Archive for the 'Technology' Category

A Follower of the KISS Principle

Published by Nainil Chheda on February 2, 2009 in Life, Management, Organization and Technology. 0 Comments

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler” - Albert Einstein

During my Masters in Information Systems at the Fox School of Business @ Temple University, I was introduced to “Strategic Process Management” and “User Interactive Site Design”. The first concept taught was to Keep it Sweet and Simple (K.I.S.S).

With 12 years of Web Application Development experience, I have had the opportunity to look at both:

  1. Processes which are complicated
  2. User Interfaces which do not make sense

Many a times, we try to bring an “Open Forum” approach into our organization. This could lead to:

  1. Multiple Members Contributing to a Project (too many cooks spoil the broth)
  2. Complicating the project in the early stages of formation/development
  3. Everyone has a request to meet their needs. This could over burden the project.

The chain of thought is to make life easier and simpler for both the developers and clients. Design simplicity should be a key goal and any unnecessary complexities should be avoided.

Product Design

Product Design

Here is a great link on “What is Simple Design“. It shares information about: Agile Development, YAGNI - You Aren’t Gonna Need It; Design Patterns, Code Smells, Simple Design and Test Driven Development (TDD), Once-And-Only-Once, Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY), Communication, Single Responsibility Principle (SRP), Open Closed Principle (OCP), Liskov Substitution Principle (LSP), Interface Segregation Principle (ISP), Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP), Tell Don’t Ask, The Law of Demeter, Triangulate, Influence from Functional Programming, Tests don’t lie and Prototyping.

With everything that I try to manage, I tend to Keep it Simple. This allows me to focus on other core aspects of business which can lead to increase in productivity and sales. Being a follower of the KISS Principle makes my activities at Work and Life much enjoyable and productive.

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Agile Development Methodologies 101

Published by Nainil Chheda on January 21, 2009 in Technology. 0 Comments

I have a total of 16 years of Corporate Experience which can be summarized as:

  • 12 Years in IT (Development + Support)
  • 4 Years in Health Care IT (Product Management + Research + Development)

In my 16 years of experience, I have had the opportunity to work in companies which are Technology Intensive and have adopted “Agile Development” as their development framework.

Agile development is a method of constructing software by:

  1. delegating and trusting people,
  2. acknowledging change as a standard, and
  3. promoting constant feedback

Agile Team follows practices that keep it focused on customer needs

Principles behind Agile Development:

  1. Acknowledge Change as A Standard
  2. Promote Constant Feedback
  3. Tailored Approach
  4. Requirements Change
  5. Continuous Attention is Required
  6. Light on Documentation
  7. Small Teams
  8. Isolated Approach
  9. Face To Face Communication
  10. Self Organizing

There are several methodologies towards Agile Development. The most prominent ones include:

  1. Extreme Programming (XP)
  2. Scrum
  3. Agile Unified Process (AUP)
  4. Feature Driven Development (FDD)
  5. Lean Software Development
  6. Crystal
  7. Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)

Agile development, to conclude is a journey which helps creating its own path by following the methodologies which suite best to the organizations development team and principles.

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Future of the (Electronic) Healthcare Industry

Published by Nainil Chheda on January 13, 2009 in Health Care and Technology. 0 Comments

During his presidential campaign, President-Elect Obama said he would allocate $50 billion over five years to support the adoption of standards-based health IT systems and a national health information network.

On Friday, January 09, 2009: President-Elect Barack Obama Calls for All Americans To Have EHRs Within Five Years. This gives the Healthcare Industry a huge leverage over other Industries.

Here is my interpretation of the future of the Health Care Industry:

  1. EHRs (Electronic Health Records) will be mandated for patient record keeping
  2. Personal Health Record (PHR) will gain momentum and will govern the way interoperability is being driven
  3. Interoperability, Clinical Decision Support, Population Health and Quality Measures are the buzz words which will improve care for the years to come
  4. Health Information Exchange will bring better control over Patient Consent Management
  5. Certified products will bring standardization for EHRs. Additional features in form of plugins, extensions and “Surprise” features will be the reason to choose an EHR.
  6. Technology improvements will allow Privacy and Security policies to improve over the processes.
  7. Harmonization of efforts will allow consolidation of similar standards
  8. Coordinated Quality Care will be the norm towards transforming healthcare in the US.
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Requirement Writing for Product Management

Published by Nainil Chheda on January 5, 2009 in Management, Organization and Technology. 1 Comment

I have been a part of the Product Management Team for almost a year and a half. Being a Product Manager, leads to added responsibility towards gaining insight on product development and communicating requirements from the consumer/client to the developer.

