Hashem AbuBaker's blog

Top 10 project management mistakes

Top 10 project management mistakes:

1- Underestimating the effort needed is a major reason projects get into trouble.

2- The most common reason projects fail is failure to evolve the real requirements.

3- Rework, especially late in the
project life cycle, is a leading cause of missed deadlines and overspending.

4- When processes aren't documented and followed, project teams end up trying to reinvent the wheel.

5- We seem to prefer to hear very bad news at the end of a project rather than in small doses earlier on, when problems actually crop up.

6- The best results are not produced by the heroic efforts of a few individuals acting alone, but when the entire team works together.

7- Build quality into work products at the end of the project instead add quality at a whole phases.

8- Project without direction because you don't update the plan when it needs.

9- Make decisions based on feelings rather than facts.

10- Build lopsided team with a concentration of skills in one area.

Let's Get Analytical

Some leaders jump into decisions. Others would rather tout their judgment or "palliate their egos" than examine cold,
hard data. Such managers ignore analytics at their own risk and miss out on
its benefits. Data and analysis can be a
potent combination, helping you save money, operate more efficiently and create a system for studying decisions and improving them incrementally. "Analytical at Work book"

Conflict Management

Conflict Management

by Clive Johnson and Jackie Keddy

 

Conflict management (CM) involves three major areas: "containment," which focuses on mitigating minor problems before they escalate; "resolution,"which involves finding mutually acceptable solutions; and "monitoring," which limits the negative fallout from angry episodes.

Conflict resolution options include

these tactics:

• "One-to-one" talks - The

disputants meet to resolve their

differences.

• "Direct approach" - A third party adopts a parental role toward the

disputants.

• "Conflict coach" - A professional

helps disputants see the matter in a new light.

• Third-party intervention Someone the individual disputants

trust and respect tries to ease

tensions.

• "Collaborative legal process" Lawyers educate disputants regarding the potential costs if the matter moves to litigation.

• "Arbitrator or tribunal panel" - A

professional imposes a judgment. • "Line manager" - A supervisor

takes on the role of arbitrator.

• "Litigation" - Going to court is costly but may be a necessary last

resort.

• Noninterference - If you let the

dispute run its course, it may never

end. Excerpted from Managing Conflict at Work Book by Clive Johnson and Jackie Keddy 2010

 

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How to Pick the Right Programming Language

How to Pick the Right Programming Language by Adron Hall

Adron Hall is the lead developer of cloud solutions at New Relic.

During the course of every coding project, a software developer must make dozens of decisions. Sometimes this involves solving a problem unique to a particular domain space or a particular architectural issue. Other times it’s about which language is best for a job. That is actually one of the most critical pieces of getting a project right.

Too often, languages are applied to a problem space where another language would be better. Here’s a quick look at some of the major business sectors and the languages best suited for each.

Financial Sector
The financial sector benefits from a number of languages. One of the key features for calculations is functional programming characteristics. When processing math based on financial calculations, functional paradigms often provide substantive performance benefits. This is why some of the key languages used in the financial sector, like Scala, are functional.

Another key need in the financial sector is languages that benefit from object-oriented paradigms with strong architectural patterns backed by a lot of guidance from the organizations around the languages. That’s why a lot of financial institutions have the majority of their applications written in the Java and C# languages. These languages provide maintainable options that a lot of other languages can’t do as well.

Top Languages: Scala, Java, and C#

Agency, Media, Advertising, and Design
With the overall design processes needed in creative work, languages that can prototype fast are in high demand. The best languages for this are generally scripting languages that are dynamic and contain minimal lines of code for maximum amount of functionality. Patterns and underlying code design elements are less important. Languages like Ruby, PHP and JavaScript are key for this.

In recent years, with mobile technology becoming the prominent computing medium, a larger focus has been put on developing for these platforms. Especially in agencies and design companies. Because of this some languages that are not ideal for fast-paced prototyping have come into use more frequently. Think Java for Android mobile and Objective-C for iOS devices like the iPad, iPhone and iPod.

Top Languages: Ruby, PHP, JavaScript, Java, and Objective-C

Enterprise Applications and Operational Software
In enterprises the key is reusable, pattern-based, large-scale, massive systems that are often complex and require layered architectural design approaches. This is where Java and C# shine. With a large ecosystem of server and framework support this makes these two languages ideal for enterprise scale and development practices.

