Sikipedia

Go To Market Strategy

2011-11-22T07:35:00.000-08:00

Most simplest definition of Go-To-Market (GTM) is about co-selling your offerings to/with your partners. It is a marketing function for each Strategic Business unit.

Offering - Portfolio Management Process to build new Offerings for Demand.
Selling - Dedicated Innovation Process to align Offerings with Demand.
Partners - Partner Management Process to extend geographical coverage and complement Portfolio.

GTM in Organization:

GTM Strategy Model:

Objective:

Sales enablement for customers
Advisory positioning
External branding / Internal Communication
Partner and Alliances in the market

Inputs:

An opportunity we would like to progress through to customer engagement

Activities:

Define Market Value proposition
Identify primary target market
Review existing market channels
Create detailed channel approach

Outputs

Identified market channel(s) and the cost of utilising those channels

Channels:

Alliance:

Joint Venture
Collaborator
Distributor

Partners:

Channel Partners
Technology Partners
Product Partners

Medium:

Website
Mobile
Affiliates

GTM Strategy

Definition

Channels a company will use to connect with its customers/business and
The organizational processes it develops to guide customer interactions from initial contact through fulfillment.

Marketing Strategy

WHO the firm will go after
WHAT it will offer them
HOW the firm will make it happen

Target:

Not mass market
The direct consumer or the one in authority who makes the buying decision

Area of Operations:

Market Demand

what is driving or inhibiting market demand for technology solutions?

Customers

what are customer needs, especially unmet needs, and what are their key buying factors?

Competition

what competitive set best represents competition and how are they competing?

Differentiation

what differentiators are sustainable & difficult to replicate by competitors?

Solutions

what solutions best meet market demand and customer needs?

Channels

what channel structure & programs enable reaching desired customer segments cost-effectively?

References:

http://www.slideshare.net/mtarrant/developing-a-goto-market-strategy
Transforming Your Go-to-Market Strategy: The Three Disciplines of Channel Management (Hardcover) by V. Kasturi Rangan, Marie Bell Source: Harvard Business Press Books
http://atos.net/NR/rdonlyres/762AA016-16B0-435B-A940-7169E5E05462/0/goto_marketstrategy.pdf

Automated Development/Test Environment in Cloud

2011-11-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

Development Process - Build-Test-Deploy

Automated Development Process

Map/Model Software Process
Enable Automation of Software Delivery Process
Report and Analyze Process Execution and Workflow

IT Process - IT Resources

Scalable, Agile and Shared infra

Define valuable infra services
Plan and Standardize the Cloud Platform
Plan and Architect Deployment

Integrate Both

Integrate Development Process with IT Process.

References:

7 Steps to Success with Your Automated Development/Test Cloud

Cloud Migration - Stages and States

2011-11-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

Cloud Enablement - Stages
An application passes through three stages to get to cloud.

Not in cloud/On premise - Private
Cloud Leveraged - Hybrid in cloud
Cloud Centric - Fully in cloud

Application Readiness - Assessed States
An Application can be found to be one of following state of Cloud Readiness.

Cant be migrated (Transformation/Texing)

Many times legacy applications are complex and tied to a specific solution that migration is almost impossible.

Solution:

Maintain them as it is as and build a wrapper service around it to be access by rest of system.

Needs re-engineering (Incremental/LifeOff)

Application written in recent technology and software methodologies has higher chance of easy migration into cloud.

Solution:

Bottom up approach will assess the application integration and decoupling points and make different component as service.

Already cloud ready (Ready/Airborn)

Many organization has written application already in this fation that they already comply with cloud platform architecture. It is also called Fork Lift apps.
Solution:

Just port them as it is.

Roles In Cloud Business:
Cloud Migration throws challenges for two roles:

Infrastructure Provider Provides computing, storage and backup management. Their major focus is on:

Data Security
Latency

Cloud Implementer Provides design capability and platform to access cloud system infrastructure platform and applications as a service. Their major focus is on:

Application Availability
Integration

Life-cycle for A Cloud Migration Project

2011-11-04T07:39:00.001-07:00

Life-cycle for A Cloud Migration Project
Inception:
Getting on to boardroom for strategizing the cloud enablement.

Key business requirement assessment
Application portfolio classification
Risk Assessment and Mitigation plan
Financial Analysis

Elaboration:
Plan and design the system for cloud considerations and constraints.

Cloud Migration Plan and analysis
SLA design and management
Re-engineering approach assessment

Construction:
Initiate the application transition into cloud application.

Enterprise Arch Blueprint
App development/Testing/Data migration

Transition:
Deploying application into cloud and making it operational in new environment.

Application deployment
IT Governance
Stabilization of system

Improvement
Go back to drawing board.

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

2011-11-04T07:15:00.000-07:00

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

Cloud Grid Computing

2011-11-04T07:09:00.001-07:00

What is Grid/Cloud Computing?

Grid Computing = Compute Grids + Data Grids

Compute Grids: parallelize execution
Data Grids: parallelize data storage

Cloud Computing = Grid Computing + Data Center Automation
Clouds are the new way to deploy and run grid applications

Issues:

Relational Database vs Map Database - Choose One
Load Testing - Allow to create, pay for usage
Batch Processing - Node/Image for large processing
Data Processing - mapReduce
Great Paradigm for new startup to save server cost
RIA

Client app/Ajax based UI/Browser Plugin
Course Grained Server Communication
Can work in offline mode.

JMX - Does not provide out-of-box, but can be modified to give cloud specific aggregated view
Java EE can serve both human and nonhuman sensor through specific JCA implementation.

References:

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Interviews/community/bien_qa_2009.html

Todo:

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Interviews/community/williamson_pt1_qa.html

Amazon AWS - Database Options

2011-11-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

AWS provide all its service through its web service interfaces. What it means that all the

Database Option:
AWS has three mechanism for getting a DB for your application.

A customer-provided database service running within an Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Amazon Web Services own SimpleDB service
AWS RDS (Rational Data Source)

Amazon Machine Image based DB
In this scheme, customer installs along with other application supporting softwares like app server, etc and manages database server on their own. His responsible remains same as of on premise setup from managing the database application from configuration, to performance tuning, capacity management, version updates, patching, and data backup.

SimpleDB:
SimpleDB is a simple data storage providing scalable key-value storage. This is very good for large volume of database storage and retrieval, but lack capability of RDBMS style of Data modeling.

RDS Service:
Provides MySQL installed and managed by Amazon with Instance Class of 5 levels.

Small DB Instance - 1 virtual CPU core and 1.7 Gigabytes of memory
Quadruple Extra Large DB Instance - 68GB of memory and 8 virtual CPU cores

Cloud Migration Strategy:

2011-11-04T07:08:00.001-07:00

Cloud Migration Strategy:

Rehost - Deploy App without Change to target IaaS.
Refactor - Modify App with Backward Compatibility to target PaaS.
Revise - Extend App with exiting code base to target IaaS/PaaS
Rebuild - Develop App with fresh codebase to target PaaS
Replace - Subtitute App with similar/better functionality to target SaaS.

Ref:

Cloud Availability Measures:

2011-10-18T20:12:00.001-07:00

Cloud Availability Measures:
Type of Failures:

Cloud Platform: Planned Downtime/Maintenance
Cloud Platform: Unplanned Downtime/Outtage
Cloud Infrastructure: Server/Instance Failure
Cloud Infrastructure: Availability Zone Failure
Cloud Infrastructure: Geographic Region Failure
Cloud Infrastructure: Total Service Failure -- All Zones and All Regions

Measure to Prevent Failures:

Multi-Availability-Zone
Self Hosted backup environment
Multiple Deployment to different cloud and sync up
Redundancy Of Critical Component (Fail-Safe)

Amazon Solution:

AWS issues can cause issues for people with multi-availabilty-zone as well if everyone who are failing will start to come to other zone and shrink performance on those server.

References:

http://support.rightscale.com/06-FAQs/FAQ_0134_-_What_happens_when_Amazon_or_RightScale_have_outtages%3F

Solution showcasing:

2011-10-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

Presentation approach for Solution showcasing:

Objective

To state objective solution & framework to help customer

Service

To showcase service offerings Framework - End to End Solution

Offering

Business with a set of Framework threaded together

Service Product
Framework around Open Source

Benefits:

Cost / Time to Market / Operational Efficiency

Methodology

To showcase methods to implement

Engagement Model

To showcase protocol and process to engage customer

Accelerator

To help customer in Cost/Time/HR using a Tool
A set of smaller tool for operational / Functional aspects

Best Practices

To showcase expertise and depth of knowledge
Based on scenario - Best way to move forward

Case Study

To influence their decision by reference and experience
To give them practical confidence of applicability success

Is Consulting for You?

2011-07-21T02:57:00.001-07:00

The Skills in Demand

Consulting firm interviews typically involve a combination of general background questions, a case question and questions about your past behavior (the much dreaded behavioral interview approach). There are, of course, many different approaches to interviewing and, for that matter, to being interviewed. But the bottom line is that firms are screening for skills that match their needs. It is vitally important that you make every effort to understand what these skills are before you step into the interview room.

Common skills on interviewer check lists include...

Skill #1: A Passion for Ideas.

You can't eat what a consulting firm makes. You can't drive it. You can't smell it. The product is an idea, an insight, a suggestion, a way of thinking. Ultimately, consulting firms are nothing more than repositories of pure intellectual capital. This means that their most important asset has to be the ability to use past intellectual capital and to generate new intellectual capital through rigorous thinking and careful research. Hence the frenzy to hire the best and the brightest of America's business schools. This intellectual focus of consulting is clearly important in deciding whether you would do well in the field. A good consultant has to be a great thinker with a passion for ideas. You need to be the type that does well in school and likes it. You need to enjoy problem-diagnosis, problem-framing and problem-solving.

If you find yourself struggling with the academic-side of business school, getting stuck on cases, disliking writing, but excelling along other dimensions (e.g. human interaction or entrepreneurialism) you probably should not be a consultant. You may very well get a job offer anyway. Firms may hire you opportunistically, knowing that they you can generate more value for them than you are being paid. But advancing and leading may be a different matter altogether.

Incidentally, some firms aren't nearly as pedigree-sensitive as some seem to think. Leaders of some of the most prominent firms in the consulting profession have made it with degrees from institutions far below the top-ranked schools. Pedigree can neither guarantee one success nor condemn one to failure. For that matter, the MBA degree itself need not be necessary. A number of firms are hiring persons with other degree backgrounds (e.g. law, engineering, public administration, medicine). McKinsey, in particular, has recently been aggressive in its pursuit of attorneys, PhD's and the like. Sheepskin is sheepskin... And, of course, many undergraduate students enter consulting, often in two or three year programs that are expected to be followed by a stint at business school.

Skill #2: A Passion for Client Service.

With all of the money being thrown around by the consulting firms these days, it can be easy to get into the profession for the wrong reason. After all is said and done, consulting is a service profession and most firms screen carefully for commitment to others and ability to excel in meeting client needs. As a consultant you will always be working to help others. Your ability to serve clients will determine your success and the prospects of your employer. While intangible, a personal commitment to excel in meeting the needs of your clients is vital to enjoying the profession. In a recent letter published by a seasoned ex-McKinsey consultant put it this way: "It is only through personal excellence that this profession becomes truly enjoyable. Those who demonstrate superior skills gain personal control early in their careers. These individuals are in such demand that, at any point in time, they have numerous options to choose from. They typically become engagement managers sooner, and tend to set the pace for their teams. Through their intellectual leadership they gain respect from the clients, the partners and their teammates. In a business world where institutional loyalty is rare, the individual needs to excel and generate his or her own marketability. The result is that the institution needs the individual, not the reverse. Over the years, I have observed that unfriendly clients become attentive when listening to people of excellence because their contribution is unique. Those who achieve excellence feel great about themselves and are more likely to find the consulting experience a path to fulfillment. The financial rewards become window dressing and the high of the experience becomes the drug of first choice."

Skill #3: A Passion for People.

Consultants will often note that some of their most fulfilling relationships are with clients because he had built life-long, lasting partnerships with a number of clients through repeated contact and hard work. These relationships are what can make the long hours, stressful travel and corporate frustrations encountered by consultants worthwhile. Consultants who enjoy talking to people do well. It's a field where the gregarious do well with their teammates and their clients. This isn't to say that you must be the ultimate extrovert, but you do have to connect. However you accomplish this, whether it be by charm, humor, listening or hard-work, it's vital that you enjoy, understand and communicate with clients. Consulting firm interviewers are looking for people that they'd like to work with themselves. It's only human.

So, it's an odd admixture in demand at the consulting firms. Smart, likable people who are good at helping others. Not necessarily a natural combination of abilities you might say. The screening process, of course, can vary widely and many firms are looking for a unique traits. Other characteristics in demand including understanding of specific business issues, a tolerance for ambiguity, tolerance for absolutely abusive hours, superb IT skills, personal appearance, the ability to work quickly in spreadsheets, logical thinking skills, writing skills, willingness to travel and facility with languages.Reference:

Is Consulting for You?

Cloud Computing - Industry

2011-07-17T23:18:00.000-07:00

Consulting - A 101 Guide

2011-07-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

Definition:

Solving a Business Problem using Technology Infrastructure with Focus on Client

5C of Consulting:

Client
Create Value
Communicate
Change
Closure

Customer:
Requirement Analysis

Owner/Stakeholder/Decision Maker/Powerful Guys/Authority
Problem vs Symptoms
Reality vs Perception
Projections vs Wish List
Priority vs Constant
Long Term vs Short Term objectives

Process:

Connect > Involve > Integrate
Know > Like > Value Add

Create Value:
Key Parameters:

Higher Service Quality, Revenue and Profits
Higher Customer Satisfaction
Lowering Cost (Down)

Factors for Value Creation for Organization

Cycle Time Reduction
Productivity Improvement
Fast Time to Market
Enable Customer to Reduce Operation Cost
Provide Innovative Solution to compete

Calculation for Individual Value Creation

+ Value of Organization Benefit
- Direct Cost of Employment
- Opportunity Cost to Org (Resources and Infrastructure)

Basically it is also about understanding patterns of repeatability and reducing them by automation/tempatization/Toolization.
Communication:
Key Concepts:

Art of questioning
Passive vs Assertive vs Aggressive Communication

Proactive Reactive Approach

Sell vs Tell Approach
3 C Of Communication - Complete, Concise and Comprehensive

Challenge - Dealing Assumption and Interpretation

Onsite Coordinator Role - Collect, Clarify, Confirm and Consolidate and Communicate to Offshore
Confidentiality vs Openness
Consistency and Uniformity
Be a listener First

Communication for Different Levels:

Aspects	Engineers	Managers
Scope	Well Defined	Very Wide
Level of Aggregation	Detailed	Aggregated
Time Horizon	Historic	Futuristic
Requested Accuracy		Low
Frequency of Use	Very Frequent	Infrequent

Change:
sdf

Closure:

Clouds and the Role of SOA

2011-05-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

Cloud Computing Definition:
It is model for enabling convenient, on-Demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (network, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisined and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

5 Essential Characteristics:

On-demand Self Service
Resource Pooling
Rapid Elasticity
Measurable Service
Broad Network Access

3 Service Models:

IaaS - Using and Measuring in Realtime (Facebook)
PaaS - Building Application on it (Google App Engine)
SaaS - Integration of Services(Amazon)

4 Deployment Models:

Public - SMBs
Private - Bank, Insurance (Data Insecurity, Self Servicing, Internal Service)
Hybrid - Large enterprise (Data and Process Security in Private)

What Customer Wants:

Speed of Deployment
Cost

Challenge for Cloud:

Security
QoS
Fit (Integration) SOA

Type of Integration

Data Integration

Point to Point Integration and Data Cleaning
Real time Data Integration

In cloud, application will be integration of multiple systems across different SaaS providers and challenge is to find a common data model to store all info centrally which can be applied contextually.

Meta Model for across Cloud Service Providers
Common Object Model (Designer Tool)
Object Repository and Data Dictionary
Model Designer
Model Matcher

Process Integration

It will be service based integration.
SOA and BPM Technology

Rules and Task Integration

Rules Engine
Task Management

Others:
Governance and Security

Process Dashboard
Federated Security and Fraud Detection

Business Apps Store

Business Integration
Business Objects and Services
Validated Integration / API
Each Cloud Service different rules

References:

InfoQ: Swarm Computing - Next Generation Clouds and the Role of SOA

Architecting for the Cloud: Best Practices

2011-04-26T03:50:00.001-07:00

Architecting for the Cloud: Best Practices

View more presentations from Amazon Web Services.

Manager - Team Development by Playing Roles

2011-04-21T23:14:00.000-07:00

Issues	Details	Roles
Environmental	Not enough opportunity to enhance skills	Guide
Behaviour	Physical behavour is not proper	Couch
Capability	Does not have knowledge and experience	Teacher
Belief	Think it is not his cup of tea.	Mentor
Identity	No duddy could do it, I cant do it.	Sponser

References:

http://www.bnet.com/videos/five-ways-to-develop-your-team-at-the-whiteboard/487278

Manager - Tactical Skills

2011-04-21T22:32:00.000-07:00

New Appointment to Project

Confirm expectation and roles from Supervisors

(Role, Matrix, Project, Priority, Meeting)

Decide what kind of Manager you wish to be?

Books

Emotional Intelligent Quick Book
First Break All Rules
Leadership Challenge
Now Discover Your Strength

Find Ideal/Successful personality for that level and ask questions like

Why is he successful and unsuccessful?
How can I imitate his success by his personality?

New Appointment, does not mean inexperienced

Don't short sell yourself to other.

(Don't know much about this domain? I am new to this PM, pardon me?)

It is okay to share this feeling with only confidants and trusted mentor but not everyone else.

Ask for Feedback

"How to improve from what I am doing to satisfy your expectations?"

Mentoring People

High - Give them more opportunities of leadership
Medium - Encourage to push for next level
Low - Close daily monitoring and feedback on progress

References:

http://www.bnet.com/videos/youre-a-newly-promoted-manager-now-what-leilas-house-of-corrections/484221

Contracts View to Agile Methdology

2011-04-15T01:20:00.000-07:00

Parameters for Agile Project Management:

Scope Control (Fixed or Variable)
Cost (Fixed or Variable)
Time (Fixed or Variable)
Project Ownership (With Supplier, Customer or Shared)
Change Request (Free, Accommodate or Costly)
Customer Relationship (Competitive, Cooperative, Indifferent or Dependent)
Risk (Shared or Customer or Supplier)
Profit (Shared, Fixed, Bonus & Penalty, )
Project Model (Joint Venture, Phased T&M, Based on ROI)

Following articles describes these in details.

As a customer or supplier of software services at the beginning of a Software Development Project, you know that there is too much at stake to work with just a verbal agreement. A contract is really just a set of written playing rules. The right rules increase the chance of success for both parties. The wrong rules make cooperation difficult and hinder progress. What are the available playing rules and what is the best approach for a agile project?
Last week, we looked at the purpose and contents of a contract and identified criteria for evaluating contracts for Scrum and agile projects. I suggested 4 points for comparing contract forms:

How is the contract structured?
How does it handle changes in scope (requirements)?
How does it apportion Risk and Reward between customer and supplier?
What model of customer relationship does it foster: competitive (my win is your loss), cooperative (win-win), indifferent (I don’t care-you lose) or dependent (heads-I-win-tails-you lose)?

