The glossing over of the requirements phase of a software project will cause substantial problems throughout the life of the project. Some of these problems include: unclear direction, poor communication with customer concerning requirements, never ending coding phase, and failed testing efforts. By not taking the time, in the requirements phase, you are trying to build a house or any large structure without a foundation. From this requirements foundation, everything going forward is based on the requirements you have laid out.
Customer Expectations and Coding
Requirements should be described as a contract between yourself and the customer. Contracts are very important because they protect both parties as they attempt to exchange value for value. The requirements describe the customer’s expectations for the delivered software project. They are instrumental to creating the offer, we will deliver this and it will cost this much and take this long. The reason for this is it creates a definitive starting and stopping point. For example, the moment you sign this contract, coding starts and all functionality will be delivered ending on this day. The take away for coding via good requirements is knowing when you can lay your pencils down.
Poor Foundation Leads to Poor Testing
When system level acceptance testing takes place, the lack of proper requirements will cause many failures and misunderstood behavior. A symptom of bad requirements is when software developers can legitimately say that they don’t have requirements for software behavior discovered in the testing lab. Test plans are created to requirements, test procedures are laid out per the requirements, and the test is executed with the idea of meeting the customer’s expectation. When the customer’s expectations are not outlined in the requirements, testing will be incomplete and not about verifying the software’s functionality.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
In-demand Certifications. Resume Fodder?
From Dice.com:
• PMP: By earning the Project Management Professional certification, technology professionals prove they have the knowledge and skills necessary to shepherd projects to a successful conclusion, on-time, on-budget, and using the resources allocated.
• MCSE: have shown they can design, implement and administer technology infrastructures using Microsoft 2000 Windows Server and other Windows server platforms. Sought by systems engineers, technical support engineers, system analysts, network analysts and technical consultants, the MCSE is for professionals who spend their time maintaining the basic platforms on which so much business is conducted.
• A +: This vendor-neutral certification from CompTIA is a standard for tech-support technicians. By earning it, they've shown they can install networks, conduct preventative maintenance, secure them and troubleshoot them.
• CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associates have the ability to install, configure, run and troubleshoot medium-sized routed and switched networks. They've also proven themselves with security and wireless basics, and their ability to work with a number of protocols. Slightly more than 650 available job opportunities request the CCNA designation.
• MCP: Microsoft Certified Professionals include developers, trainer, system architects and other tech professionals who want to spotlight their expertise with a range of Microsoft technologies.
• Network +: Another certification from CompTIA, the Network+ proves a technician's competency in managing, maintaining, troubleshooting, installing and configuring basic network infrastructures. It's included in certification programs of tech leaders like Microsoft, Novell, Cisco and H-P.
• CISSP: Globally recognized as a standard for expertise, five years of experience in information security are needed before a professional can earn this certification.
• MCSA: The Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator certification allows tech professionals to show off their expertise in systems administration and troubleshooting networks that use the Windows Server operating environment. It's earned by systems administrators, network administrators, information systems administrators, network operations analysts, network technicians, and technical support specialists, among others.
• ITIL: The three-tier ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) certification demonstrates the expertise of professionals in tech management. Public and private organizations use the ITIL as compendium of IT operational best practices. The Foundation Certificate shows a basic knowledge of ITIL terminology, Service Support and Service Delivery. The Practitioner Certificate demonstrates an understanding and ability to apply specific processes within IT Service Management. The Manager's Certificate is obtained by demonstrating expertise in overseeing service management functions.
• Security +: The CompTIA Security+ certification demonstrates knowledge of system security, network infrastructure, access control and organizational security all important areas at a time when companies are investing real money to keep their technology platforms safe from cyber security threats.
• PMP: By earning the Project Management Professional certification, technology professionals prove they have the knowledge and skills necessary to shepherd projects to a successful conclusion, on-time, on-budget, and using the resources allocated.
• MCSE: have shown they can design, implement and administer technology infrastructures using Microsoft 2000 Windows Server and other Windows server platforms. Sought by systems engineers, technical support engineers, system analysts, network analysts and technical consultants, the MCSE is for professionals who spend their time maintaining the basic platforms on which so much business is conducted.
