What is the most appropriate IT Project documentation format? And, what are IT Project documentation best practices in terms of format?

The question may seem strange because, for many, this question does not even arise. But on closer inspection, it deserves to linger; how should I document an IT project and with what type of format?

To highlight the challenge of an IT Project Documentation format, there are three factors to consider:

• Object of documentation
• Who is it for?
• Who is it produced by?

(more…)

IT Project Documentation Best Practices are not simple because the purpose of the documentation is not always obvious. First, in an IT project, you can find a lot of different documentation; the famous user manual, the requirements documentation for the software operator, the architecture and design documentation for analysts, designers and developers and the technical documentation or software documentation for programmers are the main ones examples.

In short, Documentation is like insurance, you need it but you must find the right balance.

As far as we are concerned, we will talk about the architecture and design documentation and the technical documentation of an IT development project. So, what should we document?

In this series of posts, we will address the following points:

• What should be documented in an IT project?
• How should we document it?
• Where should these documents be made available to different readers?

(more…)

Analystik has come a long way since the creation of its last logo in 2005; several clients have joined the portfolio, including Laurentian Bank, Hitachi Capital Canada and Wells Fargo. And many things have changed in 10 years but our corporate identity…

However, despite the progress made, the different management styles and development methodologies used, the numerous evolutions of systems, frameworks and mobile platforms; our workhorse has always remained the same, the process, and our goal has also always remained the same, quality on all levels.

As a result, when the time came to review our corporate identity, this reflection led us spontaneously to a refreshing approach rather than a recreation process.

(more…)

We would like in this post to return to the idea, beyond the Service-oriented Architecture, to the vision of Service-Oriented Development because it really is something, considering that many argue that, in IT, there was a before and after SOA Architecture!

And the reason is quite simple because, with the service-oriented architecture (SOA), the developed services found themselves at the heart of the Information Systems architecture, as an interface with both the fundamental applications and the data.

Although this may not be obvious at first glance, many developers have suddenly gained some leeway, freedom of design, some say newly enhanced creativity.

(more…)

Service Oriented Development offers all the benefits of custom software development without the risks and without the costs of a Commercial Software; this is what we intend to address in this sequel to the previous post.

We explained in the previous post that while Custom Software Development constitutes a significant risk in terms of sustainability of services and development costs; commercial software often entails huge pre-installation adaptation costs and recurring license fees.

Thus, we explained to have taken another path a few years ago because it seemed to offer the best of both worlds for both the client and the developer; service-oriented development based on three principles:

(more…)

Should you start thinking, as an IT Director, in terms of Service-Oriented Development rather than Application Development or even Commercial Software; if you really want to meet the challenges of today’s new business requirements?

The question is worth asking no matter your line of business. Surprisingly, even though we have been praising new development methodologies such as Agile Development and other development tools and fast development approaches for more than a decade, the fact is that the majority of large and medium-sized enterprises are still moving forward with long-term expense heavy IT projects, leveraging notorious platforms such as SAP or Oracle or commercial software.

(more…)

The assessment of software development performance, be it of a software development team or a software development project will vary greatly depending on the type of metrics used.

This request for performance assessment in software development projects is constantly coming back and is a source of major concern for Managers; which is quite normal considering the low ratio of projects delivered in time… and costs.

(more…)

Process performance and innovation create a bond of heart and reason within any flourishing business or, at the very least, any enterprise must become innovative in order to flourish because innovation almost always leads to a gain in performance on one level or another.

Thus, the company that wants to perform must innovate and the innovative company will perform… most certainly!

(more…)

The perception of software development performance truly varies according to management style; hence, performance assessment is, in fact, a question of perception. The performance assessment of a development team is closely linked to the management style and, more precisely, to the priorities it dictates; in software development as in any other activity.

Any manager would like to have an objective assessment of the performance of both his development team and his IT department as part of a software development project. The term “objective” is the key to the riddle here. Is there an objective method for assessing the performance of a developer, a development team or a software development company? Is there a key performance indicator in software development that really tells the truth?

