Application Mindset Shift

~ Danny Kwok ~ Leave a comment

Application design have come a long way but the change in user mindset is still at a snail pace. A way to mitigate this change effect is by shifting the user mindset. Technology innovation may create a bandwagon effect and some may want to jump into these. Others like operations preferred stability and less disruption from change. There are often determination and resistance of users to retain old ways for older application. How should these mindset be shifted?

Understand the Old Ways

No, RPA (Robotics Process Automation) is not the solution as always proposed! Application design often neglects the process outside of system and only focus the “As-Is” within the system. Older applications have fused with flows and processes outside of the operations. Users are used to conduct their daily tasks using the same approach.

These create a false sense on ease of use for legacy applications. One common example is shortcut keys for terminal applications that make it fast for data entry. Newer application usage of mouse and keyboard slows down operations as they need to navigate between two input devices.

Strong Case of Change

Technological innovation is never a strong case for change. Human nature resist change and crave stability. Without a compelling reason, the general users will not switch or change. This is the mindset that must be shifted. What is the case for changing the application? Users will often query “What is it in for us?”. Buy in must be initiated at all user levels and not just the management. Thus, you should provide a strong case for the application change.

Although application design have improved by leaps and bounds, the inclination to change to these updated applications remains slow. This is due to the need of stability from the users. You need to understand how users do their tasks with the old applications. Only then, you can provide a strong case of change to shift their mindset.

Chatbot Team

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After months of Chatbot review, I find that NLP (Natural Language Processing) development is a different ball game. These are some skillset that you may want to consider to build your Chatbot team.

A new Paradigm

Chatbot is a new paradigm. Thus, it will take experienced developers to change and gat used to this approach. You will need to find someone who is patience and willing to redesign from a user centric approach. An entrenched mindset will be difficult for development of Chatbot.

Right Fit not Right Skills

If you are building a Chatbot team, do look for aptitude instead of someone with good technical skills. Thus, a person who is interested to Chatbot development is a better fit. Technical skills can get obsolete but a person who have the right learning mindset will grow with Chatbot.

Chatooth development is a new paradigm and faces resources issues in filling these roles. You should aim to build a team who is dedicated to grow and champion the usage of Chatbot. If not, it will remain another white elephant as time goes by.

Cloud Security 101

~ Danny Kwok ~ 1 Comment

Cloud security is a standard model for many cloud platform. This can be easily deployed with wizard in many cloud platform for the virtual cloud network. If you are new to Cloud, you may need to know some basic Cloud security first.

Cloud Segregation

The basic security for cloud is data segregation. Data are secured by limiting exposure and restricted by user roles and security policies. Standard wizard network will split between private and public subnet. Most components should be within private subnet and restricted to a single access point. The plus point of cloud is that many of infrastructure security will be handled by cloud providers if you are using PaaS or SaaS.

Identity Security

If you are not using IaaS, majority of cloud efforts will be spend to maintain and design identity security. Identity Management is usually a common product provided by major cloud providers. The ease of integration and availability of single sign on remains the preferred choice for developers.

The basic of Cloud security is divided to cloud segregation and identity security. These are the standard security model that you will encounter if you are new to Cloud. The configuration of security is still not user friendly and it still required some basic knowledge of security to appreciate these security approach.

Another UTurn of COVID-19

~ Danny Kwok ~ 1 Comment

Finally, Singapore cave in to reality checks of COVID-19 when measures are tightened again with work from home as default. This is largely due to the confusion on how the entire population should view this as an endemic. These messages create a false sense of security as some organisations are quick to resume work in office. Subsequently, these activities created clusters at workplaces as the rising cases strain on the medical resource. How should this be improved as we want to adopt an endemic approach?

Guidelines must be Clear on the Risk and Consequences

The typical decision markers in some organisations are quick to follow guidelines blindly. These are traditional views where some organisations or public trusted the guidelines without proper self evaluation of their risk managment and staffs profiles. There are risks when staffs have family with small kids. Of course, it is unfair to blame this on the guidelines. After, guidelines are not rules but to be taken with correct understanding of risks appetite. By now, we seen that these guidelines should highlight the risks and consequences that organisations must undertake if they choose to follow it to the tee.

COVID cannot be treated like Flu

By now, we know that COVID-19 cannot be treated like a common flu. It is a new set of policies, guidelines, risk management or even communication to be educated with the general public. After all, we are still learning how to manage Covid-19 like an endemic. These hard lessons should reflected and not to be treated lightly (pun intended)! It is recommended that organisations must setup these new set of guidelines if they want to adopt an endemic view to Covid-19.

The past few weeks of trying COVID-19 as an endemic is creating a state of confusion. This is largely due to the need of new management approach on how to consider Covid-19 as an endemic. It is obvious that a clear articulated communication plan must be thought out for the “blindsided”. In the meantime, it is better for majority to be conservative as safety comes first for kids and high risks groups.

Cloud Assessment Approach

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One of the most common Cloud Challenges are customisation on premise application. Many assessment done to existing on premise will reveal these reasons why you should not move to Cloud. However, the assessment approach has been done incorrectly. Instead, it should be telling you on how you need to move to Cloud.

We find what we want to see

A good cloud assessment approach will not be one sided. It should have a balanced data and strategy to give the reader the right materials to make a decision. This is to prevent the bias of “finding what we want to see”. It is common to reason that heavily customised application to remain on premise instead of moving to Cloud. Vice versa, findings often point that Cloud should only handle lightly customised application.

Strategy to Cloud

As products move to SaaS, users will be forced to move customised applications to Cloud. It is important to provide strategy on how to migrate the customised applications. Many Cloud assessment will use Big Bang approach to review if the application can move to Cloud. You should also request for other strategy to be included in your Cloud assessment approach like phase transition or pilot migration.

