The reason for Twitter’s down time is a “denial of service” (DoS) attack according to their status blog.

The reason’s for Facebook being down/disrupted are less clear, but there is some speculation that it is because of the flood of Twitter “refugees” who suddenly went onto Facebook because they could not access Twitter.

At WWW we do wonder if this is in any way related to a substantial Twitter API change made yesterday, although it is unlikely to be directly connected? And the question – “what would the motive be to attack Twitter with a DoS?” The best answer we could come up with is “a hacker who wants to brag to his friends that he was able to bring Twitter to it’s knees.”

We also had to chuckle imagining the Social Media crowd and “Twits” rushing to Facebook and then probably to RSS readers to get their regular information “fix.” Will be interesting to study the traffic flow patterns when things return to normal…

I think that this oversimplifies – the devil is in the detail. From experience it is about far more than just “the wrong scope” (I’m referring to the project requirements as the “scope”) – it is also about “scope creep,” “scope change” and underlying business change which inevitably results in “scope change.”

If you want to scope a big development at the start of the development, you are going to have a tough choice when the inevitable scope change requests come. Either, enforce the “letter of the law” by referring to the brilliant/bullet-proof requirements documentation you created upfront OR allow the changes and “donate” the work required to the paying client.

Neither option is reasonable. Someone is going to lose out in either case.

There is an answer. It’s called Agile Development. At WWW, we use a particular methodology called “SCRUM.”

The Agile Manifesto puts the issues squarely on the table.

In simple terms: Work in smaller chunks. Deliver business value often. Collaborate with the software owner/sponsor very closely throughout the process. Accept that change is inevitable in software development – accommodate and encourage it. Ensure that everyone on the development team trained and mandated to maximize business value on behalf of the software sponsor/owner. Everyone on the team is both developer and analyst.

I’ve decided to share some of my views on what I think are the pertinent issues this year, and the goals to achieve to that end. Thus, my top personal ‘Web Development Resolutions’ for this year are:

1. See the Year of the Web Standards?

With Microsoft finally being pressured into releasing a standards-compliant Internet Explorer, subsequently revealing that IE8 has passed the Acid2 test in an internal debug build, and hinting at a release sometime in mid-2008, we can finally glimpse the possibility of bringing web standards (at least in terms of CSS/XHTML) to the masses. Additionally, Firefox 3‘s ability to pass Acid2 natively (better late than never!) as well as Opera’s Kestrel builds with exhaustive CSS3 support (on desktop, the Wii and mobile phones), means we’ve never been able to reach as many platforms or people with the same features before. I believe this to be a ‘watershed’ year, where we’ll either see the myriad of Web Standards take off, or if they prove to be fundamentally flawed (they’re already proving difficult to implement), this may well be the beginning of complete dominance from other proprietrary solutions like Flash. There’s an emerging school of thought that standards are discouraging quick progression through lack of competition. I strongly disagree, as if one looks at the greatest problem plaguing the web, incompatibility, a look back into the past reveals that rampant browser competition in the late 90′s (IE Netscape days) resulted in far too many different proprietrary solutions for the same thing – something that still haunts us today.

2. Bridge the divide between the Client and Server Model

Although we’ve seen various frameworks like Ruby On Rails make our lives easier when dealing with user interfaces (especially AJAX), we’re still dealing with several different representations of the same data – on the page HTML, in the DOM, in the application code, in the database. Wouldn’t it be great if the client-side UI object was the same as the server-side one? Why do we need four or more languages and data models to work on the same platform? In my opinion, anyone who can conclusively create a single solution (which I believe is achievable), will elevate web development to the undisputed champion of cross-platform, accessible and efficient software design. I’ll race you there…

3. Go Mobile

Well, by now everyone is quite familiar with that prodigy of effective marketing, the iPhone. I’m sure most of you have considered the possiblity of making your applications work on it’s cut-down Webkit browser. However, consider the number of users you could reach if you could tap into the several hundred million cellphones worldwide with an internet connection. Recently I made the rather serendipitous discovery that Opera Mini 4 – which runs on any decent J2ME phone – was able to [mostly] run our AJAX-intensive WTimer application, which we hadn’t put a single second of mobile development time into. Surely, uncovering the workings of this browser will enable us to bring rich applications to not only the iPhone, but to the millions of normal mobile users out there.

