Software Development – Team Collaboration

Posted on February 8, 2011 by sureshkrishna

Software development involves people, knowledge, technique, tools, methodologies, and more. Managers, software architects, developers, and quality assurance teams have many challenges to deal with, particularly with the increasing geographic dispersion of software services teams across the entire globe. A lot of focus in the software industry has been on improving the productivity of these global teams, with particular emphasis in recent years on giving teams a seamless experience in collaboration.

Consider some of the problems we normally encounter when we communicate and collaborate with colleagues on a software development effort:

  • When you need to see if a colleague has arrived at work, you actually go to their desk and see if they’re there.
  • When you want to talk to a colleague about an issue, you meet in person or make a telephone call to discuss.
  • Information on an employee’s absence, such as when he is on vacation, is often stored in a shared spreadsheet, which may not be properly kept updated and may not be integrated with the project plan.
  • Because you don’t know everyone’s vacation schedule, you may be waiting for a response from a colleague, only to learn afterwards he is out of the office.
  • Likewise, part-time consultants may have irregular schedules that change, making it difficult to know when they are available for work.
  • Regular updates to the team on the project’s progress requires status meetings, which may require gathering everyone into one place, and take time.

Software development tools are designed to help some aspects of managing a team, but they also introduce some challenges:

  • Tools designed to facilitate tasking, such as issue trackers and requirements management tools, are separate from the coding environment, causing a disconnect between the coding change and the impetus for the change.
  • Instant messaging such as Google IM is very effective for communication. However, they too are disconnected from the coding environment, meaning context is lost when messages are sent about bugs and requirements. Likewise, they are one-on-one communication, so there is no sense of communicating with a team this way.
  • E-mail is of course a great way to communicate with both, whole teams and individuals, but the same problems persists—no context between the mention of a bug ticket and the code the developer will change as a result.
  • Neither e-mails nor IM integrate with the bug trackers, and discussion on these items between developers, managers, and end users can be lost or misfiled, or stored in a decentralized manner, in the inboxes of those who participated in the discussion but are not visible to the entire team.

All of these add up to one main problem—it is not elegant to see all the team activity on a project. On one extreme, there are too many disconnected tools; on the other, too many manual processes—both lead to reductions in team productivity. They are all challenges related to collaboration.

Read more at IBM Rational Team Concert Article from Packt Publishing.

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Google TV – Logitech Revue Review

Posted on February 1, 2011 by sureshkrishna

I am a huge believer that the way we consume the video is going to change. And its not far off. Google TV made a bold step to bring the online video content to the TV. The Google TV platform went into the Logitech Revue and Sony Internet TV. Below is a short review of the Revue that i have been using from past 3 months.

Google TV Logitech Revue Review – Part 1

Google TV Logitech Revue Review – Part 2

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Can Skype change your life?

Posted on January 14, 2011 by sureshkrishna

Well.. not exactly. Till now, video calling has been a luxury and expensive act that remained with in the corporate walls or riches. What Skype did is to bring this luxury to common man and small businesses. Yeah… you may say, this is not a big deal. Yes, i agree! But the recent Skype move to provide Video calling on iPhone 3G and Wifi is phenomenal.  Combined with the iPhone 4 face time feature it is just a great feature for the “globalized” families and businesses.

I have a iPhone 3GS model and this feature works as you expect with the back facing camera. You can just innovate the usage scenarios…

  • When i am on the move, or at restaurants or at grocery stores, i could just Video call from iPhone+Skype and ask my wife which specific flower bouquet she wants?
  • If i see a wonderful scenery, i could just call my daughter and show it to her.
  • It works great with Skype users in India too. I called my family in India to show them the nice misty and cloudy scenic I-680 route to Pleasanton.
  • You are walking along the Golden Gate Bridge and at a perfect sunset, call your parents in India (or anywhere in the world as long as they are a Skype user) and share the joy.

Thanks to 3G data speeds, Internet and Apple (iPhone) for making this possible. Thank you Skype. This is an amazing job!

Thanks for those invisible researchers/scientists who made this video compression techniques possible to travel across world.

