Volunteer Team Members on Your Project?

Have you ever run a project that is solely or mostly running on a project team of volunteers? I was presenting to a group of program directors in the research field. Their dilemma is that they manage projects which have team members fully run by volunteer researchers from other organizations.

After comforting them that they are not the only people in the world that run projects fully dependent on volunteers, but rather they are part of the millions of teachers, religious groups, social service groups, civil rights, good citizens, and dozens of professionals who donate their time and expertise for the good cause of the World .. they became more relaxed.

So back to their challenge... How to get a volunteer - someone who is not paid, not officially or legally bound, not under your authority or control - to do their part on the project as a team member?

Answer is simple: Motivate and ensure the value they are interested in by doing this good will is present and did not disappear.

I have managed and coordinated tons of projects such as the one we are talking about. I also participated in tons where I was a team member. Bottom line --- as long as there is volunteer value. They will not only stick around, but will produce exceptional value... let it evaporate and before you know, they are all gone.

Example: Project X: Goal is to initiate, launch, implement and supervise a series of monthly community dinner at a Muslim community. Volunteers who are interested in being part of this project will most probably join for one or more of the following reasons,

a) they like food, food events, cooking, or have some passion to food
b) they like social gathering and chatting with others, like to be part of a group, or big family
c) they respect organization and like to see these events well organized and a god experience for every one
d) they just want to help out a community they belong to and enjoy being part of

So as a project manager, you know that all these volunteers are not getting paid, have very limited time, might live far away, but are interested in helping out, because they told you. As long as those 4 items above are maintained, they will keep coming. Now when something happens and for example these volunteers are no longer allowed to cook and bring in their own meals to share with others... they will not come because point a) is not longer available. Or if they feel that participants dont get along together and some tensions arise then they will stop again because point b) is no longer available... and so on.. you get the point.

So in a nutshell project manager need to have strong emotional intelligence skills and keep their eyes and ears open to what the volunteer team members are interested in and how much of it is on their projects.

Back to the volunteer researchers from all across the country that are on Bob's project (not real name). As long as the researcher's can add their work to their tenure requirements, paper portfolio, get academic recognition, be known as a participant, be respected for their knowledge and ideas, be able to have open communications with other scientists..... they should stick around.

Successful teams develop because they strive for the carrot, regardless what form the carrot takes.

Enterprise Architect vs. Service Architect

If you open any book on SOA you find it defined as an architecture which offers a framework for improved business - technology alignment. In [1] SOA is defined as "a framework for integrating business processes and supporting IT infrastructure as secure, standardized components - services - that can be resused and combined to address changing business priorities". The IBM SOA Foundation [2] defines SOA as "the practice of deriving an information system design from a business design".

I find both definitions to be confusing and incomplete. The first definition is basically an enterprise architecture (EA) framework, right? The definition that it is a framework means that it defines governance, perspectives (views) and/or some methodology. Similar to TOGAF, or Zachman (does not have a methodology) or other well known architectural frameworks. TOGAF which is a framework for enabling the design, evaluation and build of the right architecture for an organization [3] offers an enterprise macro level architectural definition. TOGAF defines four main domains - business, data, application and technology. Well, the answer is not quite right. SOA is not EA, SOA is applicable at a level lower than the enterprise, it is focused on the service level, wherever it might be. In some cases services could be enterprise-wide and high level, but most of the time it is local.

Lets think of SOA as the "service instantiated" architecture for an enterprise architecture. To make it easier to understand lets take the example of a small non-profit community center. An enterprise architecture for this community center is the evaluation, definition, design and build of an integrated structure unifying the community center to allow it to achieve its mission. For example an enterprise staff appraisal system as part of that architecture. On the other hand SOA will define how the various services related to a staff performance system can be designed in IT resources and aligned to the business goals. Services could be "Staff Feedback Solicitation", "Performance Appraisal Metrics Definition", "Performance Appraisal Metrics Assessment", and several more. So in a sense SOA is addressing the question of "now we have an enterprise wide structure and method to appraise staff performance, how can we actually turn it on, and customize it for different departments, with optimum reusability of approaches and resources.

Other definitions of SOA is that is it is "a methodology and approach that can be utilized to deliver or to support an enterprise architecture initiative" [4].

