U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently granted Microsoft a patent on a “personalized version” of the sudo command with GUI. Sudo is a command that has been in use since 1980’s or even before by Unix and other operating systems to allow running other commands with elevated privileges. For one, why would Microsoft try to patent something like this? Secondly, does USPTO grant patents on anything you ask them for?

We are witnessing a time in the history of technology when there is more free (open source or otherwise) software available than anyone ever cares to know, and it’s increasing at a higher rate than anyone can even keep track of. For any application that one can conceivably imagine, chances are that there is a free alternative out there. Why in the world then a company such as Microsoft would patent tiny things such as sudo commands, especially when they “borrowed” the original idea from elsewhere anyway? On one hand we see companies like Google releasing entire programming languages into open source, and on the other hand companies like Microsoft acquiring patents on simple sudo commands… we live in truly amazing times don’t we!

Groklaw has much more detailed information on this story. You can also find the original Microsoft patent at the USPTO here.

Google just released Go as a new open source programming language that aims to simplify the complex software development model of modern programming languages, especially in the areas of dependency management and multi-threading.

In the works at Google for the last two years, Go was originally developed as a systems programming language but Google would like to see it branched into other areas as well.  By releasing it into the open source world, Google is counting on the huge open source community at large to develop libraries and other utilities for Go that would make it appealing to a much wider audience.

Go is advertised to be:

Fast
Typical builds take fraction of a second

Safe
Memory is garbage collected

Concurrent
Run thousands of lightweight communicating processes without worrying about stack overflows

You can download Go and get more information on it at http://golang.org/

Google Wave – a game changer that will change the very fundamentals of communications and collaboration over Internet as we know it today. If this technology takes off, as I believe it will, tools like e-mail and IM that we have grown to love and depend upon will gradually cease to exist. Other collaboration tools such as discussion forums, social networking, and blogging tools will change dramatically.

If you have not done so yet, checkout the Google Wave preview video here.

It’s not what product you use to collect and analyze web site usage data.  It’s not about counting the page views, click-throughs, unique vistors, or hits.  It’s not even about pretty pie charts, bar graphs, or heat maps.  What web analytics is about is the “process” to collect and analyze usage data in order to gain solid, actionable insight into your customers.  This insight when used properly can easily translate into significantly higher conversion rates.

Avinash’s book explores the essential process of web analytics and how you should use it to your advantage.  It doesn’t matter whether you use Google Analytics or a home-grown software to collect and analyze data (Avinash does tend to favor Google Analytics though), since technology is just an enabler, which will keep evolving. Process, on the contrary, will remain the same for a long time and will keep helping you make better informed business decisions.

Avinash’s book teaches you how to think like a web analyst and how to use both quantitative and qualitative analysis in context to gain actionable insight that can be used to make timely and necessary business decisions.

The book avoids the unnecessary jargon, so it’s an easy read for both technical and business readers alike. The tone is friendly and humble so you will actually enjoy reading it.  Tips, tricks, and techniques mentioned in this book are easy to follow and can be implemented relatively easily.

The book comes with a CD, which includes some useful information, such as presentations and MP3 audio files from the author.

Buy Web Analytics An Hour A Day from Amazon.com

Web analytics is the science of collecting and analyzing your web site usage data so that you can optimize your site for best results. For example, if you analyze the click behavior of your web site users, you can learn how to best place links on your site to encourage most sales. Similarly if you learn about the demographics of your users, you can target marketing campaigns to those demographics that yield most results.

There are several tools that can be used for web analytics. Some of these are paid, while others are free. Below I will discuss some of the most useful tools available.

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the most widely used free web analytics platform. Integration with any web site is as easy as copying and pasting a few lines of JavaScript code into your web pages, and Google takes care of the rest.

There are tons of available features including, automatic integration with Google AdWords for analyzing advertising ROI, benchmarking with industry standards, advanced segmentation, goal-driven reporting, custom reporting, and motion charts.

2. Piwik

Piwik is an open-source web analytics platform created using PHP and MySQL. It closely mimics Google Analytics with pretty much all the major functionality provided by Google.