This week, let’s look at a number of possible contracts, and see how they work with agile and Scrum development projects:

Sprint Contract

Working with Scrum, I have found the metaphor of a “Sprint Contract” to be helpful in understanding (and sometimes enforcing!) the relationship between product owner and implementation team.
Structure: This is not really a commercial contract, but simply the agreement between the Product Owner and the Team for one sprint.
Scope: The implementation team agrees to do its best to deliver an agreed on set of features (scope) to a defined quality standard by the end of the sprint. (Ideally they deliver what they promised, or even a bit more.) The Product Owner agrees not to change his instructions before the end of the Sprint.
Risk: a Scrum project can be considered is a series of mini projects with fixed parameters: Time (Sprint Length), Scope (Sprint Backlog), Quality (Definition of Done) and Cost (Team Size*Sprint Length). Only the scope can vary and this is measured every sprint.
Tip: Confirming Sprint Contract in via E-Mail or posting it on the project Wiki at the beginning of every Sprint is usually good idea. It builds trust, regardless of the underlying contractual form.
Tip: The Sprint contract can be referenced in the commercial contract. I have found that after a couple of releases, the commercial contract can wither down to a one page time & materials agreement, maybe with a cost ceiling for the quarter or next major release.

Fixed Price / Fixed Scope

Structure: Agree on the deliverables, deliver it. Send a bill. Customers like fixed price projects because it gives them security (or at least they think so).
Scope changes: The name says it all, doesn't it? The change request game (correction: change request process) is intended to limit scope changes. This process is costly, and the changes are usually not preventable. Since the customer almost by definition wants more scope, ending the project can be difficult. The supplier wants the customer to be happy, so the supplier usually yields. The words ‘et cetera’ are very dangerous in the specification of a fixed price requirement.
Risk: Obvious risk is on the side of the supplier. If the estimates are wrong, the project will lose money. Less obvious risks are the change request game, through which the supplier negotiates additional revenue through scope changes. If the supplier had badly underestimated the effort or risk, or quoted an unrealistically low price, the losses can even threaten the existence of the supplier, which also presents a problem to the customer.
Relationship: Competitive to indifferent. Customer generally wants to have more and the supplier wants to do less. The supplier wants the customer to be happy, so usually the supplier yields.
Tip: Specify the functional requirement with user stories. I’ll discuss strategies for hitting the target on a fixed price project in a future article.

Time and Materials

Structure: Work for a month, then send the customer an invoice. Suppliers like it, because the customer carries the risk of changing his mind.
Scope: Not a priori fixed. Sooner or later, the customer doesn't want to pay any more, so the project comes to an end.
Risks: carried 100% by the client. Supplier has little incentive to keep costs down. Effort to ensure that only legitimate effort and expenses are invoiced can be substantial.
Relationship: Indifferent. The supplier is happy when more work comes because more work means more money.
Tip: recommended for projects where the customer can better manage the risk than the supplier. This is often combined with a cost ceiling. How well it works can depend on how the scope is handled.

Time and Materials with Fixed Scope and a Cost Ceiling

Structure: Same as fixed price, fixed scope, except if the vendor gets finished early, the project costs less, because only actual effort is invoiced.
Scope: Same as fixed price, fixed scope.
Risks: This appears to represent the ‘best of both worlds’ from the customer’s point of view. If it requires less effort than expected, it costs less. But the once the cost ceiling has been achieved, it behaves like a fixed price project.
Relationship: Dependent. From the supplier’s point of view, the goal is to hit the cost ceiling exactly. There is no incentive for the supplier to deliver below the maximum budgeted cost. The customer has probably treated the project internally as a fixed price project, and so has no incentive little renounce scope to save money.

Time and Materials with Variable Scope and Cost Ceiling

Structure: Same as time and materials except a cost ceiling limits the financial risk of the customer.
Scope: Same as a fixed price, fixed scope project.
Risks: the budget will expire without achieving the necessary business value for the customer. Customer won’t get everything he asks for.
Relationship: Cooperative. The combination of limited budget and variable scope focuses both customer and vendor on achieving the desired business value within the available budge.
Tip: From experience, I would say this contract form mixes well with Scrum. The customer has control over each individual sprint. A constructive relationship means that even if problems develop on the way, the emotions are right to come to a mutually agreeable solution.

Phased Development

Structure: Fund quarterly releases and approve additional funds after each successful release.
Scope Changes: Not explicitly defined by the model. Releases are in effect time boxed. The knowledge that there will be another release next quarter makes it easier to accept postponing a feature to achieve the time box.
Risk: Customer’s risk is limited to one quarter’s worth of development costs.
Relationship: Cooperative. Both the customer and the supplier have an incentive that each release be successful, so that additional funding will be approved.
Tips: Venture capitalists often work on this basis. This mixes well with Time and Materials with Variable Scope and a Cost Ceiling. I have worked quite happily under this model. We simply specified the Release goal, hourly rate and cost ceiling in the commercial contract. The customer provided the product owner. Everything else was determined in the sprint contracts.

Bonus / Penalty Clauses

Structure: Supplier receives a bonus if the project completes early and pays a penalty if it arrives late. The amount of bonus or penalty is a function of the delay
Scope Changes: difficult to accept because changes potentially impact the delivery date, which is surely not allowed.
Risk: Does the customer have an incentive for early completion? The ROI arguments must be compelling and transparent. Otherwise the customer gets a cheaper solution the longer it takes.
Relationship: could be cooperative, but might degenerate into indifferent if the customer does not truly need the software by the date agreed.
Tip: Often applied for construction projects, e.g. roads, tunnels and runways, for which it works well. Scope changes are not issue and genuine economic costs drive the customer to achieve the deadline as well.

Fixed Profit

Structure: any project budget consists of effective costs and profit. The parties agree on the profit in advance, e.g. $100,000. Regardless of when the project is completed, the contractor receives the incurred costs plus the agreed profit.
Scope is fixed-
Risk is shared. If project finishes early, the customer pays less, but the supplier still has his profit. If the project exceeds budget, the customer pays more, but the supplier does not earn additional profit. After the target delivery date, the supplier may not invoice any more profit, just cover his costs.
Relationship: Cooperative - both have a clear incentive to finish early. The customer saves money and the supplier has a higher profit margin.

“Money for Nothing, Changes for Free”

Structure: This works with agile software projects because there is little or no work in progress. After each sprint, functionality is either complete or not started. Work is basically on a Time and Materials basis with a cost target, often with the intention that the project should not use up the entire project budget. After a certain amount of functionality has been delivered, the customer should realize that enough business value has been realized that further development is not necessary and can therefore cancel the project. A cancellation fee equal to the remaining profit is due.
Scope: can be changed. Planned but unimplemented features can be replaced with other stories of the same size. Additional features cost extra.
Risk: Shared. Both parties have an interest in completing the project early. Customer has lower costs, supplier has a higher margin.
Tip: If the budget is exceeded, the rules of the fixed profit or cost ceiling contracts can be applied. The fixed profit approach is more consistent with the goal of a fostering a cooperative relationship.

Joint Ventures

Structure: Two partners invest in a product of joint interest. Money is unlikely to flow directly between the partners in the development phase, but each party must have an ROI, which may come from revenue sharing or just benefits from using the software.
Scope: Defined to suit the needs of the partnership.
Risks: Two of everything. Decision chains can get long. Rivalries can develop between the teams. Different models for extracting value from the product can lead to different priorities differing willingness to invest.
Tips: Treat the project as a separate company: One team, co-located, with development and product marketing/product owner role. Think realistically about friendly and not so friendly separation scenarios.

References:

http://agilesoftwaredevelopment.com/blog/peterstev/10-agile-contracts

Approaches to Conflict Resolution

2011-04-15T01:14:00.000-07:00

Five modes of solving conflicts

Confronting is also described as problem solving, integrating, collaborating or win-win style. It involves the conflicting parties meeting face-to-face and collaborating to reach an agreement that satifies the concerns of both parties. This style involves open and direct communication which should lead the way to solving the problem. Confronting should be used when:

Both parties need to win.
You want to decrease cost.
You want create a common power base.
Skills are complementary.
Time is sufficent.
Trust is present.
Learning is the ultimate goal.

Compromising is also described as a "give and take" style. Conflicting parties bargain to reach a mutually acceptable solution. Both parties give up something in order to reach a decision and leave with some degree of satisfaction. Compromising should be used when:

Both parties need to win.
You are in a deadlock.
Time is not sufficient.
You want to maintain the relationship among the involved parties.
You will get nothing if you do not compromise.
Stakes are moderate.

Smoothing is also referred to as accommodating or obliging style. In this approach, the areas of agreement are emphasized and the areas of disagreement are downplayed. Conflicts are not always resolved in the smoothing mode. A party may sacrifice it's own concerns or goals in order to satisfy the concerns or goals of the other party. Smoothing should be used when:

Goal to be reached is overarching.
You want to create obligation for a trade-off at a later time.
Stakes are low.
Liability is limited.
Any solution is adequate.
You want to be harmonious and create good will.
You would lose anyway.
You want to gain time.

Forcing is also known as competing, controlling, or dominating style. Forcing occurs when one party goes all out to win it's position while ignoring the needs and concerns of the other party. As the intesity of a conflict increases, the tendency for a forced conflict is more likely. This results in a win-lose situation where one party wins at the expense of the other party. Forcing should be used when:

A "do or die" situation is present.
Stakes are high.
Important principles are at stake.
Relationship among parties is not important.
A quick decision must be made.

Avoiding is also described as withdrawal style. This approach is viewed as postponing an issue for later or withdrawing from the situation altogether. It is regarded as a temporary solution because the problem and conflict continue to reoccur over and over again. Avoiding should be used when:

You can not win.
Stakes are low.
Stakes are high, but you are not prepared.
You want to gain time.
You want to maintain neutrality or reputation.
You think problem will go away.
You win by delaying.

How Does it looking in Binary?

	Party A	Party B
Confronting	1	1
Compromising	0	1
Smoothing	0	0
Forcing	1	0
Avoiding	NA	NA

Chanakya Neeti:

Sam
Dam
Dand
Bhed

References:

http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/analysis/488_f01_papers/Ohlendorf.htm

Ways of addressing conflict

2011-04-14T21:44:00.001-07:00

Five basic ways of addressing conflict were identified

Accommodation – surrender one's own needs and wishes to accommodate the other party.
Avoidance – avoid or postpone conflict by ignoring it, changing the subject, etc. Avoidance can be useful as a temporary measure to buy time or as an expedient means of dealing with very minor, non-recurring conflicts. In more severe cases, conflict avoidance can involve severing a relationship or leaving a group.
Collaboration – work together to find a mutually beneficial solution. While the Thomas Kilman grid views collaboration as the only win-win solution to conflict, collaboration can also be time-intensive and inappropriate when there is not enough trust, respect or communication among participants for collaboration to occur.
Compromise – bring the problem into the open and have the third person present. The aim of conflict resolution is to reach agreement and most often this will mean compromise.
Competition – assert one's viewpoint at the potential expense of another. It can be useful when achieving one's objectives outweighs one's concern for the relationship.

References:

http://managementhelp.org/intrpsnl/basics.htm

Broker

2011-03-29T23:17:00.001-07:00

Centralize Arch vs Tibco's Distributed Arch/Bus Arch
wM - Broker act as hub and all other elements are spook/client. Like IS, Workflow comp

Document - Address/Connect
Publishable Doc Type: Schema for Document
    XML, DTD, Broker Schema, XML Schema
Trigger - Look for any publication for a doc type to notify subscriber and can take action in term of service.
Adopter Trigger: Trigger for Adopter for a doc type
Canonical Doc - A standard format understood by taget and source.
It can be defined for multiple src/dest and can be made standard enterprise wide.
20mins.

Publishing:
    All Subscriber to Doc will get its copy.
    From address, not necessary to be specified.
Subscribing:
    Broker maintains one queue for each subscriber.
    At doc reciept, broker engine places a subscriber Pinter to all sub;;s queue for them to fetch Doc.

Tibco RV - Concepts

2011-03-29T10:07:00.000-07:00

Tibco RV is a low latency messaging product for real time data distribution applications. Tibco RV works within Tibco ESB to provide complete EAI solution for data distribution solution.

RV Features:

Publish/subscribe, request/reply, and point-to-point messaging.
Reliable and Certified messaging
Peer-to-peer multicast-based messaging
APIs that enable developers to build fault tolerance and load balancing into applications.
Centralized management of daemons, subjects, and multicast groups, with remote monitoring and
TIBCO Adapter SDK for creating custom adapters.management via a browser interface or Java API.
TIBCO Rendezvous APIs are available in Java, C, C++, C#, Perl, and COM.

Architecture:

Communication between RVDs in same env is on UDDP.
Communication between RVDs across WLAN is on TCP/SSL.
RV Demon manager manages all daemons of a network from a centralized location

Process of Message Broker

References:

Code TibRV Listener

EAI Basic Patterns

2011-03-28T01:36:00.000-07:00

Introduction
	Preface
	Introduction
	Solving Integration Problems using Patterns
Integration Styles
	Introduction to Integration Styles
	File Transfer	How can I integrate multiple applications so that they work together and can exchange information?
	Shared Database	How can I integrate multiple applications so that they work together and can exchange information?
	Remote Procedure Invocation	How can I integrate multiple applications so that they work together and can exchange information?
	Messaging	How can I integrate multiple applications so that they work together and can exchange information?
Messaging Systems
	Introduction to Messaging Systems
	Message Channel	How does one application communicate with another using messaging?
	Message	How can two applications connected by a message channel exchange a piece of information?
	Pipes and Filters	How can we perform complex processing on a message while maintaining independence and flexibility?
	Message Router	How can you decouple individual processing steps so that messages can be passed to different filters depending on a set of conditions?
	Message Translator	How can systems using different data formats communicate with each other using messaging?
	Message Endpoint	How does an application connect to a messaging channel to send and receive messages?
Messaging Channels
	Introduction to Messaging Channels
	Point-to-Point Channel	How can the caller be sure that exactly one receiver will receive the document or perform the call?
	Publish-Subscribe Channel	How can the sender broadcast an event to all interested receivers?
	Datatype Channel	How can the application send a data item such that the receiver will know how to process it?
	Invalid Message Channel	How can a messaging receiver gracefully handle receiving a message that makes no sense?
	Dead Letter Channel	What will the messaging system do with a message it cannot deliver?
	Guaranteed Delivery	How can the sender make sure that a message will be delivered, even if the messaging system fails?
	Channel Adapter	How can you connect an application to the messaging system so that it can send and receive messages?
	Messaging Bridge	How can multiple messaging systems be connected so that messages available on one are also available on the others?
	Message Bus	What is an architecture that enables separate applications to work together, but in a decoupled fashion such that applications can be easily added or removed without affecting the others?
Message Construction
	Introduction to Message Construction
	Command Message	How can messaging be used to invoke a procedure in another application?
	Document Message	How can messaging be used to transfer data between applications?
	Event Message	How can messaging be used to transmit events from one application to another?
	Request-Reply	When an application sends a message, how can it get a response from the receiver?
	Return Address	How does a replier know where to send the reply?
	Correlation Identifier	How does a requestor that has received a reply know which request this is the reply for?
	Message Sequence	How can messaging transmit an arbitrarily large amount of data?
	Message Expiration	How can a sender indicate when a message should be considered stale and thus shouldn’t be processed?
	Format Indicator	How can a message’s data format be designed to allow for possible future changes?
Interlude: Simple Messaging
	Introduction to Simple Messaging Examples
	JMS Request/Reply Example
	.NET Request/Reply Example
	JMS Publish/Subscribe Example
Message Routing
	Introduction to Message Routing
	Content-Based Router	How do we handle a situation where the implementation of a single logical function (e.g., inventory check) is spread across multiple physical systems?
	Message Filter	How can a component avoid receiving uninteresting messages?
	Dynamic Router	How can you avoid the dependency of the router on all possible destinations while maintaining its efficiency?
	Recipient List	How do we route a message to a list of dynamically specified recipients?
	Splitter	How can we process a message if it contains multiple elements, each of which may have to be processed in a different way?
	Aggregator	How do we combine the results of individual, but related messages so that they can be processed as a whole?
	Resequencer	How can we get a stream of related but out-of-sequence messages back into the correct order?
	Composed Message Processor	How can you maintain the overall message flow when processing a message consisting of multiple elements, each of which may require different processing?
	Scatter-Gather	How do you maintain the overall message flow when a message needs to be sent to multiple recipients, each of which may send a reply?
	Routing Slip	How do we route a message consecutively through a series of processing steps when the sequence of steps is not known at design-time and may vary for each message?
	Process Manager	How do we route a message through multiple processing steps when the required steps may not be known at design-time and may not be sequential?
	Message Broker	How can you decouple the destination of a message from the sender and maintain central control over the flow of messages?
Message Transformation
	Introduction to Message Transformation
	Envelope Wrapper	How can existing systems participate in a messaging exchange that places specific requirements on the message format, such as message header fields or encryption?
	Content Enricher	How do we communicate with another system if the message originator does not have all the required data items available?
	Content Filter	How do you simplify dealing with a large message, when you are interested only in a few data items?
	Claim Check	How can we reduce the data volume of message sent across the system without sacrificing information content?
	Normalizer	How do you process messages that are semantically equivalent, but arrive in a different format?
	Canonical Data Model	How can you minimize dependencies when integrating applications that use different data formats?
Interlude: Composed Messaging
	Introduction to Composed Messaging Examples
	Synchronous Implementation using Web Services
	Asynchronous Implementation with MSMQ
	Asynchronous Implementation with TIBCO ActiveEnterprise
Messaging Endpoints
	Introduction to Messaging Endpoints
	Messaging Gateway	How do you encapsulate access to the messaging system from the rest of the application?
	Messaging Mapper	How do you move data between domain objects and the messaging infrastructure while keeping the two independent of each other?
	Transactional Client	How can a client control its transactions with the messaging system?
	Polling Consumer	How can an application consume a message when the application is ready?
	Event-Driven Consumer	How can an application automatically consume messages as they become available?
	Competing Consumers	How can a messaging client process multiple messages concurrently?
	Message Dispatcher	How can multiple consumers on a single channel coordinate their message processing?
	Selective Consumer	How can a message consumer select which messages it wishes to receive?
	Durable Subscriber	How can a subscriber avoid missing messages while it’s not listening for them?
	Idempotent Receiver	How can a message receiver deal with duplicate messages?
	Service Activator	How can an application design a service to be invoked both via various messaging technologies and via non-messaging techniques?
System Management
	Introduction to System Management
	Control Bus	How can we effectively administer a messaging system that is distributed across multiple platforms and a wide geographic area?
	Detour	How can you route a message through intermediate steps to perform validation, testing or debugging functions?
	Wire Tap	How do you inspect messages that travel on a point-to-point channel?
	Message History	How can we effectively analyze and debug the flow of messages in a loosely coupled system?
	Message Store	How can we report against message information without disturbing the loosely coupled and transient nature of a messaging system?
	Smart Proxy	How can you track messages on a service that publishes reply messages to the Return Address specified by the requestor?
	Test Message	What happens, though, if a component is actively processing messages, but garbles outgoing messages due to an internal fault?
	Channel Purger	How can you keep 'left-over' messages on a channel from disturbing tests or running systems?
Interlude: Systems Management Example
	Loan Broker System Management
Integration Patterns in Practice
	Case Study: Bond Trading System
Concluding Remarks
	Emerging Standards and Futures in Enterprise Integration
Appendices
	Bibliography	Annotated list of references and recommended reading.

Reference:

http://www.eaipatterns.com/toc.html

Project Oriented SOA

2011-03-16T21:23:00.000-07:00

SOA Activity

Service Ownership Problem : Central Team to manage all services - Architecture to impl
Identification / Lifestyle Mgmt / Pipeline Activities

SOA Essentials:

Max Reuse services
Mini change Impact

Managing the change:

Change is Inevitable.
Facade Pattern
Canonical Model

Domain Model
Consistent View of Data
Reconciles diff between Entity

SOA Gov:

Carrot & Stick Approach
Critical - Max Reuse and encourage Right behavior
Success Factor -
Process - Checkpoints

SOA Matrices:

# of Service created
Amount services reuse
Cost Avoid/Dacing
Project using services
ROI

Focus on Expertise :

Oracle SOA Suite
TIBCO AMX Suite

Database - Concept

2011-03-08T20:56:00.000-08:00

Normalization:
There are 5 normal forms. It is necessary for any database to be in the third normal form to maintain referential integrity and non-redundancy.

