Dovetail Software Blogs: Collaboration Spreads From the Web to the Corporate Network
“How
hard will it be for IT departments and executives to retain control
over the enterprise computing environment, and at the same time
unshackle all its workers, and invite them into enterprise-wide
collaboration? Corporations are paying attention in a big way to the
tools of collaboration, such as wikis and social networks, that the Web
has spawned, and proven in terms of gains in productivity and
knowledge.”
Will little Xobni outhustle Microsoft in making Outlook more usable?
“The
company is developing intelligent add-ons for Microsoft
Exchange/Outlook that offer a higher degree of control and smarts to
your inbox. According the company, Xobni Analytics for Outlook will
give users insight into their email usage patterns, such as: How do you use email? How much time do you spend reading and writing emails? How quickly do you respond to emails? What time of the day is best for contacting busy people? What time of the day do you receive your most important email? How much time do you spend reading mailing lists?”
Long-lived systems: ownership
“Owners
stop this happening by standing up for systems, and making sure they do
not get forgotten. Owners can make the big decisions that are needed to
keep systems current, like deciding to take upgrades.
“Every system needs two owners: a business owner and an IT owner.”
Standardize to Reduce Cost and Improve Process and Strategic Decisions
“Such
a strategic approach also reduces risks of project failure, reduces
costs through consistent support, training, and maintenance. It may
also gain executive confidence in the data and BI tools. Further, a
higher confidence in the executive ranks will translate into more
confidence in strategic decision making. Another benefit cited was the
process and information integration in a world of constant mergers and
acquisitions.”
Business Rules and SDLC - some questions
“In general, many aspects of a traditional SDLC
do apply when using business rules. There is “infrastructure” required
that must be developed by IT such as glue code and definition of
complex rules or rule templates. Once IT has completed this
development, users have a way to make changes to the system without
going through the usual SDLC, but building
the environment to do this requires a proper software process. You do
need this second, shorter and simpler process that goes from business
requirement to the business user making and testing the change Users
can also be allowed to push these into production but most IT
departments still want at least a partial release cycle.”
Last Call: Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 2.0
“At an abstract level, WSDL 2.0
describes a Web service in terms of the messages it sends and receives;
messages are described independent of a specific wire format using a
type system, typically XML Schema.
“An
operation associates a message exchange pattern with one or more
messages. A message exchange pattern identifies the sequence and
cardinality of messages sent and/or received as well as who they are
logically sent to and/or received from. An interface groups together
operations without any commitment to transport or wire format.
“At
a concrete level, a binding specifies transport and wire format details
for one or more interfaces. An endpoint associates a network address
with a binding. And finally, a service groups together endpoints that
implement a common interface. “
Microsoft seeks mashups for Live Search in bid to best Google
“Microsoft’s
overall market dominance has long been credited in large part to its
success at wooing outside programmers to write software bolstering
Windows and its other products.
“Pincus said he thinks
that by publicizing the company’s various open APIs and offering
third-party developers technical support as well as help in coming up
with ways for them to make money via advertising or value-added
services, Microsoft can make Live Search as attractive a development
platform as Windows and Office are.”
