Category: Business Process

I had an epiphany this morning in regards to a piece of functionality I’m developing at work. I like to challenge myself, and I find tackling really complicated forms satisfies that need. I have to not only meet the business requirements of saving the data to the pre-determined data model, presenting the forms in a useable fashion so the user feels like they are real forms, but also integrate some of the features Flex/Flash have into that old format.

Forms are typically presented in a linear format, and each filled out form is submitted, with either a success or error, very wizard-like. With Flex/Flash, you have a bunch of added benefits. Flex automatically handles the tabbing (where it’s a pain in the neck in Flash), but both allow ALL data to be saved and created into the data-model in real-time with the added ability to hand that data model off to the server-side in something it can easily understand without the page refresh, something AJAX currently cannot do without a lot of overhead parsing. You can cache the data locally in case occasional/disparate connectivity is an issue, and post later if needed, just like cookies are used in HTML forms, but with the added feature of treating it as a native object; something more easily understood with no parsing required.

Where things really shine, however, is the ability to more easily and quickly create a GUI that matches the designer and architect’s idea of how the interface should be and work. And there-in lies the problem. We developed a really powerful way to obtain some very complex data from the user, which thankfully, they will know ahead of time what type the data is, how it will be viewed, and will have preconceived notions about the verbage of how that data is displayed. This is great because it makes meeting those expectations in the GUI easy, and the client can more easily enter in data the way they want it to… which is why the whole CMS business pays my salary, regardless of employer.

…however, that’s also the problem. Because things are so easy to match, visual designers are given more leeway in their UI, and do not have to worry about technical restraints as much. “Will this design be able to render friendly and degrade in a variety of browsers? Will my vision of how this is supposed to work really be achievable by the front end and back-end developers?”

Naturally, being who I am, my resounding answer is, “BRING IT ON!!!”. And that was my downfall. Give me enough time, and I’ll code anything. Granted, I can see pointless endeavors such as trying to get Flash 7 to render 10,000 records in a DataGrid, even if that means re-writing your own DataGrid. What’s the point? There are more powerful ways to display data than just dumped in a DataGrid, and technical ways to cache and page the data. But as you just read, I still attempted to solve it in a more pragmatic way. Can Flash Player 7 display 10,000 records at a reasonable speed on a reasonable target platform? Yes. Is it worth doing? No.

I have a form at work that is a base class for a bunch of other forms. In 90% of the use cases, it works great. Dynamically allowing the user to create as much data as they want, to be able to scroll through and edit that data quickly is really powerful and makes me proud to create such things with my fellow developers.

However, there is one niche case where it is being pushed beyond a simple form. The data is so complex, that you start to get into a forest for the trees complex. Making a simple, multi-form base to work with extremely complicated forms, each having extremely deep and nested data is a challenge upon itself. And herein lies the divergence: You can either succeed on the fringe use case, and have an extremely powerful way to enter and display complex data for creation & editing in the CMS, or break it down in smaller, more manageable chunks, which will take less time to do, but have less emotional impact. Both satisfy the same overall goal of CRUD operations (Create/Read/Update/Delete), but the former is extremely impressive, showcasing the best of what Flex/Flash have to offer where the later barely beats HTML.

However, there are 2 key factors here which are now abundantly clear; if you satisfy the goal in less time, does it really matter? Yes, we have the potential to really knock this specific piece of functionality out of the park, scoring a homerun impression. However, at what cost? Could we get a lesser effect within an extremely more reasonable timeframe? Yes.

Bottom line, a “well done” for 1 weeks’ worth of work is better than a “NICE JOB!!!” for 4 weeks worth. We as Flex/Flash developers are already showcasing the cream of the crop in form based applications. The temptation for those who are ambitious as well as perfectionists to not only impress the client, but blow them out of the water has a cost. Hopefully I’m getting more pragmatic, or maybe it’s just cynical, but from now on, I’m shooting for what is awesome, but immediately body checking those expectations with the time cost. Does that extra week gain the client anything? Yes, I’m extremely proud of myself after 2 weeks instead of 1, knowing that that extra week paid off in the architecture, but did it pay off for the client, and ultimately the end user?

