft…only a few respect, most others think “Anyone can do testing”
3. When testing industry has crossed $13B USD(source Internet), why still people think “It’s just freaking QA/testing(used interchangeably)” or "Anyone can do testing"?
My thoughts: I feel it’s the mindset that have existed for ages. Remember the old 70’s – 80’s (atleast that’s what I do), common perception for teaching was similar, it was considered to be the worst but easiest option available to people who could not become Engineer/Doctor/CA(in some pockets of our society though). Maybe, that upbringing is so ingrained that people have not outgrown the rusty thoughts. With premise remaining same, the teaching has just been replaced by QA/Testing in IT industry. These people who are at helm think, anyone can do QA/testing because it’s just freaking QA/testing.
I am sure, above three questions must have provoked some thoughts and maybe ignited some passion to help our community. It’s because each one of us have the authority and responsibility to help our community garner much needed respect. I hope we will see QA/testing become poster child of IT industry during our lifetime.
Wishing you and your family an un-parallel 2012.
Thanks for your time,
- Manav
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
"Freaking QA Tester"
Last week, I was talking to one of the seasoned IT executives and was educating him about the craft called – Testing. Taking a leaf from two of the experts – I follow –Michael Bolton and James Bach, I was explaining about – Confirmation Testing Vs Exploratory Testing, Defect Vs Issue etc. Seemingly uneasy at understanding the analytical, critical, logical landscape for Testing, he yells – “It is just freaking QA”. Killing my urge to reply in the same passionate yell, I just said “Oh, thanks for proving your point, I rest my case” and walked out.
Clouded with so many questions and thoughts, I am still finding it difficult to accept the narrow mindsets and preparing to challenge next time (if situation permits).
Having given myself a few days to cool off and reply appropriately, I was on usual business on Monday morning, checking and replying mails. A new mail pops up with a very provocative message. I just got blown away on the second side to the same coin
Mail from this account executive of some company, read:
I sent you an email a few weeks ago about how SFDC, Pershing, Zappos and hundreds of other quality assurance professionals are reducing test center cycle time, increasing test coverage and consistently delivering to production much higher quality releases.
Imagine if you could consistently reduce production defects by 50% while cutting test time in half. Too good to be true? If you don’t believe it, please take 3 minutes to see how has used to transform their test center operations from a “necessary evil” into a leadership organization.
If you’re challenged with delivering higher quality applications to production with less time to properly test, please contact me to discuss further and organize an online demonstration or hands-on trial. You can call me directly at (xxx)xxx-xxxx or reply to this email.
This was the second mail I received directly from this gentleman.
Two contrasting yet related incidents made me ponder, something is grossly wrong. Something needs an overhaul to help our craft gets its due respect and also transform the technological advances of generations to come.
Anyhow, I thought of questioning this guy and understand how much he understands the testing to make such lofty (read: exaggerated) claims. Here is what I asked him:
I must appreciate that your mails do lend the provocative edge to make the reader, read and not shift delete. With that said, I have a couple of very curious question to validate the claims you are making, so that I can assure myself of investing my 3 minutes for your case study.
1. How do you define Quality (when you say it’s 2x)?
2. How do you measure quality?
3. On what basis do you say that the time assigned was the ideal for testing? For what I know from my experience, the Testing NEVER stops. So what is your yardstick to the claim that you can reduce the time by ½
4. What constitutes the TEST COVERAGE?
5. Please define “Quality in Production”? In what stage of lifecycle of testing this is declared that if we achieve this / that, the testing team will deliver quality in production. Also it will be beneficial what all includes in that call out
To no surprise and very much on lines to what I could have expected I received the reply, which was same old sales s***. These are the basic questions we daily answer for our clients. Since this is what our clients demand from us, is there harm in demanding the same.
For both the seasoned IT Executive and this sales Account Executive, I pity the company who has employed such a sales person, and their gullible clients (I am sure they have many). Through these inept representatives work culture is totally on display.
On a positive side, we “Freaking QAs” can take an inspiration to help these morons and many more like these, who are thriving in our industry.
- Manav Ahuja
Clouded with so many questions and thoughts, I am still finding it difficult to accept the narrow mindsets and preparing to challenge next time (if situation permits).
Having given myself a few days to cool off and reply appropriately, I was on usual business on Monday morning, checking and replying mails. A new mail pops up with a very provocative message. I just got blown away on the second side to the same coin
Mail from this account executive of some company, read:
I sent you an email a few weeks ago about how SFDC, Pershing, Zappos and hundreds of other quality assurance professionals are reducing test center cycle time, increasing test coverage and consistently delivering to production much higher quality releases.
Imagine if you could consistently reduce production defects by 50% while cutting test time in half. Too good to be true? If you don’t believe it, please take 3 minutes to see how
If you’re challenged with delivering higher quality applications to production with less time to properly test, please contact me to discuss further and organize an online demonstration or hands-on trial. You can call me directly at (xxx)xxx-xxxx or reply to this email.
This was the second mail I received directly from this gentleman.
Two contrasting yet related incidents made me ponder, something is grossly wrong. Something needs an overhaul to help our craft gets its due respect and also transform the technological advances of generations to come.
Anyhow, I thought of questioning this guy and understand how much he understands the testing to make such lofty (read: exaggerated) claims. Here is what I asked him:
I must appreciate that your mails do lend the provocative edge to make the reader, read and not shift delete. With that said, I have a couple of very curious question to validate the claims you are making, so that I can assure myself of investing my 3 minutes for your case study.
1. How do you define Quality (when you say it’s 2x)?
2. How do you measure quality?
3. On what basis do you say that the time assigned was the ideal for testing? For what I know from my experience, the Testing NEVER stops. So what is your yardstick to the claim that you can reduce the time by ½
4. What constitutes the TEST COVERAGE?
5. Please define “Quality in Production”? In what stage of lifecycle of testing this is declared that if we achieve this / that, the testing team will deliver quality in production. Also it will be beneficial what all includes in that call out
To no surprise and very much on lines to what I could have expected I received the reply, which was same old sales s***. These are the basic questions we daily answer for our clients. Since this is what our clients demand from us, is there harm in demanding the same.
For both the seasoned IT Executive and this sales Account Executive, I pity the company who has employed such a sales person, and their gullible clients (I am sure they have many). Through these inept representatives work culture is totally on display.
On a positive side, we “Freaking QAs” can take an inspiration to help these morons and many more like these, who are thriving in our industry.
