How one can develop large software products? It is no secret that in practice large and complex software product development has always been independent of the latest technologies. It has its own peculiarities, and requires special methodology.
Researching and analyzing existing approaches to software development, our company wasn’t able to answer very simple questions related to “correct” development of high-quality programs. And it’s no wonder! Nobody can develop common formalized approach to large software product management. For example, one of the simplest questions, we raised in Oxagile, was the question of how to assign “correct” version numbers to issued software. Probably many of you will agree that this question is connected with not only large corporate software, but also with the simplest applications, developed by students and beginners in programming.
In one of the previous posts we introduced the Six Sigma Methodology that is rather widely used nowadays. This post is dedicated to the advantages of this methodology and will help to explain why it’s so popular.
The first and most obvious advantage of the methodology is the rise of profitability at the expense of cost’s cutting down. Thanks to the involvement in the projects thanks to Six Sigma this abbreviation can be rather considerable. Six Sigma allows achieving complete satisfaction of clients. And still it is not all. The companies can calculate their success in a durable perspective, only if can surprise the clients with innovative sentences. Moreover, the companies should improve their activity continuously.
The special attention given in the methodology Six Sigma to the rigidity of the process, to its correspondence to the installed norms, contradicts the innovation which, essentially, is a deviation from the norm. The innovative approach means deviations in production, the redundancy, the unusual solutions, insufficient study – all with what Six Sigma fights. It is necessary to report it to the heads, who decided to introduce this methodology.
There is also one more aspect, rather essential to the heads, which is necessary to remember. Six Sigma – not simply a modification of the old technological methods of quality support; it is essentially new approach for company management. Experts are not inclined to oppose Six Sigma and ISO 9001 (here in Oxagile we work according to ISO, by the way). The number of experts considers a method “Six Sigma” simply as one of the statistical methods of the analysis and measurement of quality that can be used as one of possible ones while implementing ISO 9001. This quality standard orders mandatory application of statistical methods on industrial deviation which is an important part of Six Sigma.
Six Sigma is a methodology for improving the quality of production. It was developed by the company Motorola in the early eighties, and it is successfully applied in many software development companies. The purpose of Six Sigma is to make a product of constant quality with statistically measured estimation of defects, improvement of process for eliminating defects, and monitoring these improvements. Six Sigma is successfully applied for improving the organizations in various spheres.
While it has a successful reputation in big companies with thousands of employees, Six Sigma also may be applied in small design teams. This makes it being used by many small web development teams to improve their processes. The basis of the methodology Six Sigma is made by an estimation of deviations of actual metrics of process from a curve of normal allocation of deviations. If those or other metrics of process are in certain limits of deviations, the quality of process results also remains high. In statistics it is accepted to name a unit of measure of deviations as “sigma”.
On February, 21 the Association for Computing Machinery (acm.org) declared the name of the laureate of the Prize – one of the most prestige science award in the IT sphere. For the first time the laureate of this award was a woman – a 75 year-old Frances Allen. She has worked for IBM since 1975. Missis Allen took part in research-and-development activities in the field of parallel computing, that is used in most computing machinery.
In 1989 г. Allen was the first woman who got oneself into the list of the IBM Fellow – the most prestigious technical status in the corporation.
The example of Frances Allen isn’t the only example of a woman who achieved success in the IT sphere.
Many critics think that the first developer was a woman. Lovelace Augusta Ada King had become a programmer long before the first computers were invented. She was a mathematician and she was interested in the works of Charles Bebbidge who created the project “Analytical engine“ – theoretical footing of the first computer creation. Lovelace translated from French to English the famous work of Menabrea in 1842 and added her comments to it. Her comments to this work were very useful for the science development – there were a lot of methods of practical application of computers and argumentation about entertaining application of computers. Also Ada wrote her own method of Bernulli numbers’ calculation , that is known as the first famous computer program. Ada is the author of such terms in modern programming as subprogramme, circle, working cell and etc.
Here we will have a talk about the most expensive developments in the computer world. People spend a lot of money to invent smth special and spend a lot of money to become an owner of smth special and also the most expensive in its category.
The most expensive computer has been created in Japan. The Japanese government estimates the Earth Simulator’s cost in $400,000,000. Each processor node contains 8 vector processors running at 500MHz with 16GB of shared memory, and the total main memory in the machine is 10 terabytes. The operating system running on the supercomputer is NEC’s UNIX-based OS called “SUPER-UX” which is used on NEC’s SX Series of supercomputers. This expensive computer is used on a wide variety of international projects, most of which are related to atmospheric, climate, and oceanographic simulation.
There were many predictions concerning IT in the network before the advent of 2009. First of all specialists expected to be surprised by the head of Apple, Steve Jobs.
Based on analysts’ predictions in 2009, Apple will please us with the following products:
- A simplified version of iPhone. It’s interesting to see what will be the segmentation of products in this niche from Apple, it already has iPhone and iPod touch, and those both are competing with each other;
- Cheaper MacBook (it doesn’t have a Netbook yet);
- Predictors are expecting a Netbook from Apple. It should be similar to the iPhone with 8-inch screen and keyboard, valued at about $ 900. It‘s expected that the new device will provide access to the Internet, email, media functions, as well as support services and the iTunes App Store;
- The new iPod Shuffle, which will be more compact than the existing device;
- In autumn a new MID from Apple will be presented, which will have a screen size of 7 or 9 inches and will be suitable for viewing media content, web-surfing and using applications from AppStore;
- Perhaps a major upgrade of Apple TV, at least, making this device as a video recorder. Apple is still looking for an opportunity to move the Apple TV from the «hobby» status into something much larger;
- Further development of Mac mini. This product is already beginning to forget. But Apple could start new life into the mini, releasing an improved version that would work with the new Cinema Display, and would allow you to extend the functionality. This could be a very attractive option for people who want something more than the iMac, but less than the Mac Pro;
- Further development of Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). But Apple itself has recognized that this update will not contain any major new user features. Particular attention will be given to the changes in the internal architecture of the OS.
Every year, almost on the 1-st of January, the world’s famous scientists prepare new statistics: what are we expecting in a new year and what will we have in the end?
Last year was good enough for some companies, but at the end of the year the picture was spoiled. The world’s crisis reached our country, too. Many companies were on the verge of bankruptcy, and many of them had to be closed, to safe their finance.
So, what are big companies expecting in 2009?
In a few words:
1. Google will see search share decline significantly for the first time ever
2. However, in the second half of the year, Microsoft will buy its search monetization from the joined company.
3. Apple will see a significant reversal of recent fortunes.
Also, we shouldn’t forget about little companies. In general little companies will struggle for existence and firm competition.
Speaking about us, Oxagile will be ahead of our competitors!
They say that it better to see something once that to hear about it 100 times. Following this rule Oxagile IPTV team has created one more video describing how helpful we can be while answering your business demands!
The time of Christmas holidays has come!
Everybody tries to make these holidays special… Especially it concerns IT companies. All leading IT companies try to make something unusual. For example: go for an outing having different competitions, go for a skiing ramble or just go to the restaurant with all the staff. Oxagile tries to make this holiday very comfortable, convenient and domestic for each employee .
Almost every employee helped to illuminate and decorate offices. And our friendly staff say “goodbye” to 2008 and see 2009 in!
Oxagile web development team wishes everybody Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Let all your dreams come true and all projects be successful. Let the next year brings new ideas and good partners to implement them.
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