Translating my time’s development cost, the time estimations for each projected functionality goal, and providing optional solutions is tough, even more so when trying to suppress my natural developer’s urge to “make it cooler”. I guess this is why they call it “learning”.

I work from home 3 days a week, and go into the office once a week, and usually use Friday’s for school and stuff I’ve been putting off for 3 weeks. As such, I spend copious amounts of time on Trillian or the phone interacting with work colleagues.

Last month, my cell phone bill was over $57. I felt that was kind of expensive. Looking at the details of my bill, the culprit was I went over my minutes; I have 500, used 1380.

So, today, I installed Skype with a co-worker, and it works pretty well when your not in the middle of hurricane Daniel (or whoever is the problem child of the week). Free, good quality voice chat, and with my headphones and mic, it’s hands free (co worker has a headset he bought for 24 bucks while I just use my DJ headphones and my default, duck taped to monitor gaming mic). No setup beyond installing a program and filling in your name and you can receive calls which are voice chats from other people on your contact list; like receiving an instant message that you answer. You can use cell phones and landlines, but I’m not paying for that jazz.

We tried to conference in a Java-skillet from Arkansas, but his satellite internet was iffy. We could hear him sometimes, other times it was this hilarious Amy-Amy, Good Gorrilla types of sounds (text to speech elongated [“Congo” Reference]).

Anyway, that should shave off a ton of minutes.

I don’t think these apply just to women. The advice about going to lunch has probably helped 60% of my relationship building with people in various departments in new jobs. Lunch in an informal setting is where you truly get to connect with your co-workers and understand and learn who they are. This strengthens your ability to work as a team.

ALWAYS do this with the IT Administrators as soon as possible; you want them on your side at all times, period.

I disagree with the work less part at the bottom, though; their obviously not talking about anyone involved in technology. I personally cannot learn fast enough to even remotely keep up with the industry.

Anyway, good advice for males here too, and helps to get an understanding of a woman’s perspective about her role in the workplace.

Tips for Women Executives and Managers

Via her majesty.

Via her majesty.

Jakob Nielsen writes about Undoing the Industrial Revolution. I thought it was a good article full of futurist thinking & rhetoric to make you believe what he’s saying things will eventually do or be.

I disagree with his point that people will never really leave work because they are so accessible via communication technology is a positive thing. I’m sure he meant it a lot deeper since he only uses a short description to talk about it. That’s a bad thing for those who don’t have a choice. Stress is the biggest health problem in this country, and it’s only getting worse. Being accessible 24×7 does not facilitate one being able to leave work at work. My dad is a salesman, and although this ability makes him really successful and builds his reptutation as dependable, he’s always on call and at times makes him diffucult to deal with family wise.

However, I cannot deny the positives. I fully agree with his geographically dispersed companies and services. The ability for me to work at home, and provide my talents remotely to a still physically accessible team is great. I save money, significantly reduce wear and tear on my car, gain at least 2 hours of my day back from driving, and have a lot less stress.

It’s nice, too, to hear about the need for colaboration technologies. In my own experience and talking to others, the biggest challenge to getting outsourcing to really work is communication barriers via distance. Time is one thing, but software to help offset that is another. I’m sure as technologies such as Breeze, LiveMeeting, and Convoq’s ASAP mature, we’ll see this improve, but I’m not sure if it will catch up to the point where we need it now, for someone like me at home use and for companies who are outsourcing abroad… or by the time it does, it’ll start an exodus, kind of like how I only work 2 hours away, but then increasing numbers could do that, and eventually remote locations are far more accessible; as soon as such technology successful satisfies our needs, and we in turn adapt to some their new paradigms, if any.

Good article.