Years ago, training was a standard part of business software deployment. Today it’s the exception. What happened?
Of course, training is expensive. Start with the trainer who’s often a highly paid expert. Add on travel expenses for the trainer or even worse, the staff. Finally, consider the time that your employees are away from their regular responsibilities.
While the high cost is a factor in training’s demise, it’s not the most important one. Business would absorb the cost given sufficient value and no good alternative. But there is a good alternative.
Businesses and especially their employees expect software that’s intuitive. At a minimum:
When I’m visiting a new out-of-town destination, I’ve become accustomed to knowing what the destination looks like – at least from a thousand feet straight up. If you haven’t yet tried this technology for yourself, go to Google Maps and after typing in a location, click either the “satellite” or “hybrid” button on the upper right.
While satellite maps are still relatively new, they could soon be displaced by the next wave, photographs taken from grid-flying low altitude aircraft.
It’s Microsoft, not Google, which may be the first to make these photos from aircraft available. You can read all the details here.
What can a business learn from Google’s success? A short post from ZDNet’s Garett Rogers includes four “lessons”. Click here to read it.
Ever try to sign up for a service on the web (like a free email account), only to find yourself stuck trying to interpret a set of barely discernable characters that you’re required to decipher for entry? Obviously the site wants to verify that a human, and not another computer, is signing up – but it’s becoming harder to tell.
ArsTechnica recently published an article offering a solution. It’s an easy non-technical read and even includes a few pictures of cute animals. What do the cute animals have to do with the solution? Click here to read the article and find out.
It’ll be an essential piece of every effective executive’s toolkit: a news aggregator. Many just don’t know it yet.
Before I explain why, a confession and a plea! First, the confession. I can’t possibly communicate how big an impact a news aggregator will have on your ability to digest the massive amount of new information available daily on the web. So the plea is, regardless of how convincing I am, just try it! It won’t cost you a dime and you have everything to gain.
These three steps will get you started in less than 5 minutes:
1) Go to bloglines and sign up
2) To subscribe to this site: login to your new bloglines account, select the “My Feeds” tab, click “add” and type http://blogs.rosssoftware.com in the “Blog or Feed URL:” box. Finally, click “Subscribe”.
3) Check Bloglines daily, and add RSS feeds from your favorite sites.
So how does a news aggregator help?
Organizing your communications and information so that it’s available when you need it is a key to effectiveness in the information age. For example, if you receive an urgent email from a key client, you want to read it right away. Having your PC display a dialog or play a sound to alert you makes sense.
But what about the information that you want “on demand”. Let’s say that you want to review a listing of the week’s important court cases or the latest industry news. That’s information you want at a time of your choosing, not necessarily at the moment news breaks. A news aggregator can help. It’s much like constructing your own newspaper, except it’s packed with just the timely information you want.
In the past, to get the information they sought; many people visited dozens of web sites, or subscribed to email newsletters. Going to all the web sites, was time consuming, especially since there was no way to know if they’d been recently updated. Email subscriptions mixed “must read it now” content with “on demand” content, further cluttering already cluttered inboxes.
The news aggregator will allow you to dramatically increase the amount of new information you digest each day. Again, you’ll just have to try it to see!
Do you know anyone who uses their company’s email to send personal email? The courts have clearly and understandably ruled that email belongs to the employer and that the employer has the right to monitor all email and internet activity. It’s no secret that many do.
I personally know one person who was fired for sending personal messages at work. He was told there was regrettably a “no exceptions” policy and was booted despite otherwise good work.
If all this doesn’t provide enough incentive not to send personal mail from work, the next piece of information should. During the investigation of Enron, the company’s email was collected and subsequently released to the public. A company with a new Email monitoring product has now posted them to a web site called EnronMail.com. After providing your email address, the site’s tools can be used to “Analyze and Review” emails from the unfortunate folks who formerly worked for energy giant. I’m sure that many have been thoroughly embarrassed by what’s there!
I use this example to make a point. It is in no way intended to endorse the web site or the company’s product.
How did the technological innovations that improve our daily lives come to be? Answering this question is of interest to businesspeople and technologists everywhere.
A wonderful source for detailed histories of inventions as diverse as the COBOL programming language and the flexible drinking straw is a magazine published by American Heritage called American History of Invention and Technology.
I only wish it were published monthly, instead of only four times a year.
Early next year, Microsoft will be releasing the predecessor to Windows XP, called Windows Vista. It’s loaded with productivity enhancements, including a new user interface code-named AERO (Authentic, Energetic, Reflective, and Open) that according to Microsoft is “is easier and more fun, even as it makes users more productive”.
If you’d like to read a good summary of the upcoming productivity enhancements click here. For a more complete list of all the enhancements click here.
Of the course the nice new interface will come at a price. Your current PC may not have the resources necessary to run it. See my March 20, 2006 post “Buying a New PC?” for more.
