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http://www.pmhut.com/?s=%22Abhilash+Gopi%22
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Monday, December 22, 2008
Defect Attributes - Identification, categorization, resolution and closure of bugs)
Defect Attributes
(deals with important aspects of identification, categorization, classification, resolution and closure of bugs/ defects/ deviations).
A defect is any flaw or imperfection in a software work product or software process
Software work product is any artifact created as part of the software process,
Software process is a set of activities, methods, practices, and transformations that people use to develop and maintain software work products.
What is Defect Analysis?- A method to find the cause of the defect that has occurred.
Why is it necessary?- To aid the individual/ team to focus on predicting those defects that affect Project and Product performance.
Most defect prediction techniques used in planning rely on historical data,
- Defect prediction techniques vary in the type of data involved,
- Some require little data, some more,
- Some use work product characteristics, others require defect data only.
Some of the prominent attributes related to a defect are given below.
# Defect attributes are mainly dependent on the following
a. Problem status,
b. Problem type,
c. Uniqueness,
d. Criticality level,
# Problem Status
1. Open (An Open defect/ bug will be acted upon in the following manner).
a. Recognized
b. Evaluated
c. Resolved
2. Closed
# Problem Type (A defect will fall under the following).
a. Software Defect
b. Requirements defect,
c. Design defect
d. Code defect,
e. Operation defection (functional)
f. Test case defect
g. Others (H/w, OS, User mistake, Operation mistake, New requirement, enhancement).
# Uniqueness (determining if the bug is original or duplicate)
a. Original
b. Duplicate
# Criticality Level (how the defect is to be resolved and tackled)
a. Identify suitable levels of urgency
# Recognition (The primary details related to the defect/ bug?)
a. What is the problem?
b. When was the problem reported?
c. Who reported the problem?
# Evaluation (How can we tackle and resolve the bug?)
a. What work product caused the problem?
b. What activity discovered the problem?
c. What activity introduced the problem?
# Resolution (Will the solution plug the bug or have other manifested behavior?)
a. What work needs to be done?
b. What work products will be affected by the change?
c. What are the prerequisite changes?
# Closure (The closure mechanism identified for the bug)
a. When are the changes expected?
b. What configuration contains the changes?
(deals with important aspects of identification, categorization, classification, resolution and closure of bugs/ defects/ deviations).
A defect is any flaw or imperfection in a software work product or software process
Software work product is any artifact created as part of the software process,
Software process is a set of activities, methods, practices, and transformations that people use to develop and maintain software work products.
What is Defect Analysis?- A method to find the cause of the defect that has occurred.
Why is it necessary?- To aid the individual/ team to focus on predicting those defects that affect Project and Product performance.
Most defect prediction techniques used in planning rely on historical data,
- Defect prediction techniques vary in the type of data involved,
- Some require little data, some more,
- Some use work product characteristics, others require defect data only.
Some of the prominent attributes related to a defect are given below.
# Defect attributes are mainly dependent on the following
a. Problem status,
b. Problem type,
c. Uniqueness,
d. Criticality level,
# Problem Status
1. Open (An Open defect/ bug will be acted upon in the following manner).
a. Recognized
b. Evaluated
c. Resolved
2. Closed
# Problem Type (A defect will fall under the following).
a. Software Defect
b. Requirements defect,
c. Design defect
d. Code defect,
e. Operation defection (functional)
f. Test case defect
g. Others (H/w, OS, User mistake, Operation mistake, New requirement, enhancement).
# Uniqueness (determining if the bug is original or duplicate)
a. Original
b. Duplicate
# Criticality Level (how the defect is to be resolved and tackled)
a. Identify suitable levels of urgency
# Recognition (The primary details related to the defect/ bug?)
a. What is the problem?
b. When was the problem reported?
c. Who reported the problem?
# Evaluation (How can we tackle and resolve the bug?)
a. What work product caused the problem?
b. What activity discovered the problem?
c. What activity introduced the problem?
# Resolution (Will the solution plug the bug or have other manifested behavior?)
a. What work needs to be done?
b. What work products will be affected by the change?
c. What are the prerequisite changes?