First Normal Form: Every field of a table (row,col) must contain an atomic value
Second Normal Form: All columns of a table must depend entirely on the primary key column.
Third Normal Form: All columns of a table must depend on all columns of a composite primary key.
Fourth Normal Form: A table must not contain two or more independent multi-valued facts. This normal form is often avoided for maintenance reasons.
Fifth Normal Form: is about symmetric dependencies.

Each normal form assumes that the table is already in the earlier normal form.

Factors for Motivation and Performance

2011-01-22T22:20:00.000-08:00

Motivational Strategies for leader

challenges
curiosity
control
fantasy
competition
cooperation
recognition

Key factor for performance

purpose
resources
incentive
visibility
encouragement
capability

TIBCO Active Matrix - Intro

2010-11-07T00:12:00.000-07:00

TIBCO Product Suite For SOA:
Follows Model Driven SOA Patterns.

Mediation Pattern using AM Service Bus

Location/Implementation Transparency
Transport Transparency

Orchestration Pattern - AM BW

Help process talk to each other
One Level Interaction Based / Response

Composite Patterns using AM Grid

SCA (Service Composite Architect)
Multiple Level of Interaction between Services

Features: SOA Offerings

Service Virtualization
Mediation
Normalized Messaging
Net and Java applications integration
Communication
Virtualization
Transaction
Deployment
Policy/Service Management
Monitoring
Debugging

All in One Editor:

One Console and Single Application
Create / Pub / Mgmt
Design:
Development:

Hand Code Biz Logic
Can reference other service in code via annotations

Deployment:

Horizontal and Vertical
Service Cloud

Server Startup Sequence:

EMS Server
HSQL DB
Demon
Amx Admin Server
Login to Console
Node Running

Policy Manager
To enforce SOA Governance.
Guidelines:

People and Process
Reusable Serives
Focus on Core Business
Policy Mgmt Seprate

Features:

Registry
Repository
Policy Mgmt
Service Mgmt

Operation Of Service

Flow - policy / Service / app
Policy Mgmt is seprate from service development
Policy gets applied to service by Policy Mgmt
This get tranverse effect on application using that service
Policy Mgmt alows same service deployment with different policy without changing service.

SOA Policy Standards:

WS-Policy:

Audting
Logging
Routing
Schema Validation
SLA

WS-Security:

Authentication / Authentication / Digital Cert / Encriiption

TIBCO - AMX Service Bus

2010-11-07T00:04:00.000-07:00

Needs of Mediation:

Transport Bridging -HTTP to JMS

Allows multiple transport by different service for same component/parts of it.
Location Transparency - Move yr service to nodes/port

Routing and Service Version Management

Content Based Routing - Rules based routing
Context Based Routing - With multiple version of service routing

On-boarding Services
Data Transformation (Implementation Transparency)
Security and runtime governance

Policy Enforcement At Runtime at both Provider/Consumer ends
Monitoring of message

Promote Re-use
Message interaction pattern
Customer Task

Write a File/Log/Faults/Control Flow

Types Of Mediation Task in AMSB:

External Interaction (Invoke operations/Query DB/Log)
Data Exchange(Parse & Render XML, Transform/Set Exchange variable)
Flow Control (Route / xPath / Throw Fault / Generate Reply / Set Dynamic Ref)

Editor Features:

Canvas:

Mediation Interface, Mediation Paths and Target Interface

Mediation Mapping -

Projection - Exposed to consumer
Mediation Pallet

Transform / Route / Log
xPath Route / Throw Fault

New Features and their details:

Dynamic Routing

Apply rules in run-time
Static Routing is done at design time.

Data Enrichment

Let you query DB for data or routing rules to make decision
Query DB Task Editor - Visual SQL Enabled

Security Context Propogation

SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) Token Identity Propagation
More applied to SSO (Principal gets authentication from a domain and service provider choose to accept it)
Authentication (Identity, assertion, validaiton)
Authorization (LDAP based) using SAML issuer attribute in token
Message (decryption & encryption)

Invoke Operation Mediation Task

Orchastration as Mediation task
Contribute content to mediation exchange - Enriching the payload by call intermediate services

Generate Reply Mediation Task

Cached response
Simple orchestration

Mediation Exchange

Can rip header data from message xchange
Modify data in translation
By using Use Exchange Variable and apply schema

Parse and Render XML

Parse - Binary/XML > Formated XML
Render - Formatted XML > Binary/XML
Use Schema for this

EJB Binding Type

Consume EJB Stateless Session Bean by exposing them as Service on Bus
Import Jar File
Create WSDL

References:

http://media.tibco.com/devnet/activematrix_service/amsb201_overview/index.html

WebMethod

2010-11-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Real-time Components:

Integration Server - Platform to run all adopter/b2b Gateway/monitor/Admin
Broker - Messaging Infra/JMS
Adopter - Data and Business Logic for backend sys

Run under IS.

Mainframe - For Adoter / Run outside IS
Trading Network -

Business Doc gateway to build and manage
B2B doc exchange with parterner
All Transport (http/ftp/smtp)
eStandard - ebXML, SWITFT FIN, CIDX, EDI

Workflow - Business process approval with manual interaction .

Outside IS via Broker
Client Server Approach

Design Time Components:

Modeloer - Business Process Model
Workflow Designer - For Workflow
Developer -
Trading Network Console - Profile/doc Types/processing rules

Admin

Admin
Manager
Monitor

Manager - Tips

2010-11-05T23:47:00.000-07:00

Should be used to push out inofrmation for others to make decision.
Dot send threat, negative news, confrontation, challenge or criticize
Use more personal connection - Phone/Chat/P2P

Whiner at Office

Dont whine and dont let and dont set stage.

Negative Feeling/Situation at Work

Review, Renew, Recharge and Recreate

Exec Talk:

More facts than emotions
Establish rapport - Savvy and Confidant
Be clear on objective
Suggestion for improvement

Recognition

Recognize good in public and bad in private.
Recognize regularly and all meeting
Recognition important factor in performance

JMS - Concept

2010-10-27T00:47:00.000-07:00

Point to Point (Queue)
A point-to-point (PTP) product or application is built around the concept of message queues, senders, and receivers. Each message is addressed to a specific queue, and receiving clients extract messages from the queue(s) established to hold their messages. Queues retain all messages sent to them until the messages are consumed or until the messages expire.

Between Producer and Consumer
Only one can get the message
Exclusive Queue (First consumer gets all message)

Publish-Subscribe Model (Topics)
In a publish/subscribe (pub/sub) product or application, clients address messages to a topic. Publishers and subscribers are generally anonymous and may dynamically publish or subscribe to the content hierarchy. The system takes care of distributing the messages arriving from a topic's multiple publishers to its multiple subscribers. Topics retain messages only as long as it takes to distribute them to current subscribers.
EMS is JMS impl by TIBCO.

Between Publisher and Subscriber
All receivers can consume message.
Durable Subscription

Defines time-line for validity of subscription
Parameters - Expiration / Storage Limit / Durability

Diff RMI and JMS

RMI is for tightly coupled applications
JMS is for loosely coupled applications.

Flow of JMS:

Sender - Send > Ack > Response
Receiver - Receive > Send Response
Server is responsible of sending message to Consumer on request/connection in both models.

Destinations:
Destination - Queue and Topics

Static Destination

Stays in Cofig / LDAP Look-up
Administration Toll

Dynamic Destination

On fly by client API
Stay till consumer/message on destination
No JNDI / Config queue.conf/topic.conf
Java Programming Language

Temp Destination

Routing Queue

Configurations:

Wild-card - Only Sub to Topic is allow with wildcard.
Inheritance

Defined in Config on server
Rules can be apply using wildcard. Dist.*

Permission

Using wild charters, permission can be defined.
Secure the destination
Authentication can be defined by secure property

Flow Control - Config Max message Limit for Producer
FailSafe - Write to file to keep permanant persistance.
Exclusive - For Queue to deliver all message to first consumer.
Export and Import - To communicate with other applications/bus
Expiration - Specify time to retire.

Zero - Message never expire.

Confirmation: Message delivery confirmation for consumer

Duplication: Server sends Confirmation of Ack
Auto Ack: No confirmation from Client
Client Ack: Client has to send confirmation

Compression:

Body get compresses.
At Message level not on destination

Destination Bridge:

Bridge between topics and queues

Client side logic can be implement in EMS.

Charateristics:

It is not transitive. (Transfer Message a > b > c)
Access Control - Permission are also not transitive. Publisher has to have all permission on all bridge destination.
Transaction - Due to bridge destination permission, transaction can fail.

JMS Message:
It has three components

A header
- JMSDestination
- JMSDeliveryMode - Persistent / Non-persistent
- JMSMessageID
- JMSTimeStamp
- JMSExpiration
- JMSReplyTO
- JMSCorrelationID - Matching Response Message to Message Id
- JMSType
- JMSRedelivered
Properties (Optional) - Vendor Specific
A body (Optional)

Message Type: Text, Object, Stream. Map, Byte

Project Management Tips

2010-08-15T05:57:00.000-07:00

PM Responsibility:

Draw up the project plan, possibly present and “sell” the project to those in authority.
Interact with top management, line managers, project team members, supporting staff, and administrative staff.
Procure project resources, allocate them to project staff, coordinate their use, ensure that they are being maintained in good working order, and surrender them upon project completion.
Interact with outside vendors, clients, and other project managers and project staff within your organization.
Initiate project implementation, continually monitor progress, review interim objectives or milestones, make course adjustments, view and review budgets, and continually monitor all project resources.
Be responsible for all communication on the project and hold all project status meetings along with follow-up documentation and status reporting.
Document and track all project issues and risks and ensure they are being properly tasked.
Supervise project team members, manage the project team, delegate tasks, review execution of tasks, provide feedback, and delegate new tasks.
Identify opportunities, identify problems, devise appropriate adjustments, and stay focused on the desired outcome.
Handle inter-team issues, minimize conflicts, resolve differences, instill a team atmosphere, and continually motivate team members to achieve superior performance.
Prepare interim presentations for top management, offer a convincing presentation, receive input and incorporate it, review results with project staff, and make still more course adjustments.
Make the tough calls, such as having to remove project team members, ask project team members to work longer hours on short notice, reassign roles and responsibilities to the disappointment of some, discipline team members as may be necessary, and resolve personality-related issues affecting the team.
Consult with advisors, mentors, and coaches, examine the results of previous projects, draw upon previously unidentified or underused resources, and remain as balanced and objective as possible.

Three Stage of Team Building

Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing

Unofficial Role of PM

Babysitter
Salesperson
Teacher
Friend

Normal Conflict Situation:

Out of scope work that needs to be included in current timeline
Customer request for a different resource or skill set
Customer training
Budget issue vs. Timeline issue
Functionality needed earlier than expected
Data management issues and who handles them

Failure Reasons:

#1 – Fail to address issues immediately
#2 – Reschedule too often
#3 – Be content with reaching milestones on time, but ignore quality
#4 – Too much focus on project administration and not enough on project management
#5 – Micromanage rather than manage
#6 – Adapt new tools too readily
#7 – Monitor project progress intermittently

Success Reasons:

#1 – Learn to use project management tools effectively
#2 – Be able to give and receive criticism
#3 – Be receptive to new procedures
#4 – Manage your time well
#5 – Be effective at conducting meetings
#6 – Polish your decision-making skills
#7 – Maintain a sense of humor

Conflict Resolution:

Compromise. Parties consent to agree; each side wins or loses a few points.
Confrontation. Parties work together to find a solution to the problem.
Forcing. Power is used to direct the solution. One side gets what the other does not.
Smoothing. This technique plays down the differences between two groups and gives strong attention to the points of agreement.
Withdrawal. This technique involves one party removing him- or herself from the conflict.

Decision Making Checklist:

What is the core problem for the decision?
What is the potential impact of this decision on the project?
What’s the impact if you’re wrong?
What is the window of opportunity?
Have we made this kind of decision before?
Should you be making this decision – who is the expert?
Whose approval do we need and what feedback do we want before proceeding?

Ten main characteristics of successful project teams are:

Clearly defined goals
Clearly defined roles
Open and clear communication
Effective decision making
Balanced participation
Valued diversity
Managed conflict
Positive atmosphere
Cooperative relationships
Participative leadership

Escalation Management

2010-05-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Escalation Management

“Always Available, Rarely Required”
Right things to do, before things go wrongs.
Project don’t go wrong, they start wrong.
Escalation is failure of process.
Solution is having a solid Governance process
Happy escalations (before it happens)

Bathtub Leadership Model

2010-03-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

Leadership Participation vs Time

Stays high at Start and End
Stay low in between it but not zero at any time
Bubble up for 4 C (Conflicts, Clarification, Check-in, Change)

References:

http://www.bnet.com/2422-13731_23-310498.html

Agile PMP

2010-01-18T08:01:00.000-08:00

Apply PMP knowledge in context of Agile

9 Key Areas
5 Process

What is Agile?
Agile - Manage for uncertainity and Risk

Engineering - TDD/XP/Scrum
Project Management - MPP, Burndown chart, Sprint,
Leadership - Scrum, Retrospective Meet,

Agile Manifesto

Individual and Interaction
Process and Tool
Working Software
Comprehansice doc
Customer collaboration
Contract Negociateio
Responding to change
Follow a Plan

Transition Into Agile

Project Planning > Release Planning > Interaction Planning
Epic -> Feature -> User Story
18M > 6M > 2M

Team Mgmt

Cross Functional Management
Specialized Generalist
Focus from individual to Team - What is throughput of team?

Focus:

Fully Functional
Always working
Not fully capable

Monitoring and Controlling

Interation Burn-down Chart
Feature Burn-down Chart

Tracking - Earned Value

Not activity rather business value
Should be done software deliverable on feature/user story
Should be on realized business values in terms of deliverables.

Agile PM
Time

Deliverable not activities
Reduce Dependencies
Priority don’t sequence
Always finish on-time

Cost

Cost = Time size * duration
Invest dont spend

Scope:

Plan scope in rolling waves
Make trade-offs
Allow for negotiation
Frequent customer interaction

Risk:

Business and technical
Risk management built in
Continuous visibility

Quality

Quality not an afterthought
Test driven development
Continuous integration
Continuous testing

Comm.

Outside the team the same
Co location
Osmotic communication
Information radiators

Motivated individuals
Give them tools
Remove impediments
Self organization

Procurement

Build contract for change
Build relationships on trust
Create win-win agreement

Risk Mgmt:

Business - Reduces
Technical - Reduces

Leadership and Management

Creates bubbles and mange context for them
Manages outside the bobbles stakeholders
Allows intra-communication between teams
Organization of all facilitator
Couching the team for different roles

Bring project to a team, not team to project.

Desktop Software Development Guidlines

2010-01-04T04:38:00.001-08:00

Desktop Software Development Guidelines:

Installation

Easy and smooth with all configuration
Footprint size
Un-installation - Cleaning with standard

Auto-update feature
Licensing Management
Stability

Fail-over
Disaster management
System Errors(memory/shutdown/file corruption)

UI Interface

Window Arrangement
Layout and page flow
shortcuts - Keyboard
Help/Tooltip/Focus/color/contrast/
Refresh rate/l
Visual/Hearing Aid/
Loading time/Shutting downtime
Coherence with OS

Connectivity

Network Interfacing
Hardware Interfacing

Google Health - Architecture and App Development

2010-01-03T03:38:00.000-08:00

Google Health is essentially a central hub where individual users can manage information about their health. The industry calls this a Personal Health Record or PHR.

Data providers - who would supply information to the Google Health platform
Service providers - who would leverage the platform

Layered Architecture of Google Health

Web Standards
In addition to leveraging the familiar HTTP and XML standards for the basics of communication, The Google Data API also relies on some more advanced (think Web 2.0) standards in RSS and Atom to handle syndication (or distribution) and publishing.

Health Standard:
Only technical standard from the health care industry being implemented by Google Health is the CCR (Continuity of Care Record). This does cover a significant range of details about a user’s health and the care they receive such as test results, allergies, height and weight and much more.

Base Google API
Google Health leverages the Google Data API and Google Accounts API. Google Data API is a “a simple standard protocol for reading and writing data on the web”.

The Accounts API provides two different basic modes of authentication. Authentication for a web based application, and authentication for an installed client application. There are two options for web based authentication:

AuthSub has been in use longer
OAuth is meant to be an open standard.

Programming languages for client development: Protocol, .Net, Java, Python, and PHP, Objective C*, and Javascript*. Google Health (Data & Integration) Services
Google Health API provides it to main services… Health Data feeds and queries on those feeds.
The Profile Feed provides access to the user’s health profile in a subset of the CCR standard. Applications can send updates to the user’s health profile using the Register feed, as well as sending custom user alerts such as a prescription interaction warnings.

Health Data Providers
Google is actively seeking to sign up partners to serve as data providers for Google Health.
The users will be able to import data into their Google Health profile from data providers such as pharmacies, healthcare payers, health care providers, and laboratories.

NOTE: Google is not covered by HIPAA, but these partners typically are hippa covered entities.

Third Party Services
Google already has third party service providers integrated with Google health including wellness programs, prescription drug research tools, personal health consultants, and direct to consumer laboratories.

Google Health Web User Interface
The Google Health platform obviously uses a web interface for users to manage their health information, as well as link their profile to data providers and third party services.

Business Processes
This layer represents the business processes or business model for entities partnering with google health.

Personal Health Management Processes
This layer represents the overall personal health managent processes that users of Google Health will achieve by using the system.

Google Health Application Development:

Sandbox Arrangement:

GH provides two environments for applications.

Google Health is a production version which need digital signing, domain registration and other procedures to setup an application interface.
Developer Sandbox is a development environment with easy to setup for developer to get going in matters of few minutes.

Profile View

Each person is associated with a profile in Google health.

Google Data Layers

Google health has REST interface to manage its CCR data.

CCR to Google health UI:

A "snapshot" of a patient's health data that can be useful or possibly lifesaving, if available at the time of clinical encounter. Google health provides data management of following categories.

Medication
Immunization
Conditions
Diagnosis
Procedures
Test

Mapping CCR Elements to the Google Health UI

Steps to write a Google health Application:

Create security framework
Create test account H9 sandbox
Populate initial test data on H9
Use gData API to read your h9 CCR data
Parse, format, display this CCR data
Build a new CCR fragment
Write back to Google Health by sending new CCR fragment to Rest API

In HealthyAndy App: CCR Data utilized

/ContinuityOfCareRecord/Body/VitalSigns/Result/Test/TestResult/value|units

References:

Medical Device Standardization

2010-01-02T06:46:00.000-08:00

Food and Drug Administration:

Public Health Care has an FDA (Food and Drug Administration) department which takes care of standardization of Food and Drug coming to US market.
In medical, every thing which touches body has also needs to be standardize by FDA's Office of Operations Center of Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH).
FDA comes under Section 21 of Code of Federal Law(CFR).
FDA is only applicable for US bound medical devices, there are other ISO standards(13845/14971) for global acceptance.

Medical Device Segment:

Patient Monitoring and Diagnostic Devices - Cardiology
Diagnostic Imaging - x-ray
Therapy Devices - Pacemaker
Invirto Diagnostic - Clinical Chemistry
Network and Information System

Risk Based Classification:
From Risk viewpoint, there are two broad level categories:

A device which recieve signals - Lowest Risk
A device which insert signals - High Risk

But FDA classify them more granular way.

Class I – Lowest Risk

Subject to General Controls
Exempt from premarket notification unless “reserved”.

Class II

Subject to General and Special Controls
Require 510(k) premarket notification unless exempt.

Class III – Highest Risk

Subject to General and Special controls
Require Premarket Approval Application (PMA) unless a preamendment device.