Whether you’re assembling an office chair, building a bicycle or adding a piece of computer hardware, it seems universal that the instructions are poorly written. They often turn a simple task into an unnecessarily confusing one. Diagrams that aren’t clear, incorrect assumptions and lack of support just add to the frustration.
Recently I installed a new D-Link DI-634M wireless router for friend. While I didn’t need the instructions, I decided to run the installation CD anyway. It started an install wizard that was simply amazing! Included were the highest quality instructions that I’ve ever encountered.
The wizard began by checking to insure that an internet connection was available. I didn’t anticipate this step and had the proper cables disconnected. It provided clear instructions on how to connect the cables so the test could proceed.
After confirming the connection, it began stepping me through the installation process. Each step was simple and included a clear diagram with a repeating animation showing me exactly what to do. The creator clearly had empathy for the average non-technical Joe or Jill who just wants it to work!
But what if the customer still encounters a problem? When I opened the box, a bright orange card offered three 24/7 support options: phone, online chat and email. What more could a customer need?
Thank you and congratulations go out to D-Link for doing it right!
Few of us enjoy installing software. What could be more boring than watching a string of green dots slowly fill a progress bar? Thankfully the days of having to monitor and load 27 disks to install an office suite have long since passed, but installs look much the same as they always have. Some have added “billboards” to promote, educate, and help pass the time, but few are well done enough to be interesting
Expecting more of the same, I was pleasantly surprised when I recently upgraded to Microsoft Money 2006. After clicking through the obligatory license agreement and location choices, the install started. So too did strings, a flute and a piano playing an upbeat tune and well done piece intended to accompany the install.
While the idea may seem hokey, it has practical value. I was able to walk away expecting that the music would finish when the installation did. It might be a small touch, but it left me with a surprisingly positive impression. I’ll be disappointed the next time I run a silent install.
Business and management skills are increasingly essential for developers wanting to deliver outstanding results. Yet, until recently this fact hasn’t received much notice.
In his Computer World article You can lower your odds of being outsourced author Eric makes the case.
Like their real world counterparts, folders provide a way to group and organize information. New PCs have hundreds of them for essential files and the typical user adds hundreds more to store documents, information and software files. As the number of folders increases, so too does the difficulty involved in finding them. Below are tips to help cut through the clutter.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Sometimes a commonly accessed folder end up in the middle of dozens of rarely used ones. Picking it out at a glance takes an extra moment because it looks like the others.
This is a problem that’s easily solved. First, right click on the folder that you want to stand out. Next select “properties” from the menu, and then click the “Customize” tab. Finally, press the “Change Icon” button at the bottom of the dialog and select a new icon to represent your folder.
Be careful not to make a choice that’ll cause confusion. For example, one of the available icons is an open folder. Rather than making your folder stand out, this will just make it appear to already be open, even when it’s not.
Also, if you don’t like any of the pictures automatically provided by Windows, you can add your own. Simply look for icon files (extension “ico”) on the web and download them. Any of these can be used to represent your folder.
I Know It’s Here Somewhere!
If your files are well organized, you’ll be able to find them quickly using your eyes and a few clicks. With poorly managed files, the undesirable and slower alternatives are scrolling through long lists or using search.
Since the eye is always quicker than the mouse, try to keep the number of files scanable by limiting their number to a few dozen at most. Split out new folders and subfolders as the file count grows.
A common mistake is to place all new folders under “My Documents”. Instead consider placing a folder within an existing folder. If the number of folders under “My Documents” exceeds 25, you’re top level folders may not be general enough.
Decisions, Decisions
You should think about the location of a new file, but don’t overdo it. Proper groups and categories become evident over time, so let the structure evolve. The most effective technique for achieving good organization is a periodic review of your folders and files, reorganizing as needed.
Just Take the Shortcut
As your folder structure becomes larger and more complex over time, you’ll often find yourself clicking through several folder levels to find your target. Fortunately, there is a better way.
Place a folder or folders on your Windows desktop with shortcuts to all your important folders. This will put all of your most important information just a few clicks away.
Speed Search
Finally, for those times when you still end up looking at a long list of files, there’s a way to quickly find the one you need – if you know the file or folders name. For example, if you have “My Documents” open and you know you have a folder named “State Contracts”. Just press “S” and Windows will immediately scroll to the first file or folder beginning with “S”.
Recently I stopped in at my bank to talk to one of the officers. As I
sat down, she quickly flipped to Windows Media Player to turn down an
MP3 she’d been playing. Just from this quick observation, she seemed very
comfortable with the workings of her PC and Windows.
However, as she began fumbling for the information I’d requested,
she apologized. “I’m sorry I’m so slow at this. We just
got a new system. It’s much harder to use than the old one. I think
you have to be good with computers to understand it.”
Good with computers? A quick glance at the screen, uncovered the real
problem, a poorly designed interface. Conventions, standards and common
sense, which give well designed software its familiar and easy-to-use
feel, were simply absent.
