Make Your Online Identity Safe Again (10) - I Will Tell You A Secret.

The confidentiality concept of the app is also very important. The user must feel like we are respecting its privacy, he/she has to feel protected and that his/her information will remain on secret for the rest of the world. It is true that you leave a trace when you are on the Internet, deleting your browsing history will not erase the fact that you entered a website. Imagine that your trace is like walking on wet cement, your steps will stay there forever.

But that is way different than keeping Confidentiality. Privacy is helping the user to feel comfortable giving those steps, and that only trust worthy people have access to see them, at the end of the day, we have to walk to make our lives worthy.

We encrypted the footsteps, so if anyone tries to look through them, they will not see human footsteps, they could end up seeing pterodactyl steps or something like that. The kids and the teachers will have access to the app by using their IDs and passwords, and we'll have a back up for the information. saved under key.

I really hope my analogy helped to understand confidentiality a little better.

Make Your Online Identity Safe Again (9) - Open and Free.

Ken asked us to take a picture of what open meant to us. I believe that the Internet is the most open door we have. It gives us the opportunity to express ourselves, to research about any topic in the world. The problem with a door being open, is that you can pass through it both ways, let's be careful when entering to it.

Make Your Online Identity Safe Again (8) - On Data Integrity

We'll start this post by defining what is data integrity. It is the maintenance, assurance of the accuracy and consistency of  the entire data life-cycle. It should be considered as a critical point in the design, implementation and usage of any application which uses data (a.k.a. any system).

We ordered the information we're managing by using a relational database, using MySQL. Our system in general is pretty simple, we used JavaScript to fetch all the information, and we used a linear regression algorithm to predict some possible outcomes of the students. Our database is pretty simple. We just have the name of the students, their password, school number, their birthday, their past grades and the results they might achieve while playing the game. The primary key is their school number, we won't actually show that to them, because we think that they could forget it.

We made the sign in very kid-friendly. They will be able to sign in by using their names, and a password that will not be posted here ( haha ). As I've written before, all the information is mounted on an Amazon Web Services Server.

I really hope no one tries to attack our software, but if they try to, if won't be easy for them.

Make Your Online Identity Safe Again (7) - Application of computer security to STATs

Computer security is defined as the protection of a system from damage and theft of their hardware, information and software as well as the wrong usage of the service that one provides. This includes physical security from people such as actual burglars, and protection from cyber attacks, and viruses. The IT team is also in charge of protect the information from accidental leaks.

As of today our project Misión: Marte is all mounted on AWS. We are putting our trust on that provider, so we really don't have much saying on the physical security of our information. We chose this server because we know it is trustworthy.

As for the protection of our software, we decided to encrypt all the information, because we wouldn't like it to be easily accessed by someone without out permissions. We have also created different privilege levels, so not everyone can see all the information, we wouldn't like that a student could see the progress of another student, It wouldn't be useful.

As for protection from malware, we decided to update all our libraries. We are using Phaser JS for the development of our app, and we were using an older version that was very well documented, but we decided that safety came first, so we moved on to the newer one.

We found out that our application can be accessed through mobile as well, so we are taking advantage and covering the risks that this improvised feature might bring us.

Make Your Online Identity Safe Again (6) - Applying the Three Goals and Golden Rules.

I was chosen to become a part of the first Semestre-i of ISC at the Tec de Monterrey Campus Guadalajara, and at the same time, the Security course was proposed to be one of the pillars of the project. Right now we're developing a web application for a primary school, the motive is to help them to reinforce the math course they take with their teacher, by using a computer lab they got at their school.

When we discovered that we were going to work with actual information of REAL kids, we decided to up our game and we tried to develop an app that is as safe as we possibly could. We updated the JavaScript library we were using (Phaser) to their newer version, even though it is not very well documented, just to have our frameworks updated.

We reduced our risks of losing the information by having the information on an Amazon Web Services server, encrypted by the library PassportJS and in a MySQL database. And I know it is not likely for our app to be attacked or mined, but we like to take our data to be safe!

We also made a Terms of Service Document and a Privacy Policy. We are thinking big! Right now it is a social project for one school, but maybe in the future it could grow. Right now you can access to it, and it is available at www.misionmarte.net thanks to our friend Edgar Javier (a..k.a. Killua). All the information is in Amazon Web Services.

We haven't have integrity problems, but I will dedicate a blog entry just for that, so we'll leave that topic for now.

This blog entry is part of a mini series called: What we did on semestre-i on the topic of security.

Make Your Online Identity Safe Again (5) - My Necessary Post On Net Neutrality.

I know I'm not American, and that this doesn't affect me right now but when it comes to politics and services Mexico likes to copy the practices of the USA.

As far as I understand, right now the Internet is protected by the US government, and when you get a service, no matter which one it is, you will have access to all the sites no matter who is the owner of the site or what content it is displaying, and your service provider cannot interfere with it.

The Net Neutrality War has been fought several times in the past, but now more than ever is looking that it is going to die. I will leave a link to a video where the whole topic is better explained and let's hope this doesn't escalate. It would be a very sad day for the Internet.

Make Your Online Identity Safe Again (4) - Let's see how you get pass this!

Recently Blizzard gave us an animation that inspired the name of this blog entry. The character Mei is an interesting data analyst who hyper-slept for 0 years. I'll leave the link to the video at the end of the post. It is worthy of watching.

So we're gonna talk about authentication. Right now there are only 3 ways for a computer to know that you are IN FACT you. Apple has given us a lovely example of this with their new iPhone X.

The most common way to authenticate is by testing the knowledge of the user. This can be used by asking for a password, just as Facebook, or a NIP, like an ATM. By asking the user for a specific piece of knowledge, the application can trust some rights to the person trying to access it. That's why it is so important for you to NOT share passwords, and to be very unrelated to you.

The next method is a little bit more secure but actually can be more problematic as well. In Walt Disney World, there exist something called a Magic Band. It is a bracelet that every member of a family must have on themselves through all their stay. The parks react to the band, so they can give you a more personalized experience, you can also access to your the parks and hotel room with it. You can even connect your credit card to it and you can pay for food and souvenirs inside the Walt Disney World with it. The system knows who you are, and gives you access to everything you paid within easy reach of your wrist. The big problem about this is that you COULD lose your Magic Band and someone COULD access to your room, park tickets, and credit card without your authorization. The credit cards in Mexico function like this as well, if you have an account, you just have to have your card with you to make a transaction. If you ever lose your Magic Band or your Credit card, report it immediately.