- Manav Ahuja
Monday, June 21, 2010
Towers de SOA Testing
In an attempt to understand and learn SOA, i did an extensive research and have collated my findings as below. Hope this will help the beginners like me.
Introduction
As Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) begins to form the fabric of IT infrastructure, active and aggressive SOA testing has become crucial. Comprehensive Functional, Performance, Interoperability and Vulnerability Testing form the Towers of SOA Testing. Only by adopting a comprehensive testing stance, enterprises can ensure that their SOA is robust, scalable, interoperable, and secure.
Web Services have blurred the boundaries between network devices, security products, applications and other IT assets within an enterprise. Almost every IT asset now advertises its interface as a Web Services Definition Language (WSDL) interface ready for SOAP/XML messaging. Web Services interfaces provide unprecedented flexibility in integrating IT assets across internal and external corporate domains. Such flexibility makes it the responsibility of IT staff from all domains such as Developers, Network Engineers, Security & Compliance Officers, and Application QA Testers to ensure that their Web Services work as advertised across functional, performance, interoperable and security requirements.
Towers de SOA Testing
Tower I: Functional & Regression Testing
Functional and Regression Testing is the First tower of testing SOAs. IT Professionals need to quickly test Web Services and setup desired regression Test Cases. Ease-of-use in setting up such tests encourages technologist with varying skills and responsibilities to test their Web Services quickly and often.
Tower II: Performance
Performance is the Second Tower of SOA Testing. QA Testers, Network & Security Engineers should test the scalability and robustness of Web Services and determine performance and endurance characteristics of their WSDL operations. Testers should determine response times, latency, throughput profiles for target Web Services. In addition to performance profiles, tester should run test for a specified duration for measuring endurance and robustness profiles. They also need to determine scalability by bombarding target Web Services with varying SOAP messages across a range of concurrent loading clients.
Tower III: Interoperability
While loading a Web Service WSDL, consumer applications need to determine both design-time and run-time interoperability characteristics of the target Web Services. Developers should run a set of comprehensive WSI Profile tests and report interoperability issues with the Web Services WSDL. Adhering to WSI Profiles ensures that SOA assets are interoperable and that WSDL can work within heterogeneous .NET & Java environments.
Design-time WSDL interoperability testing is not enough. Run-time Interoperability testing is also necessary. Testing the interoperability of a Web Services requires creating specialized test suites for a WSDL. These tests ensure that the target Web Services are interoperable by actively sending specialized request to the Web Services and determining whether the Web Service responds per WSI Profile specification. Comprehensive design-time WSDL WSI Profile testing combined with active run-time Web Service interoperability behavior testing ensures that IT assets can integrate independent of platform, operating system, and programming language.
Tower IV: Vulnerability Assessment
Vulnerability Assessment is the Fourth Tower of SOA Testing. Active Web Services Vulnerability Assessment is an emerging area of SOA testing. By creating specialized tests for a target Web Service, security officers can measure the vulnerability profiles of the target Web Service. Security Engineers need to ensure that Web Services vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows, deeply nested nodes, recursive payloads, schema poisoning and malware traveling over SOAP messages do not affect their critical Web Services. They need the ability to rapidly scan Web Services and assess areas of exposure, determine severity levels, provide vulnerability diagnosis, and publish remediation techniques. Web Services Vulnerability Assessment is a crucial pre-production and post-production step that every .NET and Java developer and security professional must take to ensure risk mitigation within their Service Oriented Architecture.
Finally SOA – it is and it is NOT?
• Service-Oriented Architecture is an architectural strategy that helps achieve closer business-IT alignment, by taking a three-dimensional perspective of the enterprise. The three dimensions being: technology, people and processes.
• The key aspect of SOA is to make business functionality available as a set of well governed, standards based, loosely coupled services and processes, defined in a flexible and agile manner.
• SOA is an infrastructure-based architectural approach to deliver business ‘functionalities’ as ‘shared services’ by using open standards and/or protocols of communication.
• SOA is an approach that allows for implementing business ‘capabilities’ that can be consumed as services.
• SOA is not about technology specific design or architecture – it is business driven (through capabilities and functionalities/functions) for service enablement of the processes!
Reference:- Internet research
~Manav Ahuja
Introduction
As Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) begins to form the fabric of IT infrastructure, active and aggressive SOA testing has become crucial. Comprehensive Functional, Performance, Interoperability and Vulnerability Testing form the Towers of SOA Testing. Only by adopting a comprehensive testing stance, enterprises can ensure that their SOA is robust, scalable, interoperable, and secure.
Web Services have blurred the boundaries between network devices, security products, applications and other IT assets within an enterprise. Almost every IT asset now advertises its interface as a Web Services Definition Language (WSDL) interface ready for SOAP/XML messaging. Web Services interfaces provide unprecedented flexibility in integrating IT assets across internal and external corporate domains. Such flexibility makes it the responsibility of IT staff from all domains such as Developers, Network Engineers, Security & Compliance Officers, and Application QA Testers to ensure that their Web Services work as advertised across functional, performance, interoperable and security requirements.
Towers de SOA Testing
Tower I: Functional & Regression Testing
Functional and Regression Testing is the First tower of testing SOAs. IT Professionals need to quickly test Web Services and setup desired regression Test Cases. Ease-of-use in setting up such tests encourages technologist with varying skills and responsibilities to test their Web Services quickly and often.
Tower II: Performance
Performance is the Second Tower of SOA Testing. QA Testers, Network & Security Engineers should test the scalability and robustness of Web Services and determine performance and endurance characteristics of their WSDL operations. Testers should determine response times, latency, throughput profiles for target Web Services. In addition to performance profiles, tester should run test for a specified duration for measuring endurance and robustness profiles. They also need to determine scalability by bombarding target Web Services with varying SOAP messages across a range of concurrent loading clients.
Tower III: Interoperability
While loading a Web Service WSDL, consumer applications need to determine both design-time and run-time interoperability characteristics of the target Web Services. Developers should run a set of comprehensive WSI Profile tests and report interoperability issues with the Web Services WSDL. Adhering to WSI Profiles ensures that SOA assets are interoperable and that WSDL can work within heterogeneous .NET & Java environments.
Design-time WSDL interoperability testing is not enough. Run-time Interoperability testing is also necessary. Testing the interoperability of a Web Services requires creating specialized test suites for a WSDL. These tests ensure that the target Web Services are interoperable by actively sending specialized request to the Web Services and determining whether the Web Service responds per WSI Profile specification. Comprehensive design-time WSDL WSI Profile testing combined with active run-time Web Service interoperability behavior testing ensures that IT assets can integrate independent of platform, operating system, and programming language.