# Closure (The closure mechanism identified for the bug)
a. When are the changes expected?
b. What configuration contains the changes?
Sunday, December 7, 2008
What is PERFORMANCE?
What is Performance?
To know these, we need to start at PERFORMANCE ENGINEERING.
PERFORMANCE ENGINEERING
Build or modify a computer system to satisfy the given performance need.
A comparison in Civil Engineering is given as
"Build or modify a structure to satisfy the given need."
In fact, PERFORMANCE is the trait of the system that we wish to engineer, hence referred to as PERFORMANCE ENGINEERING.
Performance can be classified into three main categories.
1) SPEED
Does the application respond quickly enough for the intended users?
2) SCALABILITY
Will the application handle the expected user load and beyond?
3) STABILITY
Is the application stable under expected and unexpected user loads?
The engineering part comes in as soon as the first measurement is taken and we attempt to find out the enhancements required to achieve the desired performance.
A simple approach to solve this problem is
Identify the following
a) GIVEN
What are the known quantities?
b) FIND
What are the requirements for the desired outcome?
c) SOLUTION
How can we build or achieve the desired outcome?
To know these, we need to start at PERFORMANCE ENGINEERING.
PERFORMANCE ENGINEERING
Build or modify a computer system to satisfy the given performance need.
A comparison in Civil Engineering is given as
"Build or modify a structure to satisfy the given need."
In fact, PERFORMANCE is the trait of the system that we wish to engineer, hence referred to as PERFORMANCE ENGINEERING.
Performance can be classified into three main categories.
1) SPEED
Does the application respond quickly enough for the intended users?
2) SCALABILITY
Will the application handle the expected user load and beyond?
3) STABILITY
Is the application stable under expected and unexpected user loads?
The engineering part comes in as soon as the first measurement is taken and we attempt to find out the enhancements required to achieve the desired performance.
A simple approach to solve this problem is
Identify the following
a) GIVEN
What are the known quantities?
b) FIND
What are the requirements for the desired outcome?
c) SOLUTION
How can we build or achieve the desired outcome?
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Why Projects fail?
Why do projects fail?
- The projects are not the same and will always have a different degree of failure.
- The varying degree of failure will decide the criticality of the project.
Project classification
- We can classify projects as Type I and Type II projects.
Type I projects
Let’s take an example of a flyover bridge.
- This bridge is visible and has an intrinsic value.
- This bridge is visualized as an end product. It also has a class (2 way lane, 4 way lane and so on)
- More the classes and features, more is the complexity associated with the project.
- Since the features are discussed and focused upon in the initial phases, the success of these kind of projects is more.
Type II projects
We shall consider the example of a politician trying to being in a societal change.
What are the problems the politician faces?
- Trying to visualize a plan in order to initiate the societal change.
- Trying to put across the idea to multiple stakeholders. Not all stakeholders will agree with her/ his idea.
- Trying to garner support among the masses.
- Trying to get in the much needed finance.
- Trying to initiate the project.
Since the end product is not viewable, it is very difficult to get all these people along to believe in the idea, support it, execute it to generate the output.
Therefore the chance of failure occurring is higher. Higher the risk, higher the failure.
What about the Software Project? (Which type is it?)
It falls under the category Type II, hence failure is high.
What are the reasons for failure?
- Any project with multiple powerful stakeholders will definitely run into confrontational issues.
- The project at any stage has no intrinsic value (It depends on time)
- Ownership and/ or Sponsorship normally change hands (A Manager/ Lead may leave the project at any moment and will be replaced by another person. This leads to criticism of the formers methods and techniques).
- Due to this change in ownership, the interpretation will change (It depends on how experienced, managerially and technically sound the new person is).
- Also to be noted is the fact that most projects are affected by external factors (such as money market, business prospects, country’s progress, terrorist attack which spells doom for the business and so on).
- These reasons spell danger for the project hence the failure is VERY HIGH for TYPE II projects.
Root Cause for project failures.