The third method you can use for authentication is something you CAN´T lose: Your own self! Apple started using Touch ID a while ago, and now with your new iPhone X, they are using Face ID. That's right! If you want to unlock your phone, you just have to watch it and it will recognize is you. Awesome, right? Well, Apple claimed that the chance that someone who isn't you unlocks your cellphone by Touch ID is 1 in 50,000. And by Face ID is 1,000,000. There exist room for error. If someone wanted to go through your iPhone X, they could even print a 3D scale of your face and use it to unlock it.

My point is that there's not one final or best way to authenticate, we just have to protect our data as much as we may be able to, and we also have to be ready for the worst case scenario.

Make Your Online Identity Safe Again (3) - One Code To Rule Them All.

We live on a society, and one of the responsabilities we have is to follow a set of rules for the greater good. The Code of Ethics is no different from this rules. In my opinion, this are the most essential baselines we all have to follow just because we are human beings. The code of ethics at Disney World is extremely long a specific, I had a set of rules to follow on almost every single scenario I worked at.

Mission and vision are present in almost every code of ethics I've read. Most of them are looking forward to create a better society. It makes sense for them to be placed there, because those are the goals of the company. If a company knows what and how it wants to reach its goals, it will do great. 

As a worker, you have to be completely trustworthy to you client. They have to feel confortable giving you the information you need to develop a project. I think this may be one of the most important values at Disney World, you have to be approachable to children that may be lost or that just want to ask you something about the park.

Most codes of ethics include respect on their pages. There's a popular phrase on my native language that says "A donde fueres, haz lo que vieres". It means that if you are traveling to another country or working with someone that has different values than you, you have to follow that set of rules and conducts. Respect is the key to a better society. 

PS:  I just re-applied to work at Disney World, I'll keep you posted about it.

Make Your Online Identity Safe Again (2) - Don't Let Your Risks Be Risks!

I had the opportunity to work for Walt Disney World on 2016, and I realize that I keep relating things I learn there with every single topic we've covered on this course, so I might just share them with you as well for you to easily understand  them.

Every single thing we do in this world has its risks. Waking up has its risks. You may get off of bed and slip on the floor and get hurt, or you could wake up late because you didn't hear your alarm. When we take this concept to computer science, the moment you turn on your computer for the first time, and connect it to the Internet, you are a target and you are taking the risks of going online.

I am a not interesting target, and surely, our knowlegde as computer science engineers make us more difficult targets because we are aware of lots of the problems we have on a daily basis. But an enterprise is a great target to attack. You could control their finances, the information of their employees and clients and God knows what else they could do with all that data. Luckily, someone tought and registered a way to manage this risks: They created frameworks for risk management.

The U.S. (I'm assuming) Government adopted the NIST Framework: It includes 6 basic steps that can be cycled as many times as needed.

1. Categorize Information System
2. Select Security Controls
3. Implement Security Controls
4. Access Security Controls
5. Authorize Information System
6. Monitor Security Controls

In Disney World, I also had to follow some "frameworks". For example, if we saw a bag forgotten on a place, we first have to wait to see if anyone claims it. If not, you have to call security because it could be a bomb or something dangerous. After they decide if it's dangerous or not, they decide if we should keep the bag or if they have to take it. Then they follow some protocols to ensure the safety of all the guests and cast members. 

Make Your Online Identity Safe Again (1) - The Other CIA.

It is common to think on the U.S.A.'s Central Intelligence Agency when we hear the "CIA" name. It even makes more sense when we are talking security, but SURPRISE! There is another CIA!

I still don't know what format will I use for this series, so for this special ocassion I will talk about something that we all students from the Tec de Monterrey have suffered of: "Las Inscripciones" (a.k.a. that period of time where all the students have to make their schedules at the same time)

So, you may be wondering, "What does CIA mean to you?". When we are talking about computer and information security, one of the most important concepts is the CIA Triad, three components to measure how protected your information is. "C" stands for Condifentiality, "I" for Integrity, and "A" for Availability.

So let's talk class registrations. Why are they always a mess? Imagine that the Tec de Monterrey HAS to fulfill the Triad before you create your schedule. The first thing you have to do, is to enter to your account. By doing these, the ITESM can manage that ONLY YOU can see your information. You can manage your payment, insurances and courses to take there, this is an example of what confidentiality is.

By the way, here's a Top 10 list of words that shouldn't be your password:

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345
4. 12345678
5. football
6. qwerty
7. 1234567890
8. 1234567
9. princess
10. 1234

So, please, if you have one of these on your bank account, make youself a favour and change it!

Going back to our subject, let's say you already chose your courses, and you are happy with your schedule (this has never happened to me, by the way), but suddenly, when you want to show it off to your friends, it looks nothing like the one you made, heck, you even had a course on Saturday. This would be a problem of Integrity, the information has to be protected so no one can alter it without supervision.

But the Tec is actually pretty good on the first two letters! Our information is confidential, and it has integrity. The problem is that it is so hard to access to the portal at the same time as the other 7000 students from Campus Guadalajara want to enter as well. When your turn to create your schedule is at 10 a.m. you're doomed because the site will not be available. Just when you need it the most, you'll find it very troubling to enter. Backing-up your information is normally a way to ensure daya availability, so, have your hard drives backed-up somewhere folks!

I heard that they are thinking on changing the name of the CIA Triad to the CAI Triad, but I think that would be a loss. How will everyone start talking about the Triad without an obvious reference to the Intelligence Agency?

Make Your Online Identity Safe Again - Introduction to the Course.

Welcome to my blog for Computer and Information Security! You may remember me from such blog series as "Surviving at the Software Industry" and "On The Topic".

This semester I'm on a pilot program for the ISC semestre I at the Tec de Monterrey Campus Guadalajara. One of the courses I'm taking is Security with Ken Bauer. This is not the first time I have a course with him, neither the first time I write for one of his classes. I hope you all enjoy what I write and that it can be helpful for someone in the future.

I am not sure on what will my format be for this series, but stay tuned for more.

On The Topic 4: Netflix Cancelando Shows.

El día de hoy Netflix anunció que terminará su contrato con las Wachowskis, terminando así la producción de la serie Sense8. El drama muestra a ocho personajes de diferentes nacionalidades en un ambiente de ciencia ficción donde se topan con temas políticos, religiosos, sexuales, sociales (a.k.a. todo lo que el liberalismo protege y promueve). Hace unas horas, con el anuncio de la cancelación, como es de esperarse, hubo "revuelta" en Twitter, personas cancelando sus subscripciones, y subiendo capturas de pantalla a la red social, mostrando a Netflix como el enemigo, aquel que destruyó un legado.

