A particular interpretation of Parkinson’s Law states that: Demand rises to meet supply. This is true in many scenarios and one such scenario is the world of IT and information systems.

Many times information system providers are presented with a set of functional requirements that the client or his consultant determine as “all that the client requires”. Many times this is close to the truth except for the element of time. What is enough for today, may not be enough for tomorrow. A system defined with today’s requirements in mind is not future proof. Any consultant/analyst worth his salt would try to anticipate the functional requirements of a couple of years ahead. However the future is very hard to anticipate.

As a rule of thumb, parkinson’s law should be considered when defining the requirements of an Information System especially when the investment is going to be sizeable and for the longer term. Demand for features will rise to meet the supply of features. It’s better and more cost effective to err on the “I’ll take that” rather than on the “I’ll skip that”. If the feature is good and you can afford it, take it. Today or tomorrow the organisation will surely scale up to use the additional features if they are there. While if you don’t take it right from the start, and then a couple of years down the line, you end up needing it; it’s probable that either you won’t get it or if you get it the cost of implementing it disjointly would be higher that if you had ordered it right from the start.

But then it all depends on the software! When choosing an Information System provider always balance the functional requirements you’re getting today together with the ability to request additional features, at affordable prices, tomorrow.

More information on a scalable Information System>>

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Turtle

As IT professionals we frequently face the fact that the software we create is resisted by the users of the solution we designed and created. I for one have a particular sad experience in a previous employment, from which I learned a lot, and I’m sure I’m not the only one out there to have had this experience.

The force field analysis is a tool that can help us understand the social dynamics of such a situation. This tool is rather a framework for looking at factors (forces) that influence a situation. Forces can either drive you towards a goal (helping forces), or block you from reaching a goal (restraining forces).

This principle/framework was developed by Kurt Lewin for the study of social sciences; however the development was rendered influential as well in other fields of study such as organisational development, process management and change management. Deploying an IT Solution is a change in itself that should be managed by any professional who is worth his salt.

In the force field analysis model Kurt Lewin described any current level of performance or being to be in a state of equilibrium between the driving forces that encourage progress and the restraining forces that discourage progress. Driving forces are generally positive, reasonable, and logical while restraining forces are generally negative, unreasonable and illogical. Both forces have to be taken into account when dealing with a change, such as when we deploy or are planning to deploy an IT Solution.

Increasing driving forces will only do so much. The restraining forces will act like pushing against a spring, the more you push the harder it becomes until they thrust the driving forces back down to the previous point of equilibrium. I admit I experienced that too; I pushed harder and harder. More demos, more one to one sessions, more training, more advertising, more quick fixes, more answers to questions raised but still after a while the restraining forces just push back.

To reach certain goals rather than pushing forward, a different approach is required; the approach of synergy to reduce or eliminate the restraining forces. This can be achieved by approaching the goal, (in this case the deployment of the IT Solution) with win/win thinking and the ability to seek to understand first. We need to understand that the restraining forces in most of our cases act on a human level rather than the technological level, providing technical solutions will not cut it. Our IT Solution however good as it might be, could be affecting stakeholders in different ways; from just being a new thing to be learned to for example the thought that the improved functionality could make one redundant. To be successful in our endeavour we need to act on the human level too. We have to create a conductive environment where such restraining forces can be discussed. When we make it safe for stakeholders to talk about these restraining forces, we manage to loosen them up; un-freeze them.

By encouraging communication between all the stakeholders we can identify and analyse the restraining forces. Just by being nice and seeking to listen first, we set ourselves up for success. As stakeholders communicate with us and between themselves, we’ve opened up creative channels on the human level, which will put the stakeholders on our side. That synergy will surely lead to problem resolution that benefits both us in terms or reaching our goals and the stakeholder who can now take up our software with lower concern and higher sense of security that the IT Solution that we are providing will be a positive change on the human level as well.

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The iPhone is a powerful development environment, most people have the ability to create an iPhone App. The App store means that the distribution of an app is not anymore dependent on iTunes running on the typical Mac or PC. Application security and data security layers are there to use making development and deployment even more trivial. And above all users love iPhone Apps… users hardly need convincing to use iPhone Apps, they love them already.