4. Put old browsers to rest

Anyone else tired of dealing with IE6′s (or worse) compatiblity issues? As I aluded to briefly in our Heroes 2007 Conference, I’ve proposed a possible plan to tackle this knife in the side of web development:

• Educate and Upgrade – Politely nag people using old browsers to upgrade to new ones. The trick is to work out a method that doesn’t detract from the value of the site itself. Perhaps via a notice, which links to a tailored, step-by-step guide on how and why to upgrade. If we can roll this out on a large scale, then hopefully we can knock down the figure of 40%+ IE6 users, and spend more time doing real coding.
• Fix – There are a number of great scripts like Dean Edward’s IE7.js that can upgrade and fix a limited number of browser defects. Improving on these and chucking in some resetting CSS for example, could ease the pain of dealing with these browsers in the mean time.
• Embed – With layout engines like WebKit introducing experimental features like offline databases, we may just be better off in some situations with tying applications into an embedded desktop application (eg. Fluid) and forcing clients to download and use them, virtually eliminating the problem altogether.

Perhaps with a plan like this, we can start developing websites and applications that break through the limitations of browsers that are nearly 10 years old. In conclusion, I’m very excited about the possibilities for the direction of web development technologies this year, but also feel that a lot of juggling of the elements and ideas will need to be done to master it. We must persue every avenue to come up with solutions that help us move forward…

“The only real failure in life is the failure to try.” — Unknown

How do you feel about these issues? Any comments you have will be appreciated. All the best to everyone for a fantastic 2008!

“Just the other day, I found out that South Africans can now get PayPal accounts and link them to a local credit card. When you buy something, the amount is deducted from your credit card and the system even tells you much it will be in rands.

The only major snag with PayPal, for us South Africans, is that you currently cannot withdraw the funds from your account into a local bank account.” Full article: http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iArticleId=4128440

For receiving the funds into a business, you still can not deposit into a South African bank acount, but this can be solved through offshore options.

* this article is loosely related to a real case but is primarily concerned with highlighting some principles about the value of great systems and well run projects.

White Wall Web (WWW) is involved in development projects that have a far greater affect on companies, industries and the economies of the countries in which these companies find themselves than I had ever previously realized.It has become apparent that the development of software solutions is possibly far more than just automation of a paper based processes to meet a business’s requirements or drivers. I will use a business case to explain this further.

Business Case: Company X

White Wall Web (WWW) was mandated by Company X (a new client on the block) to replace their existing software solution. The industry that Company X is involved in is highly competitive yet they are still managing to operate profitably. However the strain of working so intensely under highly stressful conditions is taking its toll on those working within the company.

Insight

Employees often have to work long hours and over weekends to deal with their workload largely due to faulty and inefficient software.

Management employees are also under high pressure to provide comprehensive reporting required for running the business which is drawn from unreliable data sources. This creates pressure and uncertainty which filters down to all levels of the company.

The current legacy software solutions in place are the source of much of Company X’s frustrations. If these software solutions could be consolidated into a single solution that centralizes all data allowing scalability then Company X could overcome its current stumbling blocks and be catapulted into rapid, sustainable growth.

The side effects for Company X’s working environment are the detrimental to employee well being and organizational culture. One indicator of this can be seen by the high turn-over rate of staff during the period of our initial consulting.

There is no doubt that the main outlet of this kind of strain for working people is their supporting family unit (I speak from experience and general logic). One can imagine that a high level of strain is currently being felt by Company X’s employees’ families and support structures.