Este tipo de cosas ya no me sorprende, pero no estoy de acuerdo con ellas. Fue hace solamente 4 años que el estudio Netflix compartió su primer producción original: "House of Cards", y ahora cuenta con más de 120 shows que solamente se encuentran en su plataforma, donde siguen trabajando con alrededor de 50. Pónganlo en perspectiva. Netflix en 4 años es la productora de contenido más grande que cualquier televisora americana, es la que más shows activos maneja y cada serie es aclamada por los críticos y público en general.

No es ninguna sorpresa que tengan que empezar a cancelar shows que, aunque tengan aficionados, o excelentes historias por contar, no son lo suficientemente relevantes, o populares para que sea "rentable", al final del día, el dinero influye mucho en las decisiones de una empresa. Las explicaciones del CEO de Netflix, Reed Hastings van mucho más allá del dinero. En una presentación televisada, Hastings comenta que el estudio está llevando a cabo muchas más series de las que debería, y que deben tomar más riesgos para el futuro y crear mejor contenido.

Quizás el día de hoy cancelaron tu show favorito, y hay posibilidad que el día de mañana sea el mío, pero hay que pensar qué queremos lograr antes de mentarle la madre al encargado de las redes sociales de Netflix via Twitter, amenazando (probablemente en vano) con que vas a cancelar un servicio que se ha mostrado superior a lo largo de este lustro, sin tener en claro nuestro objetivo.

Vamos a crecer, y romper la burbuja que se ha creado alrededor de nosotros. Sí, quizá tú eres un gran fan de Sense8 y todos tus amigos igual, se reúnen a platicar la serie y lo excelente que es, ¿Cómo Netflix puede haber cancelado una de sus top 5 producciones de toda su historia? Sal de la burbuja, ve con otras personas que no pertenezcan a tu círculo social, a tu área de especialización, o que no sean de mente abierta, platica con ellas y pregúntales cuál es su opinión de Sense8 y lo más probable es que ni siquiera hubieran escuchado de ella.

Espero que la próxima vez que se anuncie algo así podamos tener iniciativa y dar crítica constructiva en vez de comentarios hirientes al aire que no lograrán nada.

¿Qué es On The Topic?

He hecho 3 entradas que tienen en su título "On The Topic" en mi blog y hablan de cosas muy diferentes. Ken inculcó una necesidad en mi de ordenar mis escritos y On The Topic es prueba de ello.

El título es una frase inglesa la cual no estoy seguro de que tenga mucho sentido gramaticalmente. Voy a usarla para hablar de cosas que sean relevantes en el momento que lo esté escribiendo. Más que nada será una sección de temas más profundos o controversiales, porque me encanta dar mi opinión sobre todo lo que pasa a mi alrededor. Si quieres pelearte sobre un tema, la sección de comentarios de esta serie será un lugar indicado, aunque preferiría frases respetuosas informadas, pero es el Internet, y la posibilidad del anonimato está abierta para todos.

Continuaré esta serie hasta el final de 2017 y en 2018 ya veremos qué más haré con este blog. Por el momento tengo pensadas otras 2 series para el año y espero que alguien me acompañe en este medio.

The Survivors of the Software Industry (Last Entry).

Ken gave us the opportunity to know 15 people from the Computer Science Industry of Guadalajara. Most of them were nice, and they gave us actual tips to become better on our area. Of course, we live in Guadalajara, and we had to have a misogynistic speaker and another one who believed he was the best human in the world, but I am grateful for the other 13, men and women that reminded me why I'm studying Computer Science and that gave me hope on myself to develop on this area.

Project Management is something I've always been good at. Ever since high school, I became involved in Grupos Estudiantiles, I was president of one, and I was in charge of logistics of 5 or 6 across my Tec Life. I have been part of huge events such as congresses, hackathons, and impactful projects, and now that I think about my life, I think that's exactly what I like to do with my time. All of those things, I did them because I like to do those. I wasn't getting paid, and I slept less just to create the best event possible, and I didn't mind it.

I hope I can become a project manager on my near future, and I would like to thank Ken for giving me the opportunity to know so many wonderful people on his course. 

Surviving at the Software Industy (15-17) - Create Your Day Of The Black Sun and Win The War.

The Day Of The Black Sun is an event that only happens when they have a full sun eclipse. For 8 minutes, no one can fire bend and that's the moment when team Avatar was planning to invade the Fire Nation and to dethrone the Fire Lord. Little did they know their plan was already discovered by Azula so it all became a test for later, when Aang would really fight against the Fire Lord.

As a project manager, you have to find ways to test your project on a controlled environment. Testing is a powerful tool that allows us to see what we're doing right, and what needs to be fixed. You can test every single aspect of your system by using a test plan. If we are strategic, we can achieve to win on this stage.

Even if our tests do show that we have some errors, we can fix them on proper time and release the project on time. Aang had of fight against the Fire Lord before the Suzan's Comet arrived, and he actually manages to defeat him, this only happened because he was prepared, he had a team and he followed his plan.

Surviving at the Software Industy (14) - Now You Can Water Bend.

Katara is the last water bender from the water tribe of the South Pole. She didn't have the opportunity to learn when she was a child because she didn't have a teacher. When she meets Aang, they decide together that they will go to the North Pole and find a teacher that will show them the arts of the water bending.

She knew how to do the basic stuff, and maybe she didn't do it the right way, but on his journey with the Avatar, she became a very powerful master and she was the one that taught Aang how to water bend at the end. Just as Katara, now we are able to start our code bending. We have to follow a well-defined standard and being able to integrate our code together.

At this stage we have to have an order, and start by constructing the skeleton of the project while informing what is going on with it, and documenting all the changes that had to be made. As a PM he have to be aware of the milestones, and how the project is coming up.

I always wanted to water bend, but to code bend, that's a gift that not everyone has.

Surviving at the Software Industy (13) - Focusing your Sokka.

I just saw Avatar: The Last Airbender again, and that reminded me how good of a series this is. My last entries will feature this series instead of movies because that's the only thing I can think about right now (haha!).

This stage is all about reviewing and making better the documents of the architecture of the project. Sokka is the strategist of Aang's team, he's the one that creates and reviews the plans and schedules for the team to follow. His name comes from the Japanese "sokka" that means "understood".

The Team Avatar is constantly preparing to fight a war, and they have to go and talk to the two big nations that still live and to be sure their plan is good. They first go to the North Pole and talk to the strategists there. They have a fight and win, but when they go to Ba Sing Se on the Earth Kingdom, things don't go very smoothly, and they lose control of the capital. As a PM, you have to be sure this doesn't happen, you can't lose control over a team, by reviewing every part of your Design Document.

In one episode, Sokka tries to explain the plan to the army that will be invading the Fire Nation, but he is pretty unsuccessful on doing that, he's getting nervous and even if he has a well established plan, he's not helping the team to comprehend it. If you make a perfect document, but no one is able to read it, then you're doing something wrong.

