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Discourse Analysis: study material, references

britbohlinger — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:55:53 +0000

I have received online access to all material for Discourse Analysis (key theoretical, philosophical, and methodological debates), the Open University’s post-graduate course in the Social Sciences programme. It’s a 16 week course at 30 credit points and will be my second last course towards the MA degree, with 3 assignments to be submitted electronically and an exam in April 2010. All material has been provided right at the start of the course in PDFs. Below the links to the study material on Amazon (look inside feature) and material from previous years which vary only in terms of dates from the current presentation.

Wetherell, M., Taylor, S. and Yates, S.J. (eds) (2001) Discourse Theory and
Practice: A Reader. London: Sage in association with The Open University.
Discourse Theory (Reader) on Amazon (search inside)
This reader contains a collection of articles by Stuart Hall, Erving Goffman, Nikolas Rose et al.
Wetherell, M., Taylor, S. and Yates, S.J. (eds) (2001) Discourse as Data: A Guide for Analysis, London: Sage in association with The Open University.
Discourse Data (Workbook) on Amazon (search inside)
Study Guide (PDF, opens in new window) which outlines the learning outcomes and the teaching strategy
Study Calendar of 2007, PDF opens in new window.

There is also a specimen exam paper delivered online but not made accessible to the public by the Open University, further a number of exam papers from previous years available on the OUSA Online Store for purchase. Moreover, preparation notes, a guide for submitting electronic assignments (time of submission will change in December from 12am to 12noon) and the assignment booklet itself.

Further required readings:

Fairclough, N. and Wodak, R. (1997) ‘Critical discourse analysis’ in van Dijk, Teun A. (ed.) Discourse as Social Interaction, vol. 2, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: Sage, pp. 258–84.
Locke, A. and Edwards, D. (2003) ‘Bill and Monica: memory, emotion and normativity in Clinton’s Grand Jury testimony’, British Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 42, part 2, pp. 239–56.
Pomerantz, A. and Fehr, B.J. (1997) ‘Conversation analysis: an approach to the study of social action as sense making practices’ in van Dijk, Teun A. (ed.) Discourse as Social Interaction,vol.2, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: Sage Publications, pp. 64–91.
Potter, J. (2005) ‘Making psychology relevant’, Discourse and Society, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 739–47.
van Dijk, Teun A. (1992) ‘Discourse and the denial of racism’, Discourse and Society, vol. 3, no.1, pp. 87–118

XHTML

waltermoorecanada — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:31:16 +0000

Updated 2009-11-25
Most development software now codes XHTML compliant tags. There are many smart phones that require XHTML to display properly. Welcome the XML world. Was it really that bad?

Published 2003-03-31
XHTML is the evolution of HTML. The concept is simple… Make HTML documents into an XML compliant document.

Why should I convert?
XHTML is the “new” HTML and many new devices require compliance. XHTML applies strict rules which enforces standards. XHTML can be used as XML. The only choice you have is when… this is inevitable.

Why not?
If you only intend to support PC type platforms with standard browsers there is no value in converting. Every page in your site will have to be converted with no visible improvements… How do you justify the costs. You may be able to wait until your web development tool automatically generates XHTML compliant code. If you do not intend to support PDA/Phones there is no reason to convert.

Problems….
Virtually all web tools at the moment write standard HTML. After converting documents all future HTML edits will have to be reviewed for XHTML compliance manually until your tools write XHTML. In XHTML ALL tags must have a closing tag(<p> must have </p>). In XHTML tags that do not have closing tags must end with a “/” symbol(<br> must be <br />). This includes meta tags as well..
Even if you are diligent and always provide closing tags in your HTML you will have to do many adjustments. All tables must have a TBODY tag. All tags and properties must be in lowercase. Inline CSS & Script encapsulated in comments must be in a CDATA block. These are just some of the more common issues. If you use strict XHTML, style properties only exist in CSS and will require even more adjustments. I recommend you review W3C standards for XHTML at http://www.w3c.org/

How to Convert
There is a lot more than most people think to convert DHTML to XHTML but I have found some good cheats…
There are several tools out there that will automatically convert DHTML to XHTML. I strongly recommend you use these rather than manually adjusting your HTML. You can convert the core site pages immediately then convert the rest as time permits. For tools you can use http://cgi.w3.org/cgi-bin/tidy that provides an online solution or you can download WebMatrix from http://www.asp.net/. I think Tidy provides the best implementation. There is a version of Tidy you can download and run from your PC… look on W3C site.

No matter what you decide, start writing all new documents with XHTML standards. It will save you having to re-write them later. That said you might notice this document is NOT XHTML compliant. I intend to convert the entire demo site at one time so I am waiting till then…

Which coding language to use?

waltermoorecanada — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:32:29 +0000

Updated 2009-11-25
My how things have changed. Java appears to be going the way of OS/2, Microsoft is now .NET instead of ASP, and many unix servers are using PHP(even some Windows servers). XHTML and XML are both extensively used. Netscape is gone and replaced with Firefox. Smart phones have finally replaced WAP. DIV and SPAN tags are the predominate tags now. Many more servers are now Windows based instead of Unix. .NET is dominant in large business sites. Browsers are all over the place and then there are smart phones. I expect everything to change to video/3D over next 10 years so don’t spend too much time on this stuff At this time I prefer the following:

.NET for server. Can be C#, VB, PHP, Python or other language but .NET handles various browser issues(mostly).
CSS – now the standard. Actually standards are recommending all layout should be in CSS format and not included in HTML tags.
JavaScript – The standard for years.
Ajax or similar – dynamic communication as well as saving bandwidth.User gets virtually instant responses.
MySQL – for databases. Open source.
Flash – for dynamic graphics sections.
Look into video and 3D tools – I see most sites going to interactive video/3D instead of text.