A Product Manager’s role for Requirement Writing includes:

  1. Find problems and convey to development
  2. Represent the customer
  3. Own the Business Case

My experience has taught me that the product manager should:

  1. Serve as the customer representative in planning and requirements definition
  2. Define the requirements and the product roadmap for a market of customers
  3. Support the ideals of agile development (we want process, but not to much process)

Recently I was exposed to White Papers on Requirement Writing from Pragmatic Marketing . My understanding on Requirement Writing has since then matured and I have documented the same in a presentation to share.

The conclusion that can be drawn from my extensive reading and past experience is “If we have been developing and prioritizing requirements for future products on an ongoing basis, we will have success’”.

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The Future of Video Search Engines

Published by Nainil Chheda on January 4, 2009 in Technology. 0 Comments

You Tube, Google Videos, Veoh, MetaCafe etc. are concentrating their efforts towards Video Search Engines. With our current technology, it limits us to search text which is marked as tags to the videos.  This is not an ideal way of searching for videos.

Recently Google has tried to allow users to search thru’ computer generated transcripts of Election Videos. This helps in finding more focussed videos and improving the search experience of the users.

Google is also urging its users to Submit Transcripts while sharing/uploading their videos.

Search is currently text dominated. When it becomes Video dominated, it would be interesting to see which software supports video editing. Currently the market does not have a good Video Software Editor.

This means that in future it would still be difficult to find videos as they might not be precise and to the point. It might not be able to tag only certain sections of the video.

External Link for Reference: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/in-their-own-words-political-videos.html

Thus, indexing audio content is now a reality but the future is still no clear!

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Hydrating Yourself

Published by Nainil Chheda on June 11, 2008 in Technology. 0 Comments

Yesterday (Tuesday, Jun 10, 2008) the temperature (in Shrewsbury,MA) rose to 95F (Real Feel: 102F) breaking the record of 91F set in 1984. The temperature in Westborough,MA was High: 96F (Real Feel: 107F). (Source: AccuWeather).

During such extreme climatic conditions it is advised to periodically replenish your body’s fluid intake.

Unbalanced replacement of fluids causes Dehydration. Dehydration means your body does not have as much water and fluids as it should. Dehydration can be caused by losing too much fluid, not drinking enough water or fluids, or both. This in turn increases the risk for heat illness, extreme fatigue, muscle cramps, headaches, nausea, heat stroke, injury and delayed recovery.

I must confess that I am lazy when it comes to drinking water or any other fluids. However, in an effort to maintain a healthy and a balanced life, recently I have chosen to improve my hydration habits :.

1. As per FluidMovement.co.uk, Fluid intake to meet base daily needs (in ounces) is approximately half your body weight (in pounds). Everyday, I drink at least 8-10 glasses (75 OZ) of liquid per day.

2. Water alone can’t treat dehydration. Once you’re dehydrated you have to replenish salts, sugars and basic nutrients. Many common food items are mostly water. Everyday, I drink one glass of fruit juice (Orange/Carrot) and I eat a fruit to balance my nutrients intake.

3. In Summer, I like to hike nearby mountains (like Mt. Greylock - highest peak in Massachusetts). I have ordered a Hydration Pack to keep myself hydrated during the trail walk.

4. Milk contains 89% of water. I drink one cup of milk every morning. I drink a glass of water before I go to bed at night.

5. By the time you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated - you want to avoid becoming thirsty in the first place. During the day time, every two hours I drink a cup of water.

To keep hydrated, I have educated myself with the symptoms of dehydration. So, (as I have chosen) get in the habit of drinking more fluids and keep yourself hydrated.

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Internal SPAM

Published by Nainil Chheda on January 15, 2008 in Technology. 0 Comments

In my earlier post “Fighting against SPAM” I focussed on controlling SPAM from the external world. These (SPAM’s) were unsolicited emails often flooding a mailbox, email promotions or advertisements (and scams).

Recently in our company we started to encounter “Internal SPAM”.

Our organizational mailing list structure:

  1. We have mailing lists set up for each department (We have 23+ departments)
  2. We have a mailing list for each of our business location (We have 3 locations world wide)
  3. We have mailing lists for multiple enterprise clients (Approx 40+)

In our (Internal Mails) office there were two events that occurred everyday:

  1. Team member sending emails to Everyone.
  2. Team member replying back to “BOTH” the person who sent that email AND to Everyone.