If you can have a detailed document, you can be sure that every part of the architecture will be covered correctly.

On The Topic 3: Sea World y las redes sociales.

Es muy fácil ver lo malo de una compañía magna, de una serie popular, de un videojuego en primera persona o de cualquier cosa que se salga un poco de los estándares de lo "normal". Siglo XXI, los millenials decimos ser muy inclusivos y tolerantes, pero ¿En cuánto a qué?. Si hablamos de mujeres, jóvenes, personas con discapacidad u orientación sexual, sí, claro, vivimos en una sociedad que no los trata como basura, y es un gran avance a generaciones pasadas, pero si se trata de una persona con una mentalidad diferente, que no comparta nuestras ideas económicas, políticas o culturales, arde Troya. Lo más peligroso de esto, es que cada vez somos menos impulsados a ver la imagen completa. Si soy liberal, por ningún motivo voy a pensar en ver qué tiene que decir un conservador al respecto. Si soy clase media, no puedo tomar en cuenta la opinión de un rico. ¿Por qué no? Hoy quiero hablar de una compañía que los medios han atacado fuertemente en los últimos años

Sea World es una empresa de entretenimiento estadounidense que cuenta con 3 parques de diversiones en Estados Unidos y 1 en Dubai. La mayor atracción del parque eran las Orcas o Ballenas Asesinas (Nombre que no se merecen porque ni siquiera son ballenas), pero desde el año pasado, Sea World San Diego anunció que terminaría sus espectáculos con ballenas, así como su programa de procreación de orcas. Sea World Orlando y San Antonio harían lo mismo después, pero sin fijar una fecha (hasta el día de hoy no pude encontrar ninguna declaración de que esto se pusiera en marcha en ninguno de los 2 parques).

La gota que derramó mi vaso y que me hizo escribir esta entrada es que cuando entré a Facebook hoy, una amiga había compartido un live-stream de Sea World San Antonio en el que el equipo del parque estaba introduciendo a una orca bebé a la familia, y pues como usuario de Facebook puedes comentar tu reacción en los live-streams, y claro que veías corazones y "likes", pero la reacción que más dominaba el video era "enojado". En los comentarios veías gente mal informada acusando al crew de "asesinos", hipócritas y muchas cosas más. Esta es una actitud que nació después de que la cinta Blackfish, un documental que muestra un lado propagandístico de la historia de Sea World.

Intentemos tener la mente más abierta y no solo quedarnos con la primer fuente de información con la que nos topamos.

13 Cosas Que Ya Deberíamos Saber. (On The Topic 2: 13 Reasons Why)

Nota al lector: Esta entrada la empecé a escribir en el momento en el que terminé de ver el último episodio, por lo que muchas de mis ideas no concluyen o definen mi postura al respecto. 

Ayer empecé a ver la serie de Netflix 13 Reasons Why, producida por Selena Gomez, y basada en la novela para adultos jóvenes de Jay Asher que lleva el mismo nombre. El día de hoy, a menos de 24 horas de haberla empezado, ya llegué al final de la serie y me gustaría hablar de algunas cosas que me parecieron interesantes de la misma.

Cuando veo una producción de Netflix, yo sé que será buena. Han generado una reputación y yo he tenido la suerte que todas las cintas que me ha tocado ver son excelentes. Cuando escuché de 13 Reasons Why por primera vez, sabía que sería una "serie de niña blanca", por todo el contexto, por que Common White Girl no dejaba de tweetear al respecto y por las personas que me la recomendaron.

La serie, sin duda está entretenida, y te mantiene preguntándote qué sucederá después. Desde el inicio yo estaba enojado con Clay, el personaje principal de la serie, pero como iba pasando el tiempo me empezaba a caer mejor y veía ciertas cosas de mi reflejadas en su personaje. Cabe destacar que me gusta cuando el género joven y adulto joven tiene a un personaje masculino como el principal. Está muy de moda (y no es malo) que el personaje siempre sea femenino y está limitando el espacio de creatividad tanto como si sólo tuviéramos principales masculinos.

En cuanto a la historia, aún cuando hay cintas que, más que culpas, son una serie de eventos desafortunados, y de malas coincidencias, la mayoría logran su objetivo: decirle a una generación joven que sean buenos y que alcen su voz cuando vean a algún amigo en problemas o cuando ellos mismos lo estén. De la misma manera, la producción logra mostrar lo quebrantado que está el sistema educativo estadounidense. La mayoría de las cosas que le pasan a Hannah, son "cosas normales" que pasan en preparatoria. Hasta la cinta 10 creía yo que ella sólo estaba siendo dramática, y esto es preocupante.

La idea que más pasaba por mi mente mientras veía la serie es "Si alguien hiciera esto conmigo, no sabría qué hacer." Y sigo sin respuesta para ello. Espero que ninguno de mis seres queridos esté pasando por un momento tan oscuro, y si sí, espero que encuentren herramientas y fortaleza para seguir adelante. Yo siempre estaré aquí. Si me hablas por Facebook, contesto como en 5 minutos (¿Vicio?, naaah).

No tuve un despertar al ver la serie, desde antes de verla yo ya sabía y seguiré intentando ser una mejor persona. 

Si me preguntan si recomiendo la serie, definitivamente sí. Está muy entretenida y es muy detallista. Cuenta con un sentimiento de intranquilidad similar al de la serie 24 de FOX, con una trama interesante y personajes bien desarrollados. 

Probablemente vuelva a escribir de esta serie cuando ya haya puesto mis ideas en orden.

On The Topic 1: Open Source (OBS).

Today we will be talking about the most used tool on Twitch. OBS. OBS is an open source software called Open Broadcast Software. Coincidence? I think not.

OBS was born as a small project on 2014 by Hugh (a.k.a. Jim) Bailey, but it picked up stream very fast, and suddenly it became a huge collaboration and it became vastly popular. On the same year, the development started and it became a powerful API. Right now it is working hand by hand with Twitch and it is one of the best screen recorders out of all.

As of right now, the software is not finished yet. Still, it is very used and promoted by major web sites.

The fact that it is open source allows everyone to be a video content creator and it promotes the use of other apps such as Youtube Gaming and Twitch.

Surviving at the Software Industy (12) - I'm Almost There.

Today we are gonna talk about starting the implementation of our project. We're done planning by now and we can start programming. Our movie for today will be the first contemporary Disney Princess, The Princess And The Frog. Tiana will join us as we develop our own project as she shows us the dedication she put on getting her restaurant.

Ever since she was a little girl, she saw how her dad wanted to put a restaurant on New Orleans called "Tiana's Place". Even when her dad passed away, she kept his dream as her own, and she put all her efforts to get the job done. 