Lifespan of Medical Device:

Pre-Market Phase ( Manufacturer)

Conception and Development
Manufacturing
Labeling and packing

Placing on Market Phase (Vendor)

Advertisement
Sales

Post Market Phase (User)

Usage
Disposal

Types of Regulatory

Quality System Regulation (QSR)
510(k) Clearance/Pre-Market Notification

Must demonstrate that the device is “substantially equivalent” to a predicate device
90 day decision goal at FDA

Premarket Approval (PMA)

Requires clinical data and/or scientific evidence supporting safety and efficacy claim
320 day decision goal at FDA

Product Development Protocol (PDP)

FDA Approval Process:

Device Classification
General Controls
PMA/PMN/Clinical Trails
Prepare DHF(Design History File), DMR (Device Master Record), DHR (Device History Record)
FDA Submission
Quality Audit Certification

510K/Pre-market Notification/PMN:

A Marketing Clearance Application
designed to give manufacturers the opportunity to obtain rapid market approval for its safety and claimed effectiveness.
Substantial Equivalent is required if a new batch or incremental version of device is launched. It means that it is same in intended usage and technology.
Types of Device Submission

Traditional - Any new device
Special - A incremental device with same tech and usage.
Abbreviated - Device which has standard and developed procedure

Regulated Development Process:

Design Controls (ISO 13845)

Plan & document what you will do (good systems engineering), follow the plan, document the results of each & every step (including the design review itself)
Summary Technical Doc

Technical Requirement doc
Device Description doc
Verification and validation doc
Production and process doc

Risk Management (ISO 14971)

Plan how you will manage risk, identify & characterize risk, mitigate risk, assess residual risk, document & report risks
Risk Assessment - level of concern

Major – Death or Serious injury
Moderate – Non-serious injury
Minor – Not expected to lead to injury

Records Controls (21CFR 820.180-186)

Plan how you will manage records (documents, data, etc.), generate records, audit to ensure integrity (safety, security, etc.)

Terms:

Preamendment Devices - Devices which were in market pre 1976 ear. Not required to be certified by FDA unless objected.
Predicate device - A device which has past appearance in market from same vendor.

HIPAA Compliance:
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal law designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system.Employees with access to patient data may use or disclose it only on a “need to know” basis:

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) - electronic transfer of information among organizations
Code Sets - uniform codes for illnesses and treatments
Identifiers - standardized numbers identifying health providers, plans, and employers
Security - standards for protecting confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data
Privacy - standards defining appropriate and inappropriate disclosures of individually identifiable health information and how patient rights are to be protected

References:

JFreeChart

2010-01-01T23:42:00.000-08:00

Graphs and Charts is the most efficient method for displaying information in a simple manner. Using this form of representation helps it's viewers to understand and interpret the information more easily and efficiently, which otherwise could be a very difficult and tedious process.

Charts: Drawn to show patterns between two variable data.
Graph - Drawn to show drived data on axises.

There are two main thing in JfreeChar: Chart and its Data Set

JfreeChart Packages:

package: org.jfree.chart
package: org.jfree.data

In JFreeChart project, you have to create a Dataset for creating a chart. JFreeChart have many Dataset objects, that are used to create different types of charts. After creating the Dataset object actual chart can be created.

2 D Pie Chart:

DefaultPieDataset pieDataset = new DefaultPieDataset();
pieDataset.setValue("One", new Integer(10));
JFreeChart chart = ChartFactory.createPieChart
("Pie Chart", pieDataset, legendBool tooltipBool, urlBool);
ChartFrame frame1=new ChartFrame("Pie Chart", chart);

3 D Pie Chart:

DefaultPieDataset pieDataset = new DefaultPieDataset();
pieDataset.setValue("One", new Integer(10));
JFreeChart chart = ChartFactory.createPieChart3D
("Pie Chart", pieDataset, legendBool tooltipBool, urlBool);
PiePlot3D p=(PiePlot3D)chart.getPlot();
p.setForegroundAlpha(0.5f);
ChartFrame frame1=new ChartFrame("Pie Chart", chart);

Area Chart:

DefaultCategoryDataset dataset = new DefaultCategoryDataset();
dataset.addValue(4.0, "Science", "Rahul");

Public static JFreeChart createAreaChart(java.lang.String title, java.lang.String categoryAxisLabel, java.lang.String valueAxisLabel, CategoryDataset dataset, PlotOrientation orientation, boolean legend, boolean tooltips, boolean urls);

XYArea Chart:
XYSeries is used to plot a point on chart.

XYSeries series = new XYSeries("Average Weight");
series.add(20.0, 20.0);
XYDataset xyDataset = new XYSeriesCollection(series);
Public static JFreeChart createXYAreaChart(java.lang.String title, java.lang.String xAxisLabel, java.lang.String yAxisLabel, XYDataset dataset, PlotOrientation orientation, boolean legend, boolean tooltips, boolean urls)

XYLine Chart:

Public static JFreeChart createXYLineChart(java.lang.String title, java.lang.String xAxisLabel, java.lang.String yAxisLabel, XYDataset dataset, PlotOrientation orientation, boolean legend, boolean tooltips, boolean urls)

Bar Chart:

Public static JFreeChart createBarChart(java.lang.String title, java.lang.String categoryAxisLabel, java.lang.String valueAxisLabel, CategoryDataset dataset, PlotOrientation orientation, boolean legend, boolean tooltips, boolean urls);

3D Bar Chart:

dataset.setValue(valueAxis, CategoryAxis, );

Public static JFreeChart createBarChart3D(java.lang.String title, java.lang.String categoryAxisLabel, java.lang.String valueAxisLabel, CategoryDataset dataset, PlotOrientation orientation, boolean legend, boolean tooltips, boolean urls);

Other Charts:

Waterfall Chart:
Polor Chart:

Facts:

JFreeChart 1.0.12 (latest 1.0.13)

References:

http://www.roseindia.net/chartgraphs/index.shtml

Jasper Reports

2010-01-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

Jasper Report Tech
JasperReports is an open-source Java class library designed to aid developers with the task of adding reporting capabilities to Java applications.

It has flexible report layout.
It is capable of presenting data textually or graphically.
It allows developers to supply data in multiple ways.
It can accept data from multiple data sources.
It is capable of exporting reports to a variety of formats.
package: net.sf.jasperreports
iReport lets you design the report and associate entity fields with report fields.
*.jasper file are a compiled version of the .jrxml template files.

Six sections of report:

title - The report title, which will appear once at the top of the report.
pageHeader - A page header, which will appear at the top of every page.
columnHeader
detail - A detail section, which typically contains the primary report data.
columnFooter
pageFooter - A page footer, which will appear at the bottom of every page.
summary - A summary section, which will appear at the end of the report.

Details of sections:

Each report section, called a band, is given a height.
Each band can include multiple staticText and textField elements, which are given a position, size, and value.
Report parameters, fields, and variables are referenced using P${name}, F${name}, and V${name}, respectively.
Page number's value is set to the variable PAGE_NUMBER, defined internally by JR for all reports.

For each Text field:

TextField -> ReportElement -> TextElement -> textFieldExpression

Report Generation Process:

JasperDesign: Represents a report's definition. In most cases, you create a JasperDesign from an XML report template, though you can also create it programmatically.
JasperReport: Represents a compiled JasperDesign. The compilation process verifies the report design and compiles the design into a JasperReport object.
JasperPrint: Represents a generated report. You create a JasperPrint from a JasperReport through the fill process in which a report is populated with data from a data source.

Programming a Report process:

JasperManager.loadXMLDesign();
JasperManager.compileReport();
JasperManager.fillReport(report, dbConn, prop);
JasperManager.printReportToPdf();
JasperManager.viewReport();

Best Practices:

Report design is largely static and worked through XML file JasperDesign
JasperDesign are kept pre-compiled to faster access.
Fastest option is to keep JasperPrint objects ready
Be careful not to select properties that map to non-JDBC types. it will either throw exception or unpredictable error.

Jasper Report with ORM Tech (Hibernate):

Jasper return list is tidier than using java.util.Map objects, which is preferred approach.
JRDataSource implementation that your application can use to fill a report template with data from an Hibernate return list.
JRBeanCollectionDataSource class is constructed from a collection of Java beans and knows how to loop through the collection and access the beans' properties.

Working with Beans Driven Report

Add a helper method () in bean class.

public static List createBeanCollection ()

Put jar file containing bean in iReport lib and restart iReport.
Now by explore for new connection/dataSource for a new report/document and select "JavaBeans new DataSource".
This will populate all the fields for bean which can be mapped into report.
It access bean properties just like JSTL tag. It convert these into names like relative to its class.

Working with List Collection Driven Report

For a Select * List Collection:

Get the list from hibernate session

List cats = session.find("from eg.Cat");

Ready and compile the jasperReport
Create the JRBeanCollectionDataSource using data list.

ds = new JRBeanCollectionDataSource(cats);

Create print by filling the report.

For a Select columnName List collection:

Data returned by OR model is in list of maps, where map has one row of data mapped with column name to key.
Implement a custom JRDataSource interface to glue ORM and Jasper. It consist of two abstract methods next() and getFieldValue():
public class CustomJRDataSource implements JRDataSource {
public Object getFieldValue(JRField jRField) throws JRException {}
public boolean next() throws JRException { } }

Add a createDataSource() static method to get the instance it to use it.

Facts:

Jasper Report 3.1. (latest is 3.6 in Aug 09)

References:

Todo:

JPS Tags
Write a sample program to run on server
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/13332413/Jasper-Report-Tutorial
http://java.dzone.com/articles/java-reporting-jasperreports
http://java.dzone.com/articles/java-reporting-part-2
http://java.dzone.com/articles/java-reporting-%E2%80%93-part-3

Java Object Lifecycle

2009-12-25T23:54:00.000-08:00

Lifecycle of Object:

Process:

Finalizer object will hold the ref to all the object till the finalizer is called.
Final keyword is used to declare variable that it will have final ref. Ref can change its value.
The JVM does not guarantee the order in which it will call the finalizers of the objects in the finalization queue.
Finalization should be the last resort as it is unpredictable and non deterministic. Also, it is not performance friendly.
Instead use the weak references which is predictable way and do the postmartam cleanup in same way.
Use it to extends Parent class as Weak Reference. So that at GC, Parent is freed before child finalizer gets called.

References:

How to Handle Java Finalization's Memory-Retention Issues

OOPs Designing Principals

2009-12-25T22:57:00.000-08:00

Open/Closed Principal (OCP):

Open for extension but closed for modification. In java, Abstract class are good example of it.
Strong Coupling - Modification in one, effects other class as well.

Dependency Inversion Principle

High level modules should not depend upon low level modules. Both should depend upon abstractions
Abstractions should not depend upon details. Details should depend upon abstractions.

Substitution Principle

If a program module is using the reference of a Base class, then it should be able to replace the Base class with a Derived class without affecting the functioning of the program module.

Design by Contract Principal:

A sub-type can only have weaker pre-conditions and stronger post-conditions than its base class.

Interface Segregation Principal:

Re-factoring Fat interface which is bloated and causing unnecessary burden of implementation on implementing classes.

Separation of Concerns (SoC):

No overlapping functionality or confusion while implementation.
Progress towards SoC is traditionally achieved through modularity of programming and encapsulation (or "transparency" of operation), with the help of information hiding.
Layered designs in information systems are also often based on separation of concerns (e.g., presentation layer, business logic layer, data access layer, database layer).

Dont Repeat Yourself (DRY)/Duplication is Evil(DIE):

Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system
A modification of any single element of a system does not change other logically-unrelated elements.
Used more entity and data model designing

References:

http://doodleproject.sourceforge.net/articles/2000/openClosedPrinciple.html

Scalability

2009-12-25T19:26:00.000-08:00

Top Ten Scalability Killers:

Thinking Scalability Is Just About Technology
Overuse of Synchronous Calls
Failure to Weed or Seed Soon Enough
Inappropriate Use of Databases
Cesspools Instead of Swim Lanes
Reliance on Vertical Scale
Failure to Learn from History
Changing Development Methodologies to Fix Problems
Too Little Caching, Too Late
Overreliance on Third Parties to Scale

References:

http://gigaom.com/2009/12/20/top-10-internet-startup-scalability-killers

Release Management

2009-12-22T06:08:00.000-08:00

Types of multiple parties Project management scenario:

Multi-vendors
Multi-locations
Multi-teams

Benefits:
Release Management is proactive technical support focused on the planning and preparation of new services.

Gives the possibility to plan resource requirements in advance
Gives a structured approach, leading to an efficient and effective process
Changes are bundled together in a release, minimizing the impact on the user
Helps to verify correct usability and functionality before release by testing
Provides version control and central storage, which ensures correct version use.

Release Management Process:

Gathering and description

Requirements gathering
Analyzing and documentation of inter-dependencies with other/existing systems.
Planning
Meta modeling technique

Release Building

Development, unit testing and building

Acceptance Test

Verified with exacted outputs
Report generation for knowledge base

Release Preparation

Packaging in deplorable artifacts
Last audit to verify against requirement check list

Release Deployment

Pushing to production or giving out to customer

Releasing a new Version - Process:
RM responsibility is to protect live/production environment and control the the release of new configurations items into it.

Gathering the requirements and gathering the dependencies with the existing components must be checked out in advance.
After that a new version can be built, tested and the release can be prepared.
Release consists of a software file ready to be installed, complete with manuals with updated design and testing documents.
A release rollback plan is also available on standby to safeguard against surprises during the release, or non-acceptance by the end users.

Roles:

Facilitator – Serves as a liaison between varying business units to guarantee smooth and timely delivery of software products or updates.
Gatekeeper – “Holds the keys” to production systems/applications and takes responsibility for their implementations.
Support Engineer – Help troubleshoot problems with an application (although not typically at a code level).
Coordinator – Utilized to coordinate disparate source trees, projects, teams and components.

Challenges:

Software Defects
Issues
Risks
Software Change Requests
New Development Requests (additional features and functions)
Deployment and Packaging
New Development Tasks
Organizational Politics

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Release_management

Multi-vendor Management:

2009-12-22T00:43:00.000-08:00

Key Criteria:

A good relationship with the project drivers and share common goals to make both the client and project succeed.
Three Major Aspects:

Communication
Collaboration
Shared goal

Challenges:

Customer Confusion
Inconsistent Quality
Lack of business intelligence

Risks:

Collaboration

Integration Management
Dependency Management

Communication

Inter-team communication management
Constant Common Goal Enforcement

Common Goal

Setting up Expectation, critical and penalty

Responsibilities:

Define clearly each vendor's roles, responsibilities and deadlines
Manage expectations among the different teams
Conduct regular meetings
Provide communication strings
Build a positive working relationship

System to Establish:

Big Picture View of all operations
Intercommunication and quick issue resolution
Improving Service Quality

Target recurring problem and improve operation efficiency
Ensures vendors meet their service and warranty obligation
Identify poor performance and present it to higher manager for decisions

Improving IT procedures

Single Point Of Contact (SPOC)
Key to manage multi-vendor is a SPOC who responsible for all technology support (issues and escalations), including those from internal and external service providers.

Quality management.

Monitor and manage performance and service of all vendors proactively, ensuring quality management.
This also ensures that issues don't fall through the cracks.

Centralized decision making

Data collection and analysis for all service delivery activities from vendors
For decision-making, strategic analysis, and assessing vendors performance and service.

Java Peformance Programming

2009-12-20T05:10:00.001-08:00

References:

Android - Concept

2009-12-19T20:54:00.001-08:00

Google has been very impressive and they impressed me again. Here is my first hand review of development plateform called Android.
Great documentation, very comprehensive tool.
What a strategy? They have targeted today open source lovers.

Techonogy stack Linux, Eclipse, Java, SQLlite
Backed by open handset alliance
All carriers, Semiconductor and handset manufacturer on board.

They have many major programming model.
First Android introduced four pillor of any app development
Activity, Service, Content Provider and Broadcast Recivers
Brief about all.
Activity is ...................
Then they have magical Manifest.XML file which heart of the system, whatever you define here, only that can be understood by system.

Java Performance Tuning - Training

2009-12-19T20:50:00.001-08:00

Day 1:
Java Class loader is written in C. It is the only component on C.
URL CL, WAR CL.
Program Area:
Method area:Permannet space -> heap.
Bottolneck
CPM
Memory
I/O
Performance is precvieved. It achive it you should concentrate on bottleneck. Bottelneck should be looked at end.
Profiling:
JVM PDI:
Run test on foreground
Absolute and relative time
Garbage Collector.
- Verbose option
java -verbosegc PrefTest > gc
GC Viewer
D:\EclipseEsy\workspace\PrefTest2>java -cp . -verbosegc -Xms4m -Xmx4m PrefTest2 > gg44
D:\EclipseEsy\workspace\PrefTest2>java -cp . -XX:+PrintGCDetails -XX:+PrintGCTimeStamps PrefTest2
Command line:
===========
-XX:+PrintDetails
-XX:+NewRatio
-XX:+MaxNewRatio
-XX:+NewRatio
-XX:NewSize
Type of GC algorithams:
===================
Copy Collecor: Simple
Mark and sweep: Sophosticated
Increamental GC (train):
Switch the Algorithams:
-XX:+ParallelGC -XX:ParallelGCThreads
-XX:+ConMarkSweepGC of -Xincgc
-XX:+UseSerialGC
-XX:+UseTrainGC
-XX:MaxGCPauseMillis
-XX:GCTimeRatio
Heap Profiler:
-Xrunhprod
Allocation Profile:
-Xaprof
java -cp . -Xaprof PrefTest2
-Xrunhprof:format=b and HAT
System.gc() - Confirmed run of Full GC
Stack overflow due to recursive calls.
Use
GC
VM and GC size
Larger heap
Inc GC
Con GC
JDK Improvment
JIT compiler
Adoptive -hotspot
Better Optimizing Compiler
NIO Research Project:
Opimizing Compilers:
================
Cant write efficient code
Remove unused blocks
Increase statically bound calls
Interface and abstract - Dynamically binding
Dead code
Check for null.
Comupationnly cheaper aternatives
Public method are faster than provate and protected.
Sun Compiler:
Litrals Constant: int f = 9*8
string Concatination
Constant are inlined.
Javac Option -O Option
Weak Ref - Simple GC
Soft Ref - Full GC
D:\EclipseEsy\workspace\PrefTest2>java -cp . -verbosegc -XX:NewSize=2m -Xms4m -Xmx64m RefTest 12000

Day 2 Notes:

String Method
String package private Constructor
String.intern();
String.trim(); - efficient..
String.toUpperCase();
String.substring()
String.toCharArray();
subString machanisum. ???
Articles: getter and setter are evils.
StringBuffer:
Good when underline array changes frequently.
Bynamically growing
Understand who it works.
Delete, deleteChatAt,
Replace method, Inserert method.
Sub?String,toString()
Exception:
Try and catch block cost.
throw is expensive. It works down the stack to locate try catch.
fillInStackTrack(); Native
Spring:
Used for only IOC...
Spring web and MVC
Exception DataAccesException - Runtime Exception.
ExceptionHandler.
Throwing Pre Created exception
Assertion:???
Cast:
Generic ??
Enum?
Primitive are stored on Stack.
Object are stored on heap.
Instance abs static sites on heap and are expensive for access.
Long:
Not thread safe
CPU take two instruction fir execute it.
Long and doulele can be currupted. Logically???
Primitives Integre, long and doule are also immutable.
Loops:
Short, bool and long all stored as integer.
Dont use method for conditional stmt.
Dont copy array in loop. System.arraycopy.
Index has to be int.
Solaris: ++ is slower than --.
Use short Circuit operator. || && .. Simplest to be on left side.
Avoid reflections.
Switch:
Ordering is important.
Recursion:
Use Tail recursion
Stack overflow.
Factorial - long can hold only upto 20!. Only Big, BigDecimal are object.
Use Stack to achieve recursion.
Write a program: Factorial based on stack.
Thread Stack and heap..... ??
I/O
IO to memory is fastest.
IO to file is slower.
IO to network is slowest.
Buffer -> Collecting data based of threshold size. Storing forward. We dont commit. Trasfering large data.
Cached -> Collecting data based on usage frequency. Stoing data in memory.
8192 buffer size. File and JSP.
IO: log
System.out and System.err are expensive due to HW interaction.User file for err and out.
User logging FW.
Buffered IO:
3 read method
Use Buffered Stream over Raw Streams.
Put is into File.
ThreadGroup Study:
Serialization:
Coverts obj to bytes.
All the member and parents should serialization.
Cost of serialization:
Concderting and sending
Solution:
Compression
Externalization interface and readEetnalization.
Compression:
Issue with Externalization
3 check for it.
Deep Copy with serialization and shallow copy with cloning.
Sorting:
Comparables and Comparator interfaces
Collection Framework.
Comparator.compare() expansive
Arrays.sort() with comparator. Perforamce. Bad.
It looks Comparator-> Comparable.. and go for compare method, if not, than it goes till primitive level.
LGPL - license. prolocy.
Thread
Independent paths of execution.
1.0 Green Thread - Simulated and managed by VM.
1.1 Native Thread - Created by VM on OS and managed by OS.
The paint cyclce in window.
Race Condition - Mutiple threads conquertly work and curpt the obj with concurrecy control or Sync.
1.5 Concurrency API ???/
RRRC - Read Write
RL : Shared
WL: Exclusive
Deadlock: Notify lock.
Thread.destroy() : depricated in 1.5.
User Thread.start() instead of run().
sleep: hold the lock and sleep
wait: relieve the lock and wait.
Dead lock and Race condition
Collections:
Default Size: 16
Increse Factor: .75
Decrese factor: .50
Casts overheard
Generic
HashSet is fasted. Cache it.
TreeSet provides Itrator in Order
Hashmap is fastest in maps. Not sysn.
Hashcode equal
IdentifyHashMap is fastes in jdk1.4.
Array: idex is int, map is string.
HashTable is sync,
TreeMap is slow. Comapre to method.
ArrayList is fastsed list.
Stack = Vector... FILO
Que = Vector.. FIFO Because dele element starte and end.
LinkedList speed depends on random del and add.
Vectore s slower but thred safe. Sync
Enum - is thread safe
Itrator - is not thread safe.
Distributed Computing:
Compression
App Partitioning
Reducing Message
Reducing Calls. (Course Graning -> as small as possible ops)
Technilogy:
RMI: Lagecy tech. Remote Obj can not process concurrently.
Corba: Vendor specific impl is boottlneck,.
HTTP and Applet:
Web Serverice: Bad perforamce.
RPC
Encoded
Literals
Document:
Warpped: Fastest
Size of objects are loo large.
XML - DOM process are bad due to the large obj managers.
SAX are read only.
STAX are new pull based , RW.
Load Balancing Algorithms:
Random
Minimum Load
Round Robin
Weighted Roaund Robin.
Performace based.
Load based.
Dynamic
Neared IP address
Port number
HTTP header
JDBC:
JProbe tool.
Bridge (JDBC-ODBC), Native, Thin (type 4) Pure Java.
Pure Java Type are best. Conversion
Oracle offers for all types of drivers.
Caching
PreparedStatement and it pools.
Batching with setFetchSize,
JoinDepth -> Dependecy load depeding on level specified.
Minimize data conversion overhead.
Matadata - Expensive to retrieve. Cache it.
ResultSet and DB
Transcation:
A set of task get executed as one.
(ACID) = Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability
setAutoCommit() on connection. Is fine. But not on datasouce.
setIsolationLevel:
Dirty Read - Uncommited data read and roll back
Reapeated Read - Commited data read, no lock.
Phentom Read - Manfunctioning of data.
Hibernate: Versioning on Data
Optimiestic Locking is great in all cases.
Servlets:
SingleThreadModel - Depricated because of session are not synch.
Minimize outpuut.
Use String efficiatly.
Use byptes ratther than chars.
Chach the tags.
use static include than
Redirect - > ??
Forward -> Same req obj
HTTPSession:
HTTPSession is pref on cookies.
HttpSeesion: Use serializatbale.
Timeout session - Correct
HttpSession is ligh weight than Statte Session Beans.
Distributed Session use Sticky sessions. Use same box for all req processing in load balancng.
Kill the sessioon
EJB:
Corrse Grain EJB
Stateless Session beans
Cache JNDI lookup.
Local VS Remote:
sk@javainxs.com
98450-01158
JSF framwork: RR
.. what is this??
Left to right execution. So || && should have easy execution on left side.
Hibernate: 2->3:Checked Exception to Runtime exception. ??
What is factor and size growth in Hashmap and arraylist?
Differnece between String and StringBuffer?
Agile: Test first before impl.
Google:Java Performance Tuning

JSP and Servlet - Concept

2009-12-19T20:45:00.001-08:00

Servlets:

Servlets are singleton in one Servlet container.
SingleThreadServlet:
- Allow Servlet container to create multiple instances of servlets.
Servlet Life-cycle:
- Init -> Service() -> destroy()
- HttpServlets: init(), doPost(), doGet();

Forward and redirect:

Forward: JSP/Servlet container call next page internally to server and continue the request processing on new page. Browser does not know about this.
Redirect: JSP ask browser to change the URL resulting a new request generation.
Forward is faster but could be dangerous if someone refreshes this page.

Implicit Objects:

Session, request, response, page, pageContext, application, config.
JSP life-cycle:
Translated -> Compile - > Instantiated/loaded ->
jspInit -> jspService -> jspDestory

Diff between include

include directive, : Inline Code
include action, - Normal JSP call.

Java for REST

2009-12-18T01:30:00.001-08:00

REST allow CRUD operations on a entity which can be represented by URL.
Goal of building networked software systems exhibiting the properties of:

Performance - Performance, as a property, is a quality of responsiveness. Given the networked nature of these software systems, we always want to avoid paying a latency penalty.
Scalability - Scalability is a property that indicates how many users can simultaneously access a service
Generality - allows these systems to solve a wide variety of problems.
Simplicity - The more moving parts a software system has and the more complex its interactions, the harder it is to prove that it does what it is supposed to do.
Modifiability - systems to be as simple as possible and extensible in the face of new requirements, new technologies, and new use cases.

References:

SOAP over ESB

2009-12-16T01:58:00.000-08:00

Business Logic

Use JBoss AS to build the Web-based application with various presentation rules.
The portal submits Web service requests containing business information to the Enterprise Services Bus layer.
Configure appropriate rules and formatter extensions with JBoss ESB to route soap requests to appropriate its Queues. With rules, application can extract information from the headers and routed appropriately.
Model business processes with UI PageFlow and then expose them as Web services. Set up the users required for human intervention in LDAP or any user directory. In this scenario, the arrival of a message (based on appropriate queues using JMS protocol) triggers the appropriate business workflow.
The backend actors interacts with various service providers to complete business process. To implement this, route SOAP requests to multiple service providers using ESB. Then consolidate multiple SOAP responses and provide the results backend actors.
Once backend action process completes, route the information to the appropriate queue. The app Adapter listening on the queues picks up the message from the queue, maps a message to the business object, which in turn is used to create final response.

Control Flow of SOAP over ESB:

Application Flow: JBoss ESB Setup

Define Service in jboss-esb.xml
Associate actions for service
Associate listeners to channels
Define Channels on bus in jboss-esb.xml
Define the JMS Queue in jbm-queue-service.xml
Deployment descriptor deployment.xml
Develop a Action class with action method

Client Flow: JMS Implementation

Establish context with JNDI provider over JNP (Java Naming Provider) to JBoss 1099 port (RMI port).
Get ref for Queue Connection Factory from context
Get ref for Queue to Gateway channel
Create connection to Queue
Create session for connection to queue
Start the connection
Create Sender from session
Create Message from session
Send message through sender

References:

Web Service with JAX-WS

2009-12-16T01:19:00.000-08:00

JAX-RPC has been promoted to being a JAX-WS 2.0 in Java SE 6.0. What it has done that it has made Web service writing a piece of cake.
Major new additions are Web Services Metadata specifications uses annotations (also called metadata).

Rule for Class

It must be public
It must not be final or abstract
It must have a default public constructor
It must not have a finalize() method

Rules for Method

It must be public.
Its parameters, return values, and exceptions can be XML-enabled as per JAX RPC 1.1's Java to XML/WSDL mapping rules—e.g., parameters and return values are primitives, arrays, and so on; exception extends Exception; etc.

Handlers:

Java SE 6 provides interceptors handlers in the javax.xml.ws.handler package that can be plugged into this processing pipeline to perform custom, application-specific processing of inbound and outbound messages.
Two types of handlers are available

SOAP handlers can operate on an entire SOAP message, including the SOAP header and body,
Logical handlers operate on just the payload contained in the SOAP body.

public class TraceHandler implements SOAPHandler {

       handleMessage() {}

      handleFault() {}

JAX-WS Annotations:

@WebService annotation's name, serviceName, and targetNamespace members specify wsdl:portType, wsdl:service, and targetNameSpace for the Web service's generated WSDL .
@SOAPBinding is a binding annotation that specifies the protocol as RPC and format as SOAP.
@WebMethod annotation's operationName member specifies wsdl:operation, and its action specifies the SOAPAction header in WSDL. This is the value clients must put in SOAPHeader, a caveat of SOAP 1.1
@WebParam annotation's partName member specifies wsdl:part in the WSDL.
@WebResult annotation's partName member specifies wsdl:part for the return value in the WSDL.

Web Service's Server

In Java SE 6, you'll find a javax.xml.ws package that includes an Endpoint class, which can be used for hosting Web services within the JVM.

HelloServer server = new HelloServer();

Endpoint endpoint = Endpoint.publish("http://localhost:9090/HelloServer", server);

Binding binding = endpoint.getBinding();

wsgen is a tool to create all the supporting class file for a given service as well as WSDL file from web service class file.

Web Service's Client:
wsimport auto-generation:

wsimport can inspect a WSDL file available at a specific URL to generate all classes that make client code clean and easier to understand. It generates JAX-WS portable artifacts, which means classes work across specification-compliant application servers and JVMs. It generates stub file under "jax" folder.

HelloServer is the service endpoint interface (SEI)
HelloService is the service
HelloException is the exception class mapped from wsdl:fault found in the WSDL
Person is the JAXB mapping of Java classes from the Person schema found in the WSDL

HelloService class Web Service Client code:

@WebServiceClient(name = "HelloService", targetNamespace = "http://hellows.cccccc.com/", wsdlLocation = "http://localhost:9090/HelloServer?WSDL")
public class HelloService extends Service {
   @WebEndpoint(name = "HelloServerPort")
    public HelloServer getHelloServerPort() {
        return (HelloServer)super.getPort(new QName("http://hellows.techyatra.com/", "HelloServerPort"), HelloServer.class);
    }}

Application Code:

HelloService service = new HelloService();
HelloServer server = (HelloServer) service.getHelloServerPort();
String ret = server.hello(person);

Approach to Write Web Service Based Application

Code First

Annotate Your Code
Deploy it in a container that supports JAX-WS, JAX-RS
The JAX-WS runtime will:

Generate WSDL.
Translate SOAP request to a Java technology-based method invocation

Translate method return into a SOAP response.

Contract First

“Compile” the WSDL for the service that you would like to deploy.

wsimport reads the WSDL and generates and interface for each portType

Create a class that implements each interface. The business logic of these classes implements your Web services.
Deploy these Service Endpoint Implementation classes to a JAX-WS container.

Meet in the Middle

WSDL defined
Code First also done
Mapping done in adopter

References:

Todo:

Run and modify Mustang
Expose EJB 3 as Web Services
Web services performance tuning
Get a handle on the JAX-WS API's handler framework

Async Web Services

2009-12-15T23:06:00.000-08:00

Challenges:

Defining a correlation and a mechanism for its exchange.
Defining a reply-to address specifying where the response should be sent, and ensuring that the service provider is informed of this destination.
The generation of a response by a service provider as a transaction separate from the request.
The receipt of an asynchronous response by the client.
The correlation of response with request by both the client and service provider.

Asynchronous transports

HTTPR
JMS
IBM MQSeries Messaging
MS Messaging

Synchronous transports

HTTP
HTTPS
RMI/IIOP
SMTP

Transmission primitives that an endpoint can support:

One-way: The endpoint receives a message.
Request/response: The endpoint receives a message, and sends a correlated message.
Solicit/response: The endpoint sends a message, and receives a correlated message.
Notification: The endpoint sends a message.

Asynchronous Pattern	Applicable Transports	Usage Examples	Comments and Considerations
1. One-way and notification operations	HTTPR, JMS, MQSeries Messaging, HTTP, HTTPS, RMI/IIOP, SMTP	Pub/sub; event notification	Inherently supported by asynchronous transports. When delivery of a request or response does not need to be guaranteed, synchronous transports can be used.
2. Request/reply operations	HTTPR, JMS, MQSeries Messaging, HTTP, HTTPS, RMI/IIOP, SMTP	General service with a single response; transactional services	Inherently supported by asynchronous transports. When delivery of a request or response does not need to be guaranteed, synchronous transports can be used.
3. Request/reply operations with polling	HTTP, HTTPS, RMI/IIOP	Self-service	The simplest client-side implementations. Application-level acknowledgements easily supported with synchronous transports (for example, by HTTP response).
4. Request/reply operations with posting	HTTP, HTTPS, RMI/IIOP	Pub/sub; event notification	Simpler client-side implementations. Similar to Pattern 1, but with explicit application-level acknowledgements for use with synchronous transports.

Implementation:

public Response echoAsync(@WebParam(name = "String_1") String string1);

This will use a pollig or "pull strategy" : once the initial request is made the client is free to pursue other work until the request completes. This enables the client to execute other tasks that don't depend on the outcome of the request. Once the request completes, the response is made available to the client.

On the other hand, using this method:

public Future echoAsync(@WebParam(name = "String_1") String string1, @WebParam(name = "asyncHandler") AsyncHandler asyncHandler);

the actual response is processed by the specified AsyncHandler implementation. Once the response is made available to the callback handler, the code flow is much the same as with polling client.

Asynchronous polling clients are especially useful for implementing Web services based work flows while Asynchronous callback clients are helpful when implementing batch processing and notification consumer applications
Callback calls process the response on a different thread from the one the client is running on. This allows the client to gain some control over performance if there are many concurrent asynchronous requests.

References:

Todo:

Asynchronous web services

RMI - Concept

2009-12-15T19:59:00.001-08:00

Highlights:

Server registers the stub to Registry by Naming.rebind method call.
1. Creates the instance of Remote Object
2. Gets the Remote Ref, which contains the info of hostname and port.
3. Creates stub with this Remote Ref.

CalcImpl ci= new CalcImpl();    RemoteRef ref = ci.getRef();    CalcClient cc = new CalcClient(ref);

Server Remote object export itself to run on specific port (decided dynamically).
Registry maintains a hashmap of public name and stub object.
RMIRegistory is also an Remote Object which exports itself to 1099 port to runs. Just like a server accepting RMI request.
Client connects listening port of server remote object stub. This port is just to initiate the connection.
Server accepts connection and parameter and delegates RMI request handling to another socket.
Client / Server communication happens on newly allocated sockets now.
Bootstrapping in RMI term is the process of bind and lookup.
JDK 1.2 onward, skeleton is merged into server code.

Usage of RMI:

It is used where there is need of application to application communication in different JVMs.

What is new Java SE 6.0?

2009-12-15T18:48:00.001-08:00

Java SE 6 has improvements across the board. To name few;

Opening programmatic access to the Java compiler
System-tray and splash-screen components
Mixing scripting languages with your Java source code (with JavaScript supported out-of-box)
Adapper look and feel in Swing, to XML digital signatures
The Smart Card I/O API
JMX monitor threading improvements
Web services annotations for service providers and simplified client access

Google App Engine - Concept

2009-12-15T03:08:00.000-08:00

Google App Engine is a Cloud Computing SDK, API and Platform that makes Google’s publically recognized scalable infrastructure available to any size development shop.

Java Support

Java 5/Java 6 Web App
Java Servlet API 2.4 - Limited

Blacklisted few API to maintain scalability of GAE platform.
Thread, FileWritter, JNI

Java Data Objects (JDO) - Limited
Java Persistence API (JPA) - Limited
Java Server Faces (JSF) 1.1 - 2.0
Java Server Pages (JSP) + JSTL
JavaBeans™ Activation Framework (JAF)
Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB)
JavaMail - Limited
XML processing APIs including DOM, SAX, and XSLT

Scalability

GAE is very contained for application development but provide fantastic scalability and infrastructure,.
GAE has superb horizontal scalability.
Quata based:

Requests
CPU Time
Bandwidth, incoming and outgoing

Others Facts:

Installation Setting

Path APPENGINE_HOME

OSGi Model

Multiple version of SDK can be maintained

Emulator does not enforce request timeouts and class whitelists.
Building using Ant and Maven

Data Storage
Database - BigTable - A non-relational DB

RDBMS	GDS
DataStore	Object Database
Kind	Table
Row	Entity
Row ID	Key
Column	Property

Java Datastore API

Support - JPA and JDO
Keeps migaration easy

Google Query Language (GQL)

Provides a limited set of SQL
SELECT, WHERE, AND, FROM, IN, ORDER BY, LIMIT, DATE, OFFSET

Indexes:

Indexes are build to fasten "WHERE/ORDERED BY" queries
Build two index for every entity's property

Asending
Descending

Composite Queries and Custom Index: Allows to create indexes on custom SELECT querie which application may use more.
Index Work Queue: Index creation is done by Global Work Queue just after application is deployed.

Specialized Capability:
Supporting Infrastructure

Caching - jCaching API (JSR-107 complaint)
Mail Serer - Java Mail API thought Gmail accounts
Image Manipulation - Google Image Service API
Autherization - Google's ID authentication API
Task Queue - JMS (limited feature)
Instant Messaging XMPP - Google XMPP API

Constraints

HTTP request size - 10MB
HTTP response Size - 10MB

Error - HTTP response was too large”

Request or task duration - 30 seconds

Error - com.google.apphosting.DeadlineExceededException

Maximum files in app - 3000
Maximum size of all app files - 150MB

Supporting Framework:

Grails
Gaelyk
JRuby
Struts 2.0
Wicket

Supporting IDE

Eclipse 3.5
Netbeans

References:

http://sites.google.com/site/superskstorage/blogger/google-app-engine-2.pdf

Todo:

DB access - Modeling and writing queries

Data Caching On Server - jCache

2009-12-15T01:38:00.001-08:00

References:

http://developers.sun.com/learning/javaoneonline/j1sessn.jsp?sessn=TS-6175&yr=2007&track=8

Distributed Transaction

2009-12-15T01:11:00.001-08:00

Spring

Java EE

JPA

Hibernate

References:

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-01-2009/jw-01-spring-transactions.html

Scrum - Concept

2009-12-15T00:57:00.000-08:00

Scrum is a simple management framework for incremental product development using one or more cross-functional, self-organizing teams of about seven people each.

Team Size - 7
Spring - 2-4 weeks

Disruptive framework to transform organization

Expose dysfunction at the individual, team, and organizational level.
Scrum provides a simple structure of roles, meetings, rules, and artifacts.
Similar to XP but not at engineering practices level.

Roles:

Product Owner

Responsible for ROI
Final arbiter of prioritization and requirements and its completion

Scrum Development Team

Size of 7, a cross functional team, co-located in a room
Freedom of choice between sprint planning to sprint review meet.

Scrum Master

Resolves impediment, shield from interference and advocates improved engineering practices.
But does not take any business or technical decision

Meetings

Spring Planning Meet

Product owner defines Spring from Product Backlog without technical discussions.
Team decomposed Sprint to make final commitment.
Duration - 8 hrs per sprint

Daily Scrum

Team examines Spring task list, Spring Burndown chart and impediments.
PO does not need to attend this for a self organizing team.
Stand-up meet are meant to show urgency and to report team instead of boss.
Additional discussion are considered as sidebars.