• A +: This vendor-neutral certification from CompTIA is a standard for tech-support technicians. By earning it, they've shown they can install networks, conduct preventative maintenance, secure them and troubleshoot them.
• CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associates have the ability to install, configure, run and troubleshoot medium-sized routed and switched networks. They've also proven themselves with security and wireless basics, and their ability to work with a number of protocols. Slightly more than 650 available job opportunities request the CCNA designation.
• MCP: Microsoft Certified Professionals include developers, trainer, system architects and other tech professionals who want to spotlight their expertise with a range of Microsoft technologies.
• Network +: Another certification from CompTIA, the Network+ proves a technician's competency in managing, maintaining, troubleshooting, installing and configuring basic network infrastructures. It's included in certification programs of tech leaders like Microsoft, Novell, Cisco and H-P.
• CISSP: Globally recognized as a standard for expertise, five years of experience in information security are needed before a professional can earn this certification.
• MCSA: The Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator certification allows tech professionals to show off their expertise in systems administration and troubleshooting networks that use the Windows Server operating environment. It's earned by systems administrators, network administrators, information systems administrators, network operations analysts, network technicians, and technical support specialists, among others.
• ITIL: The three-tier ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) certification demonstrates the expertise of professionals in tech management. Public and private organizations use the ITIL as compendium of IT operational best practices. The Foundation Certificate shows a basic knowledge of ITIL terminology, Service Support and Service Delivery. The Practitioner Certificate demonstrates an understanding and ability to apply specific processes within IT Service Management. The Manager's Certificate is obtained by demonstrating expertise in overseeing service management functions.
• Security +: The CompTIA Security+ certification demonstrates knowledge of system security, network infrastructure, access control and organizational security all important areas at a time when companies are investing real money to keep their technology platforms safe from cyber security threats.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
How to write an elevator pitch.
Essentially, you have 30 seconds to make an impression about yourself and the service you are selling.
Break the talk into three sections:
- Did you know? A description of the problem your service addresses
- What you do? A description of the service you are providing
- A resolution of the service. Why is your service valuable?
Break the talk into three sections:
- Did you know? A description of the problem your service addresses
- What you do? A description of the service you are providing
- A resolution of the service. Why is your service valuable?
This Website's Elevator Pitch
Do you know that the engineering field will be stocked with more freelance labor and contract jobs? This trend is due to quicker design cycles and the uneconomical aspect of large staffs of engineering staff for corporations. Engineers today need to be flexible and have a high-level view of all aspects of engineering. These aspects include: tools used in engineering, job hunting, marketing, free tools and techniques to complete projects, and emerging skill sets.
What I am doing to solve this problem is provide an information clearinghouse to help engineers or technical types develop skills in a rapidly changing environment. I hope to build a community where people can share tips and tricks to help build each other for a more decentralized environment engineers will have operate in. www.Technicalcontractjobs.com will supply this clearinghouse for engineers to help provide them a look ahead and tips for the rapidly changing engineering environment.
This service is valuable because, I will condense and provide an early look-ahead of new emerging technologies and services. Things are moving so fast in the engineering sector that keeping your head down only a few months will mean that trends may change and leave people behind.
What I am doing to solve this problem is provide an information clearinghouse to help engineers or technical types develop skills in a rapidly changing environment. I hope to build a community where people can share tips and tricks to help build each other for a more decentralized environment engineers will have operate in. www.Technicalcontractjobs.com will supply this clearinghouse for engineers to help provide them a look ahead and tips for the rapidly changing engineering environment.
This service is valuable because, I will condense and provide an early look-ahead of new emerging technologies and services. Things are moving so fast in the engineering sector that keeping your head down only a few months will mean that trends may change and leave people behind.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Announcement from CompTIA
In previous posts, you know I have been getting several certifications. In late January, CompTIA announced that they are making A+, Network+, and Security+ lifetime certifications as long as you have them by the end of Calendar Year 2010.
The link is below.
CompTIA Link
I am not trying to sell anything here, but some jobs use these certifications as prerequisites.
The link is below.
CompTIA Link
I am not trying to sell anything here, but some jobs use these certifications as prerequisites.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Pass Red Hat Certified Technician - RHCT
I've been out of the loop for a while and I'm trying to get more articles out to ease the backlog. I promise to get some programming articles up soon. First, I will go through the .NET introduction and getting started with C#.