The first thing we need is to follow our Software Development Plan. We already did it on earlier stages, and we shouldn't waste our effort. That was the guide we gave to our client, so we better stick to it. We can also reduce the risks of having low quality, lack of visibility or running out of time. It's not good to have a jar of coins without knowing how much money we have inside of it.

For our plan, it is extremely important we define some "milestones" or things we HAVE to do to maintain order over the general project, our lovely book recommends us to do the following activities on every project.

• Requirements updates 
• Detailed design 
• Construction 
• Test case creation 
• User documentation updates 
• Technical reviews 
• Defect corrections 
• Technical coordination
• Risk management 
• Project tracking 
• Integration and release
• End of stage wrap-up

Returning to the mini-milestones, these are activities that can only be classified on one of two categories, "done" and "not done. They have only two scenarios. Tiana shows us how this works.

Her first goal is to get the money to buy the place for her restaurant, then buy the furniture, then becoming a human again (you can't be 50% a human and 50% a frog), oh wait. This will help you to keep track of the project and to know how much of the project is done. If you want to, you can have a list of mini-milestones done so you can get inspired from that.

Also, one thing is to do stuff, and another thing is to do something good. You can check the quality of the product by making technical reviews. If your team starts missing their minor milestones DO NOT PANIC. It's actually pretty common this happens. You will have to pay more attention to the needs of your team and to be there for them to solve most of the problems rapidly.

There are different ways to manage a team, chose the one that adapts better to the way you are confortable with. It is important you don't feel awkward on the leading position, because you'd spread the awkwardness through your whole team. Remember, when you have all your plans on place, You're Almost There (yes, like Tiana's song).

The Class That Decided Not To Code.

The other day, I was on a group chat with one of my older friends from my major (ISC). We were talking about if I should go and play Overwatch with them or if I should study for my Advance Programming course exam. His girlfriend (who's also an ISC, and a friend of mine) told me that I shouldn't worry too much, because the exam would not be hard, and then my friend told her: but remember, they are the generation that decided not to code.

"What was he talking about?" You may ask yourself. Well, my class (2014-2018) was the biggest one since they re-oppened ISC in Campus Guadalajara. We were around 60 people and we were the half of the general population of ISC. Right now, we are 30-40 (if you include all the people from other generations who are taking less or more courses) and, it's true. We don't like to code.

It is bad to generalize. Of course there are A LOT of those 35 people who enjoy coding. From the top of my head I can think of 10 people who had told me "I enjoy coding", but at the same time I can tell you 10 more who have tell me the opposite. So you may ask yourself now "If these people don't like coding, what are they doing studying ISC? CODING IS THE BASE OF EVERYTHING!".

Well, don't get me wrong, we KNOW how to code, but we don't want to do it. It's like a doctor who doesn't like to do surgery. He/She knows how to perform one, but doesn't necessarily want to do one. There are many areas where a engineer can work, and even if coding looks like the base of everything, perhaps it's not.

This conversation with my friend got me thinking how much we put labels on each other. We are not only ISC guys anymore, we are "The ISC guys who don't like to code" and that just feels unnecessary and inaccurate.

We should appreciate all people, not just by what do they like or not. Our major is already one with the most labels on it, at least we should take those out from our inner circle to get to know everyone on ISC better.

Surviving at the Software Industry (11) - Let's Go To Paradise Falls!

We are on the last stage of preparation of our project! Isn't that exciting? I think it is. We just have to make our last preparations so we can roll. We will be talking about a movie that is none other than the second animated movie nominated for Best Picture in all history: Up. 

Carl and Ellie wanted to travel to Paradise falls to meet their hero. From the moment they got married, they had a can where they put all the extra money they had every day. When Ellie was a kid, she had planned how the travel would have been and she added some pictures and stamps to her book so she wouldn't forget anything. Of course, life happened and they had to postpone their trip for ever. 

I'm gonna skip the saddest part of the movie by talking about our last stage. As of right now we just have to estimate. We have to calculate how much time are we gonna take on every stage, our milestones the costs, everything. We already have everything planned and this is adding like a cherry to our milkshake. Everything has to look great on paper. I remember Ken told us once on our TI2011 course that if we wanted to estimate right we had to multiply our first estimate by two and then work on the next time unit. So if we would be taking 3 weeks on the project, we would actually be working on it 6 months. Crazy, right? Maybe just as crazy as making a house flying with balloons.

We also have to consider that we can't just escape on a flying property of the real work. We have to take in consideration other factors such as marketers, tendencies and sudden / unexpected changes. The best way to deal with these situations is by having a stage delivery plan. 

We have talked a lot about our delivery plans. I remember how people from ISC who are now graduates always told us that when we were on projects such as Taller Vertical, we had to ALWAYS have a deliverable. So, when we were thinking of building a flying house, we couldn't be preparing the balloons, the helium and the house from the beginning. We should start by having a flying bicycle, then a flying apartment, and so on. This process could be time consuming, but it is always best to do it this way. If we have a sudden change, we can go back to a decent stage and not starting from the beginning. It is also important to deliver the releases to our client, so they can see the advances on the project and mention if something's off.

Now we have to talk about risk and vision. Have we analyzed how safe it is to travel to another hemisphere on a helium-based flying house? I'm guessing not. We have to be sure that we are aware of the most risks we can manage and how would we deal with them. Our vision has to be our inspiration. It has to be clear and it has to help you and your team to keep moving forward on the same direction. If not, we wouldn't land on Paradise Falls.

By having an awesome and inspired team with our authority on the same line of thought, nothing is gonna stop us to find these lovely waterfalls.

Surviving at the Software Industry (10) - It's time to become a well-dressed devil.

I know I should be comparing this chapter to something related with construction and things like that, but I can't think of any movie that can helps me on that genre, so today we'll be using The Devil Wears Prada. This one is a fun movie to watch and it comes on Fox almost once a week.

As software developers we are condemned to become software architects. And yeah, we do a lot of stuff that architecs do when they are planning on building a bridge. We have to treat some issues on the same ways.

If a client asks you to do something in specific and they have a delimited budget and you cannot achieve it.

The client wants to know how the project is going on any stage. They want to be informed.

We have to fix the problems as soon as possible or it will be more expensive on the future.

And we all love coffee with all our heart.

So we can talk about the main characteristics of a good architecture now. The system overview is describing everything in broad terms so we can have a general idea of the project. It has to happen on a high level discussion. The conceptual integrity phase is where the objectives for the architecture are stated. This ensures that the architecture covers all the problems of the project, whatever it is. Subsystems and Organization is when you star defining the areas or subsytems of a project. It can be divided on the major clusters of functionality, or major areas of the general system. Although it is good to have some communication you cannot have everyone knowing every single aspect of the project. Is not convenient. Imagine if an intern listened a brainstorm meeting for the next season!

