News

Building Healthy Teams

May 6, 2013

Leaders definitely have their work cut out for them. And successful leaders even more so. Without a healthy team environment, a leader can easily fall short of his objectives regardless of the organization’s business competencies and abilities. In fact, one of the key drivers of achievement is a healthy team culture. So how can leaders begin creating the right level of health? By focusing upon a few of the points listed below, leader can certainly enhance their team’s personal relationship building for the benefit of the organization. Instill sense of trust: The team must be able to feel comfortable with one another and trust in each other’s work. Embrace conflict: During meetings, the team will likely engage in some sort of conflict as they try to reach agreement on some points of discussion. Get buy-in : The team must be supportive of the decisions being made along the way and understand the rationale. Demand accountability : Team members must feel that thy are accountable for their role and their actions. Create a common goal : The leader must establish the priorities and make team members aware of the common goal toward which they are all working.

Will the Real Cloud Provider Please Stand Up?

April 29, 2013

You may have heard this song and dance before: there are some companies out there that claim to be cloud providers but they turn out just to be posers. In their rush to get their cloud applications out to market, these so-called providers tend to skip some of the basic requirements, leaving information technology specialists with a sub-standard product on their hands that may potentially add more of a burden upon their workflow than anything. Cloud applications are actually SaaS (Software-as-a -service), a service that is intended to provide the organization with a more cost-effective technological solution. Yet, many posers provide “solutions” that are simply not up to standard. They claim to have extraordinary features that are easy to implement. They also claim that they will guarantee the safety of your data, when in fact they do not even have the firewalls and encryption required to ensure this. In the end, imposter applications simply deliver a mediocre solution that is not necessarily tailored to your organization’s business needs. The true providers deliver hassle-free solutions with seamless integrations that are built-in. So it is important not to get caught in the web and learn how to distinguish them from the real [...]

Hunting and Gathering

April 22, 2013

The starting point of a project is generally one of the most exciting yet uncertain moments for a team. The project team may find itself struggling to define certain issues or determine the best strategic approach for carrying out their project plan. In the world of software development, the definition of application requirements at the outset of a project can similarly prove to be a challenge. To properly capture requirements, it has become evident that simply gathering information is not sufficient. A transformation is taking place in the mind-set of software developers everywhere who are transitioning to an approach that focuses on a more effective requirements elicitation approach rather than a requirements gathering approach. Below, are a few steps that will help software development teams accomplish their mission: Identify key contacts: Find other professionals who can provide the specific area of expertise needed for the task at hand. Elicit requirements: Rather than enquiring what the project manager wants the application to do and capturing that demand, it is more effective to take a requirements elicitation approach. Link features to business objective(s): As each feature is defined, make sure that it can be connected back to the business goal. By stepping [...]

The Reluctant Executive

April 15, 2013

We all have a role to play in our organization: he does the “techie” thing, she does the planning, and they will take care of the implementation. Even the supervisor can no longer just sit back and watch his staff just run with it! So when it comes to writing business requirements, we all still have a role to play in our organization – together. In fact, for a project to be successful, even the business executives need to be part of writing the business requirements. They need to be engaged in the process to ensure that the product being developed supports the company’s strategies and objectives. However, we often times come across those executives who are not easily accessible or who cannot articulate the product goals. Below are a few steps for helping IT specialists to engage in productive exchanges with business executives: 1) Pinpoint a clear definition of the company’s strategy: This will force the executive to provide more clarity on the strategy envisioned and break it down into more achievable steps. 2) Obtain confirmation of your interpretation of the strategy: The specialist will need to meet with the executive to ensure that the defined strategy has been [...]

Choosing an Agile Certification

April 8, 2013

Today more than ever, IT professionals must have up-to-date software skills. With the increasing adoption of agile in many enterprises, it is necessary to have some fundamental training and certifications to prove it. But with so many different certifications, which one should you choose? There are a few organizations that provide certifications for Agile professionals. While some require a bit of experience, not all of them carry the same requirements. Therefore, some certifications carry more weight than others in the eyes of employers. Below, we will explore three types of certifications that you may consider for your professional development and the advancement of your career. Scrum certifications: The Scrum Alliance, a nonprofit organization, offers several hands-on training programs and certifications for Scrum, a popular Agile framework used in software development. Entry level: – Certified Scrum Master (CSM) – Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) – Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) Intermediate level: – Certified Scrum Professional (CSP): Must be a current holder of one of the above credentials, have at least 2,000 hours of Scrum-related work experience during the past two years and be an existing member of the Scrum Alliance. Advanced level: – Certified Scrum Trainer (CST): Qualified to teach classes [...]

Why Even Test It?