Spring Review Meet

Product owners will inspect, adapt and review developed Product to plan next course of product backlogs.
Duration - 15 mins

Spring Retrospective:

Team meet to inspect and adapt on its own performance.
Tool - Silent writing, Satisfaction Histogram and Timeliness
Questions - What went well/improvement area/learnins/open issue./Action items

Backlog Refinement Meet

Effort estimation of product backlog done to help proitization.
A parallel meeting

Artifacts

Product Backlog

Granular and prioritized functionality listing

Product Backlog Items(PBI)

Talks about "What" but not how of a feature in PB.
User story with acceptance criterion
Efforts are estimated by Team
Business value is estimated by Product Owner.
Each PBI is a customer centric feature, requires to be broken down into multiple tasks.

Spring Backlog

Committed PBI to be ref by team

Spring Task

Talk about "How" part for each PBI
Each task should either one day or less.

Charts

Information Radiator:

Committed Task | Task not started | Task in Progress | Tasks Completed

Spring Burndown Chart

Shows remaining team task in hrs for a sprint
Daily estimation to showcase progress within a selforganizing team
X axis - Timeline and Y axis - Time in hrs

Product/Release Burndown Chart

Tacks product backlog effort from one spring to another
X axis - Timeline and Y axis - Story points

Team Scaling

Prefer to have cross functional team who can work on all layers.
For large team management, scrum or scrum can be designed
Continuous integration become more important in cross functional/large team to avoid them to step on each other.

Team Grouping Formula:

Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing
Heterogeneous team outperform homogeneous team.s
Depends conflict resolution capability of team
Bad Apple theory need to be managed.

Conclusion:

Scrum focuses on incrementally improving the definitional of DONE.
XP practices like - Continuous Integration/Testing, TDD, Constant Re-factoring, pair programming, statical tool analysis
Good for unpredictable requirement and technology high risk projects.

References:

http://sites.google.com/site/superskstorage/blogger/rc050-010d-scrum_2.pdf

Todo:

Mike Cohn Release Burndown chart

Art of designing API

2009-12-13T04:30:00.000-08:00

Guideline's Importance:

APIs can be among a company's greatest assets

Customers invest heavily: buying, writing, learning
Cost to stop using an API can be prohibitive
Successful public APIs capture customers

Can also be among company's greatest liabilities

Bad APIs result in unending stream of support calls

Public APIs are forever - one chance to get it right

Characteristic of Good API

Easy to learn
Easy to use, even without documentation
Hard to misuse
Easy to read and maintain code that uses it
Sufficiently powerful to satisfy requirements
Easy to extend
Appropriate to audience

Process of API Design

Gather Requirements–with a Healthy Degree of Skepticism
Start with Short Spec–1 Page is Ideal
Write to Your API Early and Often
Writing to SPI is Even More Important
Maintain Realistic Expectations

General Principles

API Should Do One Thing and Do it Well
API Should Be As Small As Possible But No Smaller
Implementation Should Not Impact API
Minimize Accessibility of Everything
Names Matter–API is a Little Language
Documentation Matters
Document Religiously
Consider Performance Consequences of API Design Decisions
API Must Coexist Peacefully with Platform

Class Design

Minimize Mutability
Subclass Only Where It Makes Sense
Design and Document for Inheritance or Else Prohibit it

Method Design

Don't Make the Client Do Anything the Module Could Do
Don't Violate the Principle of Least Astonishment
Fail Fast–Report Errors as Soon as Possible After They Occur
Provide Programmatic Access to All Data Available in String Form
Overload With Care
Use Appropriate Parameter and Return Types
Use Consistent Parameter Ordering Across Methods
Avoid Long Parameter Lists
Avoid Return Values that Demand Exceptional Processing

Exception Design

Throw Exceptions to Indicate Exceptional Conditions
Favor Unchecked Exceptions
Include Failure-Capture Information in Exceptions

"API design is a noble and rewarding craft"
"Perfection is unachievable, but try anyway"
References:

Todo:

Spring - Concept

2009-12-09T03:01:00.001-08:00

Inversion Of Control (IOC):
Injection Types

Interface
Setter
Constructor

Look-up Method Injection:

Allows a singleton class to have prototype object creation.
Method get defined in singleton class but maintained as abstract.
Spring overrides it at runtime if developer does not implement it.

Notes:

For late binding, use idref which validates ref at deployment time.

Scope type

Singleton
Prototype
Request - web aware
Session - web aware
global-session: application level and web aware

Inner Class:

Accessible to only outer class
Can be used in constructor

Auto-wiring:

Binds beans property to instance by autowire type (Name, Type, Constructor, Autodetect)

Collection Support: List, map, prop and set.

Resource Interface: Uniform interface to deal with all resources like Classpath, file, URL, Servlet etc.

Application Context:
Bean Factory is good for small application, but full power of framework lies in Application Context level.

Allow you to publish even to all listeners
Resolve text messages from properties files

Depending on source of loading, it has multiple types:

ClasspathXMLApplicationContext
FileSystemApplicationContext
XmlWebApplicationContext

Life Cycle
Bean Factory Container:
Creation

instantiate
Polulate properties
BeanNameAware.setBeanName
BeanFactoryAware.setFactoryName
Preinitialization
InitializationBean AfterProperty Set
Call Custom Init Method
Post Initialization

Destroy:

DisposableBean Destroy
Call Custom Destroy Method

Application Context:
Creation

instantiate
Populate properties
BeanNameAware.setBeanName
BeanFactoryAware.setBeanFactory
ApplicationContextAware.setApplicationContext
Preinitialization
InitialingBean.AfterPropertySet
Call Custom init
PostInitializatiom

Destroy

DisposableBean.Destroy
call custom destroy method

Factory Bean

JndiObjectFactoryBean
ProxyFactoryBean
TransactionFactoryBean
RmiProxyFactoryBean
LocalSessionFactoryBean
LocalStatelessSessionProxyFactoryBean
SimpleStatelessSessionProxyFactoryBean

Bean Factory:

XMLBeanFactory
SimpleJndiBeanFactory
StaticListenableBeanFactory
DefaultListenableBeanFactory

BeanPostProcessor:
Gives more control into lifecycle of bean. This process works as callback. Class needs to implement BeanFactoryPostProcessor class and register it with application context.

PostProcessBeforeInitialization
PostProcessAfterInitialization

Internationalization:

MessageSource interface implementation is ready to use from Spring XML file.

Annotations:
Life Cycle:

@Required
@Autowired
@Resource
@PostConstruct
@PreDestroy

Configure Bean

@Component
@Controller
@Repository
@Service

Transaction

Transactional
AspectJ

References:

Todo:

Skipping 51-61 page of Spring Framework 2.5 - Lesson 01-ver1.pdf
Implement internationalization project on page 65.
Implement Annotation

Architect Ability for Non-functional Requirements

2009-12-06T21:26:00.000-08:00

Following is a list of quality attributes/abilities, an architect needs to look in a solution.

Major
- Functionality
- Usability
- Reliability
- Performance
- Supportability

Additional Constrains
- Security
- Modifiability
- Portability
- Interoperability
- Availabilty
- Integration Ability

Scalability:
“How well a solution to some problem will work when the size of the problem increases.” 4 common scalability issues in IT systems:

Request Load:

How does an 100 tps application behave when simultaneous request load grows? E.g.

From 100 to 1000 requests per second?

Ideal solution, without additional hardware capacity:

as the load increases, throughput remains constant (i.e. 100 tps), and response time per request increases only linearly (i.e. 10 seconds).

Connections:

What happens if number of simultaneous connections to an application increases

If each connection consumes a resource?
Exceed maximum number of connections?

Data Size

How does an application behave as the data it processes increases in size?
Can application/algorithms scale to handle increased data requirements?

Deployment:

How does effort to install/deploy an application increase as installation base grows?

Install new users?
Install new servers?

Solutions typically revolve around automatic download/installation

E.g. downloading applications from the Internet

Performance:

perfomance-engineering-in-project

Modifiable:

Modifications to a software system during its lifetime are a fact of life.
Modifiable systems are easier to change/evolve
Modifiability should be assessed in context of how a system is likely to change

No need to facilitate changes that are highly unlikely to occur
Over-engineering!

Modifiability measures how easy it may be to change an application to cater for new (non-) functional requirements.

‘may’ – nearly always impossible to be certain
Must estimate cost/effort

Modifiability measures are only relevant in the context of a given architectural solution.

Components
Relationships
Responsibilities

Security:

Authentication: Applications can verify the identity of their users and other applications with which they communicate.
Authorization: Authenticated users and applications have defined access rights to the resources of the system.
Encryption: The messages sent to/from the application are encrypted.
Integrity: This ensures the contents of a message are not altered in transit.
Non-repudiation: The sender of a message has proof of delivery and the receiver is assured of the sender’s identity. This means neither can subsequently refute their participation in the message exchange.

Availability:

Measured by the proportion of the required time it is useable. E.g.

100% available during business hours
24x7x52 (100% availability)

Related to an application’s reliability

Unreliable applications suffer poor availability

Period of loss of availability determined by:

Time to detect failure
Time to correct failure
Time to restart application

Strategies for high availability:

Eliminate single points of failure
Replication and failover
Automatic detection and restart

Recoverability (e.g. a database)

the capability to reestablish performance levels and recover affected data after an application or system failure

Integration Ability:

ease with which an application can be incorporated into a broader application context

Use component in ways that the designer did not originally anticipate

Typically achieved by:

Data – expose application data for access by other components
API – offers services to read/write application data through an abstracted interface

References:

http://sites.google.com/site/superskstorage/blogger/Gorton-ESA.ppt

Cloud Technology Stack and Service Catalog

2009-12-06T09:19:00.000-08:00

IaaS:

Amazon - AWS

Services - EC2, S3, Simple DB, SQS

VMware - vCloud Express
Sun Cloud -

PaaS:

Gird Computing

Gridgain on Amazon EC2

Data Compute

Hadoop

Framework

Dot Net
Spring

SaaS:

Salesforce.com
Google Docs

Cloud Offerings:

CloudFoundry

IaaS - AWS/VMware (paid)
PaaS - SpringSource
Language - Java/Spring/Grail/Java

Red Hat Cloud

IaaS - AWS (paid)
PaaS - Jboss AS/Linux

Heroku

IaaS - AWS (paid)
PaaS - Ruby
Language - Ruby

Cloudera

IaaS - AWS/VMware (paid)
PaaS - Hadoop (mapReduce)
Languages - Java

Gridgain

IaaS - AWS (paid)
PaaS - Gridgain
Languages - Java, Python,
Technology

Django development framework,
Google's BigTable database/storage system
Google File System (GFS)

Google App Engine -

PaaS - GAE (free)
IaaS - Google
Languages - Java, PHP
DB - Map (Bucket/Set)

MS Azure

IaaS - MS Azure
PaaS - Dot Net Framework
Language - NET, PHP, and Java

Amazon

IaaS - EC2, S3, Simple DB, Queue
PaaS - All
Language - All
DB - Map (Simple DB)

Sun Cloud

IaaS - Cloud Compute, Cloud Storage
PaaS -
Language - Java, Ruby, and Python

DNRDBMS - Distributed Non-RDBMS

Distributed key value stores

Dynamo (Amazon)
Voldemort (LinkedIn)

Distributed column stores

Big Table (Google)
Cassandra (Facebook)
HBase (Yahoo/Hadoop)
Hypertable (Zvents)

OSGi - Modularity By Deployment

2009-11-27T04:19:00.000-08:00

Influencing Factor for Application Development:

Business Constraints - Limits/Why

Business Needs

Functional Requirements - What

Usage of Patterns

Non-Functional Requirements - How
Operational Environment - Where\Who\When

Business Constraint - Funding Enterprise Architecture
Non-Functional Requirements - SLA

Software Development - Change in Responsibility

Traditional

Tech Arch
Developer/QA
System Analyst
Release Engineer

New (Influenced Cloud Computing)

Developer - OSGi enables it

Problem with Present:

Jar Dependencies - Getting stuck with app server - with all or nothing approach
Jar Hell/Dll hell/Dot Net Assemblies - Version and library loading

OSGi Problem Target

Class Loading
Conflicting Class
Lack of Explicit Dependencies
Lack of Version Info
Lack of Info hiding

OSGi: Open Service Gateway Interface

OSGi technology is Universal Middleware.
OSGi technology provides a service-oriented, component based environment for developers and offers standardized ways to manage the software lifecycle. These capabilities greatly increase the value of a wide range of computers and devices that use the Java™ platform.
It is an fantastic attempt to bring modularity and dynamic deployment and management of component. Originally designed for setup box types of applications, to run them under managed services. These will require remote management and updates of application running on setup box.
Modularity from deployment point of view instead of program.
Dynamic Class Loading - Different version
Brought Service Oriented Application influenced from SOA.
JSR 277 and OSGi 291 - Modularity two spec. being contest for Java SE 7 and Java EE 7 ???

OSGi Layered Architecture:

Bundles - Bundles are the OSGi components made by the developers.
Services - The services layer connects bundles in a dynamic way by offering a publish-find-bind model for plain old Java objects.
Life-Cycle - The API to install, start, stop, update, and uninstall bundles.
Modules - The layer that defines how a bundle can import and export code.
Security - The layer that handles the security aspects.
Execution Environment - Defines what methods and classes are available in a specific platform.

Module Layer:

Unit of deployment is the bundle i.e., a JAR
Separate class loader per bundle

Class loader graph
Independent namespaces
Class sharing at the Java package level

Multi-version support - i.e., side-by-side versions
Explicit code boundaries and dependencies - i.e., package imports and exports
Support for various sharing policies - i.e., arbitrary version range support
Arbitrary export/import attributes - Influence package selection
Sophisticated class space consistency model - Ensures code constraints are not violated
Package filtering for fine-grained class visibility - Exporters may include/exclude specific classes from exported package
Bundle fragments - A single logical module in multiple physical bundles
Bundle dependencies - Allows for tight coupling when required

LifeCycle Layer:

Managed life cycle - States for each bundle
Allows updates of existing bundles - Dynamically install, start, update, and uninstall

Service Layer:

OSGi framework promotes service oriented interaction pattern among bundles

Security Layer:

Optional Security Layer based on Java permissions
Infrastructure to define, deploy, and manage fine-grained application permission.
Code authenticated by location or signed
Well defined API to manage permission

PermissionAdmin
ConditionalPermissionAdmin

Bundle MANIFEST.MF:

Bundles - name, version, package name, etc.
Exporting Class for other modules
Importing Class with version numbers
Same bundle can have version specific packages
Same library with different version can exist in same VM.

Different Java SE, Java EE and OSGi model
Java SE Class Loader:

Has hierarchical class loading model
Library loading sequence overrides any application specific library requirement.
Version dependency cant be specified, you have to bundle whole JVM and specific libararies.
Jar loaded in VM stays exposed to all applications under it.

Java EE Class Loader:

Also has hirachical class loading model but containers maintain its boundries.
Throws up issue of sharing class/library with each others.
Sharing can be done only by moving a class up the Bootstrap Class loader for entire application server.

OSGi Class Loader:

Has a module/bundle based class Graph loader model
Bundle definition are in MANIFEST.MF file.
Sharing of lib/classes is done by delegation to target bondle's class loader.

OSGi Containers - Reference Implementation:

Equinox - OSGi R4
Flex - Apache - Android

OSGi Adoption:

Eclipse

Big boost has come from Eclipse and Spring adaptation of OSGi.
Eclipse has brought for plugin support and running app.

Apache Flix OSGi R4
Maven repository and third party OBR’s
Apache Commons OSGi
App Server - Jonous advanced version
BEA - Micro Server Archicture
Jboss - JMX based micro kernal -> OSGi based
IBM - Websphere - OSGi Support
Spring - Adopted - Dynamic Module
Android - Suites best for embedded
Android - OSGi and Android present contrasting models - OSGi follows a single virtual machine model with multiple applications using the VM while Android has multiple VMs
Java ME - Profile has similar approach, but not OSGi.

References:

ToDo:

Computing in the Cloud

2009-11-23T19:38:00.000-08:00

There are three prime paradigms in cloud computing.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

IaaS: Provide infrastructure (storage, computing, Queue, DB, etc) for software to run in cloud.

Example: Amazon's Storage (S3), Computing (EC2) and Queues (SQS), Sun Cloud,

PaaS: Provides platform (developer tools, language, OS etc) to enable developers create information systems hosted in the Cloud. It provides benefits of elasticity, robustness, security while requiring low capital expenditures.

Example: Google App Engine, MS Azure, Spring Cloud Foundry

SaaS: Provides software model of subscription basis. It lets the owner of software to host, manage and upgrade independently and out of customer premises.Customer are like tenant for service offered.

Example: Salesforce.com, Google Docs,

PaaS Architecture:

Components of PaaS:

A flexible Presentation Layer
Advanced tools that can be used by developers and non-developers alike
Business Activity Monitoring and reporting tools
A world class infrastructure which is hosting the PaaS engine
A Single Sign On service
A Service Registry
Connectors to SaaS providers such as SalesForce.com, Dun&Bradstreet, FedEx…
Integration with legacy systems

Five Pillars of Cloud Computing

Dynamic Computing Infrastructure: Support the elastic nature of service provisioning and de-provisioning as requested by users while maintaining high levels of reliability and security.
IT Service-Centric Approach: Provide powerful IT tools to administer the infrastructure services to provide easy deployment and management.
Self-Service Based Usage Model: Provide users the ability to upload, build, deploy, schedule, manage, and report on their business services on demand.
Minimally or Self-Managed Platform: Provide software automation, leveraging a provisioning engine for deploying services and tearing them down.
Consumption-Based Billing: Ensure that consumers pay only for resources they use - are charged or billed on a consumption-based model.

Types of Cloud System:

Transference - Taking an existing on-premises application and moving it to the cloud.
Scale and Multi-Tenancy - Creating an application that has the ability to handle web load without requiring the full capital investment from day one.
Burst Compute - Creating an application that has the ability to handle additional compute on an as-needed basis.
Elastic Storage - Creating an application that has the ability to grow exponentially from a storage perspective.
Inter-Org Communications - Creating an application that has the ability to communicate between organizations using a pre-defined infrastructure.

References:

Compare Application Servers

2009-11-23T07:19:00.001-08:00

References:

http://weblogs.java.net/blog/kalali/archive/2009/11/17/state-open-source-java-ee-application-servers

Java Misel Tech - Concept

2009-11-18T01:25:00.001-08:00

Sizing the Heap for Application:

Increasing your maximum heap
Looking at the memory of a running app
Making heap dumps (on demand or on OutOfMemoryException)
Analyzing the dumps.

Names of Java:

1.2 - Play Ground
1.3 - Kestrel
1.4 - Merline
SE 5.0 - Tiger

Type of Compilers: Hotspot, JIT, VM:

HS - Adoptive, interpret and convert in byte code
JIT - First call- Compile into native code, and execute it from there on.
Adaptive and premature optimization,

EJB Basic:

Java Bean are reusable component which can run only in single VM.
EJB are distributed component which can run on multiple system.

Struts:

It is collection of JSP + Servlet
It uses struts-config.xml for controller.
Sequence:
- JSP(view)----->struts-config.xml + actions(controllers)---->Ejb +JDBC (model).

SQL Notes:

DDL cant be rolled back where DML can be.
- Truncate - DDL cmd
- Delete - DML com

Connection pool and data source:

finalize();
Usage for logical connection release.

Closed and Open classes – Template Design Patterns
Usage Spring FW

P A C base DAOOperation
P F Object execute (obj... 0); --> Varargs. -> Compile time.

Notes:

Enum can have business method class.
Hashcode is computed at constructor.
It has Comparable relies on hashcode.

Security:

Course Grain: Page access.
Fine Grained: Method level

Blunder of Sun:

Single thread servlet model
JSP
JSTL: Core: introduced for business logic
Data Source lib:

Spring:

Inversion Of Control
Dependecy Injection
Collobration of objects

Check and Unchecked Exception - ???