Today, I want to go through the steps that will help you pass the RHCT exam. This is the information I based my preparation on.
A Description of the RH133 class that will help you pass the exam (depending on the instructor) is here:
https://www.redhat.com/courses/guide/
Some more information of what will be gone over in the RH133 class is listed here:
https://www.redhat.com/courses/rh133_red_hat_linux_system_administration_and_rhct_exam/details/
The real meat and potatoes of what you need to know for the RHCT Certification exists here:
https://www.redhat.com/certification/rhct/prep_guide/
From the above link:
"The RHCT exam is a subset of the RHCE exam delivered separately. Effective May 1, 2009, this exam is a single section lasting 2.0 hours. Previously, it had been two sections lasting a combined 3.0 hours. Consolidation and reorganization have made it possible to cover the same material more efficiently."
What this means is that this is not a written test. You will be tasked to perform the tasks listed in the above RHCT preparation guide. What I recommend doing to help in your preparation:
1) Take each item in the RHCT list and put them on top of an engineering piece of paper.
2) Start building a "how-to" on each item on the list
- list relevant commands
- common switches
- examples
3) Create a Red Hat Enterprise Linux box or Fedora box
4) Go through several times your "how-to" list with the Linux box to make sure you know how to do everything on the RHCT prep guide
This should get you well down the road to passing the RHCT exam without taking the RH133 class. I would recommend the class, if you are relatively new to the Linux game. If you want to save the money and just get the cert, follow the above steps and you should be in very good shape.
Today, I want to go through the steps that will help you pass the RHCT exam. This is the information I based my preparation on.
A Description of the RH133 class that will help you pass the exam (depending on the instructor) is here:
https://www.redhat.com/courses/guide/
Some more information of what will be gone over in the RH133 class is listed here:
https://www.redhat.com/courses/rh133_red_hat_linux_system_administration_and_rhct_exam/details/
The real meat and potatoes of what you need to know for the RHCT Certification exists here:
https://www.redhat.com/certification/rhct/prep_guide/
From the above link:
"The RHCT exam is a subset of the RHCE exam delivered separately. Effective May 1, 2009, this exam is a single section lasting 2.0 hours. Previously, it had been two sections lasting a combined 3.0 hours. Consolidation and reorganization have made it possible to cover the same material more efficiently."
What this means is that this is not a written test. You will be tasked to perform the tasks listed in the above RHCT preparation guide. What I recommend doing to help in your preparation:
1) Take each item in the RHCT list and put them on top of an engineering piece of paper.
2) Start building a "how-to" on each item on the list
- list relevant commands
- common switches
- examples
3) Create a Red Hat Enterprise Linux box or Fedora box
4) Go through several times your "how-to" list with the Linux box to make sure you know how to do everything on the RHCT prep guide
This should get you well down the road to passing the RHCT exam without taking the RH133 class. I would recommend the class, if you are relatively new to the Linux game. If you want to save the money and just get the cert, follow the above steps and you should be in very good shape.
Interesting Articles
CNN has posted a couple of articles that I found interesting and are related to this website.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/worklife/01/07/on.the.go.office/index.html
This first article is related to the fact that office space is no longer a fixed area. More and more people are supporting companies on the go and no longer supported by infrastructure that is supplied by a corporation. It talks about some of the pitfalls and advantages. News Media is definitely a lagging indicator of where things are headed. CNN featuring the contract job life means that it is becoming more and more prevalent.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/worklife/01/04/cb.fix.networking.methods/
index.html
This second article talks about networking and its importance in our careers. In engineering, there seems to be an aversion to the social aspect of the job and focus on the tools to complete the job. If there is going to be a more contract job aspect to the engineering field, I believe the social aspect of the job will be even more important due to dealing with clients and business development.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/worklife/01/07/on.the.go.office/index.html
This first article is related to the fact that office space is no longer a fixed area. More and more people are supporting companies on the go and no longer supported by infrastructure that is supplied by a corporation. It talks about some of the pitfalls and advantages. News Media is definitely a lagging indicator of where things are headed. CNN featuring the contract job life means that it is becoming more and more prevalent.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/worklife/01/04/cb.fix.networking.methods/
index.html
This second article talks about networking and its importance in our careers. In engineering, there seems to be an aversion to the social aspect of the job and focus on the tools to complete the job. If there is going to be a more contract job aspect to the engineering field, I believe the social aspect of the job will be even more important due to dealing with clients and business development.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Passing Linux+
I recently passed the CompTIA Linux+ Certification and I want to pass on what resources I used that helped me pass the certification.