April 1, 2013

When some of us hear the word “test”, we tend to cringe. For many, the very notion of testing implies that there is the possibility of failure. However, in the world of software development, this is the very reason why testing is done – to ensure that the end product will not ultimately fail in the hands of its intended end user. In the software development life cycle, there are distinct testing phases that must occur. Following the technical testing in which the majority of the software’s main flaws have been corrected, it is time to move on to Acceptance Testing (also known as Beta testing) which is done by the end users at their location. This phase is quite different from technical testing in that it focuses entirely on the business functionality of the software in a real world setting. As a critical component of the software development life cycle, Acceptance Testing allows the user (or client) to certify the performance of the system with respect to the initial requirements that were agreed upon. By practicing Acceptance Testing, your organization can greatly reduce the change requests, thereby dramatically decreasing the corresponding project costs. While Acceptance Testing can be considered [...]

Avoiding Agile Failure

March 25, 2013

When organizations decide to adopt an Agile initiative, they are generally surprised to discover the downside of the implementation process. In fact, the majority of these initiatives are driven by upper management who are only interested by the benefits that Agile can proffer them. They therefore task their IT team with this new initiative, overlooking the fact that management support and involvement is still required to ensure the organization-wide success of Agile. To avoid engendering the risk of an Agile failure within your organization, here are a few things to consider beforehand: 1) Time involved: Although many business professionals believe that Agile development may only take a few months, it can actually take years to be fully implemented throughout an organization. Moreover, it may take as long as five years to achieve the full benefits of Agile. 2) Change requirement: Adopting Agile involves more than just purchasing an Agile project management tool. It is a distinct change in the technical approach to project management and software development. 3) Rate of development: While Agile can indeed be useful for increasing the speed of the development process, it can also be detrimental if the end product is of poor quality. Instead, the QA [...]

Business Analysts Adapt to Agile

March 18, 2013

The modern Business Analyst is no longer ensconced in the traditional role of forming a bridge between two groups – developers and project stakeholders. Instead, as more projects now use the Agile approach, the existing BA needs to understand the various tools, techniques, skills, and knowledge required to make these agile projects successful. Rather than creating a specialized agile business analyst for agile projects, it is nevertheless important for the BA to effect a number of small changes in his/her approach to the job to ensure that each project is a success. The first step is to have the BA become the communications coach on the project team. While most BAs are not necessarily the most effective communicators in the organization, an agile project represents a good opportunity for them to develop this indispensable skill. To ensure that this new role is a good fit is to incorporate a feedback loop that encourages communication. The second step is for the BA to rethink the basic approach to an agile project. Rather than continuing to bridge the gap between developers and the project stakeholders, the agile BA should coordinate their meeting and facilitate their face-to-face interaction. The third step is for the BA to [...]

Certified to be Agile

March 11, 2013

The question is no longer whether or not to become agile, but when. Agile has evolved from a grassroots movement to change software development into a rather mainstream approach. Companies and organizations are increasingly adopting an agile project management approach over the more traditional waterfall methodology. The main objective of this new technique is the delivery of the best product possible. To achieve this, the methodology of Agile Project Management focuses on the customer, recognizes the constantly changing environment of business organizations, and encourages human interaction for the delivery of high quality software. The project team as a whole must be ready and willing to adapt to change, drive innovation, and deliver on-time business value. For the project manager overseeing this process, it is important that he/she possesses the requisite leadership ability to drive this change. Many project managers are technical specialists who require additional training to lead a project team. With proper training, technical professionals such as project managers, analysts, developers, programmers, and testers can gain valuable insights for managing or collaborating in agile software projects. Certifications, such as the Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) allows participant to easily grasp new Agile project management concepts and techniques. Through case studies [...]

Applying Emotional Intelligence

March 4, 2013

Some may question whether emotions even have a place in the business world. Yet, it is only natural to experience the highs and lows of emotions throughout the day, even while on the job. In fact, being in touch with one’s emotions can be even more of an asset than a detriment. Through the identification of one’s emotional intelligence (EI), one can recognize their own response patterns and triggers. By understanding and further developing one’s EI, professionals can leverage this to improve their effectiveness on the job. For leaders in particular, a variety of strengths and opportunities can be created to transform their professional and personal potential. Here are 5 ways to apply a leader’s EI in the workplace: 1) Creation of a corporate culture: Leaders strive to create a culture which inspires trust and where employees can strike a balance between their work and personal life as well. 2) Formation of teams: The mood of a leader can set the tone for a working group, influencing the emotion of the overall team. 3) Deterrence for underperformance: Those leaders who have high EI will generally be more successful in recruiting candidates who are a good fit, thereby engendering cost-savings for employee [...]

-- Sam J. Systems Analyst, OPS

-- Lindsey M, Amp Blogs

-- Kevin J, Web Developed