We have to have our team on the same page. It is important to define a standard notation for our diagrams and to be sure that everyone is capable of reading them. We also have to be prepared for change. If we see that something's about to change we can start to making preparations and we won't suffer as much when the time comes. If we see the trend is changing, we have to be faster as designers or we won't be relevant. If the weather is changing we have to get out of that city or we won't be able to see our families on time.

Reusing code is not bad if it is useful and does not affect the architecture. We also have to question our approaches, see if what we are doing is the right thing or if there's a better / cheaper way to do it. Then, we have to define the traceability and the delivery plan so our client does not desesperate.

The architecture will be complete when you can say without any problem "My file covers all these areas, I feel confident we can work this out."

Surviving at the Software Industry (9) - Caravan your way out of problems.

It's not a secret that I admire Damien Chazelle a lot. He is the youngest movie director of all times. Today we'll be talking his first big hit "Whiplash" on the context of quality. If you haven't watched this film I recommend you to watch it because it is gorgeous.

In the film, we have an abusive professor on a jazz school called Fletcher. This professor is obsessed with perfection and he aims to get the best students on his group to perform difficult jazz songs and to become a great school jazz band.

The chapter nine from the book talks about quality. What is good, the consequences of doing the job right and doing it wrong. It also helps you to see the big picture, and to identify all what is around of the making of a good project.

If we don't ensure good quality, we can end like Carl Tanner and being kicked out of the band. Sometimes the project wont be quite the client's tempo and they will need you to give them support on the project AFTER you deliver it. All of these problem are solvable on the early stages of the project. We just need a Quality Assurance Plan, or QAP, a fancy nickname I invented for it.

So, what should we have on our plan? The book gives us a list of concepts that we should be aware of when doing our document. Look at Andrew. He had to rehearse every single day and go over all his flaws to achieve his teacher's expectations.

• Defect Tracking: You can't just think that all your problems are gonna be solved by looking at them. You have to keep a record of them, if not, you are going to forget you have them and you won't solve them. Andrew went over the same 15 seconds of Caravan over and over until his hands stopped working.
• Unit Testing: You have to test. This step shouldn't be a secret by now. You have to join your drums with the rest of the band and to see how you're all doing.
• Source-Code Tracing: Going through all the lines of code on a debugger. If you do that you can see how everything functions, step by step.
• Technical Reviews: Go with co-workers and other people so they can give you reviews, and you can do the same with their parts of the projects. It is always good to have the insight from anothe human being, and then you won't be a loner drumer without a social life.
• Integration Testing: Mix all the code together, new and old, and be sure everything is working fine.
• System Testing: Now you can play Caravan right. You can start to play all together to refine the final touches.

As soon as you can master that you will be ready to play not only Caravan, but Whiplash and any other jazz song easily!

Surviving at the Software Industry (8) - How Far I'll Go.

Here's where a regular student who has not taken this class would normally start a project. You are right now in the same spot as Moana was when her grandma told her what she had to do to save Motunui. Don't let the sea take you by surprise!

As a project manager, you have to get the requirements for the project. You can get them in various ways, but they all are a little complicated. You can gather candidate requirements by interviewing and reviewing other products, but this could be like trying to talk with the Ocean. They think they know what they want and you think you understand them, but you have to be very careful so you can take the useful information.

Specifying requirements, or commiting with the gathered requirements to tangible media, like storyboards, this could be like talking to Mini-Maui, he is pretty expresive, and he can write and store all the information from his adventures. Finally, you can analize requirements, or breaking them to their essential characteristics.

So, what's the best way to get all the requirements? 

• Identify a set of key end users or defining who wil be using the system. You don't want an accelerometer on an app that will help you to cook on your house, or you wouldn't like to take a boat all by yourself if you do not know how to sail. Oh Wait.
• Interview the End Users, or actually make a first round of interviews. So you can see what is happening with your users. What do they think about it.
• Build a prototype, but it has to be a simple one. You don't have to be such a perfectionist. It just has to have the basic functionalities. It is very useful to record the results on paper, using storyboards and check the level of excitement of the users when the test comes to an end. Do you remember how excited was Maui when Moana learned how to sail? You have to wait and see if your prototype is actually working.
• Develop a style guide, after you have a functional prototype, you can start thinking on making the application cute. The grandma didn't make the necklace without having the heart of Te-Fiti. The guide shouldn't be very long, but it can help the designers to follow basic rules.
• Fully extend the prototype, this is the stage where you try to make everything better. the graphs, architecture and design work, interactions with other products, textual outputs, feasibilitiy study, architecture, etc. Don't forget this is not the final prototype!
• Treat the fully extended prototype as the baseline specification. Oce we have a baseline prototype, we can have valuable benefits, these activities often end up on the critical path, so it is pretty important to identify them from the beginning.
• Write a detailed end-user documentation based on a prototype. On average, Moana would leave the story-telling until the end of her adventure, but it is important to have it from day one.
• Create a separate, non-user interface requirements document. Wow, those are fancy words to say "create a manual". Maybe we as millenials don't appreciate manuals but they a re pretty useful when you get presented with a scenario that the user is not familiar with,

There  you go adventurer! Now you are ready to go and find Te Fiti!

Surviving at the Software Industry (7) - Creating an Indominus Rex.

Do you remember when Claire wanted to create the biggest dinosaur so they could get more people going to the park in Jurassic World?

When you have a goal to achieve it is important to have a vision, a mayor achievement to reach and to feel accomplished when you get it. The vision doesn't have to be something as big as the dinosaur, but it has to help your team to feel inspired so they keep working on your project. You as a PM have to know what you should be leving out of a vision. It is as important to know what we want to do as to know what we don't; this is essential for maintaining the project risk level on a manageable level. When you have a formalized vision, now you have to make all your team to commit to it.

In the movie, we see that the main problem of the park is that they are not getting as many visitors as they once had. The money is the principal issue there. The Jurassic World has to get a Sponsorship from a weapon company so they can create the new dinosaur. On a real project it is actually the same thing. We need to get an executive sponsor, a person who is resposible to say if the application is ready. What is right and what is not.

After getting a sponsor, we have to communicate our project scope targets that you probably won't fulfill. As on the movie, you will experience complications on the making that will delay your delivery. When they try to accelerate the first show of the Indominus Rex is when everything starts to go crazy. Instead of giving an fixed time for every stage of the project give some time scopes so you have larger margins to deliver it on time.