______________________________________________________________
[1] Norbert Bieberstein, Sanjay Bose, Marc Fiammante, Keith Jones and Rawn Shah, " Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Compass: Business Value, Planning and Enterprise Roadmap, IBM Press, 2006.

[2] Rob High, Stephen Kinder and Steve Graham, "IBM's SOA Foundation: An Architectural Introduction and Overview", IBM Business Consulting Services, Version 1.0, Nov 2005.

[3] The Open Group, "The Open Group Architectural Framework (TOGAF)", Version 8.1.1, Enterprise Edition, 2007.

[4] Niel Maehiter, Quote in an Article titled, "What's the difference between SOA and enterprise architect?" by Joe McKendrick, June 11th, 2007. (link)

Metrics for Defining the Complexity Level

I was sitting in a meeting when a whole bunch of folks started sharing ideas on how to assess the level of risk associated with a project or system under development (SUD). Some thoughts were to consider the number of requirements, others the number of change requests needed, and some suggested the level of engineering support needed for a requirement to be realized, for example does the requirement call for an architectural change, design change, development change, or just test or only support during testing.

I agree with the last proposal, analyzing the scope of changes is a good way of defining the complexity and hence the risk of the project, then we can create metrics that reflect these different levels of engineering support. Merely looking a total number of requirement, change requests or development teams involved might not provide the most accurate assessment. Instead, the system architecture needs to analyze and study the requirements impact and assess design complications, development challenges, testing validity and deployment issues. This integrated view can provide a more objective feel for the level of complexity involved in the SUD. A system might have only two system level requirements that drive the whole architecture change and hence brings in large design, development, testing, deployment and support efforts, compared to another system which has 2 dozen requirements which marginally impact development and will hence have a much lower effort in other areas and less overall complexity and risk.

I came across some interesting articles and papers on this topic.

A Complexity Assessment Methodology for Programmable Electronic Mining Systems
Software Complexity Measurement
Design Complexity Measurement and Testing
A Function Point Method for Software Complexity Measurement

How do you assess the complexity of a project in your environment?

A System for Complex Event Management

It is expected that about 2 million individuals will visit Washington DC on Jan 20th. This will not be the largest event that draws pedestrian traffic. Each year Saudi Arabia hosts over 3 million pilgrims in Makkah and its surrounding areas for the Hajj worship activities. The Saudi's can attest that is is by no means an easy job, to keep the crowds safe, moving and able to do what needs to be done with ease.

The inauguration is a little different and less complex that Hajj in a sense that the largest part of the event is confined to the Mall and mostly static - i.e. folks are sitting or standing to witness the President as he gives his speech. Whereas, the Hajj is a more dynamic experience. Pilgrims move back and forth between Makkah, and the nearby mountain of Arafat and the valley of Mina on the outskirts of Makkah, 8 km away. Among the pilgrims are also celebrities such as Presidents and leaders of Muslim countries, businessmen, athletes, scholars and other well-known public Muslim figures who have intended to perform their pilgrimage. So the complexities of the inauguration might be much simpler than that of Haj, yet the organizers and teams overlooking its management have put a great deal of effort in organizing it that is worth discussion.

I share a few images - courtesy of the Washington Post - of how the event is organized illustrating security checkpoints, seating areas, entrances, exits, rest areas, vending, etc.. You can call these mission diagrams or context diagrams, at the end of the day the represent the high level architectural overview, which is worth appreciating as it reflects the amount of effort out into managing an event effectively.

The Saudi Government as well has recently taken extra ordinary measures to control the Hajj traffic and ensure safe experiences for the pilgrims. What is interesting is that the Hajj planning never required the closure of any streets in Makkah near or around the Holy Kaaba, unlike the inauguration plan, nor has it required security checkpoints such as those in the inauguration, other than guards at the entrance of the Grand Sacred Mosque for visual inspection.

This is a very interesting domain that is worth research, and I am sure there is a lot to learn from both the Saudi and American experiences.

Update: 3/22/09 - There is a discussion on linkedin related to major event management, you can follow it here, if you are member of "Project Manager Link" group.

Is there a difference between a SOA repository and a SOA registry?