Failed Res:

JDBC COnnection Building using DataSource: ???
Eclipse: Delta Compilation to help refractory.
DOnt exopose collection to layer use helper method/class.
DAO Object should not have layered specific code.
Use interfaces to pass object between layer.

Practices for Thread

Thread Safety
Thread should not maintain the state.

Concurrency:

Synchronization acquire lock on method or block. Not on the object/class.

Read Write Locks:

ReadLock - Shared Lock
writeLock - Mutually exclusive lock.
ThreadGroups should not be used because they are expensive and deprecated.

Server Side Programming:

Servlet 2/4 has been deprecated Single thread Model and not advisable.
Data Input validation:
Struts framework
Regular expression.
Type of validation:
Java Script
Ajax

Server Side (Java) -- Best
Presentation should pass data only using POJO to Business layer.

Agile:

Test before you write code.
Britle Code: Too high coupling and specific API
Robust Code: Can survive in most of the situation.
Q Card: Use Case card with specific size.
Agile Vs OOps methodologies:
Static variables should not hold state but constant.

To do:

String: Look at whole class.
Overriding annotation in Java
Use weak and soft ref.
Identity Hash Map class
New IO API
Concurrency API

EAI/SOA Design Patterns

2009-11-17T22:23:00.000-08:00

Basic Service Patterns: Tool-kit

Aggregator - Many Message to One Message
Service Bus - Common Communication Transport
Dynamic Routing - Dynamic Rules (DB) Based Message routing
Event Consumer - Event driven Message Process
Filter - Filtering on Messaging on transport to destination
Router - Messaged payload/attribute based Message Routing
Translator/Transformer- Message translation for destination service

Architectural Patterns: Solving a domain problem

Asynchronous Processing - Queuing messages to decouple processing time and resources
Bridge - Distributing common data path to endpoints with different protocols and message structures.
Cross-service Operation - Coordination between services for transaction
Event-Driven Dispatching - Event triggering process to subscribers
Process Aggregation - Organizing parallel processing of event at endpoints
Routing and Filtering - Routing messages to different endpoints with filtration
Replicator - Message replication to multiple endpoints

Compound Patterns: System Design

Centralized Schema - Sharing domain schema across endpoints with different data formats.
Concurrent Contract - Simultaneous sharing of domain schema with endpoint, with different views.
Decompose Capability - Designing to allow decomposition of a bloated service
Enterprise Service Bus - A message communication channel to facilitate orchestration
Fault-Tolerant Service Provider - A load-balanced routing mechanism to provide high availability
Wrapper - Encapsulating a legacy application with a service aware wrapper

References:

http://sites.google.com/site/superskstorage/blogger/rc038-010d-soa.pdf

XML In Java

2009-11-16T03:56:00.001-08:00

JAXP:
Java API for Processing to validate and parse XML documents. Three types parsing interfaces:
1. DOM - Document Object Model - Builds tree out of xml file

Parses an entire XML document and constructs a complete in-memory representation of the document using the classes modeling the concepts.

DocumentBuilder db = new DocumentBuilderFactory.getBuilder();
Element elm = db.getElement() // Root of document
Node n = Element.getNode(); // Node for

Nodes are two types:

Elements' Attributes
String between tags (start/end)

2. SAX - Simple API for XML - Event Based API

It pushed that data based on the event in document traversal.

SAXParser sp = SAXParserFactory.getParser();
DefaultHandler dh = sp.getHandler();
ContentHandler, ErrorHandler, DTDHandler and EntityResolver

3. STAX - Streaming API for XML - Reading from stream using SAX

Combination of SAX and DOM.
Traverse through the document using cursor.
Application to maintain state between events.

XSLT:

XSD:

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XSLT

Web Services - Concept

2009-11-16T02:58:00.001-08:00

SOAP:

SOAP Struct

SOAP-ENV - Envelop/Header/Body

SOAP Body

Request/Response Object - Serialized - JAXB
Request/Response Target - method/variable

SOAP-ENV:Fault

faultcode
faultstring
runcode
details element (optional)

Serialization

SOAP Specified schema

Web Service Infrastructure

Service Wire Format - SOAP - Open/Independent
Service Description - WSDL
Service Discovery - UDDI

Java answers to High Level Languages

2009-11-14T20:19:00.001-08:00

Next big thing in Java is multilingual support for high level language/dynamic language/scripting language/interpretive languages like Ruby, Python, Scala, etc.

Java has integrated Ruby and Pyhton with project like jRuby and Jython. what is allows is best of both worlds. Write Ruby code, run it on JVM and access the

Dynamic language also has other features like weak typing.Weak type is depending on value being assigned, it coverts the target variable type. But it creates confusion at run-time if operations on these are not coherent. For these, each of these language offers their characteristic to resolve these some by falling back to basics a or adaptation rules at runtime.

Dynamic Typing:

Type checking is done at run-time instead of compile time. It eases application developer to focus on job rather than worrying about type casting.
This allow program to cast a variable depending on incoming value at run-time, but this check is always done for run-time.

Statically typed language, Java, will continue to have its place in future if its strategy to adopt these new languages into its fold. This is crucial for its survival and longevity.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_typing#Dynamic_typing

SOA Security

2009-11-09T01:29:00.001-08:00

The security requirements common to these scenarios include:

Authentication: How do I know your identity is true?
Authorization: Are you allowed to perform this transaction?
Integrity: Is the data you sent the same as the data I received?
Signature: Create and verify an electronic signature analogous to a handwritten signature.
Confidentiality: Are we sure that nobody read the data you sent me?
Auditing: Record all transactions for verification after the fact.
Nonrepudiation: Both sender and receiver can legally prove to a third party (e.g., a judge) that the same data was sent and received in a transaction.
Single sign-on (SSO): Have become important due to the proliferation of silos of identity information across applications
Threat prevention: for excluding bad data (spyware, malware, etc.).

WS-Policy:
WS-Policy provides a flexible and extensible grammar for expressing the capabilities, requirements, and general characteristics of entities in an XML Web services-based system. WS-Policy defines a framework and a model for the expression of these properties as policies. Policy expressions allow for both simple declarative assertions as well as more sophisticated conditional assertions.
Note that the new OASIS Web Services Secure Exchange (WS-SX) Technical Committee is the new OASIS working group for WS-Policy and other related standards.

The XML representation of a policy assertion is called a policy expression.

References:

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-04-2006/jw-0410-webservices.html

Enterprise Security

2009-11-09T01:25:00.000-08:00

Enterprise security has been evolving for years, and at this point we can say that work to fence a system is consolidated. I remember in 2001 when I was part of a Internet security initiative, we have attempted to solve many enterprise level security concerns. But if I see that work, I am happy the java community has got all that what we set out to do then. Today two prominent enterprise platform are Spring and Java EE. Java EE takes advantage of server provider driven security where Spring has standard provider called Acegi.

Advance Authentication methods for Enterprise:

Anonymous: Associate anonymous users with a specific user identity and role, so that programming access control is unanimous across protected and unprotected resources.

Remember-me:

Web site to remember a user's identity between Web sessions.
A long-duration cookie is sent—with the value of a digested identity and password
during future sessions, causing automated login to take place

SSO authentication:

Security requirement that applies to all applications inside a corporation.
A request to access a secured URL from an unauthenticated user is redirected to a centralized Web site for login
Each subsequent user request will be associated with an authentication token.
The server sends the token to the centralized authentication server for verification and retrieves the identity.

Security Implementation Methods:
There are three types of security mechanism to provide security.

Using annotation
Declarative security
Programmatic security

Lets see what are security methods of Java EE and Spring framework.
Java EE:
Java EE security specification addresses common and abstract application security concerns by leaving concrete implementations to server vendors. But, standard Java EE security services are container-managed security (CMS) with portability across different Java EE platforms. Provides all three types of methods of security:

Annotation - @RoleAllowed("Admin")

EJBContext interface

getCallerPrincipal() and isCallerInRole()

HttpServletRequest interface

getUserPrincipal() and isUserInRole()

Declarative - method permission/role-name
Programmatic - if (ctx.isCallerInRole("payrole)) {..}

Declarative and Annotation is preferred over programming.

Spring:
Spring security is based on Acegi Security framework. Acegi security is described as portable at the WAR (Web archive) level, instead of the API level adopted by Java EE, because the Acegi run-time is deployed as part of the application inside a war file. Lets look at all form of authentication and authorization mechanism. Acegi support sucurity using its configuration files. But it support only programmatic method of security.

AuthenticationManager
AccessDecisionManager
SecurityContextHolder.getSecurityContext().getAuthentication() returns Authentication object.
Authentication object contains a principal object and a list of GrantedAuthority objects.

The principal object often implements a UserDetails interface and is enriched with information other than the username, such as user's full name, email, etc.

Acegi for Java EE:
Acegi's container adapter integrates Acegi with Java EE security through container-specific configurations. It enables both Acegi security and security methods defined in the Servlet API, such as getUserPrincipal() and isUserInRole().
Supported:

Jetty, Catalina (Tomcat),
JBoss, and Resin.

Security Providers Types:
With evolved plug-n-play features, security are left to security providers. But still there are different types of implementation approach to it.

To test an application, In-memory authentications are used.
Back-end Repository (JDBC, LDAP) based Server
Application integrate Java Authentication and Authorization Service - JAAS
Integration of Third Party security software (SiteMinder and CAS) to delagate SSO/authentication requests.
Run-As: Component to component authentication can be done with special/dummy role.

J2EE - Temporarily replaces the original security roles of the principal (user) for the duration of a method invocation
Spring - the role specified by run-as is an add-on to the principal's original roles

Other Security Aspects:

JMS message sender is never propagated to a receiver. Run-as enables you to encapsulate JMS message processing as part of the secured business-processing logic.
Concurrent session control prevents a user from concurrently authenticating to the same application more than a specified number of times. It is cluster-aware, such that the specified session count applies to the entire server cluster, rather than a single server instance.
SOAP Message: For SOAP Web services applications, in addition to channel security, message-level security, which secures a portion of the SOAP messages with the latest XML digital signature and encryption technology, should be considered for communications that cross enterprise boundaries.
CAPTCHA: It takes the form of an image containing distorted letters and/or numbers and is often used on login screens to differentiate a human user from a computer program. Regardless of some its drawbacks, CAPTCHA helps mitigate certain types of malicious attacks from automated computer programs. JCAPTCHA is a Java implementation of the CAPTCHA technology and can be incorporated into Java EE security or Acegi.
Adjudication: Adjudication allows collaboration between multiple providers in same application. Adjudication is the process of evaluating multiple decisions through predefined algorithms and rendering a verdict. Acegi: AccessDecisionMaker. Types: UnanimousBased, AffirmativeBased and ConsensusBased.

References:

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-03-2007/jw-03-security.html

Design a SOA Service

2009-11-07T04:59:00.000-08:00

In SOA, service design is very crucial from maintainability viewpoint without sacrificing operations-related metadata -- such as service-level agreements (SLAs) and Governance principals. It enforces design principal for component with maximal cohesion and minimal coupling.
Service developed under EJB container gets to take advantage of its aspect oriented services like transaction, security and remoting. To avoid general pitfalls of Java EE design principal and landing up think layers of Web Services, MVC architecture bring its own synonym Facade, Service and Domain for SOA service design.

Service Layered Architecture

Facade: Provides simplified, centralized access to the component and decouples the client from the concrete services. It is the network and transaction boundary.
Service: The actual implementation of business logic.
Domain structure: This is a structure rather than an object. It implements the component's persistence and exposes all of its state to the services, without encapsulation.

There is similarity in Agile Development approach with Entity-Control-Boundary (ECB) architectural pattern. In this, a domain structure is an Entity, the Control is a service, and the Boundary is realized with a facade.
This approach has its flexibility. If system is doing just data operation, it is pragmatic to allow Facade to manage persistence directly. Or encapsulate all data access service in generic service like DataService and let this be contact point for all Data access. But this would not be cohesive.

Data Access Layer - Design Principals:
Most applications to adhere to the principles of DRY (don't repeat yourself) and separation of concerns. There are two mechanism to define DAL: DAO and JPA. DOA explicitly handles all data operation where JPA deals its aspect oriented way. But both helps to avoid repeat its concerns all over application. Huge semantic difference between JPA and DAO; with the EntityManger, there's no need to merge attached entities back, whereas it is absolutely necessary in the case of a DAO with data-transfer objects.

DOA should be created in a bottom-up, rather than a top-down, fashion. If you discover data-access code duplication in your service layer, just factor it out to a dedicated DAO and reuse it.
For change of Data Source type, DAO still needs to tweak the isolation levels, transactions, and database configuration for data migration.
DAI is @Local and comes with the MANDATORY transaction setting
Local Ref is for Web/EJB application running under same container and Remote is for any rich client accessing service on its own.

References:

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-04-2009/jw-04-lean-soa-with-javaee6.html

Domain Driven Design for Enterprise Systems

2009-11-06T21:36:00.000-08:00

In enterprise setup, business service layer tends to become the meat of the whole system and bottleneck for all all enhancement and maintenance for system. Generally, with the invent of EJB session bean becomes the place holder for all the business logic to be access and model stays encapsulated under it. The real issue with complex logic realized with anemic structures are type distinctions in the business service layer. Massive if-statements might be necessary to differentiate among entity types. That is paradigm of Procedural driven architectural approach.

Procedural Driven Architecture: In data-driven use cases such as master data management (CRUD), you can implement workflow-related, procedural behavior efficiently with service facades and few anemic entities.
Domain Driven Architecture: It is perfect for more-complex, type-dependent algorithms in more-interactive applications. It is an inside out approach.

It is about having behavioral logic in Domain Object rather having this logic in Controller classes.

Most nontrivial Java EE projects require both approaches.
Domain Driven design is a new paradigm in which design is done based on Domain object prominence and exposing to even presentation layer. Main artifact of DDA is Domain Objects which are just cohesive classes with encapsulated state and related behavior. They use inheritance naturally, where appropriate. Java Persistence API has extended its support for mapping rich domain objects.

It is like designing your business Logic
PDA:
ShippingService.computeRateInRegion(RegionalState regionalState, order) // compute rate depending on region
If (order.getRegion() == regionalState) { rate = ...}
Composite all the model class and return DTO.
DDA:
Domain Object: ReginalState.getShippingRate(order) {...}
Persistent Domain Object: KKState extends RegionalState {...}

Designing an enterprise system needs very careful selection of technology at each level of architecture.

Decision 1: Organizing the business logic

Using a procedural design
Using an object-oriented design
Table Module pattern

Decision 2: Encapsulating the business logic

EJB session façade
POJO façade
Exposed Domain Model pattern

Decision 3: Accessing the database

What's wrong with using JDBC directly?

Developing and maintaining SQL is difficult and time consuming
There is a lack of portability with SQL
Writing JDBC code is time consuming and error-prone

Using iBATIS
Using a persistence framework

Decision 4: Handling concurrency in database transactions

Isolated database transactions
Optimistic locking
Pessimistic locking

Decision 5: Handling concurrency in long transactions

Optimistic Offline Lock pattern
Pessimistic Offline Lock pattern

References:

Architect - Deployment Considerations

2009-10-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

Scalability:
Ability to handle bigger amount of work (data, CPU, network) to improve throughput and Response Time.

Horizontal/Out scalability:

Adding more parallel nodes and redistribute the traffic
Used for SOA and Web systems

Vertical/Up scalability:

Adding more capability (CPU, mem, network) to a node
Used in hosting env

High Availability:
Describes how well a system provides its resource for a set period of time.

Formula : All in minutes

Availability = 100 - (100 * D)/U
D - Unplanned downtime
U - Uptime

Measured in "nines"

One nine - 90
Three nines - 99.9
Six nines - 99.9999

Cost grows for high availability

Load Balancing:
To minimize response time and maximize throughput by adding more resources. Schemes at load balancer

Round Robin - Web Apps
Pseudo Number Generator - For uniform stateless requests system (heartbeat/update server)
Asymmetric - Routing heavy traffic based on following analysis to heavy servers.

Content filtering
Firewalling, SSL Offloading and DDOS (Distributed Denial Of Service) attack protection
Payload switching
Rate Shaping
Scripting - Rules Automation

Persistence/sticky - Maintains dedicated server to its client connection for a session

Clustering:
A group of systems work together as one to improve service availability, computational scalability and data scalability.

Load Balancing Cluster (Active/Active): Equal distribution of load.

Load Balancing Cluster (Active/Passive): Through redundant nodes, eliminates single-point of failure. Good for enterprise application.

Computational Cluster/Grid: Used to build data and compute scalability

Caching Strategies:
Used for data sharing among service providers to save expensive compute or fetch operations. A middle system is designed to perform all data access for all application.

Process

Hitting - Check for data
Get - Retrieve data
Cache Miss -
Fetch Data - Get fresh data from DS

Caching Systems

Write Policy - Defines the process of keeping a cache more relevent and fresh

Write-Throught - Write to cache follow to write to DS
Write-Behind - Write to DS and mark cache entries dirty. Write to cache at hitting dirty.
No-write Allocation - Just read, no writes to DS.

Application Caching

Implicit - External system manages all.
Explicit - App manages its own.

Web Caching

Web Accelarators - External system host heavy resources for access.
Proxy Caches - Caches at proxy for a group.

Distributed Cache

Allow cached data to be distributed over multiple nodes
Allow uniform access to locate this data

Redundant System: A system design where any system component failure is independent of failures in other components.
Fault Tolerant System: A system design where availability of system does not get effected in the event of hardware or any component failure. This is achieved by software and hardware redundancy.
Fault Detection System/Method: To provide enough information to isolate the fault and execute a automatic/assisted recovery system. Here are few methods for it.

Built-in Diagnosis
Protocol sniffer
Sanity Check
Watchdog

Criticality: Defines number of consecutive fault picked up by any above method. It should not report every and it should not miss critical one.

System Performance Testing:

Endurance testing - identifies resource leaks under the continuous, expected load.
Load testing – determines the system behavior under a specific load.
Spike testing – shows how the system operates in response to dramatic changes in load.
Stress testing – identifies the breaking point for the application under dramatic load changes for extended periods of time.

Service Level Agreements:

System Type
Level of availability - minimum/target
Uptime - Network/Power/Maintenance Window
Serviceability
Performance and metrics
Billing
Fault Tolerance

No single point of failure
Fault isolation
Fault Propagation Containment
Reverse flow

System Recommendations

Enterprise systems

A/P fault tolerance
Recovery - fault transparency by diverting services to the passive system and bringing it on-line as soon as possible.

Robotics and life-critical systems -

Probabilistic, linear model, fault hiding, and optimization control systems.

Compare - Clustering and Load Balancing
From deployment viewpoint, your application can be deployed in two manners: Clustered and Load Balanced. Here are comparison between two approaches.

	Clustering	Load Balancing
Concept	To the capability of a software product to provide load-balancing services	To a hardware-based (or at least third-party software) solution.
	Master Controller architecture – All server instances act as one unit sharing resource and infrastructure	Autonomas Units achitecture – All server instance as independent units maintaining their own resources and infrassture.
Scalability	All requests are processed and distributed to a number of instances using industry standard algorithms like round robin, weighted round robin, and least connections.	enables horizontal scalability, that is the ability to add more instances of an application server nearly transparently to increase the capacity or response time performance of an application.
Server Affinity	To ensure that applications requiring the user interact with the same server based on session.	To ensure that applications requiring the user interact with the same server based on requesting IP.
High Availability (Failover)	Provide failover at application level process. But contoller remains to be single point of failure for entire system.	Does not provide failover at appliation level process. But provide excellent failover from single point of failure.
Pros	Generally available as part of an enterprise package for an application server Solution doesn't require a lot of networking skills Generally less expensive than a redundant ADC deployment	Can provide high availability and load balancing across heterogeneous environments Offers additional value such as optimization, security, and acceleration for applications Transparent - doesn't require changes to applications or the servers on which they are deployed
Cons	High availability is not assured using clustering solutions Best practices dictate the cluster controller be deployed on separate hardware Requires node agents on managed application server instances Clustering is "proprietary" in that you can only cluster homogeneous servers.	Adds another piece of infrastructure to the architecture Generally more expensive than clustering solutions May require a new set of skills to deploy and manage

References:

http://sites.google.com/site/superskstorage/blogger/rc043-010d-scalability_3.pdf

jBPM brings Virtual machine to BPM

2009-10-14T03:03:00.000-07:00

SOA offers solutions for EAI and Business Process management and its automation. SOA aggregates three technology to bring forth this offerings.