This means we did not have a controlled mailing list. Anyone was allowed to send emails to a mailing list. (Even those who did not belong to the email domain).

This resulted into:

  1. Emails getting bombarded to everyone for a reply which is of concern only to a particular individual.
  2. Each individual receives this email which causes extensive use of the email and wastage of internet bandwidth.
  3. Each company employee spending almost 2 minutes of his time reading that email. Which results in a waste of almost 1200 minutes (2 minutes each * 600 employees).
  4. Means 20+ hours of time is spent [EVERY DAY] in reading an email which was not intended to be of any concern to the individuals receiving the email.
  5. On an average, we received at least 4+ such emails each day.

In an effort to prevent any further loss of man hours:

  1. We switched to “Mailman“, the GNU Mailing List Manager.
  2. We converted our mailing lists to be a controlled mailing list.
  3. A moderator was set to monitor the mails which could be sent to everyone and those which could not. We set a list of policies which our company had to abide by.
  4. We allowed only 2MB emails sent to the mailing lists. This way we do not clog the network.
  5. We started “Archiving” emails sent to the mailing lists.

All our 87 mailing lists are being managed effectively. We have saved our employees time and we have tried to reduce our email bandwidth consumption due to “Internal SPAM” by almost 90%.

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An Online Presence

Published by Nainil Chheda on January 14, 2008 in Technology. 0 Comments

I have immense respect for Vinton Cerf - “The father of the Internet”. Vint is the co-designer with Robert Kahn of TCP/IP protocols and basic architecture of the Internet. Without (the Internet) communication would be the biggest issue. We would still be relying on Radio Broadcasting which would be a single mode of communication and thus a barrier towards success.

The Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a “network of networks” that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked web pages and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW).

Source: Wikipedia

In todays Internet world, it is extremely important to have an Online Presence. The ultimate goal is to be accessible to anyone from anywhere. Technology, Social Networks and Natural Technology are making Internet more visible.

I define an Online Presence as having (at least one or more of the following):

  1. An Email Address (Mandatory) (nainil@eliteral.com)
  2. A Website (www.nainil.com)
    1. Domain Name (http://domains.eliteral.com)
    2. Web Hosting (http://www.eliteral.com)
  3. Search Engine Optimization - (Search results on top ranking search engines should return appropriate results)
  4. Personal Blog: Life as a Knowledge Manager
  5. Accounts in:
    1. MSN
    2. Yahoo
    3. Google
  6. Social Networking Accounts:
    1. LinkedIn (Professional Network)
    2. Orkut (Friends and Family Members)
    3. FaceBook
    4. MySpace
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Using technology to stay current

Published by Nainil Chheda on January 4, 2008 in News and Technology. 1 Comment

Until recent times it was difficult to find the most current news and updates from various sources. One of the most revolutionary technological advancement in internet is the RSS/Atom feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format for sharing content among different websites. Sites can syndicate “feeds” (content) and Internet users can use an application called an RSS reader or aggregator to download feeds.

Source: www.ipowerweb.com/editorial-library/EDL-glossary.html

There are more than 16 websites I use to keep myself update on topics relating to Technology, Health Care, Management, Politics, Current Affairs and Science.

I use Google Reader to act as an aggregator to retrieve web content from various websites.

An aggregator or news aggregator or feed reader is a client software that uses web feed to retrieve syndicated web content.

I am listing the most frequently read feeds which I use. I use the OPML markup language to display the feeds I subscribe to.

Attachment Link: Subscriptions in OPML format

I also use the Google Desktop Web Clips gadget (Sidebar view) to view news from the web pages I visit and RSS/Atom feeds. This way I do not have to open any additional browser and check for updates. It automatically refreshes the news as and when updated.

Technology has made our lives simpler. We should make the most optimum use of the technical resources we are offered, thus allowing us a better networked living.

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Embracing Collaborative Web Technologies

Published by Nainil Chheda on December 29, 2007 in Open Source, Organization and Technology. 0 Comments

Many of us consider Web Technology as the biggest advancement in Innovation. Collaborative effort is encouraged by use of Web Application tools like Email, Forum, Blog and Wiki.

