April, 2008

TM, PM and Education (that is free, and stress free)

Back in March awareness of a new science of peace was shared. Imagine peace manifested in various ways, for example as free education or as stress free education. With a life long interest in science, spirituality and world peace, Dr. Hagelin attempts to bring related knowledge to more and more people. Continuing his work Dr. Hagelin has recently been very busy in Europe, since October in fact. His focus is on Transcendental Meditation. TM is apparently the world’s most thoroughly documented and researched self-development program with more than 600 research studies proving a wide range of benefits. The practice is said to be natural and automatic, easily learned and easy to do.

If you would like to read about some related research, perhaps visit Hagelin.org or ISTPP.org. For a discussion on the role of meditation in education perhaps see StressFreeSchools.org or DavidLynchFoundation.org. For theory and research on conflict prevention and world peace perhaps see PermanentPeace.org. For a few PM updates perhaps see these Gantt Head related pages: Ganttface, Project Headway, Wiki pages.

As part of individual and collective efforts and techniques that may progressively enable peace (including in the form of free stress free education globally that may in some ways help to enable peace in all regards), will TM be increasingly linked to PM, and will blogging and Wiki pages be increasingly utilized? 

The career, Software Developer (your comments appreciated)

There are many who began their career in IT as a software developer (aka computer programmer or software engineer). Within this group there are also many who no longer regularly author code. Many of these individuals were once very good at generating code that met requirements and had all reported bugs fixed prior to the code going into production on time and on budget. Today, after decades of significant change within IT, there are many positions within that do not require incumbents to author code or to even have much understanding for the skills and daily challenges of software developers. Today in many organizations and on many projects, it is not surprising to discover that there are more people scoping, managing, testing and supporting the work of software developers than there are software developers. Improvements in talent, process, languages, tools and so on potentially could be behind this (e.g., now you can do more in less time and with better results, so you don’t need as many developers). You may particularly say this is so, if the bulk of the people in the organization are focused on activities unrelated to the work of software developers. Many opportunities today however can be enabled by software and technology so you may think it would not be surprising to see a growth in the number of people employment globally in IT, and particularly as related to software development. While quality is increasingly driving results, deadlines are still a big part of reality. In today’s world it may be true that software developers experience fun with the pressure of deadlines (e.g.), however beyond simply imposing increasingly challenging deadlines one way to grow excellence in results may be related to increasingly discovering ways to grow excellent programmers and in making software development increasingly a fun and rewarding career.

Draw upon the above paragraph and 20 questions below as input to your thinking, and comment on the career of computer programming. Thank you for doing so. Your comments may help evolve the world towards increasingly better results for all from various perspectives while helping software developers feel appreciated for the inherent quality they are and help increasingly to produce.

1. Are computer programmers over worked (e.g., not involved in providing estimates and asked to deliver quality in periods of time that impose risk and stress)?
2. Can someone be an IT Pro if they never coded?
3. Do you need to be able to read code (perhaps with a bit of assistance from a full-time developer) in order to be an IT Pro?
4. What makes an excellent software developer?
5. Are excellent software developers (aka computer programmers or software engineers) able to trouble-shoot a program if they never saw the language or code base before?
6. What are a few inherent qualities of excellent software developers (e.g., strong logic and math skills, broad understanding of technology and business, diligence, endurance, self-motivated, highly energetic and ethical)?
7. Does an excellent computer programmer make it a standard part of their processes to test their own assumptions early and regularly?
8. Do they provide tests and documentation with the code they produce so there is a complete versioned package of intellectual property, and so regression testing can more easily and quickly be done in an automated way for entire eco-systems?
9. Are excellent software developers always advocates and catalysts for that which is socially responsible and eco-friendly? 
10. Do excellent software developers (aka computer programmers or software engineers) have a common quality foundation, and do they maintain a regular practice of knowledge sharing and keeping current so they can utilize or recommend that which may help to make quality and value increasingly more intrinsic and pervasive?
11. Are the best computer programmers working as part of the force for good, or are hackers on the dark side the best software developers?
12. Everyone has a stake in prevention (i.e. quality assurance), and each role has a purpose that ideally provides value, however if you had to pick the most important role would it be software developer?
13. Can security and many issues be solved proactively by globally growing excellence in software developers?
14. If there was a round-table of executives and visionaries meeting to determine the next steps to make things increasingly better, should the round table include a couple of the best computer programmers?
15. Who would you say are some of the best computer programmers of all time and why?
16. Would looking at the answers for question 15 help to identify innate characteristics that could become part of the quality foundation for the current and next generation of software developers?
17. Does belief help to program reality (e.g., if you believe you are an excellent programmer, will you strive smarter and harder in various ways to progressively ensure excellence in the code produced by you and the global IT profession)?
18. Are tools increasingly helping to produce better results while making the job of software developer easier?
19. Will peer programming in the future involve a human and robot?
20. What tools and languages do you think are the best for a software developer to utilize today and why?

Vacation in honor of Earth Day

Here’s an interesting idea in honor of Earth Day. Perhaps others will deploy creative Earth Day ways to give themselves, staff and teammates a bit of time off as a means of showing appreciation for the Earth and related efforts to ideally help make things better from one perspective or another.

Note: The next VIIP post will be sometime after Earth Day.