Generally speaking a registry is a location that stores information about registered entities. A few of examples of registries could be a town's birth registry which records all births in the town, a College class registration office, and an annual article index of a publication which lists all articles that appeared in the publication during a particular year.

Registry is defined in the Webster's College Dictionary as the "place where a register is kept", and the dictionary defines register as "a book in which records of events, names, etc., are kept".

In the examples provided above we see that the birth registry will contain a list of all names of people who were born in the town, their dates of birth and maybe some other information like the address at the time of birth, ages of parents, names of parents, etc. We do not expect to see the actual people in the registry ! The people will be in their offices, homes or wherever else.

Similarly, in the case of the annual article index, which is another form of registry we expect to see the titles and dates of publication of articles that appeared in the publication during that year. We do not expect to find the articles themselves in the index of articles.

A repository on the other hand is a location where actual artifacts are stored. We can guess that for the example of the birth registry, the actual repository would be hospitals, delivery clinics and places where people give birth. This is where we can actually find the babies.

Similarly in the case of the article index, the actual articles would be find in the various issues of the publication throughout the year, and would be stored in a library.

Repository is defined in the Webster's College Dictionary as " a place where things are deposited, stored or offered".

So now in the context of SOA, we can define the Service Registry and Service Repository as follows.

Service Registry
A comprehensive list of all SOA services available to an enterprise to achieve a business objective. The list would include the service identification information, location of the service, service classification (purpose), and information about how to interact with the service.

Service Repository
A storage location that houses the SOA service and its components, is involved in controlling access to the service and the presentation of the service to its users

If we ponder for a moment we notice that some key areas of a SOA service are neither part of a service registry or service repository - at least by defintion. For example a service's history, statistics about the the service, performance reports, etc.. by definition are not part of the repository. Some SOA implementations or frameworks might decide to store such service management reports and information in the repository, others might wish to develop a SOA Service Management Repository which will house that kind of informaton.

Systemic Reflections from the Obama - McCain Race

There is no doubt that Obama not only won the elections, but also smashed his opposition. Looking at the Electoral votes we see a torrent gap 349/163 and a popular vote of 53%/46%... what a surprise... totally unpredictable... I personally thought he might win 51%/49% and maybe an electoral vote ratio of 1.1/1... not 2.14/1..

So this tells us that human systems are totally unpredictable.. engineering a system with a human as part of it might be suicidal in some cases. So lets take the example of engineering a commercial aircraft, is the pilot part of the system or not? Most system engineers will say.. not really ... the system is the plane (structure, mechanical, electrical, etc..) we can model those, but we can't model the pilot, what if the pilot is too slow to land, or fell asleep during take off.. so many soft factors to model, so lets take the pilot out of the picture.. and then we test (verify) out plane with an average pilot... that is a pilot who did not have a bad day, did not lose a loved one the week before, is not tired, has no spousal problems, etc.. So the test passes, aircraft declared ready for production, sold and used for years, without a hitch...

We recall the Egypt Air flight than mysteriously dropped out of the Eastern US skies on Halloween night 1999, until our date we have theories and thoughts of why the sky bus blew up and perished in the air... some say the pilots walked out of the cabin to stretch, when the senior pilot walked in and committed suicide, other theories are cracks in the wing, a third fuel leakage, and a fourth contribute the root cause to a strike 10 yrs ago when that batch of 747s where in Seattle on the assembly line, and that because they were not in a good mood the quality of manufacturing standards was below nominal.. who knows.. it could be all the above, or none of the above.. bottom line is that many of these root causes include a human factor.. totally unpredictable .. just like the American voters.. the time has come to include soft factors into engineering problems -- Point 1... we can't ignore soft factors

Now, wasn't it the McCain campaign that distributed those millions of DVDs in swing states to tell them about how radical Islam is? Covering up truth, and smearing others does not work anymore... the people are more educated nowadays than the 80s, 70s, and 60s.. thanks to the so called Internet, and its myriad of facebook, you tube, google and countless other applications.. --- Point 2... Fooling customers never works, eventually they will know that you are marketing a 747 and selling a prop.