- Over optimism (We want to make the business successful and are charged to take it up from the beginning itself. We try to do more in the least possible time and we encounter problems. Our confidence is dented)
- Trying to garner as much as we can (So confident that we want the entire section of business to buy our software or we want to be leaders in the selected business).
- Risk contingencies are not considered properly.
Ensuring Project Success
- Manage and monitor your RISKS properly to minimize failures, if not to eliminate
- Identify the deliverables (internal workproduct and workproduct to be delivered to the client)
- Plan accordingly (with the right level of details – WBS helps a lot)
- Use good estimating practices
- Optimal and judicious use of resources (Capacity planning)
- Have basic organization structures in place to share and support best practices (avoids similar mistakes in the future and ensures predictability of the outcome)
- Every project should have a mechanism for introspection and learning through experience (done through Project Closing meet)
- Associate accountability to each resource within the project. It brings in a sense of responsibility to fulfill the desired objectives.
- The projects are not the same and will always have a different degree of failure.
- The varying degree of failure will decide the criticality of the project.
Project classification
- We can classify projects as Type I and Type II projects.
Type I projects
Let’s take an example of a flyover bridge.
- This bridge is visible and has an intrinsic value.
- This bridge is visualized as an end product. It also has a class (2 way lane, 4 way lane and so on)
- More the classes and features, more is the complexity associated with the project.
- Since the features are discussed and focused upon in the initial phases, the success of these kind of projects is more.
Type II projects
We shall consider the example of a politician trying to being in a societal change.
What are the problems the politician faces?
- Trying to visualize a plan in order to initiate the societal change.
- Trying to put across the idea to multiple stakeholders. Not all stakeholders will agree with her/ his idea.
- Trying to garner support among the masses.
- Trying to get in the much needed finance.
- Trying to initiate the project.
Since the end product is not viewable, it is very difficult to get all these people along to believe in the idea, support it, execute it to generate the output.
Therefore the chance of failure occurring is higher. Higher the risk, higher the failure.
What about the Software Project? (Which type is it?)
It falls under the category Type II, hence failure is high.
What are the reasons for failure?
- Any project with multiple powerful stakeholders will definitely run into confrontational issues.
- The project at any stage has no intrinsic value (It depends on time)
- Ownership and/ or Sponsorship normally change hands (A Manager/ Lead may leave the project at any moment and will be replaced by another person. This leads to criticism of the formers methods and techniques).
- Due to this change in ownership, the interpretation will change (It depends on how experienced, managerially and technically sound the new person is).
- Also to be noted is the fact that most projects are affected by external factors (such as money market, business prospects, country’s progress, terrorist attack which spells doom for the business and so on).
- These reasons spell danger for the project hence the failure is VERY HIGH for TYPE II projects.
Root Cause for project failures.
- Over optimism (We want to make the business successful and are charged to take it up from the beginning itself. We try to do more in the least possible time and we encounter problems. Our confidence is dented)
- Trying to garner as much as we can (So confident that we want the entire section of business to buy our software or we want to be leaders in the selected business).
- Risk contingencies are not considered properly.
Ensuring Project Success
- Manage and monitor your RISKS properly to minimize failures, if not to eliminate
- Identify the deliverables (internal workproduct and workproduct to be delivered to the client)
- Plan accordingly (with the right level of details – WBS helps a lot)
- Use good estimating practices
- Optimal and judicious use of resources (Capacity planning)
- Have basic organization structures in place to share and support best practices (avoids similar mistakes in the future and ensures predictability of the outcome)
- Every project should have a mechanism for introspection and learning through experience (done through Project Closing meet)
- Associate accountability to each resource within the project. It brings in a sense of responsibility to fulfill the desired objectives.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Effective Project Management
Effective Project Management?
- Effective Project Management is very crucial to the project.
- Projects are run successfully by a judicious mix of training, mentoring and management support.
- The synergistic effort leads to improved performance and achievements.
Project Management Aspects
We can evaluate the project management activity on two basic aspects
1) Technical Aspects
- This aspect involves the technical skills required, having the essential project management processes in place, and the presence of standards
2) Human Aspect
- This aspect involves the ability to gel well with the team members/ subordinates, coaxing them to fulfill the work obligations, motivating them to higher levels of performance and so on.