New creative ideas for helping staff and teammates feel appreciated

Perhaps you too have been part of an organization that stocked the kitchen with free snacks and drinks, including things to help during a long day or night (e.g., water, coffee, tea, pop, energy drinks etc.), and including a variety of healthy choices so the day could begin with a good and free breakfast at the office. Perhaps you are still part of a company that provides free food as one of several perks. Perhaps you would like to be.

Are perks appreciated? Do they help make a happier, healthier and more loyal employee? Do they help increase productivity? How about camaraderie? Might they somehow help with security? How about customer satisfaction and empowerment? How about improved software quality?

If you had a few extra dollars in your budget and wanted to do something nice for your team, would you offer free food, a financial incentive tied to productivity, or other?

For years companies have been exercising creativity to help staff and teammates feel appreciated (e.g., gift certificates, new fun items for the office or desk, clothing, free tickets to events, extra time off, special awards that can be displayed like a trophy, something special tied to the particular person’s interests, placing an employee name and picture in a place for others to see, trips, bonuses, and so on). Is this a trend on the rise? Is a simple verbal Thank You expressed regularly and publicly enough? Do we need to say Thank You more often, and in more creative ways?

Positive and insightful comments appreciated (Thank You); as are new creative ideas for CIOs and others to help staff and teammates feel appreciated for the inherent quality they bring and help to increasingly produce.

New Google App Engine

Master of 500 Hats (”A blog about Geeks, Entrepreneurs, & Startups in Silicon Valley”) aka “The Internet Revolution, Act II” said it would have been more impressive if Google did the roll out a year ago, but that it still is pretty cool. What do you think about the recently launched Google App Engine?

Semantic Web: unleashing the killer app

Interesting post about the Semantic Web over at Readwriteweb.com. For a blog post and comments that link in nicely (e.g., with respect to the potential need for an improved search engine) see Multimedia Content: The Semantic Web Challenge.

New E-Book: UC Basics, Benefits & Best Practices

Sharing awareness of a new e-book on UC basics, benefits and best practices. If you read it, feel free to write a related post or comment to share whether you found it helpful and what you might add or change. Thank you for doing so.

The value inherent to web events

Would you like to simplify an SAP Upgrade or reign over risk and instill performance assurance for greater operational excellence? If so you may want to check out this list of IDS Sheer webcasts. If you find they help you make quality, value, excellence and simplicity increasingly inherent, feel free to write a related comment or post. For further awareness you will note at least one of the webcasts is also listed on SearchCIO.Com, where you can find various webcasts that you may wish to also write a post or comment on. Thank you for doing so. 

Increasingly the value inherent to web events is growing and helping others ensure greater value within their organizations and for their customers. This post takes no credit, simply shares awareness of a few web events that may be of value to you, intrinsically and pervasively.

New book and podcasts by TechTarget Founder

Sharing awareness of a book by TechTarget Founder Paul Gillin, “The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media“. If you have read it feel free to share a related comment.

Also btw he has another book — Secrets of Social Media Marketing — due for release in the fall of 2008.

You may also be interested in knowing about other recent work of his related to changing the world one podcast at a time… see The post-integrity journalist and TechPR War Stories.

The value of security inside engineering

The title of this post presents words found within an interesting April 8 piece about Google by Michael S. Mimoso, Information Security magazine Editor. Here is the link. And here is a link for RSA ‘08 special news coverage.

Is PCI compliance enough? Is non-compliance illegal?

Some interesting reading at Hack-igations. For a related post and comment also see FTC: Failing the Consumer. Is PCI compliance enough? Is non-compliance illegal?

As a society we need to focus on beating the criminals, and stop flogging victims like TJX as unfair privacy infringers. — Benjamin Wright

Bloggers, one of the strongest links

With respect to the evolution of the Internet, bloggers are drivers and a resultant characteristic. Increasingly each blogger has the potential to be an inherent quality. Collectively bloggers have the potential to be a positive force for good. Ideally bloggers continue to rise and progressively contribute to helping make things better from various perspectives. Do bloggers tend toward neuroticism? Will blogging become a career for many? Will it be one that intrinsically pays well and pervasively makes a world of positive difference? For a related post and comments see, Bloggers: A Dying Breed?

To blogger Suzmonster, Thank You! Your recent comment about XBRL was appreciated.

New CIPS Governance Model

CIPS Governance Model details, and other updates… expect more news from CIPS in the months and years on route to 2020 and beyond.

The new CIPS governance model brings all parts of the association - national, provincial, and sections - into better alignment to ensure a more unified CIPS that is better able to meet the day-to-day needs of its members.

New website, Try XBRL

Here is another example of fellowship, the global efforts of a consortium, such as one related to XBRL, an internationally recognized standard for electronic business and financial reporting. This April 3, 2008 Zorba.ca post says the new website by RR Donnelley and Edgar Online provides complimentary access to over 12000 US filers, and is definitely worth some time browsing and testing. If you Try XBRL feel free to write a related comment or post; thank you for doing so.

Security solutions for the present

This security solutions whitepaper was posted March 2008 and originally published in October 2006. If you are aware of intrinsic and pervasive solution improvements since the whitepaper was published, feel free to comment or write a related post. Thank you for doing so.