Top Languages: Java and C#

Lean Startup and Small Software Business
Startups and small businesses face a brutal reality. They must continuously pivot, change, and adapt at an extremely fast rate to survive. Often this is on a minimal budget. Smaller business entities must prototype and iterate on apps and designs multiple times where many other entities may only make small or no changes to a software package.

Because of this, small business and startups often seek out languages that allow for extremely fast prototyping, extensive framework support, and have a strong community and “hacker mentality” around the languages. This often leads startups and small business to languages like Ruby which is built to work against the Rails and Sinatra Frameworks. There’s also the PHP Scripting language, which also supports many frameworks to make prototyping and deployment fast and easy. And recently JavaScript has even jumped into the arena with the advent of Node.js (Node.js is a server side technology that allows developers to build entire web applications entirely in Javascript). Notably, there are significantly large communities of very committed developers around Ruby, PHP, and JavaScript.

Top Languages: Ruby, PHP and JavaScript

Research and Development, Scientific, and Academic
Scientific Research and academia require languages that support highly accurate mathematics, extremely fast execution, and a focus around the implementation of the language versus any specific organizational characteristics like object orientation. Because of these needs, the academic and scientific communities often use languages like Scala for mathematical calculations, C++ for heavy processing, and even languages like Erlang and Python to accomplish their tasks. Since most of the tasks are much more focused around single outcomes, these languages are an easy choice in most of these environments.

Top Languages: Scala, C++, Erlang and Python

How will you measure your life?

You have three kinds of capabilities: "Resources," what you use to do something; "processes," how you do it; and "priorities," why you do it. How will you measure your life? book by Clayton M. Christensen

iPad3 flopped

iPad3 flopped
I think the excitement surroundings the Apple product has died down. launch day has gone, iPad3 is almost an upgrading to previous iPad2.

The most new features like the retina display, 4G LTE capability and an improved camera.

No one has formally proven that 3-DES or RSA are secure!

No one has formally proven that 3-DES or RSA are secure!

The perspective of traditional marketing has died on the rock of Social Media

The perspective of traditional marketing has died on the rock of Social Media

The Facts of Social Media

People or consumers (as defined by marketing backward) became smarter and more closer to the existence of a real place, such as social media

via hashemabubaker.typepad.com

What do these symbols mean?

PET is Polyethylene terephthalate (resin code #1): the most widely recycled plastic, used for bottled water containers, synthetic fibers (known in the clothing industry as "polyester"), food containers. and most recently as carpet fibers made from 100% recycled post consumer PET.

HDPE is High density Polyethylene (resin code #2): a strong, commonly recycled plastic with good heat tolerance that is used for food containers, consumer liquid containers (cleansers, etc).

PVC is Polyvinyl chloride (resin code #3): used in building materials such as plastic hoses and tubing, household sewer pipes, flooring, electrical cable insulation, waterbeds, pool toys, figurines, and even clothing and upholstery. Greenpeace has called for the global phase-out of PVC because toxins known as dioxins are created as a byproduct of production, as well as the chemical additives that may leach out of the PVC.

Many corporations have initiated phasing out or completely eliminated PVC from their products for these reasons. PVC is not typically recycled due to the processing cost.

PVC is Polyvinyl chloride (resin code #3): used in building materials such as plastic hoses and tubing, household sewer pipes, flooring, electrical cable insulation, waterbeds, pool toys, figurines, and even clothing and upholstery. Greenpeace has called for the global phase-out of PVC because toxins known as dioxins are created as a byproduct of production, as well as the chemical additives that may leach out of the PVC.

Many corporations have initiated phasing out or completely eliminated PVC from their products for these reasons. PVC is not typically recycled due to the processing cost.

PP is Polypropylene (resin code #5): a commonly recycled plastic used in a wide variety of applications such as carpets, auto parts, thermal underwear, reusable containers, and parts with living hinges (such as flip top bottles or tic tac lids).

Polystyrene (resin code #6): Known by the abbreviation PS or HIPS for high-impact polystyrene, it is used to make disposable cutlery, plastic models, CD and DVD cases, and smoke detector housings. Products made from foamed polystyrene (known as expanded polystyrene, or EPS) include packing materials, insulation, and foam drink cups. Polystyrene can be recycled but typically is not because of a lack of demand for recycled PS, as well as a lack of consumer awareness of PS recycling facilities.

The category OTHER refers to plastics which do not fit into the other 6 categories. These include Acrylic, ABS, fiberglass, Nylon, Polycarbonate, and PLA.