Finally, end users buy and use what they want, not what you tell them they need... Americans don't want their daughters and sons in Iraq, Americans don't want their 401Ks wiped out, they don't want to lose their jobs, telling them that pulling out of Iraq is not only stupid, but irrelevant.. regardless whether it is a good idea or not, its not what they want to hear. End users want to hear solutions to their problems, they don't want solutions to other problems, and they are not smart enough to know where root causes come from, you where there when the plane crashed.. then you must be involved. --- Point 3... It doesn't matter how brilliant or great your idea is, if it does not solve my problem, its worthless in my perspective [1], also I don't care why the system crashed, the point is that you did not do a good job designing it. Don't blame the storm, blame the plane [2]

We can wish as much as we want, model as much as we want, take the means, but at the end whatever Allah ordains will happen...

Now whether Obama will deliver on his promises is a completely different story, history will let us know.

SOA Programming Allows Independence

The SOA programming model is to embrace underlying programming languages that are already deployed in the enterprise. It does not mater whether applications are .NET, CICS, Java, SAP based, or based on any other technology, these technologies are all transparent to SOA.

SOA allows the architect to hide any variations or differences between languages and programs to maximize reuse. Additionally we can drill down into unique aspects of a specific language or program only when needed, without exposing the details.

One of the major benefits of this programming model followed by SOA is to program and develop business and service design rather than a technology. For example the programming focus would be on a student grade verification process, rather than a .NET session.

Any experiences to share?

XML's role to SOA

SOA leverages the standard XML data representation to reduce underlying complexity of application environments. Some are examples are;

- Passing XML documents and schemas between applications allows for the standardization of data format and type, which this improves predictability and performance.

- XML documents are easily understood by different stakeholders such as architects, analysts, developers and users, leading to enhanced data maintenance, traceability and clarity.

- XML allows the support of standardized vocabularies across the enterprise, hence reducing mis-interpretation of corporate data and data models.

- XML allows a SOA based system to realize a foundation data representation and data management layer.

For SOA to leverage the benefits of XML, a solid XML architecture should be developed and implemented. Such architecture should include architectural components for data transport, structure, validation, verification and modeling. Accommodations for RPC-style messaging needs to also be considered if an environment does not support document-style messaging (SOAP). In such cases we need to ensure no conflicts exist between usage of RPC-style SOAP messages (from shaping XML documents around a parameter data exchange model).

A Slotting System for Misery, Poverty and Crime

It was a bit of a shock to see that Marylanders favored bringing slot machines to Charm City, and its suburbs. It is no more than a call to bring crime, prostituition, and long term economic failure. This is not just my opinion as a Muslim Systems Engineer, but that of any person who has some basic knowledge of economics and social reform will have the same opinion.

What comes easy goes easy. Slots brings a system of vapor to Maryland. No true productivity, no true growth and no true value proposition, other than greed to the operators.

We should not be surprised to see more bankruptcies, shattered households, and chaos similar to the global financial crash pretty soon in the Free State.

Should Systems Engineers Study Psychology?

Given the fact that systems engineers deal with systems, and most systems comprise of a human element in it, it seems to make sens that systems engineers need to know a little about how people act.

Humans are very complex system components, they can be viewed as a system in themselves (human system), or even a system of systems (SoS) (digestive, neural, circulatory, psychological, muscular, etc..)

So maybe after all those biology classes we used to study in middle school do have some benefit to enterprise architecture. I guess systems engineers who are involved in soft system should study not only psychology, but maybe also other human systems of interest to the largest SoS.


I came across an interesting article at http://www.techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=6299 which discusses cognitive systems engineering, which is defined as, "A combination of psychology, anthropology, computer science, design and systems engineering, the field of cognitive systems engineering is the understanding and designing of systems that require human intellectual work".

Got to go dig those science books..

So What are the Services in SOA?

Service-oriented architecture has gained heavy adoption over the past few years. The next several postings will provide a high level SOA introduction. I am hoping the posting could serve as a basic primer for systems and project professionals working on a SOA project.

What is service-oriented architecture?
An architecture that allows the alignment of business processes and objectives to Information Systems in a flexible and adaptive manner, through the defintion of services.