Updated 2001-02-15
Well, if you consider that AOL is a version of Internet Explorer(IE) then IE version 4+ now controls 85%+ of the browser market. Microsoft owns 98% of the operating systems. With this combination it should make your decisions easier. Now the potential to use VBScript, ActiveX etc. is feasible on the Internet. Is XHTML or XML going to win? Not sure, probably neither. Each is the “new” language that will allow everyone to communicate together… heard that before??? CSS is here to stay. It will be improved but it is a base for layouts to come. WAP is not going away for awhile… bandwidth may change that so I would not invest too heavily but it is necessary for several sites(like stock brokers, banks…) right now. You can trash all the tables and start using DIV and Span tags. Java is actually gaining ground since more powerful computers and faster bandwidth are available. Microsoft owning everything defeats the one real benefit of Java though. There is always going to be the next language that will solve everything for us… we buy it then figure out it can’t do ???? that the other product could. These of course will be solved in the next version…;-).
A big step is Netscape’s support of standards. Now if we could get Microsoft to do the same and drop that *&*%$# document.all method we could really get grooving. It might surprise many of you to know that Netscape6 is a better standards based browser than Explorer5.5. Explorer is much more forgiving for developers where Netscape is strict.

Published 1997-09-25
For Intranet(because of it’s controlled concept) I would use Microsoft^® supported languages exclusively. These would include DHTML, CSS, Jscript with server code mostly in ASP files. Limited use of VBscript, ActiveX and JAVA. This of course won’t work if you are an OS/2 shop but will work for MAC and some Unix operating systems.

For Internet I prefer to recommend more platform independent languages at this time. Unfortunately many languages are needed to truly develop a site. Unless you use at least some of the capabilities specific to the browser you limit your potential gains.
DHTML is now a must.
JavaScript(Jscript) is best for scripting simply because both browsers support it(sort of).
Pure JAVA is best for advanced requirements but is limiting and slow(this is improving very quickly).
CGI is still my choice for server side code but only because most servers are still Unix. If you can, I recommend using other languages(VB,C++,REXX, whatever).
Cascading Style Sheets(CSS) for those with requirements for specific positioning of elements. Or at least extensive use of small tables(large ones are slow to load).
All above can support both Netscape^® and Microsoft^® browsers if designed correctly.
After all that is said, I have found you need ALL languages above to provide the client with the best solution. More importantly, how(or if) they work on different browsers.

Title Parameter

waltermoorecanada — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:54:29 +0000

Updated 209-11-24
Notice no one uses the status bar for help anymore. It used to be used on almost every site. Everyone now uses the Title parameer or new custom modules that perform these yellow popups allowing very complex displays rather than the simplistic text display available with the Title parameter…some even look like the classic “balloon help”. I suspect that these more advanced help module concepts will eventally make it into HTML standards(maybe reference a section of the page like a DIV or snippet of code as the title parm). I have been noticing that sometimes the help flashes on/off when movong over plain text that is in a SPAN with a title parameter. Quite frustrating.

Published 2000-09-02
The title parm is now available in both IE3+ and NN6+. What is it for? It provides those little pop-up help tips when you move the mouse over something. In previous NN browsers this was only available for pictures(Alt parm). This help is now available on ANY tag. For example, move your mouse over this text. Notice the pop-up help appears. Move the mouse over IE3+ or NN6+ to get a better idea of a more common usage. Another reason I supported NN6.

Title is what help should be. None of this writing to statusbar. Clients do not have to look anywhere, help hits them over the head. I had created a Form 7 process for IE3(only) that did the exact same thing before this was built in. This site is changing to exclusively Title help.

How do you do it? Simple, just put TITLE=”What you want to say” on virtually any tag.

I have more stuff on this in How To demos at my website.

IFrames... What Frames Should Have Been

waltermoorecanada — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:49:13 +0000

Updated 2009-11-25
Iframes are everywhere now. Unfortunately they are being abused by advertisers. They are still a great solution and have provided me with numerous benefits. Still no autosizing capabilities ;(

Updated 2002-01-07
My demonstration site uses IFrames exclusively. Without them there would be no “FloatAway” toolbar. Now if they only had an automatic resizing and true transparency… Never satisfied

Published 2000-09-02
Ever use a frames design? Restrictive aren’t they? You can’t have a frame anywhere you want. A frameset document is a particular type of document. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a frame anywhere you wanted in a window. Wouldn’t it be nice to have frames that can be moved around the window at will? That is what IFrames improves on the old frames(among other things).

The biggest drawback with using IFrames was that they were only supported on IE3+. Not anymore. Netscape V6 now supports them. It is not quite as complete as IE’s version but still it is a major step forward.

Their biggest advantage is they allow a developer to create a site with multiple small windows interacting…just like many Windows applications. This is really cool and opens up the potential for a true client server model on the web.