A project management activity can be categorized into 4 levels.
Level 1 : Management of the work to be done
Level 2 : Management of the management of the project
Level 3 : Evaluating the delivered business benefits of the project.
Level 4 : Evaluating the benefits of the project selection and how we could improve in the next outing.
- Effective Project Management is very crucial to the project.
- Projects are run successfully by a judicious mix of training, mentoring and management support.
- The synergistic effort leads to improved performance and achievements.
Project Management Aspects
We can evaluate the project management activity on two basic aspects
1) Technical Aspects
- This aspect involves the technical skills required, having the essential project management processes in place, and the presence of standards
2) Human Aspect
- This aspect involves the ability to gel well with the team members/ subordinates, coaxing them to fulfill the work obligations, motivating them to higher levels of performance and so on.
A project management activity can be categorized into 4 levels.
Level 1 : Management of the work to be done
Level 2 : Management of the management of the project
Level 3 : Evaluating the delivered business benefits of the project.
Level 4 : Evaluating the benefits of the project selection and how we could improve in the next outing.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
A Tribute to our Bravehearts
A Tribute to our Bravehearts
Every citizen will pray for your dear souls. Every one of us will remember the martyrs and you will live in our hearts forever.
Here are a few lines honouring our brave men.
When on Mumbai, terror again struck
On the 26th of November, night
little did the crowds knew, that they did be stuck
on the streets like a sitting duck.
Terrorists, with minds dark and mean
Came to Mumbai, with devil's intentions
To strike terror, never before seen
and hold the city to ransom, unforeseen.
People, our own and our friends
from lands far away, beyond the seas
had been in the city, to make and meet friends
but life to 'em, did befriend.
In the crisis, In times of need
Our policemen to the rescue came
With hearts brave, to do the good deed.
Thou' fell to the bullets, to join the martyr's creed.
Our soldiers, beloved and brave
To thee, we salute, with our soul 'n' hearts
The onslaught, with conviction, your braved
and a major crisis to our country, you staved.
To all the martyrs, we stand in silence
and pray for your dear souls,
In times like this, thou've shown resilence
to save many, with your will 'n' persistence.
Jai Hind.
Every citizen will pray for your dear souls. Every one of us will remember the martyrs and you will live in our hearts forever.
Here are a few lines honouring our brave men.
When on Mumbai, terror again struck
On the 26th of November, night
little did the crowds knew, that they did be stuck
on the streets like a sitting duck.
Terrorists, with minds dark and mean
Came to Mumbai, with devil's intentions
To strike terror, never before seen
and hold the city to ransom, unforeseen.
People, our own and our friends
from lands far away, beyond the seas
had been in the city, to make and meet friends
but life to 'em, did befriend.
In the crisis, In times of need
Our policemen to the rescue came
With hearts brave, to do the good deed.
Thou' fell to the bullets, to join the martyr's creed.
Our soldiers, beloved and brave
To thee, we salute, with our soul 'n' hearts
The onslaught, with conviction, your braved
and a major crisis to our country, you staved.
To all the martyrs, we stand in silence
and pray for your dear souls,
In times like this, thou've shown resilence
to save many, with your will 'n' persistence.
Jai Hind.
Friday, November 28, 2008
War on Mumbai, Nov.26, 2008.
War on Mumbai
Nov.26, 2008
Nov.26, 2008; The day terrorists struck Mumbai, the Financial capital of India. With meticulous planning and execution, the fanatics went about their job with professional precision, striking terror into the hearts of the people of India. Every citizen stood stunned as it unfolded on the TV screens and the less privileged who were caught in the midst of the attack.
As was customary, I put on NDTV for my daily evening dose of news and I was aghast to find that Mumbai is struck again. When the terrorists struck at 9:40 PM on Wednesday, the initial thought and news that went around and also propagated by the TV news channels were about the in-famous gangwars that typically rock Mumbai. Within a span of 12 minutes, it was then we realized that it is not a gangwar and it was an attack of a different sort. It finally dawned on us that it was a terrorist attack. By then in these 12 minutes, they had already struck at 4 places and they would go on to strike 6 more places.
