My World and Welcome To It

A Blog for Shirey Consulting Services – Views and Thoughts About Just About Everything

Archive for June, 2007

My Christine

Jun 27

Posted by dshirey in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

OK, I’ll admit it.  I’m a romantic idealist. 

I believe in love at first sight; that two people can see each other across a crowded room and know in that one instant that for them there is no one else and that their search is over. 

I believe there is nothing quite as restful and soothing as a good old fashion thunder storm on a warm summer evening; the anticipation as the storm inches closer and closer, the crisp pairing of the flash and the boom, the strong whoosh of humid air as the storm breaks, and the gentle cool clean breeze as the storm moves on. 

I believe baseball is the code that explains everything in the universe because nothing even approaches the grace and beauty of an outfielder catching a towering fly ball in shallow right field and unleashing a perfect strike to nail the runner at home.

But, I also have to admit that I am the most cynical romantic idealist you will ever meet.

Most of the time love at first sight is the result of severely impaired vision, generally abetted by a liberal application of alcohol and a room decibel level just about equivalent to standing next to a fully rev-ed jet engine. 

Thunder storms are swell but did you see the article on the weather channel web site the other day about some guy who was struck and killed by lightening from an almost cloudless sky.  How can that happen?   

And I think that baseball has been ruined by pitchers and hitters who seem unable to throw two pitches in a row or have a consecutive at bat without first walking around and adjusting some part of their equipment.  I’m not waiting 45 seconds between each pitch.  If you can’t throw the ball both accurately and quickly, maybe baseball isn’t where your talents lie.  And while we’re at it, batting gloves don’t fall off.  Never have, never will.  So stop tugging on them, they’re not going anywhere.  Just get up to the plate and hit. 

And so, as you can imagine, I had mixed feelings about the internet and it’s role in culture and entertainment. 

Naturally I want to root for the unknown artist out there who is struggling to share what they see with the rest of us without having to really compromise their art or themselves.  No more going from audition to audition hoping someone will notice you.  No more flirting with the director or her assistant in an effort to get that extra little leg up on the competition (not even going to pursue that one).   No more just waiting around to be ‘discovered’.   I can just be me, the me that I want everyone to know and love – and if I end up famous and rich, spending winters in the south of France, so be it.    

The only problem with that vision is it doesn’t seem very practical to me.  So what, is everyone just going to abandon their TV’s and start cruising around for web sites that will entertain them?  Get real.  Nobody is going to do that.  Want to know the honest truth?  Most people are too lazy.  They want their entertainment all packaged up for them like ground chuck, wrapped and boxed by the entertainment impresarios out in LA.   I mean really, what kind of pathetic chump spends half their waking hours going from one web site to another in the forlorn hope that one of them actually has something on it you want to see. 

And that’s where I left it – the internet was great but it wasn’t going to revolutionize my entertainment preferences. 

And then I saw her face. 

I was on a technical web site (honest – would I lie to you, baby?) looking up something I would never use and suddenly there she was, just waiting for my double click.   What the heck is this, I said to myself.  I hesitated, but only for a moment, drinking in her long dark hair and flashing eyes.  I raised my finger and clicked but it was already too late.  I was hooked on Happy Slip productions – and Christine. 

As I quickly found out, there are a whole series of Happy Slip videos featuring the girl my wife refers to somewhat scathingly as ‘your video girl’ but the one I started with is still my favorite – The Video Blog Try Out where she is experimenting with some new software that takes a few pertinent details about you and builds a video blog using a number of different motifs.  The ‘pageant’ format is my favorite but I always did root for H&M University.  It’s beautifully understated and hip.  And it pokes fun at the very technology that makes it possible.  I really love that. 

But the most appealing thing about it is the lovely, dark eyed Christine.   She has this every woman appeal to her, a sort of woman-girl, just a normal kind of person who is trapped in a technology that she exploits but doesn’t always understand.   Through her eyes I can see, as if for the first time, both the promise and heartbreak of technology.  Plus I just love the way she scrunches up her nose or purses her lips every time she runs into something that defies both logic and common sense.  (I’ve counted close to a dozen different ways she does this so far, but I really need to study the video a bit more.)   Who is Christine really?  I haven’t a clue, and I may not even want to know.  Does she own Happy Slip or is she just a hired face they have brought in for marketing appeal?   Not sure.  All I know is that I would rather watch one of her videos than watch Mario Batalli (not sure what would happen in a head to head battle with Giada though). 