Note : My AT&T signal sucks on iPhone (even on freeways). Good luck Verizon users.

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Google TV – Customer’s Dilemma [Updated]

Posted on January 13, 2011 by sureshkrishna

I am planning to do the below Market Research for my Marketing class. Any takers ?

Topic : “Google TV – Customer’s Dilemma”
Abstract : Every year $70 billion is spent on the ads alone in US and 4 billion users world wide. Google TV integrates the traditional TV and Internet for a seamless user experience. With ever increasing user generated video content on the internet, Google TV would like to capture the ad $ by marrying the TV an Internet. In October 2010 Google inters the market via hardware vendors Logitech and Sony. Soon enough, customers are thrilled about the capabilities and at the same time they are confused thinking where does the Google TV fit into their current home entertainment.
In this market research and presentation, we will focus on the various aspects where Google, Logitech and Sony would have done better to segment and position the Google TV.

I will post the research results by the end of March 2011 for sure.

Below is the update on March 4th 2011. This presentation is done at the UC Davis marketing class by my group.

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2010 Tech round up

Posted on January 3, 2011 by sureshkrishna

The year 2010 was great for the companies like  Apple, Facebook, Google, Groupon and Oracle. In general, companies had more money in banks and waiting for some “invisible”  hand to provide them confidence in the spending and future investments. This is a vicious cycle most companies followed and the money in bank did not see any transactions.

Apple

Had a phenomenal year so far in the tech world. With the release of the iPhone 4 and iPad, Apple reached a new horizon. With the iPhone’s FaceTime technology more and more people started making video phone calls and the technology that was once a fantasy became a reality. iPhone 4 made a mark in the history of smart phones. Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4 in the first 3 days of its launch – the biggest sale number ever in the history of Apple.

iPad is probably the innovative product of the year in my view. Simply put, its a “Bigger iPhone”. It opened up the market segment that never existed for tablets. Once again Apple showed its design and technological superiority with iPad. The pricing was perfect! Between a smartphone and a decent laptop. 90% of the time we browse the internet for updates, feeds and news. iPad made it much cooler with a 10″ screen and with most applications available in the iPhone. Apple managed to sell in around 14 million units in 2010 alone.

Google

Google has a mixed bag in the year 2010. More importantly the technologies like Google TV, Android, NetBook, ChromeOS, Google Car, Chrome Browser, Nexus S, Wave, Buzz, Google Me/Emerald City and HTML5 made huge waves in the tech world.

Google TV – Not yet like cord cutting… but very close. When i attended the Google IO in 2010, the Google TV was the most promising technology for me. With the plethora of devices out there to connect to the internet over TV, i needed a way to seamlessly integrate the TV and Internet. That’s Google TV. I have a Logitech Revue with me and i enjoy most of the features. Yes, there are some issues and bugs related to software and user friendly features, but i can live with it. Google needs to work on the product positioning. Many people ask me, where does it fit in the world of the Internet TVs, Apple TV, Roku, Wii, PS3 and XBox ? This is a genuine question but tough to answer. Another major concern is pricing. How do you justify the price of Logitech Revue ($299) and Sony Internet TV ($399). I for sure think that Google is in the right direction with this technology.

Android – Another successful mobile platform and business model so far. Apple has to deal with the challenges of making the Hardware and Software work together to optimize the user experience. Google does it differently by working directly with all the Mobile Hardware Manufacturers and Mobile Carriers. In this way they have a greater advantage on the Apple iPhone numbers. Android has become the most popular platform with in no time and end of 2010 sales show that Android phone actually crossed the iPhone devices. Android is EVERYWHERE.

Google Car – An invisible man driving a car that propels itself. This is Google and Stanford’s AI labs joint effort to make driving more safe and futuristic. It may not be available for the public to try, but this is definitely the future of the automobile and technology world.

Chrome Browser saw about 120 million users in 2010 and it has improved a lot from the initial days. Google officially killed WAVE and Buzz was a flop. Despite the initial reviews on the NetBook, i am interested in trying out one. I would like to see how does it feel just to have a browser in your device.

