Expect the Unexpected - Project Natal

Watch these videos to experience amazing stuff created by Microsoft. A whole new gaming experience. I am awaiting now to have it available soon :-)

Productivity ?

How would you define "Productivity" in a Software Development especially for Agile SCRUM ?

My thoughts, analysis and definitions:

Productivity can be defined as the rate at which the end users enjoy new features. Its like delivering business values continuously at a faster rate which sees higher RoI. Engineering practices should be applied to deliver these business values at higher rate.

A measurable unit of Productivity can be defined by individual Product owner or Scrum master for their respective teams depending upon the needs of the product / project. For example, I would like to define Productivity gain for a sprint as "P" where

P = (V + Q + F) / N

V - velocity gain over previous sprint

Q - no of quality, UI, automation and security related improvements adopted / implemented (eg. TDD, CI, AAT, improved product scores, automation, security, UI benefits etc.) Teams can come up with various scales for their improvements. Lets say having 10 points for improving unit test code coverage every sprint, 10 points for adopting CI and implementing smooth process, 20 points for improved security, 20 points for better UI and so on......

F - no of working features added over previous product or sprints. Again point system can be devised to quantify features added

N - team size excluding Scrum Master, BA and Product Owner

Teams should be challenged often to improve the value of P in every sprint.

I am doing more research on Productivity so will keep on improving this formula and adding more quantifiable units.

I Come to Bury Agile, Not to Praise It

Interesting video on "Software Development" and new methodology's. Recommended for all and not just for those who are working on SCRUM Agile :-)
(Length: 1 hr 10 min)

Check it out --> http://www.infoq.com/presentations/cockburn-bury-not-praise-agile

Ghost - My free virtual computer

Have you ever tried or used Ghost ?

G.ho.st offers every person in the world a free Virtual Computer (VC). G.ho.st is simply pronounced "ghost", an acronym of Global hosted operating system. The G.ho.st Virtual Computer includes almost everything you would have in a physical computer - a desktop, file storage (like a disk drive) and applications.

G.ho.st frees you from being tied to any one physical device - and frees you from the worries of installing software, backing up, and other administration.

"G.ho.st Lite" is a lightweight user interface to access VC using Mobile phones, an embedded widget in another web site like iGoogle and from a very old computer or dial-up connection.

Visit their home page to check out list of key features and services.

I would say good use of cloud computing powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and solutions from RightScale Technologies.

20 minutes to 4 seconds - Excel your excel's

SpreadsheetGear 2009 for .NET reduced the time to generate a critical Excel Report "from 20 minutes to 4 seconds" making his team "look like miracle workers" according to Luke Melia at Oxygen Media in New York. Microsoft chose "SpreadsheetGear"

With SpreadsheetGear controls, a 6,000 KB Excel workbook is loaded into the WorkbookView control in less than a second. This is over 100 times faster than other controls being tested so far.

Robbe Morris (Microsoft MVP - C# Co-founder of EggHeadCafe.com and former Gartner Sr. Software Engineer) says "ASP.NET and Microsoft Excel is a dangerous combination. ASP.NET and SpreadsheetGear is a match made in heaven. When you need your web or Windows app to interact with Excel files with lightening speed and no COM crashes, SpreadsheetGear for .NET is what you use. This product truly separates the men from the boys in the spreadsheet control marketplace."

With one safe managed assembly, SpreadsheetGear 2009 enables developers to easily add scalable ASP.NET Excel Reporting, dynamic Dashboards from Excel Charts and Ranges, powerfulWindows Forms Spreadsheet Controls, comprehensive Excel Compatible Charting, the fastest and most complete Excel Compatible Calculations and much more.

Simon Black (Software Architect, Nokia) says "SpreadsheetGear for .NET is a fantastically powerful spreadsheet component which is very easy to use and expand. We delivered our mandatory customer requirements well before time so we had plenty of time to implement the nice-to-have requirements nobody ever manages to deliver."

I will be evaluating SpreadsheetGear control this weekend so will post more details soon but initial feedback from top architects sounds very impressive.

INDIA INSPIRED

My List of indespensable developer tools

Everyone collects dev tools, utilities and most folks have a list of a few that they feel are indispensable. Here's mine (of course all these on my home PC).

• IE Developer Toolbar , Page Spy for IE, FireBug, WebDeveloper for FireFox,
• WinMerge (and DiffMerge sometimes)
• Editplus (and Notepad ++)
• CruiseControl.NET, TestDriven.NET, WatiN Test Recorder, MbUnit (over NUnit)
• Query Express, SQL Designer
• PageSpeed, YSlow, Google Closure Tools
• DarkRoom
• DiskView, MemProfiler
• Daemon, Virtual CD ISO Image Mounter
• TinyUrl.com
• My home page (www.kiprosh.com/whiz.aspx - my own newsreader app, and sometimes iGoogle or protopage)
• devMetrics (accurately assess your C# code for quality and maintainability especially for cyclomatic complexity)
• Selenium (didnt use much though compared to WatiR and WatiN)
• FxCop
• JSLint, NDepend, Design , CssCleaner (Detect unused css classes in your website - static analysis)
• Fiddler
• ViewState Helper
• Resharper, GhostDoc
• HttpFox

Amazing Paper Craft Castle on the Ocean

See this wonderful paper craft art installation by a genius of the name of Wataru Itou, a young student of a major art university in Tokyo. The installation is hand made over four years of hard work (yeah "four years of hard work") complete with electrical lights and a moving train, all made of paper! Clearly, this man must have created one of the most stunning examples of Paper Craft in the world.

It is exhibited at Uminohotaru, a place which in itself is a major attraction: a service area in the middle of the ocean, right between Tokyo City and Chiba Prefecture. If you haven’t checked it out yet, use Google Earth for a close up of what is probably the weirdest parking lot in the world. (it’s more than a parking lot actually) Enjoy this wonderful work of art!

Do you treat usability as an important aspect ?

While working on usability aspects of menu (and other controls) for my news reader application "whiz", I read important aspects of usability posted by Jacob Nielsen who is considered "Guru of Usability".

Usability is defined by five quality components:

• Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?
• Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?
• Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?
• Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?
• Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

Follow this link to read on basic usability principles and more.....

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html

I think usability should be one of the most important aspect for any developer, designer, manager, BA etc and one should give usability the topmost priority. Designing systems that make sense to code warriors will often lead to a site that is not usable by the average person.

Jacob Nielsen correctly points out "For intranets, usability is a matter of employee productivity. Time users waste being lost on your intranet or pondering difficult instructions is money you waste by paying them to be at work without getting work done."

According to Jacob Nielsen, sites that spent 10% of their budget on usability reaped a 100% increase in sales/conversion rates.

Fight continues: Round 2 - Google vs. Microsoft

Recently there has been a lot of buzz on Google launching new OS. This news is making rounds on almost all news sites and blogs. I am wondering whether this move by Google is a strong response to Microsoft for launching Bing which is trying to give tough competition to Google's core business. I was waiting for Google's response but didnt thought it would be in the form of new OS :)

Well its too early to comment on this but seems the fight continues and Round 2 was distinctly impressive.