Push Button Automation for the Humans

Have you ever been responsible for the installation of a software which should be distributed and installed on myriad set of execution environments with equally diverse sets of configuration in a department where machines are constantly being cleaned and re-imaged? Picture a situation where you are supporting various configurations and levels of your module. Rather than spending hours installing by hand, wouldn't it be great to have a way to automate the installation process so that you could just kick it off, go and get coffee, come back, and have it all installed and ready? Call it 'Push Button' automation :) (Please bear with me for throwing newer phrases)

Strange as it might seem but this hand-made configuration is proving to be a nightmare of sorts.. one might feel exhausted with out really having any sense of accomplishment by solving petty issues which should not really have come up. High time one must set up;

• standardized installation set up
• provide application diagnostics which must enable operations team to solve small issues in time.

Time again Apache ANT comes to my rescue.

Approach: How to improve traceability between BPMN process model and UML component model

Workflow can be modeled with a Business Process Diagram or an Acivity Diagram and can be transformed manually or otherwise using underlying matamodel. However, the challenge lies in finding convergence of object-oriented approach offered by UML and process-centric approach taken by BPMN. To put this in context, it should be noted that UML methods asks you to find the objects first using the static structure diagrams and only then build dynamic behaviour diagram to model object interaction. In an attempt to satisfy the stated need, we can model our 'draft' activity model based upon Business Process Diagram as specified by BPMN at the 'first attempt' and 'later' the 'technical team' can refine and refactor the activity diagram so created in few iterations between static diagrams (class diagram etc.) and activity diagram to model the dynamic behaviour, which can improve the traceability.

For a detailed study of the subject one may be interested to study "Process Modeling Notations and Workflow Patterns" here.

Work starts@home to innovate

Thanks to information technology revolution in the country I have a comfortable job which allows me to dream about a bright future ahead. Often I find it difficult to imagine if there exists a better profession than my own which bestows such great powers to change the face of the society. Having said that, I still face the frustration first hand when I visit places like banks, govt offices etc. Just imagine it took me three hours to complete trivial activities at the bank, I would not name the bank because it will be gross injustice to their employees commitment to work.

My observation was that some how the whole computer thing is a cosmetic entity, as much of the work can still not be done the e-way. There is a greater need for creation and integration of systems.

Over the years, we as Indian software industry have stepped up continuously from a back office service provider to prime time solution provider. Today there are voices raised from all corners for us to innovate, create new product ideas but then this seems to me has certain degree of challenges because of our predominant attachment to solving problems of the rest of the world. We have historically focused on export market and almost ignored home requirements. It will only pay for us to look inwards. This comes from my own experience while working with US/European telecom companies and for Indian telecom majors. I found myself to be better aware of the exact requirements, the existing inefficiencies in the system and could better predict customer expectations and their behaviors being a consumer of those services myself. It was more satisfying to solve problems and shall I say easier to innovate.

There is so much to do all around us in all spheres and at all levels to make the life simpler even for the common people. May be the brighter side to all this is that we have a clean slate available to us, as far as IT applications are concerned. We can therefore use this opportunity to create similar efficiencies in to system from grounds up and recreate the magic of 'One Rupee - One India' from telecom experiences.