It is important to share to the team in what stage of the project is everything at every moment. The Indominus Rex was being developped as a secret and no one knew how to react when it escaped. The plans have to be revealed and reviewed. The administration of the project and the developpers have to be on the same team, or it will be a mess.

So, here's the biggest problem of the mega-dinosaur on Jurassic World. They didn't consider the amount of risk of the project and they developped a destructive, uncontrollable weapon that killed hundreds of people and dinosaurs. We should devote a part of the budget to risk to serve as a cushion for risk management. The Top 10 Risks List is a tool in which we mention all the top risks at every phase of the project.

As a project manager, you have to create some stategies so you don't die on the process. You hace to be able to be accountable for the actions of your team and to administrate them right. The staff should be a manageable number where all have some work to do and feel like a part of the team. The dynamic of the team has to be appropiate for everyone. If you find people on your team that is being malicious, then you don't have to tolerate it and act as soon as possible, or they could make that your dinosaur become a weapon instead of an attraction without you knowing what happéned.

It is good to document your time use. It can be valuable information on the development of future projects, It also enables you to compare estimated data and actual time on every phase. We do not have any proof of this happening on the film.

When you have all these information in hand, then you can do a software development plan. they are not as detailed as the ones created before, but should be done anyway. If they had a good team on Jurassic World they wouldn't have had that tragedy and the Jurassic World would still be open.

I'm pretty sure this is the longer post I've written for this course, so yeah, here's a gif with the MVPs of the movie, the Velociraptors.

(Nunca) Dejaré de defender a La La Land.

14 veces nominada al Oscar. Aclamada por audiencias, cinéfilos y críticos de cine por igual. Una gran oda a los musicales, las películas y Hollywood en general. Un sueño de Damien Chazelle llevado a la pantalla grande junto con su "roommie" de la universidad Justin Hurwitz (compositor de la música de la película). No me debería de sorprender la cantidad de odio que recibió/recibe.

La La Land nos muestra una historia de 2 artistas que, en tiempos contemporáneos, se encuentran en la ciudad de las estrellas buscando convertirse en unas. El personaje de Mia es una actriz que, después de muchos intentos, sigue buscando la forma de conseguir un papel para cualquier obra que se le presente. Sebastian es un jazzista clásico que está herido a causa de la lenta muerte de su género musical. La película está tomada en CinemaScope, tecnología utilizada para grabar los musicales de los años 50s y cuenta con un estilo obviamente inspirado por Lubezki y sus tomas largas que te sumergen en la cinta. Y claro, cuenta con un guión romántico y comédico que hace click con todas las demás características de La La Land.

Al ser clasificado ante la sociedad como un "fanático de La La Land", he recibido todo el criticismo (bueno y malo) de la película, y me entristece que, muchas veces, la razón que eligen para decidir que la cinta es mala sea "No me gustó". Voy a recorrer algunos pensamientos que me han compartido amigos y conocidos al respecto de La La Land y daré mi opinión al respecto de cada una después.

El guión es bastante sencillo. Es cierto. No trata con temas complejos como Moonlight, ni con reflexiones profundas como Nocturnal Animals. La idea es bastante concisa y lineal. ¿Esto es malo? Yo creo que no. Películas como Titanic y Casablanca cuentan con guiones que no son complejos y aún así son interesantes; vaya, The Avengers es una de las historias más lineales que conozco y jamás me aburro de verla. Quizás el guión de La La Land parezca simple, pero ¡La manera en la que lo llevan a la pantalla es impresionante! Si te fijas bien (y yo noté esto gracias a la plática con un amigo) puedes ver que en cada escena hay algún objeto azul, amarillo, rojo y verde. Los vestidos de Mia se van oscureciendo conforme pasa la historia y en el montaje en el que se enamoran, el cielo brilla en morado (combinación de 2 colores).

No es inclusiva, sólo hay actores blancos. Hay dos razones para que esto sea "un argumento". Si lo que en realidad me quisieron decir es que "Todos los actores principales (menos John Legend) son blancos", es porque la cinta lo requería. La La Land no guarda secretos en cuanto a las referencias a los musicales clásicos del cine. Toda la cinta tiene pequeños mensajes ocultos que quieren mostrar su amor a películas como Singing In The Rain y Rebel Without A Cause. Al querer ser una oda, respetó todas las reglas que estos musicales impusieron implícitamente, y aún así logró ser inclusiva en comparación a las cintas anteriormente menionadas.

No tiene final feliz. Hay dos respuestas correctas para esta afirmación. 1. Claro que sí tiene. 2. De eso se trataba. Mia y Sebastian al final (SPOILER ALERT) consiguen alcanzar sus sueños, y son felices con ello, cada uno a su manera. Claro, no es el final romántico que el trailer y después el epílogo te logran vender, pero eso es lo especial de La La Land. Damien Chazelle te muestra cómo hubiera sido la película si hubiera existido en el siglo pasado, y el giro que él le otorgo.

No es realista. Pues, no. De eso se trata. La primer toma es cómo todos se ponen a bailar y cantar en la avenida más transitada de los Estados Unidos. Es una forma cortés de pedirte que te desconectes de la realidad por un rato y sólo disfrutes la película. Deja de pensar en tu realidad por un  momento y disfruta.

La verdad no sé, sólo no me gustó. Este argumento es terrible. De seguro te encantó Manchester By The Sea, oh espera, estoy bastante seguro de que no la has visto. (Lo siento, me pasé de sass). Está bien que no te haya gustado, pero eso no rige si la película es buena o mala, a mi no me gustó Hacksaw Ridge y puedo afirmar que la película es buena. El ser una buena película no siempre está conectada con los gustos personales de todo el mundo.

¿Qué pienso de lo que sucedió en los Oscar Awards? Más que nada estoy triste porque el equipo de Moonlight no tuvo su momento dorado, en el que todos los voltearon a ver diciendo "Wow, Moonlight, ahora sí tengo que verla". Me entristece que esa situación sólo les afecta a todos negativamente y yo espero que al menos sirva para que todos vayan a ver ambas películas. Merecen amor y respeto porque son increíbles.

Disculpen mi La La Rant, pero desde que empezó el backlash de la película, ésta ha recibido más fuertes críticas de lo que merece y se está perdiendo el cuadro completo. No podemos negar que La La Land es una gran película que va a trascender de 2016 y va a ser observada como camino a seguir por muchos más. Me encuentro a la espera de la siguiente obra de Damien y nunca se les olvide, si quieren hablar de esta película (o cualquier otra que haya visto), pueden hacerlo conmigo. Es muy interesante oír puntos de vista fundamentados diferentes al mío. Gracias por soportar el berrinche.

Surviving at the Software Industry (6) - Don't take the red pill!