Unfortunately, this is an all too common problem. Some technical teams
become so wrapped up in software’s technical aspects that they never
bother to learn critical interface design skills, leaving users frustrated
and less productive.
It’s critical for business, but rarely mentioned: the best developers are far more productive than their peers. Differences of at least 10 to 1 have been documented, but unaccounted for factors may make the gap even greater.
Lower tier developers, after taking more time to deliver, often produce a result that’s harder to maintain and less effective – that is, if they even finish. Of course, all this just adds to the penalty businesses incur for using less skilled help.
While the productivity differences are large, rate differences between developers are typically small by comparison. The bottom line: to get the best value, hire the best. With software development, paying more ends up costing you less.
But be careful. In the technical world, knowledge and the ability to produce don’t always go hand in hand. It’s easy to mistake one for the other. Look for developers that have a proven ability to deliver results.
When you’re browsing the web, the most useful keyboard key may surprisingly be the space bar. On most web sites and in most web browsers, pressing it scrolls down the page.
Try it the next time you’re reading the news or an article. You’ll find it’s much more convenient than pointing your mouse at a narrow scroll bar.
If the schedule holds, the latest version of Microsoft Windows, “Vista”, will be released sometime early in 2007. Since they’ll be plenty of enticing reasons to upgrade, be sure that new PCs you buy in the interim will have what it takes.
While the official requirements won’t be released until this summer, based on the clues already available, you should shop for the specifications below to insure that you’ll be able to take advantage of all the new features:
On February, 2006 Borland announced that it plans to seek a buyer for its IDE product lines including: “Delphi, C++Builder, C#Builder, JBuilder (and Peloton), InterBase, JDataStore, nDataStore, Kylix”. You can read the announcement here.
Response to the announcement, from both developers and Borland personnel, has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s no secret that these outstanding products, with such a loyal following, have never received the focus and proper marketing they merit. With this in mind, there’s no doubt that attention from a new company could be a big plus. While there’s also reason for concern, for even the most prudent, there’s a clear path forward.
Before I share my thoughts, a little recent history: over the past few months, I’ve presented the Borland Roadshow to over 100 developers in four cities. Of all the Roadshows that I’ve delivered, starting years ago with Delphi 4; I’ve never seen the excitement for Delphi that I observed this time. I’ve also never seen so many people who had already bought the product or who were planning on buying it. Many of the purchases were being planned by larger companies with several developers.
The reasons for the excitement aren’t hard to understand. For the first time with Delphi 2006, Borland presented developers with a formidable alternative to Microsoft’s Visual Studio. With it, developers can deliver .NET applications, just like the competitive product. But, Delphi 2006 also has the touches that developed so much product loyalty over the years.
From the same IDE, developers can build Win32 applications, access almost any type of database using one of several excellent connection mechanisms and use an outstanding set of life cycle management tools (Version Control, Modeling, ECO, etc.). Who else offers this kind of power?
Prior to Delphi 2006, Delphi for .NET hadn’t sufficiently matured. While earlier versions (Delphi 8 and Delphi 2005) deserve to be lauded for valiant effort, neither had the polish needed for major development projects.
The most significant downside to Borland’s announcement is that it may not be good strategy. There’s no question that Borland has created, aside from the consensus optimism, short term uncertainty. This uncertainty may derail purchases by the many companies currently contemplating a .NET IDE. Worse yet, the uncertainty will only grow with the amount of time that the “For Sale” sign remains up. Let’s hope they already have a buyer in mind. Hearsay indicates they do.
Given the uncertainty, how should a prudent manager or developer move forward? Let’s do a worst case analysis and assume that Borland is purchased by a company that fails to capitalize on its potential.
For existing Delphi projects, there probably isn’t a substantial impact whether they’re converted now or converted later. Since chances are good that the worst case won’t happen, nothing is lost by maintaining the status quo until things become clearer.
But what about new projects? Regardless of current events, C# should be the language of choice. While listing the reasons is beyond the scope of this article, Delphi developers should be reassured that they’ll have no problem quickly picking it up (they’ll have more trouble learning to use the .NET library, instead of the VCL). Beyond the primary reasons to use C# and in the unlikely event that the worst case happens, the work required to move form one IDE to another will be minimized.
There’s no doubt that it’s in Borland’s best interest to make Delphi as valuable as possible while they wait on suitors. To that end, the Borland development team is continuing work on a soon to be released Delphi version update. There’s every reason to believe that additional work will continue unabated until a sale is finalized.
In any case, the picture will become much clearer over the next year or so. The best summation that I’ve seen comes from David Intersimone, Borland Vice President, Developer Relations and Chief Evangelist, in his message to developers. Referring to his feeling about a move to another company he said: “I am moving forward as part of the new company with a huge smile on my face and a small tear in my eye.” Hopefully, he’ll have an even bigger smile sometime soon.