Jan 24 2011
Build a writing culture in application development
One of the key skills needed in today’s IT shop is communication, and one of the best ways to improve ability to communicate is to write blog posts and articles.
In spite of “IT guy” stereotypes, communication and analytical thinking about business are among the most important skills in application development. Developers, analysts, and managers require ability to interact effectively with business people, to conceptualize solutions that match business needs, critically evaluate those solutions, and effectively make the case for one of them. Of course this is true of the overall project business case, but more importantly it applies to the daily “IT guy” to business person conversations that happen throughout analysis, design, development, and testing.
Cultivating writing skills is one way to cultivate effective communication. Often, writers start a piece with “it all worked out in their head”.
Jan 19 2011
Informatica Cloud Express - the Data Integration Software as a Sevice (SaaS) on Cloud
At first glance, hosting applications in the cloud seems to require less setup and operational cost, which accounts for its great appeal. That said, the world is still trying to make sense of how cloud computing can really fit into the enterprise computing puzzle in the midst of so many of the complex challenges we face, like the ever increasing needs for security, continuing dependency on age old legacy systems, ever increasing uncertainty in the current troubling global economic situation, and more. Nevertheless, one thing that is quite clear to me is that cloud computing during this economic uncertainty does offer a great new hope for organizations if only for its “pay as you go” approach.
Jan 19 2011
Don't Assume About Assumptions
An often overlooked piece of the requirements gathering and documenting portion of a project is assuming that everyone understands the assumptions. Almost every project document includes a list of assumptions. Problems arise when the assumptions are not clear or when some are left off of the document.
Jan 19 2011
DBMI Tech Tip: Writing a Good SQL Story - The Importance of Table Join Order
Writing SQL queries is as much about getting the right results as writing a query that’s readable, performs well, and is easy to test.
Jan 17 2011
BI Challengers: Disrupting the Mega Vendor?
I recently wrote a post on my predictions for BI in 2011. I received lots of feedback about my thoughts with most of it focusing on my prediction that some of the niche BI players will start to disrupt the BI market in 2011. Based on that feedback I thought a follow up post to dig a little deeper on the topic was in order.