Don’t get me wrong, frames are great. This demo site still uses frames because when making a simple 3 frame page the Frameset means you do not have to code for resizing and other weird things. I could have used IFrames, but they are not best for this particular site. I do use them on sites that need more complex interaction between many frames.

If you have a choice and you only need to support IE and NN6 think about IFrames. There are a lot more possibilities once you use them.

About Channels

waltermoorecanada — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:30:11 +0000

Updated 2009-11-24
Nobody talks about this technology anymore. Has been replaced by RSS.

Updated 1999-02-25
Well this technology really hasn’t been used much yet. Most of the sites mentioned below do have their own channel but it is a waste for most sites.

Published 1997-09-25
Cool, but how many sites do you want updates from that often? Big value to specific industries(like stock, weather, etc.).

About DHTML

waltermoorecanada — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:14:01 +0000

Updated 2009-11-24
The new standard is XHTML. This new standard just enforces strict rules on DHTML. Forces every DHTML tag to have an end tag. DHTML has been great and has been a valuable tool. It has been a great technology investment.
Published 1997-09-25
Dynamic HyperText Markup Language(DHTML) adds zest to your pages. Finally, they have opened the object model. Now you can code for just about anything. It really isn’t anything new. You could dynamically change things before but you were extremely limited in the objects you could manipulate. All that has changed. DHTML allows you to change anything, you can have layers, redraw a section of screen at will, make animation without gif89a, and lots more. In addition the pages can work with older browsers easier than before. As a technician I think this is excellent. I am having fun learning all the new options.

Net Security

waltermoorecanada — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:04:46 +0000

Updated on 2002-08-28
OK, this is really getting out of hand. Things have gotten so bad I physically disconnect my cable internet connection when not in use. Even though I am only connected 2-3 hours per day lately my firewall shows I am getting port scanned at least 3-5 times a day. Plus the hundreds of other attack attempts per day. I use dynamic IP but it makes no difference… there is no place to hide when scanners are being used.
Everyone seems to have lost focus on this issue. The problem isn’t the “software”. The problem is someone abusing the software. Blaming the software is like blaming Ford because someone intentionally crashed their car into a wall. It is not possible for a manufacturer to stop potential abuse of a product.
Unfortunately in the virtual world a reasonable hacker can make it impossible to trace them so there is no punishment. One solution seems to be removal of “anonymous” surfing. This is not something I want to see happen! I also see it creating a whole new set of problems.
We need a central security net to stop the most predominate attack methods. These include things like port scans, IP scans, spoofing, denial of service to name a few. We have to tighten security then punish those that would attack us, not those that enable us to do wonderful things.

Published on 1998-03-03
There are a lot of security issues being brought forward lately regarding both Netscape and Microsoft browsers. This should not be surprising. Both have enabled you to have a dramatically improved browsing experience. A major disadvantage of enabling features is that there is always going to be someone figuring ways to abuse the features. This does not mean we should all pack up and leave the net. It does however mean that we should keep ourselves informed about potential risks and possible protection. I am surprised by the number of people that have very little understanding of security on the net. There is no place that is 100% secure. Not the net or even your house. If someone wants to get to you badly enough they can find a way.
There are several things you can do to make your browsing safer. I have two Dhtml demos that show you what can be detected by the server and browser. Everyone should check the server detected page at least once. You probably are not affected but you should make sure.

Microsoft® versus IBM®

waltermoorecanada — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:29:50 +0000

Published 1997-09-25

I was around when IBM^® was the only good large system in town. At first, they
were great. I supported no other vender. No one was as good as IBM^®. Support
was excellent. Alas, all good things have to come to an end. Other vendors got better and cheaper than IBM^®. Then things got nasty. I remember IBM^® stating
that if we put any other vendors hardware on the floor they would not support us. There
were many, many times IBM^® flexed it’s muscle. After all, why should they
support those little guys, they were the only vendor in your shop and early times saw many companies shy away from other vendors. IBM^® eventually lost.

Very early in 1995 IBM^® sold their hype to a company. Said that Windows95 was
never going to work. Of course, NT was still a joke(but for some unknown reason people
were switching to NT). They had information Microsoft^® couldn’t get Windows95
to multi-task. They said there were numerous stability problems. No Windows3.1 software would work. That’s only a few reasons why Windows95 was delayed. OS/2 was the way to go. Only OS/2 could do everything and do it now. Besides the company already had 1,500+ workstations from IBM^® that required OS/2 for an IBM^® application
previously acquired. Of course the company bought it, after all it is from your trusted
vendor. Now the company is trying to figure out how to get out of the mess. IBM^®
bet their PC operating system(OS/2) on JAVA, ignored the competition and lost.

With all above and their slowness to adapt, sorry, IBM^® has lost my
confidence.

In my opinion IBM^® and Microsoft^® are where they should be in the
PC market. Microsoft^® has clearly demonstrated they adjust to the clients, not
the other way around. Microsoft^® is not perfect or even close, but compared to
IBM^®, they are noticeably better. Microsoft^® PC products are more
stable and robust than anything IBM^® offers. Microsoft^® understood
Keep It Simple Stupid(KISS) does not mean your client is stupid(just the opposite). IBM^®
built for technicians in tech-ease(complex technical junk) that few understand. Yes OS/2
can do things that Windows95 can’t, but so far not one of those things have been important
to me. Things that Windows95 does that OS/2 does not(like run new programs) are very
important to me!