Tower IV: Vulnerability Assessment
Vulnerability Assessment is the Fourth Tower of SOA Testing. Active Web Services Vulnerability Assessment is an emerging area of SOA testing. By creating specialized tests for a target Web Service, security officers can measure the vulnerability profiles of the target Web Service. Security Engineers need to ensure that Web Services vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows, deeply nested nodes, recursive payloads, schema poisoning and malware traveling over SOAP messages do not affect their critical Web Services. They need the ability to rapidly scan Web Services and assess areas of exposure, determine severity levels, provide vulnerability diagnosis, and publish remediation techniques. Web Services Vulnerability Assessment is a crucial pre-production and post-production step that every .NET and Java developer and security professional must take to ensure risk mitigation within their Service Oriented Architecture.
Finally SOA – it is and it is NOT?
• Service-Oriented Architecture is an architectural strategy that helps achieve closer business-IT alignment, by taking a three-dimensional perspective of the enterprise. The three dimensions being: technology, people and processes.
• The key aspect of SOA is to make business functionality available as a set of well governed, standards based, loosely coupled services and processes, defined in a flexible and agile manner.
• SOA is an infrastructure-based architectural approach to deliver business ‘functionalities’ as ‘shared services’ by using open standards and/or protocols of communication.
• SOA is an approach that allows for implementing business ‘capabilities’ that can be consumed as services.
• SOA is not about technology specific design or architecture – it is business driven (through capabilities and functionalities/functions) for service enablement of the processes!
Reference:- Internet research
~Manav Ahuja
Friday, May 28, 2010
Achieving exhilarating Customer Delight, in turbulent times…
In all the bloodshed in economies across globe, no one is immune. Each one of businesses have got impacted except (bankruptcy lawyers of course). So how it has impacted the IT industry in general the big engagements? Many of us might ponder - what heck, i don't care, i have a job and i know how to survive this storm.
Do we really know?
Do we really know how to sail through?
Do we really know how we can keep our flags high and achieve the Customer Delight in these turbulent times.
To help ourselves lets interview ourselves:
We: What are Top 2 Current IT Challenges?
I: Personally i feel
a) The first impact of the overall liquidity crisis is already popping out - some funds have decided to go slow or sudden "No investment plans" have become the norm. It may get worse (or already is) before it gets better.
b) Since the economic issue here is not the equity markets but the credit market there is a significant risk not just to growth but even sustenance of current state.
We: Do we have ready made quick fix solutions?
I: Are we dreaming. Lets wake up to reality, its a mess we created and we need to clean up, there are no shortcuts.
We: How to get Customer Delight in this turbulence?
I: Good question, I feel,
1. I call it as "Keep your blinkers on" - Focus on our existing lines of business and focus on customers pains.
2. Postpone the more uncertain long term strategies if required.
3. Ask our customers - Lets partner to help relieve your pains and strategize accordingly to help them zoom through this current mess.
4. Think about how this downturn affects our customers / partners Vs how does it affect us.
We: That's good, but are there any actionizable thoughts for keeping afloat?
I: Abundant, In fact each person if soliloquy,can share varying perspectives. Here are a few of mine:
1. First and foremost - Lets target and Keep our team together - share and celebrate successes, be transparent about challenges. Invest in our best people.
2. Since we cannot manage economy, so lets manage everything else - our business and circle of influence.
3. Lets throw out the models and spreadsheets, because all assumptions will be wrong. Just
* Focus on quality.
* Reduce risk.
4. Lets not target getting ahead but let "surviving/sustaining" be the "cool" mantra. After-all this era is an era of survival of the quickest.
5. Lets be brutal when it comes to raising red flags during Go-No go and even Risk management. There should be "No waiting zone" for escalation(s) at any stage of our engagement.
6. Most importantly, we all are at key decision making roles so "Lets be true to ourselves". No appeasing-pleasing the boss / sycophancy will really work. Its a time for real circus and let we be the real jokers.
7. Focus on long term objectives and quality.
8. Lets target ONLY on our B&B (bread and butter) and deliver value in that. All add-ons can come as situational commodities.
9. Lets avoid being mind share oriented.
10. For everyone at senior levels, I know "Revenues are vanity, profits are sanity", but defer this for a while and lets be more niche for our B&B (bread and butter) than being generalist even in that.
11. Since V-shaped recovery is far from likely, so lets Go on the offensive and pound on our competitors’ shortcomings.
12. Be aggressive with our messaging and be out there. In a downturn, i feel, aggressive PR and communications strategy is key.
We: Thanks for your insights.
I: Pleasure is mine. Thanks for privilege.
Do we really know?
Do we really know how to sail through?
Do we really know how we can keep our flags high and achieve the Customer Delight in these turbulent times.
To help ourselves lets interview ourselves:
We: What are Top 2 Current IT Challenges?
I: Personally i feel
a) The first impact of the overall liquidity crisis is already popping out - some funds have decided to go slow or sudden "No investment plans" have become the norm. It may get worse (or already is) before it gets better.
b) Since the economic issue here is not the equity markets but the credit market there is a significant risk not just to growth but even sustenance of current state.
We: Do we have ready made quick fix solutions?
I: Are we dreaming. Lets wake up to reality, its a mess we created and we need to clean up, there are no shortcuts.
We: How to get Customer Delight in this turbulence?
I: Good question, I feel,
1. I call it as "Keep your blinkers on" - Focus on our existing lines of business and focus on customers pains.
2. Postpone the more uncertain long term strategies if required.
3. Ask our customers - Lets partner to help relieve your pains and strategize accordingly to help them zoom through this current mess.
4. Think about how this downturn affects our customers / partners Vs how does it affect us.
We: That's good, but are there any actionizable thoughts for keeping afloat?
I: Abundant, In fact each person if soliloquy,can share varying perspectives. Here are a few of mine:
1. First and foremost - Lets target and Keep our team together - share and celebrate successes, be transparent about challenges. Invest in our best people.
2. Since we cannot manage economy, so lets manage everything else - our business and circle of influence.
3. Lets throw out the models and spreadsheets, because all assumptions will be wrong. Just
* Focus on quality.
* Reduce risk.
4. Lets not target getting ahead but let "surviving/sustaining" be the "cool" mantra. After-all this era is an era of survival of the quickest.
5. Lets be brutal when it comes to raising red flags during Go-No go and even Risk management. There should be "No waiting zone" for escalation(s) at any stage of our engagement.