I am going to outline what resources I used, what I recommend and what to focus on. To prepare for this exam, I drilled extensively in the practice exams. I hand wrote the questions to memorize what common answers are for the various types of questions. This is important because the test is multiple choice and helps with speed and question recognition. Writing the questions down showed me what I needed to focus on in the book that is listed below. This may seem to be the cart before the horse, but I just wanted to pass because it more width exam as opposed to depth.
Read the objectives, which are available for free from comptia.org.
If there is any interest in where my knowledge was deficient, please post a comment. I will do an additional blog post what sections in the objectives I missed questions on.
Book
I only purchased a single book to prepare for the exam due to the promise of practice tests in the attached CD. The book purchased was:
Mike Meyers' Linux+ Certification Passport (Mike Meyers' Certficiation Passport) (Paperback)
By Michael Jang
It is available from Amazon.
The book’s material is laid out in the same order as the test objectives as outlined by CompTIA. The questions at the end of each chapter are relevant to the test and provide some explanation to why each answer is right or wrong. Overall, the material is very good and reading it helped me pass the test. In some cases, it can be very wordy and not relevant to what is going to be asked you in the exam.
I would recommend this book to help fill in holes of knowledge. In my case, printer and dhcp questions are where this material helped.
There is another aspect of this book that I believe is much more beneficial than the material printed on the pages and that is the practice exam CDs. The practice exams were excellent. They showed you what type of questions to expect on the exam. Again, this book is highly recommended.
Websites
I used the following websites for additional practice exams/questions and study sheets. You will have to peruse some of these to get to the information, but the search is worthwhile. Best of all, this test preparation is free.
http://www.vtc.com/products/CompTIA-Linux-plus-Certification-tutorials.htm
http://www.mcmcse.com/comptia/linux/studyguide.shtml
http://www.exampractice.com/certification/linux/q1.shtml
http://www.certification-crazy.net/linux+_practice.htm
http://www.certification-crazy.net/linux+_study.htm
http://www.passitnowcom/lin1.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/18280/Linux-Certification-Exam-Study-Guide.
What to focus on
I do not want to violate the NDA. I am merely trying to get you the information you need to help you pass the certification. There is nothing tricky with the material in regards to the test. It will map directly to the objectives. If you take the above practice exams will be surprised by very little.
WARNING: Before you go in be very familiar with the BASH shell, which you will be from the above tests, because the test is based on BASH. There is an opportunity to miss questions due to the differences in the shells.
The test is complete based on command line system administration which done as one is logged into root. Be very familiar with the command line. GUI knowledge will not help you.
A big chunk off the exam is:
- Know the purpose of every major configuration file. Know the /etc directory, be the /etc directory.
- Know all of the command-line tools/calls/operations and their function.
- Know the commonly used switches above the command-line calls/operations
- Know the major settings in the configuration files
I am going to outline what resources I used, what I recommend and what to focus on. To prepare for this exam, I drilled extensively in the practice exams. I hand wrote the questions to memorize what common answers are for the various types of questions. This is important because the test is multiple choice and helps with speed and question recognition. Writing the questions down showed me what I needed to focus on in the book that is listed below. This may seem to be the cart before the horse, but I just wanted to pass because it more width exam as opposed to depth.
Read the objectives, which are available for free from comptia.org.
If there is any interest in where my knowledge was deficient, please post a comment. I will do an additional blog post what sections in the objectives I missed questions on.
Book
I only purchased a single book to prepare for the exam due to the promise of practice tests in the attached CD. The book purchased was:
Mike Meyers' Linux+ Certification Passport (Mike Meyers' Certficiation Passport) (Paperback)
By Michael Jang
It is available from Amazon.