I have no doubt that Microsoft^® will flex it’s muscle at different times and
make us all unhappy but someone is always going to be the leader. Eventually Microsoft^®
will get tagged with monopoly and have to split up anyway. For some reason(beyond me) that
hasn’t happened yet. Personally I don’t care. I decide on best product, which in the case
of numerous software is not Microsoft^®. Microsoft^® has one major
drawback, if the top CEO’s died would they recover? On the other hand if these two settle
their fight it could work out to both companies advantage, and screw the rest of us at the
same time.

Rapid Application Development(RAD)

waltermoorecanada — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:34:00 +0000

Published 1997-09-25
Rapid Application Development(RAD) is tools and methodologies. Here are a few opinions on both.

I have been using RAD tools since 1995 but have used the methods long before there was a name “RAD”. I have seen RAD benefits and abuse. Whether you like it or not it is today’s development platform.
I have created a short list of things to keep in mind when you step into RAD. They include requirements, benefits, disadvantages and a summary. In no way should this be considered a complete list.

Requirements:

Excellent leadership. Somebody has to point the technicians in the right direction and let them go.
Top skilled technicians. If you don’t have the motivated people to do the work it won’t get done. They also have to understand business requirements and be able to interface with clients.
Supportive infrastructure. This is two sided. You have to inform others of change ASAP, others must be co-operative in supporting your goals.
Co-operative clients. Some clients want everything yesterday or do not calculate business value.
Everyone has to “buy in” to the process. It requires extreme dedication by all involved.
Best tools for the environment. Because a tool is great does not mean it is best for your site. On the other hand the environment should be open in structure to allow the best tool.
Compensate staff. If you don’t recognize these achievers you will loose your most valuable asset, your staff. Make sure no one steals your investment!

Benefits:

You get business benefits very fast($$$$).
Time boxing really allows you to focus on deliverable components.
Due to factors like iterative development more client satisfaction. Clients are involved from beginning to end.
If done right you work out more initial requirement bugs before installation.
You reduce the moving target syndrome.
Focalizing data into one view instead of many screens.
RAD’s usual focus is on high return developments. Usually related to the financial sectors of the business. In my experience 10-1 payback in first year is easily obtainable.
Reusable objects make future developments even faster.
Did I mention very FAST and very high client satisfaction.

Disadvantages:

It is like college development projects. You would produce something that performed the required functions, looked good, but usually was not the best quality. Due to time constraints you submit what you have accomplished and take credit.
The client usually gets a shell of what they want with several sections to be added in future projects(if you get to them).
Poor leadership can result in projects failing to achieve objectives.
If the technicians are low skilled you will never achieve objectives. Regardless of leadership.
It burns out good technicians at an alarming rate.
Because RAD is usually used on projects that have never been attempted many “work around” coding methods are used.
Initial project requirements are usually under estimated.
Time boxing makes technicians compromise on solutions.
The target still moves, just faster.
Client expectations go through the roof. Suddenly they can’t wait six months. Even though before RAD you told them two years or more.

Summary:

Sounds pretty negative doesn’t it? Surprise….
RAD can be great for your business. Although it has some drawbacks the return on investment(ROI) can’t be beat. Time boxing is a mandatory element(unfortunately)! If you use top notch leaders and technicians, keep them happy and make sure no one steals them without a fight you can reduce the disadvantages dramatically.
Using the methodology and tools for Internet development is a logical evolution of the client server model. Recommend you implement Object Oriented(OO) methods regardless of tools. Make it challenging, rewarding and above all, FUN!
Something to think about….
You look at a piece of machinery. It cost $2,000,000 and maintenance will be another $2,000,000 a year. It saved or makes $10,000,000 benefits each year and will last five years before you dispose of it. Would you buy it? Would you be happy? Probably, 500% ROI per year would make most of us happy.
Now, you have employees, some who have produced solutions that either saved or made the company $10,000,000(plus subsequent years). Would you pay them $2,000,000 per year? I doubt it. If they are lucky they get a bonus and/or a raise of $5,000. What is the difference? You made an investment and got back the same return either way.
The opposite is true as well. If the machinery keeps breaking down or not performing it’s function you replace it.
I know it is not feasible to compensate at this level but doesn’t the compensation most companies give seem inadequate. Loosing good investments because you won’t pay an extra $10-20,000 just doesn’t make sense. The costs just trying to find another good employee would be substantially higher(plus training etc.). In my experience good employees produce 5-10 times the average employee(more for below average). They are extremely valuable assets. Treat them that way. If they are good, your payback is worth it.
The key truly is the people.

About Ultra RAD

You heard it here first. That is because I have termed this type of development. It is different than RAD in that it is specifically designed for projects that take less than 5 months. Once you have implemented several RAD solutions using OO methodologies many new projects suddenly can shift from 6-8 months to 3-6 months. Although the tools are the same the methodology changes. The process is streamlined even further. Timelines are tightened. Reusable objects are a must.

Méthodologies

Groupe Etudiant pour l'Expertise du Développement — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:33:22 +0000

Voici les méthodologies auxquelles nous nous référençons pour construire notre étude. Les deux que nous utilisons principalement sont F3E et celle de Daniel Neu (GRET).