6. Most importantly, we all are at key decision making roles so "Lets be true to ourselves". No appeasing-pleasing the boss / sycophancy will really work. Its a time for real circus and let we be the real jokers.
7. Focus on long term objectives and quality.
8. Lets target ONLY on our B&B (bread and butter) and deliver value in that. All add-ons can come as situational commodities.
9. Lets avoid being mind share oriented.
10. For everyone at senior levels, I know "Revenues are vanity, profits are sanity", but defer this for a while and lets be more niche for our B&B (bread and butter) than being generalist even in that.
11. Since V-shaped recovery is far from likely, so lets Go on the offensive and pound on our competitors’ shortcomings.
12. Be aggressive with our messaging and be out there. In a downturn, i feel, aggressive PR and communications strategy is key.
We: Thanks for your insights.
I: Pleasure is mine. Thanks for privilege.
Saturday, March 06, 2010
13000+ e-separate Infosys in 1 month
Infosys gets a wakeup call, when over 13000+ headcounts, walk out of the lush green campuses across the country, that too in just 1 month. This exodus marks the wakeup call for the elite senior management, board of directors who have been in denial mode for last 4 years. Denial of what? Well denial of strategically well planned, but most deadly executed headcount (UN) friendly policies. Policies such as
a) Internal mandatory certifications. This most illogical mandate rolled out somewhere in 2006, hit many road blocks right from day one. Reactive and run time changes were implemented. Management who created this with a vision to mark it as one of the USP's of Infosys in already bleeding software outsourcing market. With a vision to take a lead from its #1, 2, 3, competitors - Wipro, TCS, CTS etc.
The hardest hitting shot was, when it got tied with the compensation and promotion of a headcount through the CRR cycle.
b) CRR - well not sure where it was copied from, even though management claims to have inherited and improvised it after a huge research on companies which had somewhat similar appraisal parameters. Believe me, this is most ridiculous way of getting people rated for the performance. BTW not directly, but in relevance to some of the most morons you might have in the parallel groups. And you end up being rated as good as your manager can represent you.This has parameters coming from across not only performance. Everything gets overridden by your adherence to the non relevant certification (a) to even the progressions and promotions as per new iRace.
c) iRace - Performance DOESNOT matter - yes, it’s a race, a hapless race mandated with shrewd bullyness in a typical top down approach. # of years of experience is what governs your designation. Only designation, yes, because in Infosys, the culture has been such that you will be appraised as per your designation, but soaked as per the one level up, because that’s the role you play. If you are a fast tracker, mind you there are many levers that will pull you so that you cannot win in the (i)race
Recently, Mr. NRN, was addressing a gathering and to his sudden surprise, he was showered with the cruciatingly hard fact based questions. First as usual to a big corporate guru, he jumped into the denial zone. But when he couldnot weather the storm, he took refuge in accepting a little bit and saying that senior management needs to investigate there seems to be an issue.
Just a few days later, the corporate HR head - Nandita Gujar, wrote some kind of blog in infy intranet, which was thronged by a very very hard hitting almost 3000 headcounts. The fact is that unlike NRN, they didn’t take a refuge in any anonymity, but rather used their very own names, designation and employee id's.
O yeah this reminds me to a funny incident which will culminate the mentality within middle management as well. I was a part of this very middle management and was working closely with my offshore peer. One background, I was a fast tracker and he is a veteran of over 16 years at infosys.But we were peers. Don’t conclude yet...please read below
There arise a little argument during our discussion and when he couldn’t question the authenticity of my logic he asked me "What is your employee id"?
I was stunned to irrelevancy with the discussion. It was just like the mapping of certifications with the designations of headcounts.
Anyhow, I told him but counter questioned why? The answer I got is "I wanted to know how long you have been at Infosys".....no wonder his is the kind of people who can stay and survive the hypocrisy which prevails inside the fake brand name, for which people like me fell.
Before i close this post:- Latest update:- Infosys has created 9 tracks to do "research" into the issues in each of the illogical policies which got implemented and thus resulted in huge exodus. These tracks are like a democratic country creating a committe for any cause of revolution.
a) Internal mandatory certifications. This most illogical mandate rolled out somewhere in 2006, hit many road blocks right from day one. Reactive and run time changes were implemented. Management who created this with a vision to mark it as one of the USP's of Infosys in already bleeding software outsourcing market. With a vision to take a lead from its #1, 2, 3, competitors - Wipro, TCS, CTS etc.
The hardest hitting shot was, when it got tied with the compensation and promotion of a headcount through the CRR cycle.
b) CRR - well not sure where it was copied from, even though management claims to have inherited and improvised it after a huge research on companies which had somewhat similar appraisal parameters. Believe me, this is most ridiculous way of getting people rated for the performance. BTW not directly, but in relevance to some of the most morons you might have in the parallel groups. And you end up being rated as good as your manager can represent you.This has parameters coming from across not only performance. Everything gets overridden by your adherence to the non relevant certification (a) to even the progressions and promotions as per new iRace.
c) iRace - Performance DOESNOT matter - yes, it’s a race, a hapless race mandated with shrewd bullyness in a typical top down approach. # of years of experience is what governs your designation. Only designation, yes, because in Infosys, the culture has been such that you will be appraised as per your designation, but soaked as per the one level up, because that’s the role you play. If you are a fast tracker, mind you there are many levers that will pull you so that you cannot win in the (i)race
Recently, Mr. NRN, was addressing a gathering and to his sudden surprise, he was showered with the cruciatingly hard fact based questions. First as usual to a big corporate guru, he jumped into the denial zone. But when he couldnot weather the storm, he took refuge in accepting a little bit and saying that senior management needs to investigate there seems to be an issue.
Just a few days later, the corporate HR head - Nandita Gujar, wrote some kind of blog in infy intranet, which was thronged by a very very hard hitting almost 3000 headcounts. The fact is that unlike NRN, they didn’t take a refuge in any anonymity, but rather used their very own names, designation and employee id's.
O yeah this reminds me to a funny incident which will culminate the mentality within middle management as well. I was a part of this very middle management and was working closely with my offshore peer. One background, I was a fast tracker and he is a veteran of over 16 years at infosys.But we were peers. Don’t conclude yet...please read below
There arise a little argument during our discussion and when he couldn’t question the authenticity of my logic he asked me "What is your employee id"?
I was stunned to irrelevancy with the discussion. It was just like the mapping of certifications with the designations of headcounts.
Anyhow, I told him but counter questioned why? The answer I got is "I wanted to know how long you have been at Infosys".....no wonder his is the kind of people who can stay and survive the hypocrisy which prevails inside the fake brand name, for which people like me fell.