I have spend a considerable time of my life at Mumbai and I would say "The best place in India". Teaches you how to live life to the fullest. If you can survive in Mumbai, you can survive in any other city.
I have known these places and have been a frequent at the LeoPold cafe (which was the first to be struck). Any visitor to Mumbai can never miss the Gateway of India, The Taj Hotel. Infact, the dome of the Taj Hotel is a feature of the South Mumbai skyline and it will never be the same again. It was sad to see the Hotel burning and the dome come down.
It's time our politicians realize that it is not petty and dirty politics that they should play. They are responsible for the welfare and security of the millions of citizens; citizens who cherish being an Indian, who pay their tax regularly to contribute to India's progress.
It's time the politicians come to the senses and do something for India, rather than be involved in mud-slinging and accumulating wealth. It was the duty conscious police force, the NSG, the armed forces who laid down their precious lives fighting the terrorists. It's also time the politicians think on uplifting the living standards of the police force and accord them the respectability that they deserve. It's time to rethink on various aspects of our country. It has been laid bare by the recent attack. We should shun the separatist politics, come together and fight this evil as ONE.
From all of us, INDIANS, it's SALUTE to the brave men who have laid down their lives. We need to fight this mindless, fanatic terrorists, before they hold the nation to ransom. All Indians SALUTE you, BRAVE HEARTS.
Shame on the politicians, They were caught unawares and caught again playing dirty politics. Shame on you.
Let's all Indians come together and put some sense into the heads of our politicians. We need to fight as ONE.
Nov.26, 2008
Nov.26, 2008; The day terrorists struck Mumbai, the Financial capital of India. With meticulous planning and execution, the fanatics went about their job with professional precision, striking terror into the hearts of the people of India. Every citizen stood stunned as it unfolded on the TV screens and the less privileged who were caught in the midst of the attack.
As was customary, I put on NDTV for my daily evening dose of news and I was aghast to find that Mumbai is struck again. When the terrorists struck at 9:40 PM on Wednesday, the initial thought and news that went around and also propagated by the TV news channels were about the in-famous gangwars that typically rock Mumbai. Within a span of 12 minutes, it was then we realized that it is not a gangwar and it was an attack of a different sort. It finally dawned on us that it was a terrorist attack. By then in these 12 minutes, they had already struck at 4 places and they would go on to strike 6 more places.
I have spend a considerable time of my life at Mumbai and I would say "The best place in India". Teaches you how to live life to the fullest. If you can survive in Mumbai, you can survive in any other city.
I have known these places and have been a frequent at the LeoPold cafe (which was the first to be struck). Any visitor to Mumbai can never miss the Gateway of India, The Taj Hotel. Infact, the dome of the Taj Hotel is a feature of the South Mumbai skyline and it will never be the same again. It was sad to see the Hotel burning and the dome come down.
It's time our politicians realize that it is not petty and dirty politics that they should play. They are responsible for the welfare and security of the millions of citizens; citizens who cherish being an Indian, who pay their tax regularly to contribute to India's progress.
It's time the politicians come to the senses and do something for India, rather than be involved in mud-slinging and accumulating wealth. It was the duty conscious police force, the NSG, the armed forces who laid down their precious lives fighting the terrorists. It's also time the politicians think on uplifting the living standards of the police force and accord them the respectability that they deserve. It's time to rethink on various aspects of our country. It has been laid bare by the recent attack. We should shun the separatist politics, come together and fight this evil as ONE.
From all of us, INDIANS, it's SALUTE to the brave men who have laid down their lives. We need to fight this mindless, fanatic terrorists, before they hold the nation to ransom. All Indians SALUTE you, BRAVE HEARTS.
Shame on the politicians, They were caught unawares and caught again playing dirty politics. Shame on you.
Let's all Indians come together and put some sense into the heads of our politicians. We need to fight as ONE.
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