The big difference is that Piwik is hosted on your own servers, which is great if you do not want to share your data with Google for any reason. Also this allows you to have real-time access to your data, which is a feature that Google still lacks.

Moreover, Piwik is a plug-in based platform, which means that you can easily extend the out-of-the-box functionality by creating new plug-ins. Piwik also provides complete API access, which means that you can consume data collected by Piwik in a non-PHP based application. For example, if I want to create a SharePoint web part that displays the top 3 keywords used to land on my web site, I can easily do that.

3. ClickTale

ClickTale is a unique web analytics tool that records the actual browsing sessions of your visitors in real-time, which you can then view as a video at a later time. Every single mouse movement, click, and keystroke is recorded to recreate the user experience for you to analyze.

ClickTale pricing plans range from free to about $800/month depending upon the amount of activity recorded on your web site.

4. Clicky

Clicky is also similar to Google Analytics in that it provides simple integration with any web site and hosts data on it’s own servers. It provides a clean and modern web interface to access and analyze your data.

Clicky is tailored for small- to medium- size web sites, and provides plans that range from free to $49/month. It has some nice features, such as Google Maps integration, real time statistics, and plug-ins for easy integration with WordPress and other popular applications.

5. Snoop

Snoop is an interesting application that sits in your Windows system tray (system status bar for Mac) and alerts you of events on your web site in real-time. For example, it can notify you when someone makes a comment on your blog or creates a sales order.

At the time of this writing Snoop is still in beta and registration is via invites only. You can register your e-mail address at the Reinvigorate web site to be notified when an invite is available.

There are several other free and paid web analytics solutions out there that help you analyze your visitor behavior and usage patterns so that you can tweak your site or advertising strategy for better conversion rates.  There are also companies that provide more comprehensive solutions, such as Omniture and Unica, that are tailored for large web sites and high-dollar marketing budgets.  For most small to medium sites, however, a combination of free and cheap solutions does pretty well.

Finally a new version of SubSonic was released today with a lot of new features.  SubSonic is one of my favorite Data Access Layer (DAL) generators, that makes it super easy to create data access code.

As a developer you have a lot of control over what the generated code looks like, which is great because I do not like code generators to dictate the essence of my code.  But the beauty of SubSonic is that you never really have to interact with the generated code itself.  It’s automatically generated and compiled for you — you just need to learn how to use it, which is pretty simple.  What’s more, it’s free, and works with not only SQL Server, but also with MySQL, SQLite, and Oracle databases. 

SubSonic was originally started by Rob Conery as an open source project.  Later, Microsoft hired Rob and asked him to continue working on this project.  The latest 3.0 version took about a year to be completed.  According to Rob’s blog following are some of the new features:

A nice Linq engine which parses IQueryable “stuff” into SQL (thanks to Matt Warren’s excellent work with the IQToolkit, which we stole mercilessly).

A templating system which allows you to use ActiveRecord, good old Linq in Linq to SQL style, or whatever floats your boat.

A SimpleRepository which is just about zero-drag and even builds your database for you

A brand-new project site that will hopefully answer the question “is SubSonic dead”? Or probably not

A new docs site that has permanently crushed my ability to type. It’s a wiki so if you feel like being helpful and like SubSonic and want to help… nudge… nudge

Building software is like building a house in many ways.  When building a house, we have to have a good foundation, strong pillars, proper plumbing and wiring, and so on and so forth.  When building software, we need to have a good design, clear and concise code, proper wiring of components, etc.

There is one subtle difference between building software and building a house though.  Usually when we build a house, we rarely make large renovations such as adding a story, moving around walls and windows, putting in a new electrical system, or modifying the foundation. Software, on the other hand, needs to be modified and updated quite often due to changes in business caused by new opportunities, changes triggered by the economy, mergers and acquisitions, and so on.  Life expectancy of a software product is generally between 3 to 5 years before major updates are required.  A great number of software products require such updates much earlier in their lifecycle.