Before i close this post:- Latest update:- Infosys has created 9 tracks to do "research" into the issues in each of the illogical policies which got implemented and thus resulted in huge exodus. These tracks are like a democratic country creating a committe for any cause of revolution.
Friday, November 27, 2009
SMB's fail because...
I have created an evolving thread on this to come up with a succinct findings and publish later.
Enjoy and share your thoughts at
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=2877&discussionID=10246991&sik=&trk=mywl_artile&goback=%2Emwg_*2_1
Enjoy and share your thoughts at
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=2877&discussionID=10246991&sik=&trk=mywl_artile&goback=%2Emwg_*2_1
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Why the more you rise in corporate ladder, more egoist you become?
Is there a mandate, that once you reach some senior / executive position you start breeding look-at-me-I'm-so-special culture. The ego becomes bigger than professional-ism. Replying mails quickly hurts, replying lengthy downsize your position and rather no reply is to show i-am-too-busy.
What are the reasons for this kinda virus attack in the people who are on rise in corporate ladders?
What are the reasons for this kinda virus attack in the people who are on rise in corporate ladders?
Can you procure "Determination"?
Recently doing a research on Determination, i read a loads of chronicles on Determination and very interesting thoughts as well. I am putting in a small mathematical form
Determination = (Willfulness + Discipline ) * Ambition
So ironically, if you see, Its not something inborn quality but quite a derived one.
As we all know, We can hone our skills in "willfullness", We can make a paradigm shift in "Discipline" repository and to a good extent even improve "Ambition".
So a question comes, is it really that easy to say that "Determination" is not (un)procure-able?
Determination = (Willfulness + Discipline ) * Ambition
So ironically, if you see, Its not something inborn quality but quite a derived one.
As we all know, We can hone our skills in "willfullness", We can make a paradigm shift in "Discipline" repository and to a good extent even improve "Ambition".
So a question comes, is it really that easy to say that "Determination" is not (un)procure-able?
Monday, July 06, 2009
Setting your venture - a Guide
I cam across this intresting piece as a detailed process for setting up the venture
http://trak.in/tags/business/2009/07/01/starting-business-in-india-simplified-process/
I see a good amount of information to take care.
- Manav Ahuja
http://trak.in/tags/business/2009/07/01/starting-business-in-india-simplified-process/
I see a good amount of information to take care.
- Manav Ahuja
Friday, August 08, 2008
Customer is King
I was chatting with my spouse, who incidently is no stranger to IT industry. What we discussed, gave me enough to share with my dear readers.
So Lets first understand the context with a question:- What are the most common reasons for client escalations?
If i were to dare, from my (our) past experience, i will try to collate the key reasons for any escalation.
Disclaimer:- Please pardon, these are from my(our) very personal experience and any resemblance of any sort is purely coincidental.
Alright, here goes my list:-
1. Art of delegation:- Everyone in team think "they can do all". This is the most common problem i feel we face with stakeholders who are reluctant to delegating the things at right time to right people. Customers may not know the reality (or root cause), but they fume at not seeing the results. After all they pay for the results.
2. Assumptions:- Teams make so many assumptions, that they over-kill themselves.I feel the pragmatic approach to any service is waning. Teams have started living for the day/moment and are decreasingly future oriented. If i were to use technical jargon, Teams have started becoming "Agile".
3. Pompousness:- This is so very implicit that teams tend to ignore the fact that clients are smarter these days. Any degree of Pompousness will be killing for any team.So we need to be aware.
4. No status reporting:- This is seriously gross. Teams refrain - may be for zillion of practical and mental reasons, to share the very status of any deliverable/service.They report when asked.
5. Sitting on issues/problems - I somehow feel the tricks we learnt during our entrance exams are very life living. The thumb rule we were taught was - never sit on a question, instead leave it and move on. If i were to apply the same rule - i would say teams, sit too much and donot go back to client for more information. I know leaving situation is anachronic but going back to client is best. Even they will appreciate.
Miscellaneous others:-
7. Not creating the motivating team culture.
8. NOt relating with each member of team
9. Team Thinking every project/assignment a stop gap arrangement for different personal goals in life - could be money, designation(power), onsite experience etc etc
10. To top all - People have become "Being individual" and does not work/showcase and live as team .
There are definitely many more. But this is what my(our) small experience has taught. Maybe will retrospect more some other day, some other time.
Till then..lets recite and create a placard - "Customer is King".
~ Manav Ahuja
So Lets first understand the context with a question:- What are the most common reasons for client escalations?
If i were to dare, from my (our) past experience, i will try to collate the key reasons for any escalation.
Disclaimer:- Please pardon, these are from my(our) very personal experience and any resemblance of any sort is purely coincidental.
Alright, here goes my list:-
1. Art of delegation:- Everyone in team think "they can do all". This is the most common problem i feel we face with stakeholders who are reluctant to delegating the things at right time to right people. Customers may not know the reality (or root cause), but they fume at not seeing the results. After all they pay for the results.
2. Assumptions:- Teams make so many assumptions, that they over-kill themselves.I feel the pragmatic approach to any service is waning. Teams have started living for the day/moment and are decreasingly future oriented. If i were to use technical jargon, Teams have started becoming "Agile".
3. Pompousness:- This is so very implicit that teams tend to ignore the fact that clients are smarter these days. Any degree of Pompousness will be killing for any team.So we need to be aware.
4. No status reporting:- This is seriously gross. Teams refrain - may be for zillion of practical and mental reasons, to share the very status of any deliverable/service.They report when asked.
5. Sitting on issues/problems - I somehow feel the tricks we learnt during our entrance exams are very life living. The thumb rule we were taught was - never sit on a question, instead leave it and move on. If i were to apply the same rule - i would say teams, sit too much and donot go back to client for more information. I know leaving situation is anachronic but going back to client is best. Even they will appreciate.
Miscellaneous others:-
7. Not creating the motivating team culture.
8. NOt relating with each member of team
9. Team Thinking every project/assignment a stop gap arrangement for different personal goals in life - could be money, designation(power), onsite experience etc etc
10. To top all - People have become "Being individual" and does not work/showcase and live as team .
There are definitely many more. But this is what my(our) small experience has taught. Maybe will retrospect more some other day, some other time.
Till then..lets recite and create a placard - "Customer is King".