But it’s all good.  I mean it’s not like I’ve lost my objectivity or anything.  I don’t have one of those ‘I Blog It With Christine’ shirts, or a full color poster suitable for framing (although the tote bag has really come in handy).   Christine is just a part of my otherwise varied and full life.   

At the same time, however, I guess I have to admit that maybe the internet will have a place in the entertainment world of the future.  And maybe it will give people who don’t have connections with Spielberg or David Kelly to bring their art to life.  Stranger things have happened.  And so, maybe my idealistic romantic side wins out on this one.  I suppose it has to.  After all, now I’m a believer. 

The Myth of the ‘Project Team’

Jun 26

Posted by dshirey in Project Management | Comments off

Oh, yeah.  I can remember it.  Seems like a lifetime ago, but I can still picture it clear as day.  A big conference room, several white boards, a half dozen easels with tear off pads on them.  And a big box of donuts sitting right smack dab in the center of the table. 

And the people.  They were all there.  The big power users.  Steely eyed folks from finance, geeks from engineering, the bad boys of manufacturing, and, of course, the marketing and sales group.   

And why shouldn’t they be there?  After all we were embarking on a major project that would impact every part of the company and the CIO had sent out the invitation to all and sundry, and they had responded.  Some were there just for today, just to kick things off, but many of them were there for the duration and each department had assigned one or more resources to the team that would carry out this project.  Other people had already been cross trained and they would take over the primary responsibilities for the chosen ones while they devoted themselves to the project.  It was a very serious thing because everyone knew you couldn’t give a project your best effort if you were still trying to do your normal job. 

It was a long time ago, but I remember it well.  Yes, children, in the old days projects were staffed by people who were sometimes assigned to that project exclusively.  And the result?  I think that the end result was two fold. 

First, people spent more time on the project, did more research, and tended to really test things out.  It wasn’t fool proof, of course.  People made mistakes and cut corners and missed the obvious then just as they do today, but at least you had a fighting chance. 

Second, there was a real feeling of corporate (as in group, not the guys who hold all their meetings in Breckenridge) ownership of a project.  It wasn’t an IT project, it was a company project that might be chaired by IT.  And that meant that if it didn’t go as well as expected, everyone would get a chance to take some of the blame home. 

Unfortunately, today’s projects are generally quite different.  Oh we start out the same way.  We hold a big meeting, get everyone together and chant the magic spells, but shortly after that things take a decidedly sinister turn. 

You know you are in trouble when the guy from manufacturing who is going to be your resource arrives late, gets three phone calls from the floor, and then leaves after 20 minutes because ‘everything down there is all messed up’.   Or the finance rep doesn’t come at all because she is ‘in a conference call with the Comptroller in Malaysia’.

But you know what the worst part of the situation is?  There’s not a darn thing the manufacturing guy or finance rep can do about it.  They may be just as dedicated mentally to the project as their ancestors, but there is no fresh young face waiting in the wings to temporarily take over their duties.  Baring a total repeal of child labor laws, there is no one available for them to shift the load to and free them up.   We become victims of our own cost cutting mania. 

And so the question is – what does a Project Manager do about this?

Well, one thing I do is start getting my list of excuses for why the project is late or why things weren’t tested better ready right off the bat, because sometimes it doesn’t take long for something to go wrong in that kind of flying weather. 

Another thing you have to do is keep a closer eye on the testing process (most projects have some sort of test to see if things work).  You can’t just assume it will be done (or done well) just because you know the person charged with that is a solid performer.  You need to make sure that he has time to do what is needed and does not just convince himself that ‘it seems to work’.  Many times this means designing the tests so that you have both a full set of test requirements but also see the results of each test.  This, in turn, often means that you have to separate the process of setting up test scenarios from actually doing the test scenarios.  Fortunately, that is a good idea anyway. 

I think it also puts more pressure on the project manager to keep in touch with the people on the team.  There should be some sort of daily interaction, something to help you gauge when people are so overwhelmed by their own jobs that they just don’t have anything left to give the project.  This works both ways, of course, as the interaction gives your team member the perfect opportunity to break down to you and confess his lack of progress on the project. 

And finally, it is important for the project manager to be able to work potential lack of time into the time frame estimates for the project.  Everyone in management wants things to be already completed by the time they start but you have to be the voice of reality on the project and clearly articulate what are reasonable goals and what aren’t. 