What are these services?
Services are modular and repeatable business processes. A service could be defined at different levels of the organization. for example, a "customer update" could be a service that allows a customer to update their profile. On another level, a subscriber authentication process - to allow customer to gain access to her profile to update it - could be a service.

What are the main characteristics of a SOA service?
Services are also loosely coupled, maintaining a relationship that minimizes dependencies and only requires the awareness of connected services. Services are stateless and minimize information related to a specific activity.

So some examples of simple services in a sales department of a business could be; "collect customer information", "collect product /service information", collect payment terms". Each of these services could be broken down further as needed

Good Engineers are Managers and Leaders

Many schools of thought separate between leadership and management. While I agree they are different they are intertwined constructs. Read more here.

Lets take a simple example, one of that of a sales manager. Most people will agree that a sales manager is primarily a management role. However in the case of a small travel agency serving the air travel needs of its clients, the sales manager on a daily basis finds herself performing tasks such as establishing new relationship with potential suppliers (leadership), negotiating contracts and deals (leadership), motivating her sales staff (leadership), developing sales target plans (management), performing forecasts (leadership), reviewing sales reports (management), training employees (management(, coaching high school interns (leadership), addressing customer complaints (management) and calculating sales team commission (management). This is another example of how a sales manager role in a small business deploys leadership skills to remain highly competitive and ensure superior client value.

How much of your time as a systems engineer do you spend managing, leading and engineering?

Perfection Never Ends... KISS brings us closer

Last night I was chatting with a friend of mine who is working on the launch of a new project. I asked, "How far are you from launching?" His unexpected reply was "We will miss this year's launch and do it next year, I want to make sure everything is complete and people get to say wow"

The question we need to consider "Is it better to launch today when there is need, but have a modest service offering?, or to spend another year perfecting the service offering and miss the boat on this year's demand?"

KISS (Keep it Simple & Short) brings us closer to deployment and reality.. apply agility... get something working out the door, serve the need, use the opportunity to make further improvements in later releases... perfection never ends.

The Assertive Systems Engineer

So you are on a project to help the team develop a successful system. You notice things that don't make sense, or are not they way they should be. You raise your concern, "Hey, team we need a process to automate testing". Everyone looks at you as if you are some wacko, and then moves on with their business. Two weeks later and after 4 more team meetings you raise the concern again, and again. Finally one team member says "We always did testing this way, and we don't have the money or time to develop the automation, so don't keep repeating this".

What do you do? Shut up? Go with the flow? or be stubborn, resist to work in a chaotic environment? Actually the reaction should be neither. Smart systems engineers need to be adaptive, flexible and understanding of the business constraints and technical limitations. They also need to be assertive and counselors of best practices and approaches.

Document your technical opinion, the problem as you see it, the proposed solution, the rationale for the solution and consequences of not addressing the problem. Be assertive about your technical opinion, and also flexible to adjust the solution as needed to meet the laws of physics and constraints the team must abide with.

Remember systems engineering is all about engineering a system with the most optimum means, in accordance to sound decisions and rationale

ISO IEC 15288 / INCOSE SEBoK v3.0 Life Cycle Stages

Life-cycle definition is an important aspect of any system. By defining a life-cycle we can establish a framework for meeting stakeholder needs in an orderly fashion.

This order comes from the presence of stages in the life-cycle, and decision-making at the end of each stage to determine the readiness to move on. Stakeholders are concerned with the business case, funding and capability of a system at each stage.

INCOSE SEBoK ver 3.0 defines seven life-cycle phases. Each of these phases are listed below. Phases 2 - 7 are the same as the six phases defined in ISO 15288.

Pre-concept Phase:
Inputs: New ideas
Process: Creative systems engineering and requirements definition
Outputs: Identified enabling technologies

Concept Phase:
Inputs: Studies, experiments, models
Process: Requirements identification (if not done in pre-concept), indepth feasibility studies, prototypes, risk evaluation, early validation
Outputs: System requirements, feasible design solution

Development Phase:
Input: System requirements
Process: Development, integration, verification and validation
Outputs: Developed, verified and validated system

Production Phase:
Input: Tested system
Process: Modifications, re-verification, cost reduction
Output: Manufactured product

Utilization Stage:
Input: Performance reports, change requests, operational work orders
Process: Operations, change management
Output: Operational product, upgrades

Support Stage:
Inputs: Modifications, change requests
Process: Change control, maintenance, cost reduction, support
Output: Sustainable service and supported mission

Retirement Stage:
Inputs: change requests, competing systems
Process: System migration, removal, disposal
Output: Disposed system

System Sustainability: No Longer an Option

System developers rarely analyze or even worry about the long term sustainability of a system. The main focus is usually on today's and the near future's needs. The client says "I need to consolidate these two billing systems by next January".