One then wonders how far reaching the affects of a stressful working environment is. Imagine that Company X currently employs 40 people. On average let’s say that each of these employees has 3 family members (40 * 3 = 120 people). Then consider that each of these 120 is involved in some capacity in society. This is a far reaching impact of a single stressful working environment.

Now you might find this deduction seemingly far fetched but there is no doubt in my mind that there is a significant waterfall effect of stress passed on from companies to employees to society. What’s your opinion?

Also consider that this company exports it’s services and has the potential to open branches in several countries around the world. The system headaches that they currently experience make this prospect a scary one instead of an exciting opportunity for them. Export revenue is much needed for South Africa at this point in this country’s history. A better system for Company X could thus have a significant impact on South Africa’s economic growth.

We understand these dynamics and this is why we are passionate about systems that really work.

Process

WWW now has the opportunity to replace the current un-scalable solution with one that will scale and enable Company X to capitalize more fully on its great potential. So what process did we follow?

One of the requirements of the mandate to replace their existing solution was that WWW provide fixed quotations for the project in its entirety. As an agile development house, this posed some real problems for us. We know that “big design upfront” simply does not work as it promises to, but had empathy with our client who has been burned with failed projects in the passed and needs to work with fixed budgets. We found a solution…
Our approach was to apply a conventional SDLC (systems development life cycle) structure to the project prior to quoting. Utilizing the SDLC structure we divided the project up into 3 phases: Analysis, Development and Design. What we committed to was to providing a fixed quotation for each next phase of the project life cycle. The fixed quotation for each phase would be provided at the completion of the previous phase and we could roughly estimate one further phase forward.

Initial business analysis and consulting was conducted by the WWW team in which the requirements for the Analysis phase of the project were gathered. A fixed quote was then provided, accepted and WWW delivered our most comprehensive User Requirement Specification (URS) to date. The URS in short comprises of detailed documentation of all the current business processes, rules and current and future system requirements.

Growth

Following from the Analysis phase we look forward to completing successfully Design and Construction phases of this project.

This is what I see when I take a step back and review our system developments process from a macro level (the forest from the trees).

Software solutions these days are integral to all businesses and operations. Building the correct solutions strategically aligns and enables growth, especially in competitive industries. In taking company X through the development process outlined above we have had the opportunity to plan and document the foundational requirements needed to achieve this goal.

What are the spin-offs of successfully delivery on these requirements going to be for Company X?

1. Consolidation of business processes across company into one single software solution. This will help the company to align itself by allowing them to focus on delivery of core business requirements as there is no longer confusion over application of business rules.
2. The restoration of sustainable working environment stands out for me as the most valuable outcome of a successful solution. Employees will be empowered to work efficiently and manage their work requirements so that other areas of their lives are not neglected. In effect this is not only restoration of a sustainable working environment but potentially a level of restoration of employee’s private lives, family relations and in turn other knock on effects in society.

Of course IT solutions are only the tools in themselves but successful development and change managed implementation will produce these spin offs outlined above in some measure.

For a bit more on how to manage a positive change in an organization, get buy in etc. read about the discipline of Change Management.

Technorati Tags: White Wall Web, Insight, Process, Growth, companies, solving problems, Agile Development

First up, I have to mention that my first experience in the programming world was with C# .NET. I thought that I would never move to another language never mind leaving the .NET framework.I started working at WhiteWallWeb and the oddity language PHP4. Coming from a completely object oriented approach to the scripting PHP4 pattern really shocked my system – “How clever must you be working with 4000 lines of “if’s” and “else’s” with the occasional “switch case”?” When PHP5 arrived I was back in my comfort zone. We’ve even built our own framework – Muffin. Working with PHP’s unique multiple array structure with the JSON library and the Prototype JavaScript library made me think I was invincible.
Then Ruby on Rails came along…
Having no clue what rails was about – my colleagues and I worked days on winning Rails. Some days it felt like a losing battle, but look at us now – The Ruby Boys.