Android saw a nice entry into the tablets competing the iPad. Quite a number of interesting tablets came from Motorola [Xoom], HTC, RIM, Samsung [Galaxy], Acer, Asus, Palm and Microsoft. 2011 will give the verdict of who will sustain the competition and who will see demise.

Oracle

Oracle is all about offering “Complete integrated stack” of IT infrastructure to its customers. After the Sun acquisition, this is the first OOWand the company showed the synergy of its wide range of products. The corporate tag line, “Hardware and Software Engineered to work together” is most appropriate now.

With the release of  the Exadata and Exalogic machines, Oracle claims to be the fastest machines for the OLTP processing. With the Sun acquisition, Oracle has the complete stack for any corporate offering. Operating System + Database + Middleware + Applications – All In One.

Other Highlights

  • Google / Groupon takeover was just a dream for Google. Groupon did not fell for $6 billion and is looking to sail it’s own on venture funding. I am not still convinced that a company like Groupon is valued at $4.75 billion. Lets see what happens in the 2011 and beyond.
  • Facebook is another company that i always believed has no real business value. It’s probably one of the reason that it did not go IPO in the year 2010. If i were an investor, i would look for the revenue stream and i have no idea how would Facebook brings in the money. Yeah… ads wont give you money for long. Also, people get tired of the same social networking site for long time. Its just the matter of time that another social networking site kicks the butt off of the Facebook.
  • Tesla Motors is one company that has quite a future. Tesla purchased the former NUMMI factory in Fremont, California and plan to produce the Model S. When the gasoline is becoming a rare in the future, stylish Electric cars definitely has the market and future.
  • 23andme is the company that brings your genetics at your door steps. Send in the saliva and they do the complete genetic profile which you can access 24/7 online. As and when they add more genetic tests and characteristics, they make it available to you too. With the personalized medicine becoming a reality in future, your genetics plays a major role.
  • This year has been huge for the geo-location based services like Foursquare, Google Latitude, Loopt, Gowalla and Scvngr. Though all these applications bags millions of users, i am not quite sure if they provide real value to the users. Perhaps i get convinced in the year 2011 to use some of them.
  • User generated video content websites like Veoh, Vimeo, Hulu and others have attracted quite a number of users. For sure the video is the interesting way we consume internet content.
  • HP, Oracle and SAP trio war saga is supposedly ended. Who knows…
  • Windows 7 Mobile OS debuts on many mobiles and other manufacturers promises to bring out the Windows 7 based tablets.

This year has been a great year for the technology innovation and some great products have come out to rewrite the history, I wish we see the same innovation in the year 2011.

Happy New Year 2011.

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Product Management tools

Posted on December 22, 2010 by sureshkrishna

Below is a set of PM tools for capturing and tracking products. As you see, there is no silver bullet. Rather use a mix of tools to leverage the best features from each tool.

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Why Google TV?

Posted on November 29, 2010 by sureshkrishna

Bringing the Web and TV content together is attempted by many in the past and it’s Google TV now. Initially i was all skeptical why Google has it as a big project spending huge $ on marketing. Apart from many other obvious reason, i got convinced last night. After a long time i got some time to play with my TV and Wii.

Watching a Movie : My DVD player broke and thought that i will watch some movies online. I knew Wii has a Netflix channel that you can install for free. Finding the Netflix channel and installing it was an easy task. Connecting my Netflix userid was also easy. Wii created a verification code and i need to key it in the Netflix account. Now the fun stuff… I started the Netflix channel and decided to watch the “Iron Man” movie. It started buffering the movie for 24 seconds. It played for about 3 minutes and started buffering again. Woah… that sucks. I just cant have the device buffer all the time i see the movie. The picture quality was very bad and flaky. I have the AT&T Uverse with 18MB speed and i consider this a decent internet connection. I am not sure what the reason was for my slow streaming and searched web but did not find anything.