~ Manav Ahuja
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Recipe for success
I came across this very thought provoking recipe
Setting Goals
but NOT in concrete
Staying Focused
but turning aside to Help someone
Following Plan
but remaining Flexible
Moving ahead
but not too fast to miss the smell of flowers
Climbing the Ladder
but not stepping on Toes
Fighting to Finish
but choosing your battles
Taking a Bow
but applauding those who a part in your success
wow - i am amazed at the thoughts and variations who ever coined this. Brilliant
~ Manav Ahuja
Setting Goals
but NOT in concrete
Staying Focused
but turning aside to Help someone
Following Plan
but remaining Flexible
Moving ahead
but not too fast to miss the smell of flowers
Climbing the Ladder
but not stepping on Toes
Fighting to Finish
but choosing your battles
Taking a Bow
but applauding those who a part in your success
wow - i am amazed at the thoughts and variations who ever coined this. Brilliant
~ Manav Ahuja
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Large System Integration Testing Projects - What to watch out for...
Testing was looked down (even in some corners it is still prevalent). But let me take a lead and proudly say, that after seeing the IT world from all sides - Dev,Testing,Maintenance - Product and Services as well...I feel Testing is a REAL intellectual challenge and process. It gains its enormity from the point that No other process except testing can give a solace(or sleepless nights) when it comes to credibility of a release. It also is infact one of the most THORNY activity in any software Life cycle.
Various factors make it critical - Type of bid (Fixed, T&M, Size of project,Domain etc etc)
Anyhow i thought of putting my thoughts togather on What are the key characteristics and challenges when there is a testing planned for a LARGE System Integration projects
Tighten your seat belts ...Here you go..
•Large systems integration projects usually are mission critical and have high quality goals not only in terms of providing functionality but also towards high availability, performance, resilience and robustness of the system.
•These projects span over multiple years and business dynamics tend to change during this period.
•More often than not, these are developed in multiple releases having parallel development and testing phases of overlapping releases to maintain the schedule of the project.This increases the complexity of managing large projects.
•These have very typical characteristics of having many possibilities of getting under estimated due to the uncertainties and large number of independent variables that leads to schedule slippage and effort over run.
•Generally significant number of stakeholders and big team size of large programme leads to issues related to communication and coordination.
•Typically in such projects, project team can never be sure that the functionality that is being designed is the one will be deployed finally into the production. There is high possibility of the scope creep that is initiated by the customer, from technical point of view initiated by the vendor and from risk point of view that is decided by the need of the project.
•Usually large projects executed by multiple vendors from multiple locations in different countries having diverse culture and exploit multiple technologies.
Can you collaborate more.,...
~ Manav Ahuja
Various factors make it critical - Type of bid (Fixed, T&M, Size of project,Domain etc etc)
Anyhow i thought of putting my thoughts togather on What are the key characteristics and challenges when there is a testing planned for a LARGE System Integration projects
Tighten your seat belts ...Here you go..
•Large systems integration projects usually are mission critical and have high quality goals not only in terms of providing functionality but also towards high availability, performance, resilience and robustness of the system.
•These projects span over multiple years and business dynamics tend to change during this period.
•More often than not, these are developed in multiple releases having parallel development and testing phases of overlapping releases to maintain the schedule of the project.This increases the complexity of managing large projects.
•These have very typical characteristics of having many possibilities of getting under estimated due to the uncertainties and large number of independent variables that leads to schedule slippage and effort over run.
•Generally significant number of stakeholders and big team size of large programme leads to issues related to communication and coordination.
•Typically in such projects, project team can never be sure that the functionality that is being designed is the one will be deployed finally into the production. There is high possibility of the scope creep that is initiated by the customer, from technical point of view initiated by the vendor and from risk point of view that is decided by the need of the project.
•Usually large projects executed by multiple vendors from multiple locations in different countries having diverse culture and exploit multiple technologies.
Can you collaborate more.,...
~ Manav Ahuja
Newly coined phrase for the current phase of my life
Today while chating with some near dears of mine, i accidently coined something which is giving a new meaning to my life.
Without keeping it a secret any more here it is:
"Be optimistic to the last iota of the breath, even if you are the ONLY one to be so".
..... Manav
Without keeping it a secret any more here it is:
"Be optimistic to the last iota of the breath, even if you are the ONLY one to be so".
..... Manav
Friday, March 21, 2008
What IT Vendors SHOULD provide
I know surveys are the most crudest things to proclaim anything.They are the best means to corrupt the thought process as well.
BUT...
Recently i was reading one of the blogs and found this intrested piece (a survey report) and felt its so very relevant to us. So thought of sharing through my blog as well.
Keep strategizing...
~Manav Ahuja
BUT...
Recently i was reading one of the blogs and found this intrested piece (a survey report) and felt its so very relevant to us. So thought of sharing through my blog as well.
Keep strategizing...
~Manav Ahuja
Sunday, March 16, 2008
GUI Testing - "Most Common Bug Patterns" - Part -1
Being a long timer Web developer and thereafter Web Tester i think it has been long due that i start recollecting my experience and share it here for the entire community to leverage / synergize and take a note of for future. I have just finished collating a few so thought of penning at these early hours of Sunday morning (BTW its 05:18 AM) and haen't taken the nap yet whole night. Well i believe Make hay when sun Shines...so weekends are for me and me alone.
Ok enuf...back to business...The moment we think portal / website, the first few things come to mind are the - Promptness,Lesser the number of mouse clicks better the site,Ease of navigation, less text and not to crumpled Home page.
Well to further my thought process here are some of the bug patterns in standard GUI Implementations:
- In case of combo box, we should check the functionality of arrow keys. Most of the time, we checked up / down keys, we should check right / left keys also.
- Bit map should be provided for all the tool buttons.
- CTRL+ shortcut for the various options doesn’t work consistently.
- If two / three dialog boxes are opened at the same time, then the dialog boxes shouldn’t overlap one another. They should cascade.
- CTRL+tab key should result in to flipping among the open windows.
- Arrow keys should also be mapped with spin control buttons.
- Whenever there is some activity going on, some way of notification to the user should be there. It may be Hourglass mouse pointer, display on status bar, an animated GIF, or use of a progress bar. The point is that the user should be aware that something is going on in background.
- Menus should follow the standard conventions, e.g. “About” submenu should be under Help menu and so on.
- Tool tips should be displayed for all the tool buttons.
- Floating toolbars should not be another task bar window, but should be positioned inside the GUI window.
- Any additional user created toolbars or menus should not distort the GUI.
- Change in Font should reflect at all intended places. Also, the views should not get distorted.
- Tiling and Cascading should be tested thoroughly along with Minimize and maximize options. Windows should not get lost at any point of time.