Nous vous invitons à les consulter et laisser vos impressions, avis, critiques…

methodo mje f3e

fiche methodo F3E

guideImpact daniel neu

FICHE METHODO daniel neu

Guide de réalisation Etude Impact Environnemental

Tdr évaluation PASEP 2008

bonne lecture

Decision Tree Analysis ll

idkitana — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:40:46 +0000

Cross ref from Ray’s post at http://www.tradingsuccess.com/blog/

BarroMetrics Views: Decision Tree Analysis II

On Friday I introduced the Decision Tree Analysis I used to move up my stop. Today, I’ll go over the thinking process that led to the decision.

To do this, I need firstly to explain my spreadsheet:

The Xls will identify the favoured option by calling it ‘True’ and the other options ‘False’.
The percentages of pairs e.g. ‘Goes Up’ and ‘Goes Down’ have to equal 100%. Where I don’t make them so, the Xls will make it for me. (See Fig 1).

Ok let’s now look at each of the pairs:

The three choices facing me were outlined on Friday.
In the Tree, I have limited to two to keep the blog simple to follow.
If I stayed in the trade:
I felt that given the price action of Tuesday and Wednesday (See Forum), the QM had a 70% chance of moving down on Thursday.
If I stayed in and the market went up, I assessed that there was a 50-50 chance of my hitting the calculated target at 95. If the QM did get to 95, my profit would be $82k. I would suffer no loss if the QM went up.
If the market went down and I were stopped out, I’d lose $12000 and I have no profit.
If I exited the trade on Wednesday’s closing price:
If I exited and the market went up, I’d make $6000 and if it went down, I’d lose (82,000 – 6000) $76K.
If I exited and the market went down, I’d pocket $6000.00 and lose nothing.

On these assumptions, the better course would be to raise the stops.

On Thursday, the market did fall. The extent of the fall in terms of price and volume generated a new set of assumptions and here the best course was to exit on Thursday’s close. The Forum describes the current strategy.

FIGURE 1 Spreadsheet

FIGURE 2 S&P Cash

diagrammatic-writing-up method

sheilapontis — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:21:37 +0000

Last Wednesday I attended to one of the RNUAL lectures (UAL) about how to approach writing up problems (essays, papers, chapters, thesis). As a first general conclusion, to approach this problem, the best strategy is to have a clear framework –a plan? – as a starting point. This means, to know exactly what to write and discuss, before start writing and writing without having a define direction. For this, the selection and organisation of raw material is essential.
One of the methods introduced during the lecture was to organise the material/information in columns.

3-column-structure method. This method groups similar information in each column and enables to see new connections between the data. Black lines represent clear data connections, while dot lines represent new data connections, seen as a result of visualising raw material.

I called this method 3-column structure as it classifies raw material in three interconnected columns in a quite useful and clear manner.

So, a possible starting point can be the definition of the main themes (of the chapter/of a paper/of an essay). These are the themes that are key for a subject and that can be used to structure a piece of writing. That is to say, the most relevant issues that will be discussed and explained.

After this, as a second stage, it is important to select the authors related to those themes. This means, who has said/written something significant about that themes. Besides the authors’ names, quotations can also be included into this category. Ideally, each theme should match with one or more authors from the literature and practice review.

A third and last stage would be focussed on defining the specific things of the previous selected themes I would like to write about. For things are understood the individual elements that composed a theme, such as key terms, projects or interviews.

Information/raw material can also be classified following a different stages order. For example, starting with the selection of things and leaving the themes for the end. Or by identifying key authors and then matching them with their main themes and terms. The order of the stages depends on the subject being analysed and the kind of text that has to be written.

Different approaches that the 3-column-structure method can be applied. The stages order depends on the kind of material and the purpose of the task.

In addition, it is important to notice that it was also highlighted during the lecture the importance of using diagrams and mind maps as a way of organising information. This is one of the reasons that this 3-column structure method is useful: it visualises the collected material, emphasising and ordering the important points. Moreover, these diagrammatic structures also show how different parts or components are related and enable to see new points of view that with a traditional organisation (or without it!) are not seen so clear.
Once again, this method shows how powerful tools diagrams are for organising and visualising complex information.

Following this (or any other) way of organising information, as a result ideas and thoughts will be also organised, and the task of writing up (or any other!) would be easier, as there is a previous plan.

Decision Tree as a tool of analysis

idkitana — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:47:41 +0000

Cross ref: Ray Barros on

Decision Tree Analysis

Published in November 21st, 2009

BarroMetrics Views: Decision Tree Analysis

At the end of trading on November 18, I wrote in Video/Forum service:

“The CPI came in within expectations and the market produced a Neutral Day response, both in terms of bar charts and in terms of the Market Profile.

Against the current structure:

A Ranking of ‘0′ (see Nature of Trends) and
The market having attained 78.6% of AB i.e. at a point where Crude could return to the Primary Buy Zone

we have amber signals that I cannot ignore. This is especially true of the R0 structure since if correct will produce a very strong move up.

The question is how best to protect the position? The profits have not covered the cost of my stop; and while amber lights are on, there are insufficient reasons to exit. So, I’ll raise my stops to just under 76.37 (the start of the directional move).”

I received an e-mail asking how I arrived at my decision. At close of trading on Nov 18, my Crude Oil longs had:

Open profits of $6000.00
An initial stop of $12,000
The strong possibility that the market would move down.

In response, I felt that I had the choice of :

Doing nothing
Exiting enough of my positions so that the stop would be covered by the remaining contracts
Raising my stops
A combination of the above.