In the world of software something that works is not necessarily something that can be easily modified, extended, or maintained.  General observation is that the chunk of cost of software is not what’s spent on building it in the first place, but what it takes to maintain and extend it over the years.

There are several attributes of quality software.  I will list the most important ones from business standpoint below:

Reliability

Software functions each and every time in a predictable manner.  You can’t afford to have your “Save” button save your documents sometimes but not others.

Maintainability

It’s easy to maintain software.  Fixing a bug, for example, does not spawn another bug.  Or moving your database to another server does not require code changes.

Scalability

Software can easily keep up with business growth and does not require code modifications as the user base or usage grows.  This also goes hands in hands with efficiency, which is another attribute of quality software.

Extendibility

It is relatively painless to add new features.  Also the addition of new features does not break old features.

Reusability

The entire software itself or certain parts of it can be reused to create new software to address other business uses.

There are many other attributes of quality software, for example, usability, security, fault tolerance, etc., hence a lot of thought goes into building a quality product.

The Challenge

When building software, quality is something that is baked in from the beginning, and can’t be sprinkled on top after the fact.  Also creating quality software requires additional time, effort, and possibly investment into proper tools.  This creates an interesting problem for business users and the technical leadership alike: how to balance quality of software with investment that may or may not bring any positive ROI.

There are software development methodologies such as Agile that promise quality software with minimum time-to-market.  The problem with such methodologies is that if not understood correctly and followed properly, they do not yield promised results.  I have come across many companies claiming to use to use Agile, for example, that are only disguising their chaotic software development under Agile’s name.

I evaluate each situation and devise a plan accordingly.  Quality of software is definitely important to me, but having an entrepreneurial mindset, I understand and appreciate business challenges as well.  For experienced technical teams creating quality software even with time and budget constraints is relatively easy.  For teams that are not as experienced, this remains to be a challenge, that often times result in major disasters.

According to the 2009 CHAOS report published by the market research firm, the Standish Group, IT Project failure rate increased in the last 2 years of recession.  No surprise.

According to the report the rate of successful projects that were delivered on-time, within budget, and with the required features, dropped from 35% in 2006 to 32% in the last two years.  Also the rate of failed projects increased from 19% in 2006 to 24% recently, which included projects that were deemed complete failure and either never delivered, or delivered but never used.  The rest of the projects were considered challenged, those that were delivered late, with incomplete features, or went significantly over-budget.

As IT leaders do we see something wrong with this picture?  Keep in mind that out of projects that are usually successfully delivered, some are trivial to begin with, while some others start out with a bigger-than-required budget due to over-estimation.  This consideration drives the rate of success as reported by Standish even further down.

There have been numerous people who have written about how the lack of user involvement, unrealistic expectations, poor requirements, poor design, scope creep, etc. play a role in the failure of IT projects.  I do not disagree, but I think the problem is much more deep-rooted than what is generally pointed out.

I view these high failure rates as a direct result of:

• Incapable IT Leadership; and
• Incapable Technical Leadership

Keep in mind that IT leadership is not necessarily the same as the Technical Leadership.  I consider IT Leadership as high-level IT executives that are aligned with the business, for example, CIO’s, CTO’s. etc.  Technical Leadership, on the other hand, consists of Technical Architects, Solution Architects, and the like.

Lack of user involvement or unrealistic expectations, for example, point straight at the failure of the IT leadership.  IT leaders must make sure that they have proper processes as well as resources in place to involve and educate the users.  They are also responsible for convincing the business one way or the other, and analyzing and mitigating any risks before they become cause for failures.

Similarly it’s the responsibility of the technical leadership to ensure that proper requirements are in place before they embark on their journey of design and implementation, and that their designs actually do address all the business and other requirements.

Whatever the reasons, failure should not be an option.  If a project fails, I believe it’s because the leadership failed to do their job.

With budget cuts that come with the recession that’s still holding strong, as well as the ever increasing complexity of IT projects, I see the rate of success driving even further down the next time the Standish Group publishes it’s CHAOS report.  I really hope that I am wrong, but without a major paradigm shift in the IT and the technical leadership, I really do not see how that would be possible.

