mrc's Cup of Joe Blog

Join us in exploring the world of modern development, evolving technologies, and the art of future-proof software

Year: 2013

New graphs and charts (with demo)!

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AnnouncementI’m excited to announce that we’re bringing improved graphs and charts to m-Power! They’ll be available to m-Power users in the coming weeks, but if you’d like to get a glimpse of what’s in store, head on over to Crazybikes.

While you’ll find the new graphs and charts across many of the applications over on Crazybikes, you’ll see the widest variety on the User-Defined Dashboard demo. Try adding a few different charts, graphs, or gauges to the dashboard to get a glimpse of what the new m-Power charting will look like.

How will this help you? Here are a few ways:
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Weekly Recap: Stupid security mistakes developers keep making, mobile BI strategies, and more…

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EducationEvery week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on stupid security mistakes developers keep making, the new age of real-time architecture, and more. I hope you find them useful:

Data, Legacy Systems, and the New Age of Real-Time Architecture
In a world of instant data–where we can access data from across the world at any given moment–why do businesses have so much trouble with data access? Why are reports so difficult to access in many companies? Why do we still have disparate systems in companies that still can’t communicate with each other? The fact is, these legacy applications were never designed for the world we live in now. They weren’t built for integration. If you’re in this situation, how can you bring flexibility and integration to these legacy systems? My advice: Explore your modernization options.
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Weekly Recap: Stupid security mistakes developers keep making, mobile BI strategies, and more…Read More »

8 big challenges facing CIOs and IT leaders in 2014

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EducationWhat’s the biggest tech trend facing businesses right now? Is it the rise of mobile? BYOD? Cloud computing? Consumerization?

The fact is, you could make a case for any one of them…which highlights the most important point: We’re currently going through a fundamental shift in technology. We’re seeing a number of disruptive technologies converging on businesses at the same time. When combined, these changes create a unique set of challenges for CIOs and IT leaders going into 2014.

So, what are the biggest challenges facing CIOs and IT leaders in the coming year? Perhaps a better question: How can they address these challenges? We asked these questions to other CIOs and IT leaders, and have listed these responses below. I’ve also included a brief tip on how to address each challenge. So, without further ado, here are the biggest challenges facing CIOs and IT leaders in the coming year:
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Pre-registration is now open for a new consulting program

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AnnouncementI’m happy to say that we’ve just opened up pre-registration for a brand new consultant program! This new program gives consultants access to a low-cost, cloud-based version of our enterprise web application development platform, m-Power.

If you’re a consultant, you’re familiar with the struggle of finding new projects. Completing the project is the fun part. It’s the lull between projects that makes consulting difficult.

Small, and one-man consulting operations have an especially difficult job. After all, they can’t afford to hire a marketing and sales to team to bring in business for them. They handle all aspects of their business themselves. The majority of their time is spent either working on projects or looking for new projects.

The problem with this arrangement: In between working on projects and finding new projects, there’s little time to keep your skills current. How can you keep up with the ever-changing technology trends if you spend all of your time working on, or looking for, projects? Why is this such a problem? Because consultants who fall behind the rapidly changing technology curve risk losing out on valuable new business in the future.

Now, larger consultant shops often address these problems with development platforms (like m-Power). This offers a number of benefits, such as:
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Weekly Recap: Hot IT skills for 2014, Blackberry’s demise, and more…

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EducationEvery week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on hot IT skills for 2014, the demise of Blackberry, and more. I hope you find them useful:

Blackberry agrees to sell itself for a measly $5 billion
In a bit of sad news this week, Blackberry agreed to sell itself for $4.7 billion (at press time, though there’s rumblings the deal might fall through), ending the company’s rapid decline over the past few years. If $4.7 billion sounds like a lot of money (which it is), consider that the company was worth $77 billion just 5 years ago.
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7 deadly sins of web application development

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EducationWhat percentage of IT projects fail? It’s hard to say. I’ve seen surveys that put the number at 25%. Others surveys push it closer to 70%. While that’s quite a range, the point is this: those numbers are far too high. Even if it is “just” 25%, that’s still 1 out of every 4 projects. That’s too many.

How can we bring those numbers down? Today, let’s focus on ways to reduce failure for one common project type: web application development projects. In this article, we’ll take a look at mistakes that hurt web application development projects. These are chronic bad habits that turn web application development projects into disasters.

What deadly sins do even the most experienced web application developers make? What common web app development mistakes crop up over and over again? We posed those questions to a few experienced developers and have compiled these answers below. Without further ado, here are 7 deadly sins of web application development:
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What killed the big companies?

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EducationWhy do 70% of the companies listed on the Fortune 1,000 list ten years ago no longer exist today? Inflexibility. They couldn’t adapt to change. In the past, big companies ate small ones. Now, fast eats big.

With that in mind, it’s no wonder that CIOs list legacy modernization as one of their top priorities. Legacy applications aren’t flexible. They don’t quickly adapt to change. As such, companies that rely on these applications lack flexibility, which…kills companies.

Hence, the growing push towards modernization. Application modernization promises flexibility. It frees these companies from the shackles of their legacy software.

The problem: Modernization isn’t exactly straightforward. There’s more than one way to modernize. By my count, there’s five. How do you know which way is best?
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What killed the big companies?Read More »

Weekly recap: Survival strategies for IT chaos, why your development process is broken, and more…

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EducationEvery week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on survival strategies for IT chaos, why your software development process is broken, and more. I hope you find them useful:

Why your software development process is broken
As businesses push for increased flexibility, many discover that one of the biggest problems lies in their development process. Despite their best efforts, they just can’t turn development projects around in time. What’s the answer?
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6 keys to a high-performing IT department

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ProductivityDo you want to hear a shocking statistic? According to Forrester Research, 70% of the companies listed on the Fortune 1,000 list ten years ago have now vanished. The reason: an inability to adapt to change.

As modern technology evolves, we’re seeing a shift in the business world. In the age of the web, business agility trumps size. More and more, the ability to adapt to change is critical to a company’s success.

From a technology perspective, this means that IT departments must evolve. Keeping the lights on is no longer good enough. These days, IT must innovate. They must move quickly. They must drive business forward.

However, this is impossible with slow or inefficient IT departments. The question is…how can IT departments become more efficient? What’s needed to create a high-performance IT department that actually pushes the business forward?

We posed those questions to a few successful IT leaders, who delivered some great advice that you can find below. If you want to create a high-performing IT department, you must:
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5 Reasons for Non-Adoption or Circumvention of a BI Solution

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Education** This guest post was written by Estelle Nicholson. Learn more about Estelle in the author bio at the end of this post. **

After an initial burst of enthusiasm, we’ve discovered that BI projects, like many other IT projects, get derailed or circumvented for a host of reasons. People who approach BI projects come from environments outside of traditional IT, so it’s important to understand reasons why your project isn’t getting off the ground (or why it’s crashing) and some of the potential consequences.
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