I have been looking at the ASP.NET AJAX because my .NET colleagues are boasting about it – so I thought I should have a look. My first impression was that it seems to be as simple as Ruby on Rails – for the basic things anyway. Further investigation made me conclude that Ruby on rails is the Mohammed Ali of AJAX development. The best way I could emphasize this statement is by a bout between ASP.NET AJAX and Ruby on Rails Fight Night style.

Tonight’s main event will be the lightweight Ruby on Rails (RoR) VS the heavy weight ASP.NET AJAX

In the blue corner

ASP.NET AJAX

As with all .NET languages, Microsoft Visual Studio provides, according to me, the best IDE interface by far. Drag and Drop what you need on a canvas (web panels), make some minor adjustments and your off. But what if the prebuilt controller fails to meet your client’s requirements? Now that where the all-nighter coffee binges come in. With the weight of .NET’s countless objects, functions and controllers it can take any .NET developer some time to find the exact solutions – to be fair the MSDN is fantastic. If a custom job is needed, the weak MVC framework can easily be decimated by a tired or inexperienced developer. After all the work has been done – you can be assured that your application is built in a prestige language, but don’t ask me to update the code. We can expect fast big punches from this formidable heavy weight.

In the red corner

RoR

Ruby on rails is an enforced MVC framework that handles everything from the database structure and directory structure to the list items in the HTML. The Ruby JavaScript (RJS) is where the real magic lies – with calls to two ruby functions and couple of options inside a hash you can easily generate draggable items with selective properties such as to where they are allowed to be dropped or not. On Drop a specified URL (resource map) will be called and its output will be returned – with the option to update any HTML element on page – keep in mind that this could return more RJS and further the actions. With its Ruby on Rails’ programming language Ruby, its fancy footwork will dazzle .NET’s scripting language and precompiled Framework.

Round 1: Multiple droppables and draggables

Task at hand. Two divs – one is a fruit, the other a vegetable, Two containers – A pot and a basket. The pot should accept vegetables and the basket should only accept fruit.

FIGHT

ASP.NET AJAX makes the first move

I googled comprehensively (about 15 minutes) for a solution. I couldn’t find an easy one anywhere. The best I came up with was this custom extender http://msmvps.com/blogs/omar/archive/2007/03/22/asp-net-ajax-extender-for-multi-column-widget-drag-drop.aspx
Thanks to Omar for his post..NET looks at his trainer (Omar) on the side of the ring with dismay. With after a couple of changes he got halfway through his punch.

RoR blocks and counters it

Setup your draggable items

<div id=”Carrot” class=”vegtable”>Carrot</div>
<%= draggable_element :Carrot %>
<div id=”Apple” class=”fruit”>Apple</div> <%= draggable_element :Apple%>

Setup your droppable containers

<div id=”Pot” class=”container”>Pot</div>
<%= drop_receiving_element “Pot”, :hoverclass => “hover”, :accept => :vegtable %>
<div id=”Basket” class=”container “>Basket</div>
<%= drop_receiving_element “Basket”, :hoverclass => “hover”, :accept => :Fuit %>

RoR made an opening haymaker – The purity of the MVC structure and the help of his two trainers namely Prototype and Scriptaculous made the blow relentless. With all the extra weight of the .NET framework ASP.NET AJAX could not move out of the way. ASP.NET AJAX looks drowsy after the first round.

Judges scores after Round 1

1- 0 to Ruby

Next round: Repopulate cascading select boxes.

PM tools currently implemented:

• Project Management
• Harvest
• Microsoft Project
• Excel

• Time Tracking
• SlimTimer
• ASAP (in house time logging application)

Final decisions and motivations – “in the end there can be only one!” ~ The highlander

Project Management Tools
Microsoft Project (the winner…)
Each of the tools listed above has its pro’s and con’s.