In this type of context, a ‘go, no-go’ situation, I like to use a decision-tree analysis.

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll reduce the options to ‘doing nothing’ or ‘exiting all’. In this blog, I’ll show and explain the Decision-Tree. On Monday, I shall explain my thinking.

Figure 1 Decision Tree

As Figure 1 shows, I took the view that whichever option I took, the market could respond by either moving up or down and in moving up or down, I could make a profit or a loss.

Based on the figures I in-put into the spreadsheet, the better option was to stay in. In the decision, staying in and raising my stops was what I decided to do. On Monday, I’ll explain my thinking processes.

How distributed analysis helps building the right context

calameda — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:57:02 +0000

After many years in working on software projects I realized that the most common reason of misunderstanding the design of an application is the lack of context or to be more precise, the lack of a shared context among the participants to the meetings.

The chance of working with a distributed team according to the CalAgile approach highlighted the need of clarifying this aspect. According to this approach a representative of the software consultancy firm kicks off the project at the customer’s premises by setting up communication channels between the customer’s business-oriented team and the remote software-development team. This kind of organization requires a continuous rethought of the customer’s needs as the representative actively reports to the team the model they should build.

Reporting through remote tools like instant-messaging requires a particular care in explaining the logic of the software system in construction. The interactive nature of such tools heavily pushes towards a shared logic model understood by all the components of the team. A set of cause-consequence steps automatically springs from this kind of discussions as the lack of physical interaction lets participants concentrate on the pure inner workings of the system.

Given these circumstances, the need of a properly defined context becomes compulsory and it is interesting how this “forced” state positively backfires to the business team itself that sometimes discovers flaws into its model, sometimes finds out new opportunities and even more, sometimes leads to optimized solutions that had not been devised yet. And now, following this path, we come to the need of a definition for a shared context: the axioms of a shared context are first of all a common understanding of the terms used; second there should be a clear definition of the starting points, how the system to be modeled comes into existence and this is usually achieved by finding out roles interacting with it; third is the goal the system wants to reach.

The points above could be interpreted of something quite common when doing the analysis of a software project and they actually are. The angle I’m trying to point at here is to consider them always during meetings both in the face to face ones and in the remote ones. There is often a natural tendency to fall into a whirlpool of sentences during these meetings and it often turns into a game of building an unbalanced pile of items kept standing only by misunderstandings of a few and the ignorance of others. Let’s try to build a solid system starting from some solid foundations.

To be or not to be... agile

shuje — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:35:46 +0000

Whatever happened to Agile? Remember when it was the IT word du jour? The focus of our industry seems to have been shifted to other hip terms and topics: social networking, cloud computing, the browser wars, the mobile OS wars, green IT, slow IT, etc. Anyway, since I started this blog only recently, I’m going to pretend it’s still a hot topic and ramble about it a bit.

Having worked almost all of my professional life for outsourcing firms I’ve seen clients fall in love with the concept of agile, but not be truly prepared to deal with it in one or more ways. More often than not, their projects failed in at least one aspect (budget, timeline, product quality) or simply crashed and burned.

Agile is not a silver bullet. Nor is it the source of all evil. It’s just a methodology, and as such it should be used if the project calls for it. If you had to chop down a tree you would not use a screwdriver, but an axe or a saw. Unless you are Chuck Norris, in which case you would probably just glare at the tree and it would fall of its own will.

The IT world is full of stories of Agile projects gone awry, which leaves all parties wondering if Agility is not a cleverly thought out pyramid scheme. Most of those cases started out with an environment that called for a different approach and people unwilling or unable to detect it.

There are a number of factors that must be weighted in order to decide if a project is agile friendly. I can think of the following:

Budget constraints: If you are about to undertake a project you could opt for agile if all parties agree upon a flexible budget. Fixed cost projects are not agile friendly. When doing outsourcing your client will love the concept of agility, but he will not always be willing to pay for it. The same applies for the internal client (i.e. the business) if you run the IT department of a company.
Time constraints: Time boxing + agile = train wreck. Just as with budgets, you cannot set a strict deadline on a grassroots agile project. Instead you can wise your client to the fact that he will be able to progressively converge on the end date, with more visibility than that of traditional approaches, but still, it is pretty much impossible to have a clear view of the end line at moment zero.
Client culture: The older and bigger the company, the more rooted its methods are, and the more difficult it will be to convince them of changing ways. This cultural inertia will probably make them a poor candidate to adopt agile methods. In these cases gradually introducing some agility will work best than going from dinosaur to gazelle in zero seconds.
Requirements’ stability: The more volatile the requirements of the project, the more justified is using an agile method. The key is to determine a coherent way of measuring volatility. A note: While the previous elements were potential deal breakers on their own, this one is more of a complementary variable. For instance, if a client has no idea of what he wants but still has a fixed date and money, you should steer clear of agile, whereas if culture, money and budget check ok but he has a great requirements specification, you could still opt for doing the gig in an agile manner.
Project characteristics: No matter what analogies you might have read… Please do not build a bridge using agile methods.
Client Participation: The whole point behind agile is having the client steer the wheel so the project can deliver business value fast. The client should participate on a regular basis in stand up meetings, or frequent update sessions; alternatively someone on the team could be empowered to act as his proxy. If none of these occur then you might want to consider other options.
Business value: Will an iterative incremental approach deliver business value faster? This one might be another complementary decision item. If the answer is yes then agile will probably be a better approach, if the answer is no, then you could go either way depending on the other factors.

