A site devoted mostly to everything related to Information Technology under the sun - among other things.

Friday, March 26, 2021

French AI Spy

From the Guardian, U.K.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/26/missing-from-desk-ai-webcam-raises-remote-surveillance-concerns  

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

On Requirements Elicitation

  1. Be not an order-taker - either as Business Analyst or as Product Owner; taking that Wish-list of features to the Dev Team; your role is to Elicit Requirements and not writing them down.
  2. Engage the end-users in a polite – and at times firm -conversation about where they are going, where they expect to be, and if those goals and desires are reachable or desirable.  Custom software-development is very very expensive and not for the faint of heart.
  3. We develop software to Automate human tasks or to help human beings make decisions.  Start by asking the following questions:
    1. “What data elements are needed to accomplish the goal of this system?”
    2. “What other data elements could be added to delight and please the end-users?”
    3. “What data is needed to reduce the cognitive load on the end-users when using this system”?
    4. “Where can I find the data for this system?”
  4. As Product Owner, you own the product (even if you are working for IT) – meditate on a thousand and one ways that you could expand and develop the system – all the time.
  5. BAs, Product Owners, End-users are on a joint voyage of discovery – to create something new that had not existed before – give it the respect that such an undertaking deserves.
  6. In every meeting with the end-users, present a very specific and narrow agenda.  This should be in the body of the Meeting Request.  Supply a subject matter as well for the meeting.
  7. Often, the customers (end-users) are looking to us in IT to suggest technological solutions – they do not know what is available.  We should have the ability to give them options and let them chose.  For example, sometimes, a COTS package – that is already licensed and deployed – may satisfy the needs of the end-users in contradistinction to a ton of custom-code with the latest IT buzzwords, languages, and frameworks..
  8. Like the space program – always have at least two members of the Dev team present in the requirements sessions, lest something be lost.
  9. After each and every requirements session, meet with the Dev Team to go over what has been discussed and revise the Product Road Map, the Software Specifications, and the Software Architecture and BoM - if needed.

I think when meeting with the end-users, we are defining and fleshing out Business Use Cases (Business User Stories).  I think it would be a good idea to meet separately with the Dev Team and flesh out the Technical User Stories.

The Product Owner, as end-users community’s proxy, owns the business requirements. 

Since we do not have the role of a Requirements Engineer within development teams, it follows that the entire team owns the technical requirements. 

Which means, in practice, that Dev Team members ought to actively participate – when warranted – in the discussions with the end-users as well as with the product owner. 

The Dev Team owns three things: Software Architecture and changes thereto, Software Specifications (Technical User Stories), and the BoM – in my opinion.

 

Thursday, January 28, 2021

COVID-19: WHO Bulletin

In the latest bulletin of the World Health Organization (January 2021)--the definitive meta-study of COVID-19 infection fatality rates


the risk of a person under 70 dying from COVID-19 is less than that of dying from influenza...


https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/99/1/20-265892/en/


Saturday, January 9, 2021

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Military Bug Drones

From Grauniad of the UK

Similar devices have been featured in thrillers or sci-fi films: they are now for real...

 

Hackers & Amazon's Ring

From Grauniad of the UK

The possibilities are limitless: snooping, hacking, storing data illegally, etc. The beauty of it. 

Nuro Autonomous Vehicle

From BBC

"Get that pizza delivered before the end of the sunny interval!" 

If there is an accident (or, rather, when), you can imagine the lawyers arguing over the definition of what 'fair weather' is. 

It might be feasible to operate 'in fair weather' in California. It might be more difficult in a country like Britain, where the weather changes every 20 minutes (on average).

The next step is to have the pizzas made by a robot. And, finally, the ultimate achievement will be to have it eaten by a robot (including the olives on top, pitted or not).

I mean, do we really need human beings? 
_________________________
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55438969

Nuro set to be California's first driverless delivery service
Nuro's autonomous vehicles will take to the streets as early as 2021.

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Big Brother Is Watching You

From BBC 

"You're slacking, Winston! Focus! Engage! Engage or you will be punished!" 

 I think they should add a special feature whereby a central-control unit can send an electric shock into the bottom of those participants who misbehave (such as playing Candy Crush on their phone), show a lack of engagement, or doze off: this could be done via the chair the person is sitting on. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55133141

 


Monday, November 23, 2020

Monday, November 16, 2020

Monday, November 2, 2020

About Me

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I had been a senior software developer working for HP and GM. I am interested in intelligent and scientific computing. I am passionate about computers as enablers for human imagination. The contents of this site are not in any way, shape, or form endorsed, approved, or otherwise authorized by HP, its subsidiaries, or its officers and shareholders.

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