- Check box should get checked/unchecked with SPACE bar, when in focus.
- Option buttons should get set/reset with SPACE bar, when in focus.
- Whenever a “Select ALL” facility is given, a “Clear All” should be provided and vice versa.
- All the Control buttons and Menu bars that launch another dialog should have three trailing DOTs (…) in the name. E.g. Browse…
Whoo hoo...this has come out good. I will put more pressure on my "medula oblongata" and try to make this a series. to complete most of the critical GUI components.
Should we not say this...GUI Testing Bug Patterns - Part 1.
Have a good one...
~ Manav Ahuja
Ok enuf...back to business...The moment we think portal / website, the first few things come to mind are the - Promptness,Lesser the number of mouse clicks better the site,Ease of navigation, less text and not to crumpled Home page.
Well to further my thought process here are some of the bug patterns in standard GUI Implementations:
- In case of combo box, we should check the functionality of arrow keys. Most of the time, we checked up / down keys, we should check right / left keys also.
- Bit map should be provided for all the tool buttons.
- CTRL+
- If two / three dialog boxes are opened at the same time, then the dialog boxes shouldn’t overlap one another. They should cascade.
- CTRL+tab key should result in to flipping among the open windows.
- Arrow keys should also be mapped with spin control buttons.
- Whenever there is some activity going on, some way of notification to the user should be there. It may be Hourglass mouse pointer, display on status bar, an animated GIF, or use of a progress bar. The point is that the user should be aware that something is going on in background.
- Menus should follow the standard conventions, e.g. “About” submenu should be under Help menu and so on.
- Tool tips should be displayed for all the tool buttons.
- Floating toolbars should not be another task bar window, but should be positioned inside the GUI window.
- Any additional user created toolbars or menus should not distort the GUI.
- Change in Font should reflect at all intended places. Also, the views should not get distorted.
- Tiling and Cascading should be tested thoroughly along with Minimize and maximize options. Windows should not get lost at any point of time.
- Check box should get checked/unchecked with SPACE bar, when in focus.
- Option buttons should get set/reset with SPACE bar, when in focus.
- Whenever a “Select ALL” facility is given, a “Clear All” should be provided and vice versa.
- All the Control buttons and Menu bars that launch another dialog should have three trailing DOTs (…) in the name. E.g. Browse…
Whoo hoo...this has come out good. I will put more pressure on my "medula oblongata" and try to make this a series. to complete most of the critical GUI components.
Should we not say this...GUI Testing Bug Patterns - Part 1.
Have a good one...
~ Manav Ahuja
Entreprenurship - Ignite the passion within
Who and what defines Entre...
Noun : Entrepreneur – An entrepreneur (a loanword from French introduced and first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon) is a person who undertakes and operates a new enterprise or venture and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks. A female entrepreneur is sometimes referred to as an entrepreneuse. …… From Wikipedia
Simple...uhh. Its more beneath than out. These nerds cannot be a part of herd (except the herd of achievers/loosers). They really are people who feel fear is just another word, Loss is an oppurtunity and success is just a milestone not destination.....Wow i am turning and playing with words. :-)
But is it that easy to be an entrepreneur. I thought of sewing my thoughts and come up with my kinda insights on the game - Entrepreneurship.
I feel Entreprenurs are crazy souls for whom life is all about passion. And they donot rely on any source of inspiration. The catalyst for the ignition of their passion comes from within.
...now what abt the characteristics of these buffoons..Let me try
- Work-a-holics
- Die hard optimists
- Least emotional (this is subjective but i would still list this among the prominents)
- Risk takers (Both calculated and un-calculated)
- Self driven and believers
- Problem conquerers
- Hands on - Not Task delegators
- Unstoppable
- Donot take but provide Inspiration
- They are the change and real innovators
I may have missed some key ones (but they might be your perception/perspective) :-). Mine - i have listed all. But one thing for sure We all are entreprenurs in our respect isn't it? Its just that some of us take the plunge and rest sit back in cubicles(cozy spaces within our organizations) and see the other quarter making history everyday.
Before saluting a "Bye" ...let me leave you soaked with famous quotes from REAL Entrepreneurs of the era:
It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer."- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's
"I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others... I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent."- Thomas Edison
"Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make."- Donald Trump, real estate and entertainment mogul
"I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!"- Madam C.J. Walker, creator of a popular line of African-American hair care products and America's first black female millionaire
O-la-la...thats real thoughtful stuff....i have enough Food for thought ...for my coming week(s) :-)
In my son's words let me move off in true US style --- "Have a good one" -
~ Manav Ahuja
Noun : Entrepreneur – An entrepreneur (a loanword from French introduced and first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon) is a person who undertakes and operates a new enterprise or venture and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks. A female entrepreneur is sometimes referred to as an entrepreneuse. …… From Wikipedia
Simple...uhh. Its more beneath than out. These nerds cannot be a part of herd (except the herd of achievers/loosers). They really are people who feel fear is just another word, Loss is an oppurtunity and success is just a milestone not destination.....Wow i am turning and playing with words. :-)
But is it that easy to be an entrepreneur. I thought of sewing my thoughts and come up with my kinda insights on the game - Entrepreneurship.
I feel Entreprenurs are crazy souls for whom life is all about passion. And they donot rely on any source of inspiration. The catalyst for the ignition of their passion comes from within.
...now what abt the characteristics of these buffoons..Let me try
- Work-a-holics
- Die hard optimists
- Least emotional (this is subjective but i would still list this among the prominents)
- Risk takers (Both calculated and un-calculated)
- Self driven and believers
- Problem conquerers
- Hands on - Not Task delegators
- Unstoppable
- Donot take but provide Inspiration
- They are the change and real innovators
I may have missed some key ones (but they might be your perception/perspective) :-). Mine - i have listed all. But one thing for sure We all are entreprenurs in our respect isn't it? Its just that some of us take the plunge and rest sit back in cubicles(cozy spaces within our organizations) and see the other quarter making history everyday.