Thumbs Down – Picture Quality, Viewing Experience

Browsing the Web : Next, i tried browsing the web with the Internet Channel on Wii. I have no idea why on earth they use Opera as browser? Pages are quick enough to load and mostly renders properly. However, its a pain (lot of pain) to search and browse. I quit browsing in almost 5 minutes. Its a horrible experience to move the Wii remote and click on single letters on the UI.

Thumbs Down – Search, Browsing Experience, Rendering, Page fit, Page Quality

Why Google TV : Yeah yeah… i hear that we have Apple TV, XBox, Roku, Wii among the popular ones and many TVs come with the Internet Widgets. But all these technologies have feature limitations. If you want to Browse, Search, watch movie content from Netflix and Youtube,  browse pictures from Picasa, Flicker and others then you need a device that’s optimized for the Browsing, Search, Page Rendering and does a good job on 1080p HDTVs.

You must not see any difference when you watch the same Netflix movie or Youtube video on similar PC vs. HDTV. And more over, you need a input device that’s elegant and yet convenient enough to give you the QWERTY keyboard (or may be voice commands). I guess this is the are Google ventured to come into. Google did a pretty good job (creating the platform) of integrating the TRUE Internet experience and the cable channels on HDTV.

Sure that there is a lot of work for Google to do before the main stream viewers accept Google TV. But, right now, its definitely a geek’s gadget.

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Oracle Open World 2010

Posted on September 22, 2010 by sureshkrishna

Oracle is all about offering “Complete integrated stack” of IT infrastructure to its customers. After the Sun acquisition, this is the first OOW and the company showed the synergy of its wide range of products. Some of the highlights that caught my attention were…

  • Larry talked a bit about Cloud Computing. In general Oracle agrees with Amazon on the Cloud Computing where the Platform provides the infrastructure to run Applications, Tools, Guest OS on Virtual Machine and Databases. In short, the could infrastructure must be a combination of Software and Hardware.
  • Exadata database machine is a huge success. And the new announcement in this OOW is the Exalogic Elastic Application Machine. In general, Exadata is the Database machine and Exalogic the Application machine. Exalogic is optimized for the Java, Weblogic and several applications like PeopleSoft and JDE are optimized for this.
  • Larry says that Oracle invests $4 billion on R&D that will also push the Fusions Middleware and Fusion Applications.
  • Exadata Easy Patching – Announced by Larry, This brings in a great advantage for the customers where they just get a single patch file and it will take care of all the applications, OS, virtual machines, databases and middleware updates. In practice, this is brilliant. The fact that Oracle owns the complete Software + Hardware makes it possible to take this advantage.
  • All the Fusion applications are engineered for …
    • Performance
    • Availability
    • Security
    • Management
  • Tomas Kuruan talked in little more detail about the Cloud Computing. The definition of Cloud Computing translates to 2 important things.
    • Software Delivered as Service
    • Modern Data Center Architecture
  • Getting rid of many small machienes and consolidating data center architecture. Deliver software applications over the network or web as a service.
  • The Sun integration brings the advantage that Oracle can test the Storage, Servers, Applications, Middleware and databases all together. This gives the customer unprecedented advantage over other vendors.
  • Hardware is consolidated and Software is optimized for Hardware.
  • Complete Integrated Stack from Oracle means… (this is a bliss to IT departments. everything one one vendor)
    • Applications
    • Middleware
    • Database
    • Operating Systems
    • Virtual Machines
    • Servers
    • Storage
  • In general, Oracle showed its commitment to Open Source offerings like Linux and MySQL. It showed a great product roadmap with increased spendings on the MySQL betterment and optimizations for MySQL on Windows.

This indeed is a great OOW and i am sure the future is a lot more exciting. Especially the fact that Oracle brings so much of value for the IT departments with Integrated  Hardware and Software approach.

Disclaimer : These are my personal views and does not correspond or transform to any of my current or my previous employers.