What about business? Will apps matter to business? And the answer must be a loud “Yes”. One of the main strengths of the iOS (the operating system for iPhones and iPads) platform is that it is now open to developers but is still being managed by Apple. And what that means is that an iPhone App achieves the same quality one would expect of any apple product but can be developed by any Tom, Dick and Harry. Openness and accessibility translate into more innovation, as businesses and individual employees are allowed to try to get more productive with mobile business apps.

This openness and accessibility however can lead into chaos. As more business users create more new mobile business apps or download them from the App Store, things can get a bit messy. The data that was previously centralised and relatively easy to organise can now reside on a multitude of apps that focus solely on the function they serve with little consideration for integration with a central system. The information systems we’re used to control and manage the data across various applications. Information systems collate and distribute that information to the employees who need that data. This traditional system can now be jeopardised by the multitude of business apps that take over bits and pieces of information away from the central server.

At Lornit we’re currently exploring ways of using the iPhone as a mobile front end for our business intelligence platform. We believe the future of mobile apps for business is not in separate mobile apps but in business apps that complement each other and the traditional central information system. We believe that apps that converge will ultimately restore and maintain the order of mobile application use in the business market.

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Through i360 we can now also deliver tracking and fleet management functionality within our Lornit.BI solutions. Our clients can just hook their fleet up with tracking devices from i360 and their fleet all the related information is directly accessible from other modules such as Accounts, Billing and Invoicing, HR and CRM.

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• Our customers prefer tools that can work together within the same application.
• Our customers want tools to look alike and work alike, no extra training required.
• Our customers require one installation that gets updated automatically via internet.
• Our customers expect constant updates and upgrades, because that is what businesses today do.
• Our customers design their own tools on our application because they know their business more than anyone else.

If you want a single business application that can do all that you want it to do, give us a call.

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Data Entry and Data Management costs.

Data Entry

Integrated systems lower the data entry costs and increase the realtimeliness of data. When data is entered into one application, it can be immidiately available to another application through integration. A typical example from is when a new customer shows up at the bank: if the bank’s systems are integrated, the customer’s details can be entered and verified once and then they can be re-utilised on every contract or loan that the same customer needs, rather then having to enter, verify and sign the same details over and over again, lengthening the process ten-fold.

Real Time Data

Realtimeliness is also a considerable benefit that is derived from a properly integrated system. As soon as data is entered or checked in one department, it is available to all other departments, which in many cases results in streamlined business processes, lower costs and happier customers.

“One Touch”

Redundant data is a disadvantage of seperate systems. Let’s consider an invoicing system that is seperate from an accounting system. One would have to keep a copy of the customer information in each of the systems, editing and updating both on every change. Properly integrated systems will keep a single repository of customer information to supply all software functions; point of sale, accounts, customer care, billing, and so on. “One touch” is a footy term that can be easily applied to data management. Data should be managed with “one touch” mentality. Each time data is updated that update should be verified at source and then used throughout for maximum efficiency and lowest cost.

Business Processes and related costs.

Tuning Business Processes

Business processes normaly involve additional cost to every sale. Improving the efficiency of the business processes means lowering costs and delivering better value. Most businesses are currently tied to the functionality provided to them by the various software packages that they own with regards to business processes. Proper integration of software applications empower such businesses with the ability to orchestrate the various software and business process together.

Adaptability

Integration also lowers the cost of changing the software tools to adapt to new business processes as required from time to time in order to improve the efficiency of the various sections of the business.

This list is by no means an exhaustive list of cost management that can be obtained through properly integrated software, but it is enough to indicate such potential. At Lornit we design software with integration in mind. Our software platform delivers a number of software applications or sets of functionality that are fully integrated by design. Our platform enables us to deliver updates and changes rapidly to meet our client’s requirements in terms of business process re-engineering to ensure our clients enjoy competitive advantage.

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We believe that the requirements gathering stage is the most important part of the system development life cycle. It is the stage that has most effect on the outcome of any IT project. In this stage customer expectations are set, project deliverables are identified and most importantly at the end of the stage an agreement is defined between the supplier and the customer that implants the direction of the rest of the work within the other stages.

The development life-cycle, in a nutshell, consists of the following stages that can be repeated until all requirements are delivered:

• requirements gathering stage
• analysis and design stage
• implementation stage
• testing and fixing stage
• support and maintenance stage

Each cycle can be lengthy (a year or more) or short (a week or a month) depending on the type of project and the type of development strategy used, but these strategies will all roughly follow the same stages.