Cloud assessment approach is often bias and skewed towards Big Bang migration approach. You should consider for other migration strategy when you are conducting your Cloud assessment. Thus, this will provide you a better picture to decide if you can migrate to Cloud.

RAD with Apex

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Rapid Application Development (RAD) is around since the days of Visual Basic (VB). Since then, there is a preference of lightweight and low code framework with Agile approach. APEX (Application Express) is one such framework offered free with Oracle database. What does this signal for heavyweights like Spring or J2EE framework? Should you switch to low code like APEX?

Ease of Maintenance

The key push factor to switch to low code framework like APEX is the ease of maintenance. This helps users to focus on solving business problem rather then creating technical solution. Changes can be made and deploy quickly. This suits high complexity and exploratory problems where scope is largely unknown.

Business Driven Skillset

Low code environment places emphasis on outcome instead of being expert in thr programming language. Thus, platform like APEX suits users who are not technically inclined to setup entire infrastructure like servers and database. This emphasis business driven skillset like problem solving instead of technical skills. Users can also realised business solutions quickly with low code deployment.

The switch to low code platform like APEX will be growing. This is driven by the need for agile solutions to solve changing requirements. Usage of APEX also allows citizen developers to co-own and maintain the development.

Building a Stakeholder List

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In many projects, stakeholder list is the output of stakeholder analysis activity. Not many are aware that you can actually anticipate the type of the project outcome from stakeholder list. These are the red flags that you need to lookout when you are reviewing the stakeholder list.

Get the Right Stakeholder

The creation of stakeholder list is important because you can review the roles of each stakeholders. It is common to see names that are just participants and not contributors. A right stakeholder must contribute and be accountable. If they are not fulfilling these objectives, it is worthwhile to reconsider these names.

Champions and Sponsors

For projects veterans, you will soon realise the importance of champions and sponsors. These two roles are critical success factors for all projects implementation especially digital transformation. Many of enjoyable successful projects I worked with have such players. These stakeholders make a great difference to the projects. They often provide morale, passion and clear direction to projects.

In many projects, there are moments where stakeholders are inserted based on political or namesake reasons. You should remove these stakeholders and ensure the right ones are there to contribute and be accountable. Champions and sponsors are necessary to provide the right support and ensure your projects are driven in the right direction.

Software Transition Phase for Cloud

~ Danny Kwok ~ 1 Comment

During digital transformation, transition phase from legacy to cloud platform will be necessary when you are having complex web of tightly coupled applications. These are the symptoms where you need to consider transition steps before moving to your final To-Be state.

Data Flow Diagnostic

Data flow diagnostic will reveal a history of changes that have created data inconsistencies across integrated applications. You need to do a data flow analysis to understand the data sources and output. It is important to note that there will existing discrepancies in how data flow from your application to others. This is a key sign that you must correct these flow before migration to Cloud. If you choose to migrate the same data flow, you will definitely encounter the need to customise your cloud architecture to handle the legacy data flows.

Fog of War

Another need for transition phase occurs when you encounter “fog of war” between applications. This happens when application have no idea on what the data are being translated or used. This uncertainty creates a high risk if you are going to migrate directly to cloud. It is worth to invest a transition phase for risk mitigation and discovery of the unknown scope.

There two key symptoms listed in a complex coupled application environment are candidates for a transition phase in your migration to cloud. The transition phase will help to correct legacy design and gain clarity in your final cloud objective.

Cloud Expectations

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Cloud expectations is a requirement that is often missed out. Unlike on premise, we often forgotten that Cloud is a product with constraints. Before you embark on a major cloud migration, it is recommended that you conducted a review of your existing architecture and expectations.

Understanding your Customisation

The common challenge with Cloud migration is customisation of existing on premise product. These customisation are often lost in translation over the years for legacy reason. Some of these customisation would even be uncovered during the cloud migration. Thus, it is important to do a deep analysis of your customisation. One guideline is called CEMLI (Configuration, Extension, Modification, Localization, and Integration) framework by Oracle.

Prepare your Cloud Expectations

Cloud expectations requirement must be translated to your critical success factors. These expectations will determine the effectiveness of your cloud migration. It is common to realise these expectations are missing. The user expectations will also mitigate the risks from Cloud migration. One such cloud expectation will be business continuity and minimum disruptions to operation.

There is a relationship of customisation and cloud expectations. Cloud is a product and will have larger gap for heavily customised on premise application. Thus, you will need to set clear cloud expectations to mitigate these risks. One common way is removal of customisation in preparation for cloud migration.

OTM Bulk Plan Design for 3PL

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OTM (Oracle Transport Management) bulk plan is totally designed for 2PL. It is ideal when your orders can be assigned and planned nicely into your desired equipment. On the other hand, you may want to design differently for 3PL (3rd Party Logistics). These are some quick tips that you want to consider in your 3PL bulk plan design.

Masterdata is Not Complete

Bulk plan configuration is dependent on masterdata availability. For 3PL, masterdata is never complete because you are a third party. Your bulk plan will definitely run into error if you design based on a comprehensive set of masterdata. Thus, the rule of thumb for 3PL is to assume incomplete masterdata from your bulk plan design. The key method is to set default values for missing masterdata.

Speed vs Optimisation

As 3PL, you usually have contractual rates or preferred service providers. Thus, you can speed up bulk plan by auto assignment of your constraints values. On the other hand, there are not much optimisation required for your shipments. Due to missing masterdata, optimisation will also be inaccurate or even result in bulk plan performance issues.

You cannot configure OTM bulk plan using the standard approach for 3PL. You must always assign default values for your missing masterdata. It is also obvious that you cannot optimise your shipment planning fully for 3PL. Thus, you should go for bulk plan design for speed with constraints rather shipment optimisation.