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AlwaysOn Stanford Summit 2010 Roundup

Posted on July 29, 2010 by sureshkrishna

I am so excited to write this blog as this is very very dear to me. I just finished attending the AlwaysOn 2010 Stanford Summit at Stanford, CA. It started on 27th evening and ended today 29th July. Two and half day of non-stop industry experts discussions and insights have filled my brain. This is the first time i am at Stanford Summit and i am very fortunate to be able to attend this one. I met with variety of industry experts from Green Fuels – Mobile Software – Monetization – SaaS – Cloud to Music Media.  On the other side i got introduced to so many insights like Angel Investors,  Seed Funding, Venture Capitalists, IPO, Exits, Secondary Markets and others.

As i cant reproduce everything i have in my brain, i am planning to dump some % of information from my brain. Following is a short overview of take home.

Hottest Industries in the coming years for Entrepreneurs:

  • Mobile
  • Enterprise
  • Internet Consumer
  • Online Education
  • Video
  • Data Analytics

Some notes from the Panel

  • Angel investors risk their own money while VCs loose other people’s money
  • It’s easier and cheaper to get into the markets. But its takes the same amount of years to get to an IPO. i.e. the industry standard 10.4 years.
  • If you want to change the world and need a team of advisers then take the VC way. They give you more money and team.
  • Matt Grod of the Qualcomm demoed a great technology advancement with the augmented reality experience. Qualcomm also invested heavily into the nano chip technology that goes into the major mobile phones.
  • Mobile Ads and Virtual Gifts seems to be very much used in the teenager segment. I never thought this is profitable segment and Mi$ business.
  • There is predominantly only two dominating players in the Mobiles OS feilds… iOS and Android. Others like WinMo, Symbian and RIM are close to nothing. Now the question is where is WebOS going ? How will it compete with the other dominant players ? What devices will it run on ?
  • There are some who would say that the Cloud infrastructure is less secure than Windows 3 🙂
  • It is the time for more Angel and Seed investors. There is definitely lot of money for the great ideas.
  • Looks like,  during the interview process Paul Percell says, “If you turn out to be an asshole, then i will fire you”. The effect is if it is a medeocre, then he will not tur back to you. If he is a good guy, he will accept the challenge and join your team.
  • I loved what Prof. Robert Sutton said about good boss, “The good Boss protects their people from harm, intrusions, distractions, idiots and idiocy of every stripe”.
  • Without knowing if the employees are self motivated and accountable, the “flattening” of hierarchy in a company is disastrous.
  • CEO’s leadership has huge effect on the other C-Level execs and BODs. While, the middle managers has huge leadership responsibility as 80% of the company employees interact with these middle managers. So, company vision, goals and must be constantly updated to middle managers and should sink to employees.
  • Also, employees negative emotions, laziness, stupidity are remarkably destructive and contagious. In short, Bad is stronger than good.
  • Innovators will prevail even if they come late in the game. e.g. Facebook beats Yahoo in Jan 2010 in # of unique visitors.
  • Creation of more and more gadgets and making people slaves to gadgets will shut the creative brain. This is similar to what happened when Industrialization started.
  • Jaron believes that the future will be with full of the VR devices and Internet should reward people who shares good content.

Following are some interesting slides that i captured. Hope it makes sense for you. Have fun!

Stanford_AlwaysOn_Summit_2010
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I can see it coming…

Posted on June 20, 2010 by sureshkrishna

As i wrote in my previous entry that i will be starting the part-time MBA from this September from UC Davis Bay Area campus. By now, i am already seeing most of the challenges that i would be facing. It’s definitely going to the time crunch and mostly it deals with the time management. 24 hours seems to be too less to do want i am doing now. All the time divided among the following categories.

….and… I am already getting anxious. In the past week my daughter has been with high fever and teething pain and we are spending most of the time with my daughter diverting her and pacifying her pain. I really want to be able to do “same thing” (at least i want to dream to do it) even after my classes start in September. The biggest challenge of all the things is to be able to justify the time at Office, Home and School. All the three are very important and crucial to want we want to be as a person.

I want to get the maximum gain out of my MBA at this time. Let us see what i say in the next 4 months. I reserve the blog title… “I am seeing it now…” to talk about my experiences of MBA in November 2010 🙂

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