One thing is clear, however.  The old days are not coming back.  We are probably never going to go back to the staffing levels of old that made it possible to detach someone and let the project own them.  But it doesn’t mean that we still can’t have successful, on time projects.  It just means we have to handle things a little differently. 

EDI and SOX

Jun 13

Posted by dshirey in EDI | Comments off

EDI has always posed a special challenge in Sox audits.  Part of this is because the Visual Mapper makes it so easy to modify maps and UFD’s.  Generally this work is done by a  non-IT person, and because it can be done in just a few moments, it often escapes the more formal notice of the IT Change Management System.  On top of that, you have the black box nature of  Trusted Link.  We get used to not thinking about EDMAST or any of the other files that make the system work and that is nice and comfortable, but it also keeps us from being concerned about auditing the changes to the files that are actually being updated by the Visual Mapper.  The end result is that many IT departments tend to gloss over Trusted Link when it is time to do an audit, gloss over it in a way that they would not for a regular RPG application.  And TLi lets you do that, it encourages you to think of it truly as a black box.  But that is starting to change.

Release 6.1.4 which came out a year or more ago introduced audit trails for changes to translation formats, user file definitions, trading partner relationships, envelope maps, partner address book entries, and the audit configuration itself.   This audit trail is not true journaling, the type that allows you to rebuild something to a given date or time, but it is at least an indication of who did something to what and when. 

The audit is a file record that includes the date, time, the action (add, change, compile, delete), the object type (from the above list), job info (user, job number and name), organization, release, and the audit key (which is a system generated unique number that is associated with this action).  As noted above, this is not journaling but it certainly gives you enough info to convene a grand jury (assuming you are using individual EDI signon’s as prescribed by SOX and not the generic EDIUSER). 

Release 6.2 has expanded on this by eliminating the need to use QSECOFR for installs or upgrades (don’t get too excited, you still need to use a profile with equivalent capabilities), adding a purge function for the audit trails introduced in 6.1.4, changing the user spaces created during a Trusted Link session so that they are owned by the user of record and not EDIONR, modifying the capabilities of user profile EDIEVNMSG (bet you didn’t even know that one was out there), and increasing the number of events that the Commerce Workflow Director responds to (and again, I am guessing most people don’t know what the CWD does much less what events it responds to). 

Perhaps the most useful enhancement in 6.2, however, is Chapter 1 of the documentation which provides a high level overview of the compliance and auditing capabilities within Trusted Link.  This section is designed to give you a first pass at this information.  For those who don’t find reading the TLi doco that much fun, SCS offers a half day class (on site or via WebEx) that organizes and expands on the information provided giving you a  complete picture of what TLi offers in terms of compliance. 

What does Inovis have planned next in this area?  Good question and one that Murray Brook, the Product Owner for TLi at Inovis, would like to have an answer for.  After talking to Murray at this year’s Common Conference in

Anaheim it appears they are going to be looking for some customer input before going any farther with this.  And so, I ask you, given what Inovis has done in the last two releases, where would you like to see things go?  What would you like to see added for SOX (or any other) compliance?  Enter a comment and I will make sure that

Murray gets the feedback (“Giving you full credit, of course, Mr. Spicoli.”)

PHP or RPGIII?

Jun 12

Posted by dshirey in System i | 3 Comments

OK, here’s a question for you.  Yeah, that’s right.  You.  Have you taken a look at a copy of System iNews lately?  No, that’s not the question.  Just hang in there with me for a few minutes.  Have you taken a look at a copy of System iNews lately?  It’s interesting.  Every article is about developing web enabled systems using PHP or using the IFS from RPG programs, or customizing the SQL query engine or what not.   It’s like in the last year we’ve gone from doing RPG IV stuff to all this other technology.  You hardly even see any articles about ILE anymore, it’s too passé.  

So, I am wondering, what gives?    Is this what everyone is doing; advanced PHP and IFS?  Or is this just the magazine always trying to be on the cutting edge and leaving most readers to page through and then say ‘my, my, very interesting in a boring sort of way’ before tossing the magazine on the stack of other System iNews’ in the corner? 

Can you help me out here, pal?  What types of things do you spend the bulk of your time on?  (Drinking coffee and hiding from your boss don’t count.)  Is it cutting edge stuff?  Or the same old same old?  Are you living life on the edge of the bubble, or are you stuck so deep behind the lines that you forget there are technology advances?  I just need to know what the real world is doing.   You know what I mean?Â