You should only use agile methods after conducting a positive health check following the above items and / or other factors you consider relevant in order to make an informed decision. Shush the extremists… don’t let anyone pitch you agility is hip, that it’s a unique and sexy lifestyle, the solution to all problems or a recipe for success. This is only helping accumulate failure cases.

An end note and my personal standpoint regarding this: Traditional development as we know it will slowly fade away. At least some lean concepts should be introduced in all methodologies. For instance traditional artifacts mixed with sprints, using an agile analysis stage followed by traditional development, whatever blend suits you. Agile was born for a reason: our collective failure as an industry to deliver what the client wanted (or a very low success ratio at least). That is something that cannot be ignored.

Shuje

On my next post: Why selling adult diapers at airports would be a huge success. Thoughts or comments on agile experiences? Post below or send them to shuje@holoom.com

Phenomenal hair and common methodologies of monster vanquishing.*

johnny blank — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:59:46 +0000

(*This blog entry could not have been made without having blatantly taken the juicy clip and poster from the ‘The Daily What’ which can be found over here: http://thedw.us/)

Pop culture has always been about big hair. And hair doesn’t get any bigger than in this next clip.

The guy has cool hair, really cool hair. I like it how it blows so freely in the wind.

And of course it’s a magic clip and song. Close to perfect.

Do yourself a favour and watch it in fullscreen hd with headphones on.

(NB: no embed, so click please the link, then you come back read many happy’s on the most common methodologies of monster vanquishing.)

WeWereMonkeys: Land of Talk – It’s Okay from WeWereMonkeys on Vimeo.

Java, Webcam & Linux

Daniele — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:32:57 +0000

In my opinion, the interaction between real world and computers is one of the most exciting part of software development.

To see the world with an electronic eye and be able to add information to reality creating an augmented reality is really amazing.

One of the fields we are strongly focused at Calameda labs is Augmented Reality.

The first problem to overcome is how to retrieve an image from your webcam. I’m a java programmer and I’m a convinced linux user.

In java, to work with the webcam there is a package named Java Media Framework (JMF).

Java Media Framework has two problems:

Is outdated: I don’t know why but Sun has forgotten about this project and its last update dates back to 2007.
Use video4linux to interact with Linux

I want to spent same extra words to explain better the second point

Linux WebCam Support

Linux provides the webcam support with a kernel module named Video4Linux.

Video4Linux or V4L (for friends) is a hardware abstraction layer for the webcam’s world to applications.

Linux is alive, very alive, and over the years, a new version of the Video4Linux was developed: Video4Linux2 (V4L2 for friend ).

Although v4l2 is integrated into the standard kernel a number of drivers don’t support the new v4l2 API yet, so we’ll likely see v4l and v4l2 coexist for some time.

Obviously v4l and v4l2 is not fully compatible and, since JMF was developed at the time of v4l, you cannot use a webcam that supports v4l2 with JMF on Linux.

In other words if you have a recent webcam that the kernel recognized with v4l2 driver is impossible to use with java with JMF.

This is the situation.

The Solution

Fortunately there is a solution: Video4Linux4Java (now you’re exaggerating with the names:-))

As you can read from the site “Video4Linux4Java (v4l4j) is a GPL’d java package providing simple access to the capture interface of the Video4Linux (V4L) API from Java.”

This library supports both V4L and V4L2 devices and it’s easy to integrate in your java code.

I recommend it and maybe in some future article I will show you some piece of code that uses it.

That’s all Folks.

Daniele

Scrum Gathering in Munich - day 3

calameda — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:03:41 +0000

With this post I’ll complete the series about the Scrum Gathering in Munich. I started the third day of the conference by attending the presentation “Growing Self Organizing Teams” held by Harvey Wheaton of Supermassive Games (http://www.supermassivegames.com). Supermassive Games produces titles for the Sony PS3 and it was founded in 2008. After less than one year the company has already got nearly 60 employees.

Here are some of Harvey’s tips that I found interesing:

Regarding the interaction within a team, words like “he”, “she” or “they” should be avoided when discussing issues: the focus should always be on “we”. There are no culprits, it’s always a matter of cooperation;
It is always good to continuously review the process trying to abstract from the daily tasks and think about them to find out where the room for improvement lays;
Supermassive Games has a very simple hierarchy: there are 3 directors and senior or level associates (software engineers, artists, designers, etc.);

People should be aware that mistakes won’t cause any trouble. If something wrong is going to happen, it will be fixed and the situation that caused it will be analyzed in order not to repeat the error but it is fundamental that people shouldn’t be afraid of trying.

The second presentation of the day for me was “10 contract forms for your next agile project” from Peter Stevens of Sierra Charlie Consulting (www.sierra-charlie.com):

Details about payment and billing should never be left out of a contract. These details should include also bonuses and penalties;
Contracts should clearly specify who are the people representing the parts and what responsibilities they have eventually together with the hierarchical relationships between them in order to be able to escalate in case problems arise;
The definition of “done” should also be clearly stated in a contract. The project will be considered completed only when all points regarding this definition are met;
Be always aware of laws of the country you are operating in: in Switzerland for example, it is always advisable to include in the contract a reference to two specific laws that allow you to be freed from responding with your whole belongings for the contract;
Never ever put the word “etc.” in a contract!