The book’s material is laid out in the same order as the test objectives as outlined by CompTIA. The questions at the end of each chapter are relevant to the test and provide some explanation to why each answer is right or wrong. Overall, the material is very good and reading it helped me pass the test. In some cases, it can be very wordy and not relevant to what is going to be asked you in the exam.
I would recommend this book to help fill in holes of knowledge. In my case, printer and dhcp questions are where this material helped.
There is another aspect of this book that I believe is much more beneficial than the material printed on the pages and that is the practice exam CDs. The practice exams were excellent. They showed you what type of questions to expect on the exam. Again, this book is highly recommended.
Websites
I used the following websites for additional practice exams/questions and study sheets. You will have to peruse some of these to get to the information, but the search is worthwhile. Best of all, this test preparation is free.
http://www.vtc.com/products/CompTIA-Linux-plus-Certification-tutorials.htm
http://www.mcmcse.com/comptia/linux/studyguide.shtml
http://www.exampractice.com/certification/linux/q1.shtml
http://www.certification-crazy.net/linux+_practice.htm
http://www.certification-crazy.net/linux+_study.htm
http://www.passitnowcom/lin1.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/18280/Linux-Certification-Exam-Study-Guide.
What to focus on
I do not want to violate the NDA. I am merely trying to get you the information you need to help you pass the certification. There is nothing tricky with the material in regards to the test. It will map directly to the objectives. If you take the above practice exams will be surprised by very little.
WARNING: Before you go in be very familiar with the BASH shell, which you will be from the above tests, because the test is based on BASH. There is an opportunity to miss questions due to the differences in the shells.
The test is complete based on command line system administration which done as one is logged into root. Be very familiar with the command line. GUI knowledge will not help you.
A big chunk off the exam is:
- Know the purpose of every major configuration file. Know the /etc directory, be the /etc directory.
- Know all of the command-line tools/calls/operations and their function.
- Know the commonly used switches above the command-line calls/operations
- Know the major settings in the configuration files
Sunday, December 6, 2009
The Purpose of the Blog
I. Motivation for Starting this Blog
I am currently a thirty year-old government employee computer engineer and therein lay the point of this blog. There is no way in the current job environment that government employees’ employment will not be impacted due to decreasing tax roles. There are things happening in our economy that will radically change the engineering field and this site is a way to adapt to the changing way of communicating technical ideas and to keep up with new tools. Time Magazine had a very good article talking about the change about the way things work. It is listed below:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1898024_1898023_1898086,00.html
II. The Technologies we will look at
I want to go through the process of becoming relevant technically with an on-line journal. This journal will consist of screen captures (camstudio.com) and text descriptions of the exercises I go through to learn these technologies. To start, we will go through the following items/technologies to give tutorial so any readers can follow along.
- Visual Studio .NET 2008 (C#, Java)
- Android
- Go
- VHDL
III. Job Searching and Freelance Website Exploration
I also hope to go through some of the freelance websites because that is where many of the future coding opportunities will be for engineers. I also believe the idea of big engineering firms is dead. There will be increased free-lancing and contract jobs that act as internships for full-time jobs with companies.
Programming Bids
Rent a Coder
This will act as our outline for where the website will go and what we will go over.
I am currently a thirty year-old government employee computer engineer and therein lay the point of this blog. There is no way in the current job environment that government employees’ employment will not be impacted due to decreasing tax roles. There are things happening in our economy that will radically change the engineering field and this site is a way to adapt to the changing way of communicating technical ideas and to keep up with new tools. Time Magazine had a very good article talking about the change about the way things work. It is listed below:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1898024_1898023_1898086,00.html
II. The Technologies we will look at
I want to go through the process of becoming relevant technically with an on-line journal. This journal will consist of screen captures (camstudio.com) and text descriptions of the exercises I go through to learn these technologies. To start, we will go through the following items/technologies to give tutorial so any readers can follow along.
- Visual Studio .NET 2008 (C#, Java)
- Android
- Go
- VHDL
III. Job Searching and Freelance Website Exploration
I also hope to go through some of the freelance websites because that is where many of the future coding opportunities will be for engineers. I also believe the idea of big engineering firms is dead. There will be increased free-lancing and contract jobs that act as internships for full-time jobs with companies.
Programming Bids
Rent a Coder
This will act as our outline for where the website will go and what we will go over.
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