Everyone on the projects starts to focus on this requirement. It becomes an architectural driving requirement, functions and operations of the new system will be based on this requirement and dependencies will start appearing, which if traced will be found to have largely come from that main requirement - consolidate by January.

No one gives thoughts to what happens after January. How and what will the new consolidated system look like and need to do to remain sustainable and not turn obsolete in a year or two and require another consolidation project with something else at the time.

Last year I was fortunate to do some research work under the supervision of Dr. Peter Sandborn of the University of Maryland. We looked into this topic - how to create sustainable software - and have come up with a model that might help extend the life-cycle of software systems.

With news that countries like Oman will run out of oil in 40 years popping up, sustainability in all aspects is no longer an option, but a requirement.

Agile In a Nutshell

Agile development is all about short iterations. Using what is known as a scrum process requirements are iterated and turned into use cases which are tested and so on.

The goal in agile is to test early, to identify early defects; and use continuous stakeholder feedback to deliver high-quality consumable code through use cases, and a series of short time-boxed iterations.

A New Buzzword in Town - Cloud Computing

So first it was Application Service Providers (ASPs) then Utility Computing and now comes Cloud Computing... It seems that every couple of years the industry needs a new set of buzzwords to keep the PR machine running.

Well there might be some slight differences between utility and cloud computing, but I would not really identify them as differences, I would just note them as the same with a slightly different scope. Instead of renting computing resources - utility computing - cloud computing rents applications and IT services.

So what is this cloud computing after all? Reading through various articles it seems to be nothing more than an application service provider hosting enterprise IT services for its clients. Its just technology improved from what was available in the mid-nineties, and vendor are looking for a way to get over the unsuccessful connotation of ASPs by relabeling the concept into cloud computing.

Some links on the topic from various trade rags for those interested:

http://gigaom.com/2008/02/28/how-cloud-utility-computing-are-different/
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_52/b4064048925836.htm
http://www.gartner.com/it/products/research/cloud_computing/cloud_computing.jsp
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19397/?a=f
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2007/tc20071116_379585.htm

What is RUP?

RUP short for Rational Unified Process is a process for software engineering. Originally develped by Rational Software, Inc. - now acquired by IBM.

RUP focuses on the following best practices:

1. Four major phases in a software development cycle (inception, elaboration, construction and transition)

2. Within each phase RUP allows for iteration and incremental development. this supports refined requirements, risk reduction and results oriented management.

3. Disciplines which group activities by nature. There are nine disciplines defined (business modeling, requirements, analysis and design, implementation, test, deployment, configuration management, project management and environment). These disciplines spread across the four phases of a software project.

4. Manage requirements using tools that support traceability, prioritization, validation and quality management.

5. Develop component-based architectures, where components are primary concepts for design. They are self-contained modules with clear interfaces that can provide a well-defined function.

6. Visually model software using languages such as UML, or SysML. Numerous tools on the market support these languages such as IBM's Rational Suite, IBM's Telelogic DOORS, iRise, Visual Use Case, Visual Paradigm and many others.

7. Verify software quality, especially in the areas of functional, performance and reliability compliance.

8. Control changes to software through a traceable and end-to-end approach.

An Enterprise as a System of Systems

Sometimes it hard to identify whether a system is really a system of systems (SoS) or just a system. INCOSE defines seven challenges that a system engineer could use to identify a SoS [1]. I find two of them of particular value. The first test condition is that each system can operate independently. The second is that each system has a different life-cycle.

Looking at an enterprise we can see that in a well optimized, stream-lined and modular enterprise (as if this exists!) , the various business units or divisions could operate independently. Also we notice that the various programs, services or products offered by the enterprise have different life-cycles.