Since each stage builds on the stages before, a mistake in one stage will lead to problems in the later stage, that in turn require problem resolutions to keep the life-cycle on track. Logically the earlier a mistake is made in the life cycle the more potential there is for issues that will be more expensive in terms of time and resources to fix. A mistake can be a misunderstanding of the customer requirements, or an incorrect appreciation of whether a requirement can be delivered or how much it will cost to deliver.

With risk management in mind a project planner should take the potential for mistakes and the mitigation of such risk into consideration when determining the development strategy and therefore the length of each development life-cycle and the number of life-cycles that are required. A life-cycle is intended to deliver a set of functionality and its success is directly related to meeting the goals in terms of functionality. Any risk to meeting those goals is a risk to the development life-cycle, and the requirements gathering stage has most potential for risk and most potential for risk management. To better manage the life cycle risks one should take note of the following while determining the development strategy and therefore the quantity and quality of requirements gathering stages required:

The size of the project.
If the project is expected to consume a considerable amount of man months, one should opt for a number of cycles/iterations on the development cycle, such that at each cycle a new set of requirements that build upon the ones before are identified for implementation. Such strategy will lower the risk of an error at the requirement gathering stage becoming too expensive to fix at a later stage.

The requirements gathering process.
If the requirements gathering process is standard and straightforward, for example customisations on a product that is already accepted as it is, then normally there is less risk of a mistake in this stage that will become expensive to solve later. If the requirements gathering process is undefined or unstructured than increasing the cycles and shortening the length of each cycle should be more desirable.

The Customer.
We would all like a customer that knows exactly what he wants and understands the technology too! Many times it is not the case. When the customer is specific in his needs, wants and wishes then a lengthy life cycle is less risky. If the customer shows any of the following symptoms:

1. more than one single point of reference,
2. needs, wants and wishes are not clear,
3. aptitude for change is low,
4. sense of project direction is low

And similar indicators of a customer who has no clarity on the project then the chances are you’d be better off shortening each life cycle as much as possible to ensure that there will be a requirements gathering stage after each deliverable. Which in turn should ensure that there is an acceptance and understanding of what has been achieved in the cycle before prior to submitting new requirements for the new cycle.

The skill level of human resources.
The distribution of the resources based upon their skill level that one should utilise for each stage is many times confused. Some managers mistakenly think that their best resources should be used on development and bug fixing. In reality the most efficient use of resources is to allocate the more experienced personnel to the early stages namely the requirements gathering and analysis stages, leaving the implementation, testing and fixing for the less experienced personnel. Most expensive decisions are made at the initial stages and therefore the most experienced should be taking those decisions. While gathering a set of requirements the experienced analyst will be able to figure out what each requirement entails and therefore will be in a position to direct the customer’s expectations very early through the life cycle in order to minimise project costs, reduce risk of mistakes and risk of misunderstanding of what will be achieved.

An inexperienced person might on the other hand: accept requirements that are difficult to deliver, fail to identify potential for misunderstandings and embed mistakes that will be costlier to fix at a later stage. The better the skills of the analyst/s assigned to the requirements gathering task the less risk a lengthy cycle will prove to be.

The flexibility of the Solution
A solution that is specifically written to meet specific requirements will be relatively harder to change should a mistake be identified in those requirements. The more flexible a solution is, the easier it is to adapt to different requirements, so logically a flexible solution is more adapt and less risky for a development life-cycle that needs to cater for shaky requirements, difficult customers and customer expectations issues.

@Lornit…

… we believe that the requirements gathering stages are the most important stages in any of our projects. We use our own inhouse tools that we created specifically to facilitate this process to minimise risks from the early stages and maximise efficiency and speed of delivery. We dedicate our best resources to understand the requirements of our customers namely small businesses and we also cater for scenarios where the requirements are expected to change during the project life-cycle. We always aim for short life-cycles that deliver value even in the short term. We do it because we can. Our system proves itself everytime …

We provide IT Solutions to small and medium businesses: Solutions that are tried and tested, customisable to meet the specific requirements of each and every customer. Our solutions are internet based.

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Cloud refers to an internet cloud rather then a real cloud one sees in the sky. The term cloud most likely originates from the cloud that software designers draw to represent the internet in their software designs.