In our company we have support solutions/articles on Forum, Emails and Network Folders. Lately it was becoming more and more difficult to manage information due to the fact that data was located at multiple locations and the most updated copy of data was difficult to find. We needed a centralized location where the accessibility and availability of information/documents was quick, easy and up-to-date.

As a Knowledge Manager, I concluded Wiki was the most logical and technologically feasible solution for an organization of our size.

Forum
You can post questions and you get responses. People come to a forum to communicate, exchange thoughts, etc. However it is not a true form of Knowledge Repository. You would have to search through multiple forum threads to find the answer you are looking for.

Emails
They are not reliable due to the fact that 1) you would always have multiple emails 2) finding the last updated information through the email is not always easy

Network Shared Folders
We have Multiple Copies of the documents on the Network. It’s difficult to determine which one is accurate. Many folders are not backed up daily.

Wiki

  1. Wiki offers a collaborative environment to maintain data.
  2. A controlled environment can be set-up to provide group based read and edit rights.
  3. Wiki is easy to learn and manage.
  4. The Wiki software keeps track of every edit made and it’s a simple process to revert back to a previous version of an article.
  5. Wiki can allow a user defined structure of data management

I tested various Wiki softwares and websites including:

  1. MediaWiki
  2. DokuWiki
  3. Wikispaces

MediaWiki (Official supporter of the Wikipedia Project) came out as the best available Open Source Wiki software. We quickly drew our task force members to lay down policies to:

  1. Define Wiki Advantages over other mediums of communication
  2. Define Wiki policy to be a single source of information and slowly transition on submerging the Forum.
  3. Defining policy on keeping the Wiki constantly updated.

After proper implementation of the policies:

  1. We now have 5 Wiki instances (4 out of 5 use MediaWiki).
  2. There is a controlled environment set to edit Wiki; thus maintaining appropriate quality of data
  3. The most current information is available on Wiki
  4. We are now integrating “Video” uploads on the Wiki allowing employees to upload videos on various services we provide.
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Looking back at 2007

Published by Nainil Chheda on December 26, 2007 in Health Care, Life, Management, Organization and Technology. 0 Comments

This time of the year I tend to rethink all that I have accomplished through out the year.

2007:

Personal Life:

  1. Got married!!
  2. Expanded my field of study from Technology to Health Care with IT.
  3. My rock collection/study (Petrology) is progressing.
  4. Extended my lifestyle as a Jain follower.
  5. Organized all our important documents online for real time access.

Work:

  1. Successfully coordinated the $28,000 valued CCHIT certification effort for the company product.
  2. Improvised the company intranet website — HELPDESK — allowing internal communication improvement.
  3. Formulated appropriate communication policies within the company for directing the employee efforts in the right direction.
  4. Transformed from being a Knowledge Research Specialist to being a Knowledge Manager.

We (myself and Avni) wish you a Merry Christmas and hope your holidays are filled with joy and happiness.

My Contact Information:
Email: nainil@eliteral.com
Orkut: nainil@gmail.com
IM: nainil@hotmail.com

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An Organized Life

Published by Nainil Chheda on December 25, 2007 in Health Care, Life, Management and Technology. 1 Comment

My first encounter with materialistic world came into actual realization when I first had to shift apartments from Philadelphia to Boston. I realized that I had almost 30% of house inventory which I had never used or was not going to use in the future. Since then I decided to balance my needs and wants which my factual needs and wants.

This Christmas myself and my wife we both decided to give each other a gift. We decided to:

  1. Organize our Documents with online access control.
  2. Remove all unused items for charitable donation or recycling.
  3. Scan all our Health Records and upload it on Microsoft HealthVault

Online Documents: We have scanned all of our most important documents and have uploaded them on a dedicated VPS server with dual backup facility for real time accessibility of data. We are now able to organize our documents online without the fear of loosing them for the rest of our lives.

Charitable Event: We donate our unwanted clothes at the local Walmart’s Cloths Donation boxes. Any other unused item goes to “Salvation Army” or any such projects available locally.

HealthVault: Microsoft HealthVault is personal health technology platform that lets you gather, store and share health information online. With HealthVault, users control their own health records, so they can privately share their health information with family, friends and healthcare professionals, and have access to trustworthy online health management tools.