Management style is the general way a manager uses to manage his teams.  Some managers use a particular management style because that’s the only style that they are aware of.  More mature managers know different styles and can quickly adapt to any style to their advantage depending upon the situation, the capabilities of their teams, and the nature of tasks that need to be performed.

In this article I will go over the 4 general management styles, and explain how IT managers can best use each to their advantage.

1. Directive Democrat

The manager involves employees in the decision making process, but closely monitors them in the implementation of each decision. 

This management styles works best when your employees are capable of performing the job, but usually require a high amount of support from you.  It also works well as you are starting to get to know your employees and giving them a chance to prove themselves. 

This style of management usually fits most situations, especially in IT, as long as your monitoring practice does not interfere with the work your employees are performing.  There are ways to closely monitor without alienating your employees, some of which I discuss in another article, 5 Steps to Stellar Team Management. 

2. Directive Autocrat

The manager makes decisions unilaterally and closely monitors employees in the implementation of each decision. 

This management style works best when employees are neither willing nor capable of performing the job and require high amounts of support as well as guidance. 

This style of management is also notoriously known as micro-management.  Generally in IT if you come across situations when employees are neither willing nor capable of performing the job, then you have a bigger problem to solve.  Either your employees are incompetent and must be replaced, or there is something that they are trying to tell you but you are not paying attention.

3. Permissive Democrat

The manager involves employees in the decision making process and also gives employees latitude in the implementation of those decisions.  

This management style generally works best when you have mostly senior level employees who are willing and capable of doing the job, and require minimal support as well as guidance. 

As great as this style of management sounds, it can be risky if you do not know your employees well, or lack a long-term working relation with them.  A permissive democrat employee is sometimes viewed by his employees as a slacker, or the one who lacks interest.  Generally in IT this kind of a manager is one who finds himself in a management role but has no or very IT background to be able to guide or support his subordinates.

4. Permissive Autocrat

The manager makes decisions unilaterally but allows latitude in the implementation of those decisions.  

This management style generally works best when your employees require a high level of guidance, but a low level of support.  In other words, they are not sure about what needs to be done, but they are well capable of carrying out any assignments that they are tasked with. 

In IT this style of management is practiced by managers who find themselves in extremely fast paced environments where they can’t afford the time to make collaborative decisions, or when the manager views himself as an IT guru and does not trust his subordinates with influencing decisions.

Over the years I have come across a slew of management styles, some formal, some informal, some great, while others… well you get the idea.  During my own management career I drew upon best practices from my former bosses as well as management gurus in order to come up with something that was effective and yet easy to implement.  Here I’ll share with you a summary of my management style, which is based upon my general philosophy about employees that:

1. They come to work hoping to make positive contributions
2. They work hard if they clearly know what they are supposed to do
3. They are motivated when they feel being part of something bigger than their job
4. They put in their best effort when they feel empowered, are guided, and are provided with the right tools for the job
5. They improve when they are given sincere, honest, and timely feedback 

The following 5 steps I present to you are indented to be a general guideline and not hard-and-fast rules.  Since each team and each environment is unique, you will most definitely have to tweak these steps to best suit your personality, your team, your environment, and the task at hand.  See my article on different management styles for more information.

1. Define Clear Goals

The reason most teams fail in achieving their goals is because they do not have any goals to begin with.  As leaders or managers we must take the time to define and clearly communicate reasonable goals for our teams at regular intervals and track the progress of such goals throughout those intervals. 

One key success factor in achieving goals is to ensure that we pick the right goals.  Goals we choose must be meaningful, move us closer to our departmental or company vision, and should be relatively unlikely to change during the time interval we choose them for.  It does not mean that they cannot be changed at any cost, but if we keep changing goals midstream as a general practice rather than an exception than the whole exercise becomes counterproductive pretty quickly. 