So, do you remember how in The Matrix the machines controlled the human race? Yeah, pretty good movie, if I spoiled you: c'mon that movie is 18 years old, it is actually your fault.

What do I mean when I ask you to not take the red pill? Well, it means that if you are not ready to take on a project. If you haven't read this lovely survival guide or my blogs and followed my instructions, well, you're gonna end being controlled by the project and not the other way around.

Changes are inevitable. You as a PM are going to have to deal with them and you better be prepared by downloading all the martial arts into you system. Or you can just follow the following advices by Steve McConnell.

• Make changes at the beginning of the projects without worrying too much.
• Create technical reviews to declare work stages complete.
• Having a group of people who can discuss the changes in the project.
• Make revisions to the project.
• Notify changes to everyone.

All changes have to be considered before being applied. And we have to remember to ACTUALLY tell all the members on the team how the changes will affect them. So, take the blue pill of your project and have a blast developing it!

I always thought the blue pill looked like an Advill.

Surviving at the Software Industry. (5) - What to do?

This chapter helps us to create a well structured plan. Knowing our abilities and skill, the book emphasises in dividing the project on three phases: the discovery, invention and implementation. Discovery is to find new areas of our project, and trying to find all the opportunities of it by doing interviews. Invention is the place where we create our ideas, and implementation is to put those ideas on paper and actually make them a reality.

When you already think that you are ready for the implementation face, now it is time to create a staged delivery plan. This is achieved by analyzing all the requirements, dividing our teams and having a design ready. The Stage Delivery plan is pretty detailed about the activities of all teams and if helps you to know what will you get when a phase of the project is done.

By doing a Stage Delivery Plan we can get this advantages:

• Critical functionality is available.
• Identifying risks earlier.
• Aknowledging of problems on earlies phases. 
• Status-Reporting overhead is reduced.
• Staged delivery makes more options available and gives us flexibility at work.

On the othe hand, by doing a Stage Delivery Plan we also get this disadvantages:

• It increases the project overhead.
• It increases the cost.
• It needs plenty of testing.
• a.k.a. More money.

When you get your client's money (of course this is a joke, don't take it to seriously), you can now think on the planning phases, the staffing and the code growth curve; each of these phases have a stage of requirements, architecture and construction (So right now, we are on a phase inside of a phase inside of another phase, if this ain't Inception, I don't know what it is then). To go from one stage to another one, you should be positive that you can work with what you already have.

It is super important to have milestones and deliverables. If not, we won't know in what phase of the project are we on. The also help the team to commit to the project and as a PM you can see how everything is working along.

That's all folks I'll upload the chapter 6 in just one moment, so stay tuned! 

Surviving at the Software Industry. (4)

Today I'm gonna try something different. When I write about something I usually have all the resources on hand. But I feel my two last blog entries have been pretty stiff, so today I'm going to do it just by remembering the chapter, so if I'm missing something important, please tell me in the comments below!

I found this guide is just that. A guide. I'm learning as if a friend was telling me how to do something and not as a regular book, and that's just lovely. Now I know what book would I take with me if I was on a desert island. (Guide on building boats.)

 

So this chapter talks about those skills we should have if we are planning on starting a project.

• Checkpoint Overview: Having mock-ups and UX prototypes, and stuff like really well detailed software requirements is super important when you are about to take a decision on doing a project or not.
• Risk Management: Being prepared for everything, even the worst-most-impossible scenario out of all. Failure in some cases could mean the team not eating for a while, and man, humans literally can't work that way.
• Project Control: Everyone is doing it's part and CAN manage it. As a project manager you are responsible for the life of your project, as well as the well-being of everyone on your team.
• Project visibility: Have you ever felt that you "kind of" achieve something while coding? Visibility helps you to understand what have you actually done and what you haven't. It is important for a PM to know in what ACTUAL stage the project is at any time.
• Peopleware: Rule #89 of being a programmer: Never forget that normal people don't know how to code. Knowing the people that are going to use the final software is as important as the code developped.
• User Involvement: We may think we know what people want on a software app, but we don't lose anything on asking. Talking with others can give you a better idea on what is the actual things you would want to see in a project.
• Product minimalism: Man, I just love minimalism. It makes everything so simple and neat. Just as your code should be! If it is simple and readable, you can detect errors faster!
• Focus on shipping software: Everyone must know they are developping the same thing. I know this sounds stupid, but if not everyone is on the same page, a project can't go right.

PD: I did cheat a little by copying the names of the titles, I'm sorry I don't have a perfect memory don't be all like this. See you soon, bye.

Surviving at the Software Industry. (2-3)

After a lovely questionnaire in chapter 2, chapter 3 shows us that we have to define development processes and elements needed for the software. If we have this things all put together, our project can move forward easily and the people working on it can be more productive.

We have to define first, “What is software process?” The survival guide gives us 7 different answers to define it.

·       Committing all requirements to writing.

·       Using systematic procedures for control.

·       Conducting technical reviews.

·       Developing a systematic Quality Assurance Plan.

·       Creating an implementation plan.

·       Using automated source code control.

·       Revising cost and estimates of schedule.

Process can turn rigid for the software developers, and each of the answers of steps can have some backlash that can make the project to no happen. We as project doers have to look forward for our team to use their productive time wisely. 

Thank you for reading! I shall give you an amazing gif from the filming of one of my favorite movies, La La Land. The guy on the green t-shirt is the director of the movie and he is a genius.

Surviving at the Software Industry. (1)

I liked the way the book "speaks" to me when I'm reading it, it feels like a guru giving you advices to succeed on the development of a project. Every software project that is considered low or medium size is achievable and optimizable.

The steps commanded by this guide are well explained and pretty basic. The first one is to recognize a software project’s essential survival needs, then it compared a project with a human and its needs illustrated by Maslow.

The author shows us how the needs of a software project look a lot like the human ones by adapting the Maslow’s Hierarchy onto Software needs.

We also learn about the Customer’s Bill of Rights, which are 7 actions that the customer has access to, such as objectives, time of development, features involved, change of requirements, project status, knowledge of risks, and ready access to deliverables.

On the other hand, he have the responsibilities of the Project Team’s bill of rights, these are the actions that everyone involved in the development of the project have to follow. To clarify priorities, to build and clarify the product definition, give the costumer ready access, etcetera.

What we learn today is that the 3 keys of success are communication, communication and communication. (Or at least for the success of the first step).

We shall continue with the second step soon! So I’ll keep you posted.

Welcome to the Ken course.

This is my post letting you all know that I'll be writing about project administration and evaluation here. You can check in "Temas" and look for the #TI2011 to see all my experience with the course. I'm actually excited to take it because my dad has given this class for a long time to the IIS. We'll see how this goes.