In fact, one can hardly count the systems, methods, and nomenclatures that have been created since the beginning of the industrial era to evaluate performance in software development, as in any other field.

(more…)

This article is made out of excerpts from a joint Survey made by MIT & Google conducted in late 2016, and which you can download here.

Machine Learning is for many enterprises the new proving ground for Competitive Advantage. A recent survey conducted by MIT Technology Review Custom and Google Cloud reveals that while the majority of businesses are struggling to apply Machine Learning, others are hard at work developing strategies for the technology — and are already realizing genuine ROI.

The survey included 375 qualified respondents representing a variety of industries, with the preponderance coming from the technology industry (43%) but also business services (13%) and financial services (10%). Most qualified respondents were either C-level executives (39%) or enterprise developers (37%), rounded out by vice president-level executives (23%).

(more…)

The day is not far off when every company will integrate features of Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning to its processes, there is no doubt about it.

The question is: where is your business today? Are you ready?

Technology now provides us with virtual assistance, it allows us to generate ideas and analyze unstructured data – allowing entrepreneurs to focus on growing their business. Bu that’s already yesterday!

Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Business

And now with AI’s ability to analyze a problem faster than a human mind could, you will be sure that you will have considered all possible scenarios for a given situation.

(more…)

Artificial Intelligence is only beginning to penetrate the workplace, and it’s causing leaders to rethink how their businesses run or so they should. But the thing is, far from killing the jobs of knowledge workers, Artificial Intelligence tends to free them up to do what they are paid for: innovate, model, refine, and improve on the expertise of their business.

“AI is not eliminating jobs, it is creating a shift in the type of jobs by eliminating tasks of jobs, and creating new jobs that are more human jobs,” says Josh Bersin, principal and founder of Bersin by Deloitte. Bersin defines “more human jobs” as those that require traits robots haven’t yet mastered, like empathy, communication, and interdisciplinary problem solving.

The integration of early artificial intelligence tools is causing organizations to become more collaborative and team-oriented, as opposed to traditional top-down hierarchy.

(more…)

Damage from security attacks are all over the news and here comes Microsoft boasting unprecedented protection from malware and advanced security threats with security features more than convincing for the enterprise to migrate to Windows 10, such as Windows Hello, Microsoft Passport, Windows Information Protection, Device Guard and Credential Guard.

Although everyone will agree that Windows 7, the most successful OS in Microsoft history, has served enterprises well for the last five years, it doesn’t offer adequate protection features needed to face today’s security threats and, nor will third-party products.

New challenges require new abilities or at least, a new vision; having doubts, just chat with IT executives who are still running Windows XP for which Microsoft is no longer offering security updates as of April 2014.

Here are security features convincing enough for the enterprise to migrate to Windows 10:

(more…)

In this post, we will concentrate on enterprise mobile application development best practices including notifications system and mobile application design; we are talking here about a mobile application of service to the employees of an enterprise whose main functions revolve around sharing and communicating data and / or information.

Considering that mobile applications and mobile navigation are now part of our everyday life, one should not underestimate the impact of a good design on the rapid adoption of a mobile application.

Mobile Application Development Best Practices should apply whether you are developing a mobile application from scratch to answer a specific business need or from an actual enterprise application.

Before You Even Start, Consider Your Audience & Your Business Need or Problem

Before you take any time to develop a mobile application, consider your audience and build a solid Business Case around the business need or the problem you want to solve. You’ll find more about building a business case in our recent post: You need to develop a new application?  Fine, do you have a Business Case?.

(more…)

We are talking here about the development cost of an enterprise mobile application, that which will serve the enterprise itself as part of its operations, and the impact on this development cost of design and software architecture choices therein; including interactions with the technology environment, functionality, testing and deployment, maintenance and updates.

The question is not simple and to seize its complexity, we can make the comparison with a process as complex but more familiar to us; how well to estimate the construction costs of your new house?

You got it; there will be impact choices in terms of plans, materials, land, floors, etc.

Then to estimate accurately the development cost of an enterprise mobile application, we are going to try to confine the main factors at play and especially, to highlight critical choices you’ll have to face.

(more…)