2. Communicate Goals

The way we communicate goals to our teams has a profound effect on the successful realization of such goals.  We must not only make sure that our teams completely understand the goals, but also that they are sincerely committed to achieving them. 

The practice that works best for me is to set “Team Goals” each quarter.  Initially I do not assign any goals to particular individuals.  At the beginning of each quarter, I hold a team meeting to discuss what the goals are, why each one of them is important, gather feedback, answer any questions or concerns, revise some of the goals in the light of feedback received, and finally assign goals to individuals.  Even when I assign goals, I make sure that everybody understands that I am only assigning “ownership”, and that each goal still remains as a “team goal”.  This exercise takes several hours, but yields great results because a) each team member clearly understands our short-term vision; and b) each team member appreciates being part of something bigger than just a set of 5-10 items assigned to them. 

3. Track Progress

Defining and properly communicating goals is only half the battle; realization of those goals is the other half that leads us to the final victory.  First and foremost, we as managers must genuinely believe in the goals we define and be sincerely committed to achieving them.  Then we must help individuals on our teams achieve their goals and promote an environment where team members help one another in the realization of their goals.

Everyday I casually discuss goals that are in-progress with my team members on an individual basis to stay in the loop.  I try to do this without alienating them or making them feel that they are being micro-managed.  I allow them plenty of liberty in how they approach specific problems, but just by holding intelligent conversations sometimes makes them see things that they would have ignored otherwise.  It also helps me to assess any risks as early as possible, and allows me to find opportunities where I can help. 

Then I also discuss each goal and its progress each week with my entire team in our weekly meetings.  During this exercise I deliberately go over all the goals, even the ones that we all know have not been started yet.  This serves as a great reminder to all and keeps everyone on track.  Discussing goals in weekly meetings serves a couple of other essential purposes.  Firstly, it helps with knowledge sharing, which reduces the risk for me in case someone working on an important goal gets sick or gets hit by a truck.  Secondly, it helps the goal owner draw upon collective wisdom of the entire team, making him more confident in decisions that he makes.

The idea that a particular goal is owned by one individual but all team members are stakeholders is usually foreign to many people in the beginning.  However once they give it a shot, they are usually amazed by its power and how sometimes it can literally help achieve the unachievable. 

4. Reward and Celebrate

Managing teams is in some ways like raising children.  You reward them for good behavior, and they will outperform their own selves the next time around; you ignore their positive contribution and they will quit trying out of disappointment.

While small financial rewards can usually go a long way, that’s not the only kind of reward I use to motivate my teams.  When an individual or a team performs great, I make sure that a) they know that they have done something great; and b) they get the due credit for their achievements.  First and foremost, I recognize good performance one-on-one through appreciative and congratulatory dialogue.  Then I proudly highlight any success in our team meetings.  Finally I also look for opportunities to highlight success with external entities, for example though department- or company-wide e-mails. 

5. Analyze Results and Provide Feedback

Human brain is wired such that it learns best from experience.  No matter if the results come out to be phenomenal or pathetic, it’s important for us as managers to provide opportunities to analyze the outcome and learn from our own experience. 

In a meeting at the end of each quarter I take some time to go over our past quarter’s performance and discuss how and why certain things turned out to be better than expected while others left much to be desired.  I conduct this exercise in an open forum where each team member has a chance to speak and enlighten the rest of the team with their viewpoint.  This is a time where great process improvement ideas also come about.  

It is important to highlight anything that positively effected our results, and see if it’s possible and feasible to somehow make it a permanent feature of our process.  More often than not it’s not something that we can formalize, but by discussing it for a few minutes gives everyone a subconscious sense for it which helps in other similar situations in the future. 

One key thing while analyzing negative results is to stay positive, be forward-looking, and encourage our teams to do the same.  There is hardly anything we gain from finger pointing or criticizing external elements.  Where we can potentially gain is in coming up with objective ideas to minimize the occurrence of such negative instances so that future attempts can be much smoother. 

So there you have my 5 steps to stellar team management.  If you implement these steps and gain positive results, I would absolutely love to hear your story. 

Wish you the best and stay tuned for more!