We spent a total of 2 weekends to take care of the above mentioned tasks. By doing this exercise:

  1. Time is saved (as we lead a more organized life).
  2. We have a clear understanding of our needs and wants.
  3. We are now looking at the bigger picture of being a united family with a sense of responsibility towards the world we live in.
  4. We are able to find anything we need without searching for it.
  5. We have secure Health Records; accessible from any where around the world.
  6. We embrace technology to make our lives simpler.
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Sharing Knowledge Always Helps

Published by Nainil Chheda on December 13, 2007 in Management, Organization and Technology. 0 Comments

I am often asked the reason why I am consulted more than my seniors for any advice in Health Care or IT Services. It is not always the expertise which I possess allow me to provide consultation services; it is my nature of sharing knowledge and educating everyone with updated information on the industry.

Sharing knowledge has allowed for an improvised team effort in our organization. We follow a value added approach rather than a incremental approach in knowledge management. We have a meeting every week to discuss the current processes which are followed by individual departments. We have a steering committee to find gaps amongst these departments and the goal of the steering committee is to monitor these gaps. Once a gap is identified the gap is documented and assigned to the team involved in “Gap Addressing”.  After the gap is addressed it is appropriately communicated to the various team managers in the organization, who intern communicate it to their team.

In this fashion, all team managers are aware of any updates in any processes for other departments they interact with. We have a document management system (developed in house known as “HelpDesk”) which allows easy navigation to the meeting minutes and process documents. We send periodic newsletters to our company members - updating them on any new process development or any new projects in hand.

We are developing a process to keep a track of any new project that is undertaken by a member of the company. Currently each department is responsible to keep a record of the projects their team members are involved in.

We are seeing that the Communication Process is making use of the most optimum resources in terms of both member skills and in terms of technology to keep everyone up-to-date. This brings in a sense of “Thought Leadership” amongst the teams and improvises quality of work.

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Support Ticketing System - Live Chat (Continued)

Published by Nainil Chheda on December 10, 2007 in Management and Technology. 0 Comments

Recently I began testing Live Chat options for our company’s Support Portal.

There are five important features that one should look for in a Live Chat option:

  • Fast Response time (no server delays)
  • Departmental Transfers
  • Multiple simultaneous client sessions
  • Transcript via E-mail
  • Push URLs to the Client

It is not always easy to formulate policies on what can or cannot be addressed in a Support Live Chat. A support chat session could either be motivated towards:

  • Training
  • Support
  • Sales Demo

The Live Chat functionality is offered in:

  • Hosted Environment
  •  Download and Install on your own Server

There are two important features which are not always available in a Live Chat environment:

  1. Remote Desktop Connectivity
  2. Voice over IP functionality

Due to limitations of technology it is not always easy to have intensive level three support sessions via the Live Chat. It is required for management to understand the importance of “Bounce Rate”. Bounce Rate is defined as “The percentage of web site visitors who arrive at a web site entry page, then leave without going any deeper into the site”.

Live Chat Products which I have tested:

  1. PHP Live Chat from OSICodes
  2. Live Respone from Kayako
  3. HumanClick from LivePerson

Live Chat can help in retaining web visitors and allowing them to observer in a semi-forced nature the various possibilities of your product.  The good news about Live Chat is that is has been around the market for quite some time and there are  many products available to serve the needs of a growing organization. Let us see what the industry has to offer to the Live Chat 2.0 in the near future.

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Support Ticketing System

Published by Nainil Chheda on November 28, 2007 in Organization and Technology. 0 Comments

When you manage a software development firm you are often asked which department costs you the most. Varied answers are available debating amongst “Development” and “Sales / Marketing”, but my experience teaches me that it is “Support”.

The people, policies and technology are often quite difficult to manage leading to increased “Support Calls”. The human nature asks for external as well as internal support within an organization.

Support Systems are often categorized by the nature in which they were developed.

Managing support requires:

  • People
  • Structure
  • Ticketing System
  • Knowledge Base
  • Live Chat
  • Documentation

Areas that need proper controlled forces are:

  • Monitoring Frequently Asked Questions
  • Educating Support Staff on the latest development advancements
  • Managing Support Staff Ratings
  • Maintaining appropriate backup staff for the areas of expertise
  • Periodic Staff Evaluation on performances

Support ticketing trends / reports are measured using three main criterias:

  • Average Response Time to address a ticket
  • Nature of the support call
  • Frequency of the support call

Support systems are formally designed a three tier architecture. The tier three support being the most complex and the tier one support being the comparatively simpler questions.

Any organization either big or small usually needs a support system and a dedicated department to answer the clients questions.

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