Standardized way to expose and access the functionality of applications as services - Web Service
Enterprise bus infrastructure for communication and management of services, including message interception, routing, transformation, etc.- ESB
Specialized language for composition of exposed functionalities of applications into business processes - BPEL

WS and ESB provide infrastructure and system design requirements. Business Process Management (BPM) brings true sense of SOA by allowing collaboration to achieve for business process objective. To enable this, a language needs between business analysts and technical folks. BPEL, page flow and jBDL (java Business Definition Language) languages offer a communication glue between them. But multiple language again throws another problem of interoperability.

JBoss has invented the Process Virtual Machine (PVM) to execute any business process language to facilitate interoperability. Jboss has named this framework as jBPM.

jBPM:
JBoss jBPM is an open source (LGPL license) framework of Java APIs, tools, and a definition language that can operate as a Web application or a standalone Java application. JBoss jBPM acts as an intermediary between business analysts and developers by giving them a common process definition language referred to as jPDL.

JBoss jBPM defines process definitions within files written using the JBoss process definition language. jPDL is a graphic-oriented programming (GOP) language based on a model of nodes, transitions, and actions. In this model, nodes are commands executed as they are encountered during the flow of a process definition. Transitions direct the flow of execution of a process definition, and actions perform specific logic as a node or transition event occurs.

jBPM is encapsulated within the following components:

Process engine: This component executes defined process actions, maintains process state, and logs all process events via the following delegate components:
- A request handler
- A state manager
- A log manager
- A definition loader
- An execution service
Process monitor: This module tracks, audits, and reports the state of processes as they execute
Process language: The process definition language (jPDL) is based on GOP
Interaction services: These services expose legacy applications as functions or data to be used in process executions

BPEL:
After setting up web services, now they must communicate and collaborate with each other to fulfill business objective. A business process is a collection of coordinated service invocations and related activities that produce a result, either within a single organization or across several. To implement business process a new language is defined, it is called Business Process Execution Language (BPEL).

BPEL is a process language for service orchestration. It enjoys widespread industry adoption due to its status as an OASIS standard. Loosely-coupled integration through WSDL interfaces, rich process constructs, robust fault handling and clearly defined extension points are among its salient features.

BPEL leverages several XML-based specifications pertaining to the Web services world such as:

WSDL (Web Services Description Language) 1.1
XML Schema 1.0
Web Services Addressing
XPath 1.0

Basic activities

receive	Blocks until a message is received.
reply	Sends a message in response to a received message. Therefore, the combination of a `receive` and a `reply` forms a request-response operation on the WSDL `portType` for the process.
invoke	Invokes an operation on a `portType` provided by one of the collaboration partners.
assign	Construct can be used to update the values of variables with new data.
throw	Raises a fault for a fault handler to catch within the defined scope for an activity.
terminate	Ends the business process explicitly.
wait	Suspends execution for a given period of time or until certain time has passed.
empty	No-operation used for synchronization purposes.

Structured activities

scope	Defines a block of activities.
sequence	Executes a set of activities in an order; i.e., one after another.
flow	Executes one or more activities concurrently; i.e., parallel processing.
while	Repeats an activity depending on certain conditions.
switch	Based on the condition, it chooses between a set of activities to execute.
pick	Blocks and waits for a suitable message to arrive or for a time-out alarm to go off.
compensate	Defines the set of activities that need to be compensated.

BPEL Engine Architecture:

BPEL Characteristics:

Partners: Reflects a peer-to-peer relation between the process and each service the process calls.
Correlations: Define a way to identify an application-level conversation within a process instance.
Long-lived transactions: Support it with its compensation and fault handlers. Also called long-running (business) transactions (LRTs).
Compensating: Defined within the business process, which tries to reverse the effects based on faults/events of a previous activity.
Fault handling: A fault can be the manifestation of a system error, result from the nonavailability of a Web service due to network instability, or represent an application-specific fault or runtime fault. There are types of faults:

Business faults are application specific and occur either when the process engine executes an explicitly defined activity or when an activity receives a fault in response.
Runtime faults are not user defined and do not appear in the WSDL for a process or service.

Event handling: It handles two types of events: alarm and message events

Alarm event can be alarms that go off after user-defined times. An alarm event occurs at most once while the corresponding scope is active. Events can also be incoming messages that correspond to a request/response or one-way operation in WSDL.
Message event occurs when the appropriate message is received on the specified partner link using the specified port type and operation. When such an event occurs, the corresponding activity is carried out.

Process Life-cycle Repository: A native XML database provides persistence for all versions of processes and Web services, and also define the right processes for the right kind of applications at runtime using schema versioning and validation features of the database.
Process Monitoring: XML persistence for business processes is the use of an XML data management system for business process analysis, which can be important in real-world business scenarios.
- Number of running/completed instances of processes per week
- Number of errors for specific endpoints or partner links for a process
- Execution time for a specific process over a period of time
- Size of data exchanged per endpoint
- Availability or uptime of partner links (uptime)
- Average wait time for asynchronous endpoints

jPDL:

jPDL (Java Process Definition Language) is an xml written for jBPL processing. Its XML has following major artifacts.

Process instance: A process instance is one execution of a process definition.
Token: A token is one path of execution. A token is the runtime concept that maintains a pointer to a node in the graph. When a process instance is created, a token is created for the main path of execution. This token is called the process instance's root token and is positioned in the process definition's start state.
Signal: A signal instructs a token to continue graph execution by transition out of a node.
Node: Nodes are responsible for the continuation of a graph execution. When a token enters a node, the node executes. A node that does not propagate execution is regarded as a state.
Action: Actions are instances of Java code executed when events occur in a process execution. The primary event types are "entering a node," "leaving a node," and "taking a transition."

References:

Project - SOA

2009-10-11T09:55:00.001-07:00

Planning some hand-one following technology.

Technology:

SOA - ESB, JMS, BPEL, WS, SOAP, WSDL
EE - EJB, MDB, JSF

ESB:

Actions:

Established queue communication with Gatewaye listeners - Done
Tested with JMS client with Gateway listener - Done

Project - Java EE

2009-10-11T08:20:00.001-07:00

Planning for some hands-on following technologies.

Technology: Web Service, SOA, EJB, MDB, Session

Basic EJB beans Development:
Actions:

Message bean/client with queue communication - Done
Session - Stateless bean - Done
JPA / hibernate Connection - Done
JSP View with connection to Session bean - Done

Basic Web Service Development:
Actions:

POJO as Web Service using web.xml - Done
Session - Stateless bean as web service using annotations - Done
Client connection to WS bean - Pending
Async Web Service - In Progress

Notes:

To choose EJB over POJO for making a WS, EJB wins over due to support of lifecycle and EE infra from containers.
Async processing can be done two ways -

Polling - Contnious calling service to see if it has finished and can give results.
Callback - Associating an class/method handle to aync service to call at finish/put result.

References:

JBoss web services

ToDo:

Other Concepts - Java

2009-10-11T06:33:00.001-07:00

Java Concepts:

JNDI (Java Network Directory Interface):
JNDI is a standard Java API that is bundled with JDK1.3 and higher. JNDI provides a common interface to a variety of existing naming services: DNS, LDAP, Active Directory, RMI registry, COS registry, NIS, and file systems. The JNDI API is divided logically into a client API that is used to access naming services, and a service provider interface (SPI) that allows the user to create JNDI implementations for naming services.
The SPI layer is an abstraction that naming service providers must implement to enable the core JNDI classes to expose the naming service using the common JNDI client interface. An implementation of JNDI for a naming service is referred to as a JNDI provider. JBoss naming is an example JNDI implementation, based on the SPI classes. Note that the JNDI SPI is not needed by J2EE component developers.

JNP (Java Naming Provider) :
A way to access the JNDI impl from a provider over network.
JAXB - Java Binding
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SOA Infrastructure: There are three Major layers in SOA infra.
Core:

WS-I Profile: Interoperability standard
Protocols: SOAP, UDDI, WSDL

Platform:
Existing platform like J2EE, .Net etc are natural adopters to SOA to provide proven infrastructure parameters like scalability, reliability, availability, and performance.

Quality of Service (QoS):
Just web service implementation for SOA will not be sufficient to satisfy numerous other quality of service standards. Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) plays very important role in these evolving standard. Here are majors ones:

Security: Web Service Security

Required for credential exchange, message integrity and message confidentiality. SOA advocates existing Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) standard.

Reliability: WS-Reliability and WS-ReliableMessaging

Relieable message delivery is critical in SOA system to adopt messaging characteristic like once-and-only-once delivery, at-most-once delivery, duplicate message elimination, guaranteed message delivery, and acknowledgment.

Policy: WS-Policy

provides a standard way to defined provider Policy assertions.

Orchestration: BPEL4WS or WSBPEL (Web Services Business Process Execution Language)

Provides a standard to integrate enterprise data, applications and components. It involves process requirements, such as asynchronous communication, parallel processing, data transformation, and compensation.

Management: Web Services for Distributed Management (WSDM)

Provides a standard for System Administrators to manage enterprise infrastructure to run expending services in a heterogeneous environments.

Vendors Offering Components:

JBoss - personal favorite
IBM
HP
Oracle

Spring Philosophy
Spring is JEE programming in XML. It is new evolutionary way of programming where your business logic is the only thing written in Java, apart from that everything related JEE written in XML files. I think the way it is going, it looks like after sometime, business analyst will be able to write CRM/ERP application by them self. But I endorse this, reason, all technology is about solving business problem and if it can solve these problem by tooling a BA, nothing beats it.

Another thing which I like about Spring its "wiring" concept. What it does basically, it lets architect define different structure, layout and interfaces of component of your house but leaving it open to house owner to pick and choose what connects to what depending on suitability of owner's budget and taste. This is also called Dependency Injection or Inversion of Control.

In past, house management was a dedicated responsibility of one or two family persons who are supposed to do all the work as and when required. But in today's busy life, it is all about outsourcing to specialist. Take an example, maid service, they are specialized to many house hold work, our job would to schedule them at right place. Main your context to service at join point. This is what we call Aspect Oriented Programming.
Java Impl - Big Error Recording

Entity EJB App:

Issue:
Runtime Exception:
11:46:34,493 ERROR [STDERR] javax.ejb.EJBException: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: org.hibernate.hql.ast.QuerySyntaxException: Player is not mapped [from Player]
Solution:
HQL – Keeping the name of table; Replaced it with Bean name.

Issue:
Issues:Unexpected token: AUTO_INCREMENT in statement [create table Player (playerId bigint not null auto_increment]
Solution:
It is targeting local Hypersonic DB and that does not support auto-increament.

Issue:
EntityManager was not loading due to a change in Datasource name. Hibernate connection
Solution:
Datasource file (sss-ds.xml) needs to be in server/deploy directory.

Issue:
Exception in thread "main" javax.xml.ws.WebServiceException: Undefined port type: {http://ws.tennisocial.com/}PlayerInfo
Solution:
Check the targetNamespace for forward slash.

SOA Design Principals

2009-10-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

Approaches:

Top Down Approach: Business Requirement Driven Development
Bottom Up Approach: Existing Technology Driven Development

Legacy System Integration Approach:

Identify discrete elements within your legacy applications and "wrap" them in standards-based interfaces and use them as services within your SOA.

Basic Elements

Contract is an agreement between two or more parties. It defines the protocol how client should communicate with your service. Technically, it describes parameters and return values for a method.
An Address indicates where we can find this service. Address is a URL, which points to the location of the service.
Bindings determine how this end can be accessed. It determines how communications is done. For instance, you expose your service, which can be accessed using SOAP over HTTP or BINARY over TCP. So for each of these communications medium two bindings will be created.

Service and its components:

Services are logical grouping of components to achieve business functionality. Components are implementation approaches to make a service. The components can be in JAVA, C#, C++ but the services will be exposed in a general format like Web Services.

Composite of Service:

Composition is the process by which services are combined to produce composite applications or composite services. A composite application consists of the aggregation of services to produce an enterprise portal or enterprise process. A composite service consists of an aggregation of services that produces another reusable service.

Design Principals:

Loosely coupled service encapsulates the service functionalities in a manner that limits the impact of changes to the implementation on the service interface. One strategy for achieving loose coupling is to use the service interface (the WSDL for a SOAP Web Service) to limit this dependency, hiding the service implementation from the consumer.
Reusable service is an autonomous, reusable, discoverable, stateless functionality that has the necessary granularity, and can be part of a composite application or a composite service. It should be identified with a business activity described by the service specifications (design-time contract).
Stateless Service is core to SOA design principles. It may have a context within its stateless execution, but it will not have an intermediary state waiting for an event or a call-back. The retention of state-related data must not extend beyond a request/response on a service. This is because state management consumes a lot of resources, and this can affect the scalability and availability that are required for a reusable service.
Mediator service will take loose coupling to the highest level. The Mediation pattern, using an enterprise service bus (ESB), will help in achieving this. It will establish independence between consumers and providers on all levels, including message formats, message types (including SOAP, REST, XML, binary) and transport protocols (including HTTP, HTTPS, JMS). Architecturally speaking this means the separation of concerns between consumers and providers on the transport, message type, and message format levels.

ESB as a SOA Solution
The Enterprise Service Bus is a core element of any SOA. ESBs provide the "any to any" connectivity between services within your own company, and beyond your business to connect to your trading partners. But SOA does not stop at just implementing an ESB. Depending on what your goals are, you may want to use an ESB to connect other services within your SOA such as information services, interaction services and business process management services. Additionally, you will need to consider development services and IT service management services. The SOA reference architecture can help you lay out an SOA environment that meets your needs and priorities. The ESB is part of this reference architecture and provides the backbone of an SOA but it should not be considered an SOA by itself.

Action Pipeline:
A service in JBossESB is defined a list of Action classes that process an ESB Message in a sequential manner. This list of Action classes is referred to as an Action Pipeline. A Service can define a list of Listeners, which act as inbound routers for the Service, routing messages to the Action Pipeline.

Two forms of listeners:

Gateway Listeners: These listener configurations configure a Gateway Endpoint. These Endpoint types can be used to get messages onto an ESB bus. It is responsible for adapting the message payload by wrapping it into an ESB Message before shipping it to the Service's Action Pipeline.
ESB Aware Listeners: These listener configurations configure an ESB Aware Endpoint. These Endpoint types are used to exchange ESB Messages between ESB Aware components i.e. exchanging messages on the bus.

References:

http://www.mastertheboss.com/en/soa-a-esb/78-jboss-esb.html

JBoss ESB - Right Answer to SOA

2009-10-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

Just finished watching presentation from Mark Little presentation at Devoxx 08. It was quite knowledgeable session to know everything about SOA and JBoss ESB offerings. Here is my understanding of their platform.

Choice of ESB as a strategy for SOA has many reasoning:

Everything in ESB is service
All services are message driven.
Message are contract between client and server.
Message are transport and carrier independent

ESB Messages:
Provides two types of communications. One way and Request/Response. ESB message has appropriate mapping with SOAP messages

SOAP Message - Attachment/Body/Context/Header
ESB Message - Payload/Payload/Session/Routing

These message representation can be tailored on the wire appropriately. XML is preferred choice as it keeps the parties decoupled. But Java serialization can be considered but it violates SOA of tech decoupling principles.

Each message
WS-address - EPR
Message Protocol - Req/Req or One way
Reply address - EPR
Message Relationship info
Fault Address

Proposed SOA solution around JBoss ESB:

JBoss Components in SOA solution
There is nothing like SOA Product but it is a collection components. JBoss has thrown his R**Hat into the ring with their collection, but I must admit it is impressive.

JBoss ESB
Drools
JBossWS
JBossTS
JBoss Messaging
jBPM
JBossAS + Hibernate

Three part to complete SOA solution.

Event Listener and Actions - To provide transport mediation
Pluggable Architeture - To integrate infrastructure services
Business Services - To implement business logic to run in a container or standalone.

Event Listener and Actions:

Transport
There is a wide variety transport support to bring a service request in and out.

FTP/EMail
JMS
SQL/DB/Hibernate
SOAP
Socket

Pluggable Architeture:
Content Based Routing (CBR)
CBR is an intermediate service which can redirect message based on content and rules set for them. It allows the federation of services by routing the right request to right service. Also provides the fault tolerance by filtering and applying the rules before passing it to the service. CBR can also provide status about availability of web service in system and apply rules to route further requests.
JBoss ESB Support - JBossRules/Xpath

Message Transformation
In enterprise, different services can communicate in different vocabularies and languages. And each service may not want to handle this translation so it becomes important to abstract this transformation at infra level. It also allow greater decoupling and standardization in service implementation. .
JBoss ESB Support:

Transformation Tool - XSLT/Smooks
Added Graphical Transformation Tool

Security - Identity Management
With maturity in SOA architecture, security becomes another important criteria for adaptation. Authentication and authorization is provided at method and service level accesses. It is driven by policy based service registration.

JBoss ESB Support - OpenSSL and more on the way

Management - Governance
Governance is biggest challenge in distributed env due mutli-party involvement to agree on types of contract and SLAs as well as no one party control on infra and no notion of trust. Governance involves decision at org level about failures, network partitioning etc. ESB needs to monitor and manage all the activities on bus to regulate them on agreed protocol and standards.
JBoss ESB - Provide JBoss Organization Network console

Service Registry
Registry is a place to register and look-up for all available service. Each service is associated with their EPR (EndPoint Ref). . One service can have multiple registration which translates to multiple EPR for a service. This is a practice to do load balancing and addressing wide variety of clients.
JBoss ESB - jUDDI service

Message Store
Message store records ESB messages for audit trail, debuging and replay purposes. This may look like extra load but sometime necessary when local laws enforce this requirement for audits and tracking. Backend of this store can be any database as it has been designed using JCA adopter.
JBoss ESB - JDBC adopter

Orchestration Engine
Orchestration engine makes web services to collaborate with each other to achieve SOA objectives. BPEL(Business Process Execution Language) is an XML-based language for process interaction between Active Endpoints in distributed env like ESB A BPEL process consists of activities. It controls the invocation of services as messages flow through the infra. BPEL supports primitive and structure activities. Primitive activities represent basic constructs and are used for common tasks, such as those listed below:

Invoking Web services, using
Waiting for the request, using
Manipulating data variables, using
Indicating faults and exceptions, using , etc.

JBoss ESB - Support jBPL(graphical tool) and WS-BEPL

Process Store - Repository
It is a federated repository of service metadate which is important for contract definitions for governance. viewpoint.It stores message structure and service binaries.

Event Notification
System can receive notification from external component to trigger a service or an event as well it can generate to notify external partners about system events.
Jboss ESB Supported - FTP/Email

Custom Action
From infrastructure viewpoint, designers still want extra set of action and behaviors. Custom Action can be applied to any communication done using BPEL or through CBR.

Business Services:
Business logic and front end application cant be a part of ESB solution. It stays in Application/Web Servers and interface with ESB with adopters.

JBoss ESB can be deployed in three ways.

JBoss ESB Server
JBoss ESB + Existing Application server
JBoss ESB Standalone

Conclusion
JBoss SOA solution brings a comprehensive Message Oriented, Loosely Coupled, Course Grained and Contract Based solution with Sync/Async Invokable, Reusable suitable and Orchestrable web services.

References: