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Tag: Gary Sherman

Friday night at the ALT.NET conference

October 8, 2007 This past weekend was the first ALT.NET conference, held here in Austin, TX. Right from the start, I knew this was going to be special. The list of attendees was amazing. It’s like my blog roll, but live! The format This was not your typical run of the mill conference, where we yearn for interesting hallway conversations to break up monotonous presentations filled with canned PowerPoint presentations. This conference follows the Open Spaces format. Our own Doc List facilitated the conference, and did a great job. He introduced us to the format, and laid out how it all works. It’s completely self-organizing. As attendees, we openly offer up session topics that we want to talk about. Anyone (and it seemed like almost everyone) offered up a topic – some people suggested multiple topics. Like minded topics were gathered together, and…

Using modern JavaScript libraries to create a better user experience in fcClient

September 26, 2007 Over the last couple of years, a number of very useful JavaScript libraries and frameworks have been introduced that make it tremendously easier to build rich web applications. A few of the more popular ones: PrototypeScript.aculo.usMooTools These frameworks allow developers to easily write very rich, cross-browser web applications. I've heard about these libraries for some time, and have experienced many great web apps that use these libraries. So I asked myself whether I could use these modern libraries with fcClient. The answer is a resounding Yes! A simple example: Modify the Save/Discard/Cancel page in order to improve the user experience. How it used to work If a page was "dirty", meaning that data on that page had changed, and the user attempts to dismiss the page (such as by clicking the Done button), then a Save/Discard/Cancel window is posted, which is a new…

SOA: It's NOT about technology

September 17, 2007 Sam Gentile (uber-architect) gently reminds us: SOA: It's The Business Stupid! SOA has value only when applied from a business perspective. The primary goal of SOA is to align the business world with the world of IT in a way that makes them more effective. Period. Technology is only significant in the delivery phase and if we hit customers up with [insert any product here] without understanding the business drivers and processes, not only are we not doing SOA but we continuing to hype technology as the answer, and further disappointing customers with yet “another wave” of application integration technology with different products than the last time. Well said Sam. Way too often, we see technology solutions put in place without a good understanding of the business needs. We must understand the business needs first!

Yes, it demos well. But is it maintainable?

September 11, 2007 A few years ago we created a couple of products to assist customers in converting their Clarify Classic (thick) client forms and code into our thin-client application. Specifically, fcFormsConverter converted Clarify forms into HTML web pages, and fcCodeConverter converted Clarify's proprietary ClearBasic code into JavaScript or VB6. These two products demo-ed really well.  In a matter of seconds, these applications created decent looking web pages, and the generated code was definitely JavaScript. Wow! Cool! Not so fast there cowboy. Let's take a closer  look at the generated code. The HTML code generated by fcFormsConverter: All elements are absolutely positioned Every element has its own style attribute It lacked any security (privilege class) checking etc... The JavaScript code generated by fcCodeConverter: Doesn't effectively deal with Contextual Objects (what Clarify called their in-memory form variable storage) It had no way of distinguishing server-side…

Technology will not create a customer-centric organization

In a recent destinationCRM article, a couple of Oracle execs say: Transforming your business to a customer-centric organization starts with a CRM-focused services-oriented architecture. I have to disagree. While I concur that well-architected solutions will make it much easier to integrate multiple systems, software architecture will not create a customer-centric organization.A customer-centric organization starts with people and culture. It empowers people to make the right decisions. The culture shifts from a break-fix reactive mode to that of a proactive mindset. It aligns the goals of service, sales, and marketing around the customer.Technology can help achieve these goals. But by itself, it does nothing. There are plenty of technology solutions out there that abide by good SOA practices. Just because a corporation adopts one of these technology solutions, it does not make them customer-centric.There are plenty of organizations that are customer-centric, and they…

A new version of fcSDK and finalizing the move to .NET 2.0

August 28, 2007 New version of fcSDK available fcSDK version 2.3.2 is now officially available. The big news in this release is that the fcSDK is now built on the .NET 2.0 framework. (fcSDK was previously built on .NET 1.1) There are also number of bug fixes in this release. The documentation details What's New in this version. To obtain this release, create a request using Dovetail SelfService, or send us an email. .NET 2.0 With the fcSDK now ported, this finalizes our migration effort from .NET 1.1 to .NET 2.0. All of our .NET based products are now built on .NET 2.0: fcSDK SchemaEditor RuleManager SEC.NET

Good Enough

August 22, 2007 I'm drawn like a moth to a flame when it comes to reading anything written by Seth Godin. One of his recent posts really connected with me: Is Good Enough Enough?  It's so easy to be good enough. To do enough to get by. Enough to satisfy the requirements. Enough to call it "done".  We see "good enough" all the time. Where do you want to be? Striving for remarkable? Changing the rules? Pushing the boundaries? Or satisfied with good enough? No one ever said it was easy. That's what makes it fun.

A great example of usability improving the customer support experience

The 37signals guys point us towards Twitter's use of HelpSpot's Help Desk software:   How do you help your helpdesk/support team give you the best support? Give them the information they need right from the start. I really like the simple, clear, and concise labels: This is what I DIDThis is what I EXPECTED to happenThis is what ACTUALLY happened I'm sure this greatly helps the support team resolve more requests on the first go-round, as opposed to the all-too-common first response having to ask the customer for more information. It's good for the support team, and good for the customer. Nicely done.  

Get out of my way and let me do my work!

August 1, 2007 While working last night, I needed to view a video demo, and I was presented with this message from Windows Media Player:   I hadn't done any updates, or installs, so I have no idea why Media Player decided that I needed to log off and back on. Notice that it's not saying I have to reboot - just log off and back on. All I know is that it completely interrupted my flow. I feel the same way when clicking on a link on a web page and all of a sudden a PDF file starts loading. PDF? WTF? What's wrong with HTML? I'm on a web page! Again, it completely interrupts my flow. As builders of software, we need to be cognizant of this. Are we enabling? Or are we throwing up roadblocks that impede the user's workflow?…