The definition of cloud computing on wikipedia at the time of writing is this:

“Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility (like the electricity grid) over a network (typically the Internet).”

Which leads us straight into another technical phrase “software as a service”. Well, you’re most likely already benefiting from some form of software as a service. If you use gmail, hotmail, yahoo mail, etc… you definitely are! The idea behind cloud computing or software as a service is that you don’t run the applications you use yourself, but some one else, typically more specialised runs it for you (not only you) and you just use it. Just like gmail. Google runs the mail server (actually hundreds of servers) for all of us and it also provides us with a web-based application (gmail.com) that we can use to manage our mail. Forgotten are those days when we had to download our email from our ISP within the month or we lose it. We had to backup our email on our pc ourselves. We had to migrate our email from one pc to the new one. With gmail, google does all of this for us. We don’t really have to install anything and still we can manage our email from every internet enabled piece of equipment that we have.

Similar to gmail, a host of new products are being created right now. These products aim to remove our dependency on our own hardware and software. We don’t have to install anything, we just connect to a website. For most of us it is yet inconcievable to have our applications, things that we use on a day to day basis, things we have full control of, stored on another company’s hardware but it seems to be the way forward.

To counter the percieved loss of control there are ample benefits for organisations to move to cloud computing:

• Lower setup costs.
• Lower cost of maintenence.
• Less hassle.
• No technical expertise required.
• Higher mobility and access.
• Less investment risk.

..to name a few.

Many foward looking organisations will most surely consider cloud computing at one point or other and unless they are too concerned with privacy and dependency on a private company, they will opt for the “software as a service” concept when aqcuiring new IT Solutions. To counter exposure to loss of privacy and dependency on a third party that is beyond our legal reach local companies will feel safer acquiring such solutions from local companies which are well within legal and phsyical reach.

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200, Borg, 99019901, Joseph, Merchant’s Street, Valletta, ,

The relationships seem so obvious in this case that our minds start organising that data and making assumptions such as; the name is Joseph, Valletta is part of the address, 99019901 must be mobile number, the address must be linked to the person and so on until we get the relationships sorted to form a name, surname, address and telephone number that are presumably linked together. So here we applied relationships and logic that we’re familiar with to a line of data to change it into some piece of information that is more usable for us. Something that is more familiar.

The same applies to more complex pieces of data. We need to apply relationships in the form of logical structure and links to convert it into useful information that we can make use of. Consider the different bits of data that we all have within our organisations. Let consider a more complex example:

1. Receipts of items bought.
2. delivery notes of items sold.

These 2 sets of information have some use on their own. We can calculate costs, sales and profit. However if we start adding relationships to those 2 sets of “data” we can extract information that might be more useful to us to turn a better profit:

• Profitability of each item
• Seasonality of each item
• Shelf life of each item
• Shelving cost of each item
• Recommended Stock Levels for each item
• Current Stock Levels of all items
• Most profitable products
• Least profitable products
• Products that sell in a regular pattern
• Products that sell in an irregular pattern
• Brand Comparison for the same type of product
• Returns per item
• And more…

So as you can see just by linking items from purchase receipts to sales receipts we can start extracting management information that can guide our day to day operations towards better efficiency and more profit. Such processing is the realm of IT.

Our brains excel at applying assumptions to organise pieces of data into seemingly useful information and most of the time we’re confident that our assumptions are correct, but it is rarely so. In reality it is only through IT that we can process volumes of data to extract useful information reliably and unassumingly. Information that can make all the difference in our organisation. Let’s point out that the data in the first example was meant to be read as follows: “Deliver 200 items of product “Borg”, (product ID:99019901) to Address: “Joseph, Merchant’s Street, Valletta, no postcode”. Most of us got our assumptions wrong.

Are you making the best use of your data or are you losing out on the information you could have? Are you the assuming type or are you the logical type?

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Dr. Albert Einstein

• S – Specific
• M – Measurable
• A – Achievable
• R – Realistic
• T – Time Bound

Smart objectives is what we normally try to (or should try to) define before we commit to delivering a project. That’s the theory.

However through experience we also realise that certain projects of customers in our local market are more “learn as you go” type and customers are sometimes content to take us in on a project even though they’re not really clear about the objectives. Then it is up to mutual trust and understanding that we build IT solutions from the bottom up defining and achieving small targets at a time.

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