This last presentation was actually split into two parts. The second part was “Raising the bar iteratively” from Regina Muller, a lawyer from Dialexica (www.dialexica.com) describing how Scrum can also be applied to the profession of lawyer. Regina’s presentation was really interesting and among the other things, I now know that in case of litigation there is a very long phase called Document Review during which lawyers read all emails, wikis, contracts and any other documentation related to the case.

This was all from the Scrum Gathering 2009 in Munich. It is really interesting to see how companies are keen to optimize their processes and how Scrum is turning into a more and more tested set of practices allowing companies to reach such a goal. I’m now looking forward to pass all this knowledge to Calameda’s partners…

Poor, transparent tools

Yannick Martel — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:28:21 +0000

Coming back to Tools for Conviviality, I want to share some thoughts on software architectures. Software products and associated frameworks on which we build them are tools. As such, the criteria of choice is usefulness to our goals. They should be servants.

Ivan Illitch advocates that “the simple, poor tool is a humble servant; the elaborate, complex, secret tool is an arrogant master”. How many times have we seen choice of tools which we do not master? Which are “elaborate, complex, secret”, and the more fascinating because they are? Can we mention:

Complex, poorly understood architectures, based on new concepts which are barely understood?
Huge packaged products, which contains the expertise of generations of analysts and programmers, but which you don’t pretend to master in a lifetime?
Sophisticated frameworks, which are supposed to do it all and are the best you can get. But cannot sometimes the best be too much?
Assembly of “best of breed” products, which can turn into “poorest of suite”?

Have you seen these? For myself, I have seen them too many times. With Ivan Illitch, I want to advocate a preferred choice of “simple, poor tools”, which can be mastered and are not too much for our hands, and this apply too well to our software architectures. Thanks to Tools for Conviviality, we have guidelines for selecting them when KISS is not enough. Guidelines which show us how to put at the center the human beings who are going to run, use and rely on them.

Scrum Gathering 2009 in Munich - day 2

calameda — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:31:22 +0000

The first presentation of day 2 was from Patric Palm, one of the founders of Hansoft (www.hasoft.se), the Swedish company behind a product with the same name meant to manage agile and lean projects. The title of the presentation was “Making Agile matter to the bottom line by understanding group dynamics”. An impressing thing is that Patric started Palm when he was slightly older than 20 and I found also interesting his experience in the Swedish military air force.

Second presentation of the day was “Good product owner panel discussion” moderated by Simon Bennet. A very interesting point made during this discussion regarded the prioritization of stories of the same importance belonging to the same Product Backlog but referring to different projects. A simple solution to such an issue is to reverse the question and consider instead what happens if that specific feature is not delivered. Sometimes replying to this question is much easier.

A PO can also work on acceptance criteria. Some POs go to the extent of writing executable tests using Cucumber for example. This gives developers a neat way of understanding the stories. Obviously acceptance criteria has to be matched and integrated with the definition of “done” as it may happen that the acceptance criteria could be met but the software cannot be defined as “done” yet.

Another interesting issue raised during this presentation was the interference of a steakholder into the project by directly approaching a member of the team. The best way to react to such an event should be to simply redirect the request to the Scrum Master that on his turn points the thing out to the Product Owner. The PO eventually would recall the request to the steakholder and clarify its details avoiding in this way opening a conflict that could have further consequences if overlooked.

The third presentation of the day was “Practical tools for Scrum teams” from Gwyn Morfey & Laurie Young of New Bamboo (www.new-bamboo.co.uk). This was for me one of the best presentation I attended at this conference. Gwyn and Laurie managed to keep attention and interest very high with very well prepared gags each time clearly describing the point they wanted to make. Among the interesting tips gathered during this presentation there was the one suggesting Scrum Masters to always remember of collecting contact details of stakeholders in order to keep them informed during the development of the project. If a stakeholder cannot be present at a demo, the SM could take care of recording a video about it and sending it to the him.

A very interesting idea about how to gain trust from a new customer for a project based on an agile methodology is that where a certain time frame is offered by the consulting firm until a specific set of base features is implemented. The customer is expected to pay only if he is satisfied with the result and from then on he will be paying regularly for the sprints the project will require. At the beginning the risk is taken by the consulting firm in its entirety while once the standard procedure is agreed upon, the risk is shared between consultants and customers. The success rate of such an approach at NewBamboo is very close to 100%.

Some tips about meetings:

Set meetings at odd times such as 9:53AM instead of 10:00AM – the latter is often perceived as sometime around 10:00 while the former transmits an idea of a specific starting point;
Start even if someone is missing;
Allow people to easily write on a whiteboard. Everybody taking part to the meeting should be already equipped with a marker in order to be ready to immediately step in and show to the others his ideas in an effective way;
Use photos of the whiteboard with some descriptive text to create the minutes of meetings. The minutes could be also shown somewhere to act as social objects and give the team a hint about what’s happening in their project.

Gwyn and Laurie ended their presentation with a final pearl consisting in a practical way to show customers why agile is better than a fixed price/fixed time approach: give him a set of requirements in order to build a Lego structure after having inverted the roles and having therefore the customer acting as the consultant and vice versa. It will be clear for the (real) customer that the agile approach is much more reliable than the traditional one… the only doubt from me is about what kind of customer would stand a similar introduction to it!