Before saluting a "Bye" ...let me leave you soaked with famous quotes from REAL Entrepreneurs of the era:
It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer."- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's
"I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others... I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent."- Thomas Edison
"Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make."- Donald Trump, real estate and entertainment mogul
"I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!"- Madam C.J. Walker, creator of a popular line of African-American hair care products and America's first black female millionaire
O-la-la...thats real thoughtful stuff....i have enough Food for thought ...for my coming week(s) :-)
In my son's words let me move off in true US style --- "Have a good one" -
~ Manav Ahuja
Friday, February 15, 2008
Most Popular Licenses in Open Source
Today researching the Open Source (after a loooong break), i comtemplate that i have forgotten all the different types of licenses and their grants. It proved a catalyst and here i have agregated the content from http://opensource.org
NOTE : What i am providing is a brief overview what would be of intrest to all of us - the open source community. So please visit the whole terms in license and then Build-Operate-Deliver :-)
Most Popular Licenses among Open source communities and the ones widely used::
- Apache License, 2.0
Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free,irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute the Work and such derivative Works in Source or Object form
- New and Simplified BSD licenses
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so.
- GNU General Public License (GPL)
The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it.(Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too.
- GNU Library or "Lesser" General Public License (LGPL)
This license, the Lesser General Public License, applies to some specially designated software packages--typically libraries--of the Free Software Foundation and other authors who decide to use it. You can use it too, but we suggest you first think carefully about whether this license or the ordinary General Public License is the better strategy to use in any particular case.
- MIT license
Same as BSD licences but with an additional "NO Endorsement clause".
- Mozilla Public License 1.1 (MPL)
The Modifications which You create or to which You contribute are governed by the terms of this License, including without limitation section.The Source Code version of Covered Code may be distributed only under the terms of this License or a future version of this License released and You must include a copy of this License with every copy of the Source Code You distribute. You may not offer or impose any terms on any Source Code version that alters or restricts the applicable version of this License or the recipients' rights hereunder. However, You may include an additional document offering the additional rights described.
- Common Development and Distribution License
Subject to third party intellectual property claims, the Initial Developer hereby grants You a world-wide,royalty-free, non-exclusive license
- Common Public License 1.0
Subject to the terms of this Agreement, each Contributor hereby grants Recipient a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform,distribute and sublicense the Contribution of such Contributor, if any, and such derivative works, in source code and object code form
- Eclipse Public License
Subject to the terms of this Agreement, each Contributor hereby grants Recipient a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute and sublicense the Contribution of such Contributor, if any, and such derivative works, in source code and object code form
Be Free, Have free...
~ Manav Ahuja
NOTE : What i am providing is a brief overview what would be of intrest to all of us - the open source community. So please visit the whole terms in license and then Build-Operate-Deliver :-)
Most Popular Licenses among Open source communities and the ones widely used::
- Apache License, 2.0
Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free,irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute the Work and such derivative Works in Source or Object form
- New and Simplified BSD licenses
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so.
- GNU General Public License (GPL)
The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it.(Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too.
- GNU Library or "Lesser" General Public License (LGPL)
This license, the Lesser General Public License, applies to some specially designated software packages--typically libraries--of the Free Software Foundation and other authors who decide to use it. You can use it too, but we suggest you first think carefully about whether this license or the ordinary General Public License is the better strategy to use in any particular case.
- MIT license
Same as BSD licences but with an additional "NO Endorsement clause".
- Mozilla Public License 1.1 (MPL)
The Modifications which You create or to which You contribute are governed by the terms of this License, including without limitation section.The Source Code version of Covered Code may be distributed only under the terms of this License or a future version of this License released and You must include a copy of this License with every copy of the Source Code You distribute. You may not offer or impose any terms on any Source Code version that alters or restricts the applicable version of this License or the recipients' rights hereunder. However, You may include an additional document offering the additional rights described.
- Common Development and Distribution License
Subject to third party intellectual property claims, the Initial Developer hereby grants You a world-wide,royalty-free, non-exclusive license
- Common Public License 1.0
Subject to the terms of this Agreement, each Contributor hereby grants Recipient a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform,distribute and sublicense the Contribution of such Contributor, if any, and such derivative works, in source code and object code form
- Eclipse Public License
Subject to the terms of this Agreement, each Contributor hereby grants Recipient a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute and sublicense the Contribution of such Contributor, if any, and such derivative works, in source code and object code form
Be Free, Have free...
~ Manav Ahuja
Thursday, February 14, 2008
What is "Project Management"? From my interview yesterday....
Very happy valentines day ...:-)
Yesterday after a long hiatus was getting interviewed (yes for a change not taking but giving one). And one question i was asked "What have you accomplished on Project Management and what would you say about Project Management"? I gave many an insights, my perspectives and facts and of course my accomplishments.
Retrospecting...i feel of penning my second (streamlined) thoughts.
What would you say about Project Management?
Here are my 2 paise on this...
Project Management, is an art not only skill.And I feel this art (SHOULD)comprise of
- Scope Management
- Integration Management
- Time management
- Cost Management
- Quality Management
- HR Management
- Communication Management
- Risk Management
- Procurement management
- Client (even Multi Vendor) Management
So if i were to march into the risky category, giving some thumb rules - Some of the keys (from my experience) to successful Project Management are
- MUST CREATE A PROJECT VISION
- Develop realistic project objectives / Goals
- Create / re-visit with predefined frequency - The MASTER Project plan
- Track / Measure / Analyse progress
- Solve problems quickly & effectively
- Motivate
- Keep Senior Management and even the Team members informed on project status. In succinct
- BE diplomatically transparent
- And above all follow my tips to make our team invaluable(see my post on "Lets Define Team")
Lastly, let me pictorially put the factors which govern "Project's success matrix".
Happy Project managing...
~Manav Ahuja
Yesterday after a long hiatus was getting interviewed (yes for a change not taking but giving one). And one question i was asked "What have you accomplished on Project Management and what would you say about Project Management"? I gave many an insights, my perspectives and facts and of course my accomplishments.
Retrospecting...i feel of penning my second (streamlined) thoughts.
What would you say about Project Management?
Here are my 2 paise on this...
Project Management, is an art not only skill.And I feel this art (SHOULD)comprise of
- Scope Management
- Integration Management
- Time management
- Cost Management
- Quality Management
- HR Management
- Communication Management
- Risk Management
- Procurement management
- Client (even Multi Vendor) Management
So if i were to march into the risky category, giving some thumb rules - Some of the keys (from my experience) to successful Project Management are
- MUST CREATE A PROJECT VISION
- Develop realistic project objectives / Goals
- Create / re-visit with predefined frequency - The MASTER Project plan
- Track / Measure / Analyse progress
- Solve problems quickly & effectively
- Motivate
- Keep Senior Management and even the Team members informed on project status. In succinct
- BE diplomatically transparent
- And above all follow my tips to make our team invaluable(see my post on "Lets Define Team")
Lastly, let me pictorially put the factors which govern "Project's success matrix".
Happy Project managing...
~Manav Ahuja
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