• Harvest
• Harvest is a fantastic tool for project management and is currently running one of our major project teams very effectively. The built in time logger (similar in functionality to SlimTimer) has got the thumbs up from our development team. Harvest allows you to manage multiple projects, track time on tasks and report.Unfortunately Harvest does not quite have the flexibility that we were looking for in terms of project structure. We need another level of detail for project structure below task –> sub task. This would have enabled us to plan, track and report more effectively. It is a pity that this tool is not open source as I am sure we would have gone the route of customizing this product and implemented company wide.

• Excel
• Excel is a fantastic flexible tool but is definitely not designed to manage multiple project scenarios. Single projects can be managed effectively but this approach definitely does not scale. Another major con is that Excel is extremely time intensive!

• Microsoft Project
• Microsoft Project is tried and tested industry standard tool for project management. This tool provides a heap load of functionality with a steep learning curb. This has been the main resistance from our current project management team and is definitely a con.MP has extremely powerful reporting capabilities. The reporting and tracking of project estimates (baselines) vs. actual (cost and time) is fantastic and exactly what we looking for.We have only decided to implement MP once we have had the appropriate training.

• Interesting links discovered in the PM Tool research process…
  1. Limitations of Project Management Software

Time Tracking Tools
Option X – Custom Development (the winner…)

• SlimTimer
• Has received the thumbs up from our development team as one of the most effective time tracking tools on the market. Ease of use and time efficiency are the two major pro’s of this tool. With SlimTimer you are able to create projects with tasks and group your tasks using tags. SlimTimer also provides great simplistic reporting which is exportable to excel.Unfortunately SlimTimer does not cater for complex project structures and once again we need a further level below task in the project structure -> sub task.

• ASAP
• ASAP was the result of an in-house development project. It is a plug-in that we built on top of the SugarCRM infrastructure. It was ahead of its time two years ago but now has been out paced by the new time logging technologies on the market.

• Option X (custom development)
• After much debate we have decided to go the route of custom developing a time tracking tool to suite our companies needs. We are looking forward to a tool that provides us with SlimTimer like ease of use and efficiency and tailor made reporting to suite our generic project structure.Watch this space, Option X details to follow…who knows this tool could have the potential to become the next great collaborative open source tool?

It would be great to get your feedback on the tools we have implemented, let us know what you think?

Spelling errors on web sites, blogs, intranets etc. can be rather embarrassing as they undermine credibility of both the organization and the engineers.

I find the best way to check spelling on web systems is to simply copy the web page and paste it into a word processor and run a spell checker before publishing to the repository.

I was made to feel a lot better about the odd spelling error that creeps through the cracks, when Andy D pointed out a spelling error he found on the Google Maps API FAQ this morning. Lets see how long it stays up there

My excitement was heightened as I anticipated finding more kindred spirits and some form of debate going on at CeBIT. I headed straight for the Business Processes stalls after my arrival while simultaneously scanning the “Today’s Programme” guide for lectures/presentations on the subject. Instead I found a large Outsource Development/Consulting contingency all touting RUP, Waterfall, MSF and SDLC type approaches (any many derivatives in-between).

This section was also in my opinion one of the least vibrant section of the fair with most visitors passing through while attempting to avoid having a brochure thrust into their hands by eager sales people hoping to land a new client. This was particularly disappointing since there is such a vibrant discussion going on around the subject of software development/business analysis on the Internet and in other forums.

I am relatively new to being so aware of Agile and being a strong advocate and thus perhaps still a bit naïve about these things; but surely if so many of us can see the power of these approaches and consider the debate worth our time and energy, the world largest technology fair should have it tabled as a higher profile issue. After all, if the claims made by Agile project leaders about the success ratios of Agile projects over projects run on other approaches are accurate and true, big ICT spend decision makers ought to sitting up and listening (on the edge of their seats for that matter).

I will continue my quest tomorrow, but for now, I am a bit surprised and a bit disappointed. At the same time, I am keenly aware that this means there is still huge opportunity to do fantastic work in highlighting this debate.

If I suddenly find the Agile stand(s) I’ll let you know…