Pagerank - an explanation

How can football help us to understand the way PageRank works?
BBC iWonder program and the Open University provide a nice illustration of how Google's pagerank algorithm works. Marcus du Sautoy explains all.

Watch the video from the BBC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z8yc2p3

May be of interest: Women Entrepreneurs - WE Can! Meetup

"An exciting evening of inspiring speakers, knowledgeable mentors and a really fascinating, diverse group of women (that’s you!) getting together to chat about becoming and being a female entrepreneur."

Women Entrepreneurs - WE Can! Meetup

https://allevents.in/dublin/1247797225261940

Term-paper Template

You must use the specified scientific conference template for the term-paper. Choose between either the LaTeX or Word template from the ECIS 2015 conference. Copies are available on Google Drive.

(Google Drive link)

Turn observations from a case into general questions for research

Turn your statements, recommendations and observations from the case into general questions for research, applied to organisations today.

How do contemporary organisations deal with the problems you've identified in the case?
What evidence can you find to solve, support and justify your (eventual) recommendations?
Are there examples of current practice in industry where the issue was resolved and if so how?

The IONA Case

The following example question statements were inspired by the IONA Case and illustrate the wide variety of potential avenues for investigation.

• What various practices are commonly used in teams today, now, in industry? 
• What is Scrum? Reported problems with Scrum? 
• What other lifecycle approaches are used in contemporary organisations (e.g. Lean, Kanban, Lean-Kanban, Water-scrum-Fall, Dev-Ops, FDD)? 
• What markets are dependent on software standards? 
• What software standards are integral to different markets? 
• What are best-of-breed approaches to knowledge management, best in class tools, and the reported limitations? 
• Find examples of design management approaches, team and management techniques that I can apply? 
• Is there evidence of using metrics in some way that results in positive culture change in organisations? 
• What are typical figures for leadership turnover in organisations, divisions, teams? 
• What are typical norms for contact between customer and supplier, interacting around requirements, around problems, around sales etc? 
• What are current norms for team size, activity-task specialism, organisational structure, communication-coordination strategies? 
• What is current practice for organising NPD (new product development) versus operational/maintenance projects? 
• Has the emergence of Dev-Ops changed the way products are managed/designed/developed? 
• Find examples of organisational structure employed in contemporary organisations? 
• What tools are used to capture the customer-supplier interface? What data is typically gathered, how, what is it used for etc? 
• Is consulting or professional services capability identifiable within the contemporary software firm? 
• What are industry norms around consulting/professional services in digital? 
• What are current norms for firms cost structure across ”pure R&D”, NPD, maintenance, and operations? 
• Are there typical turnover rates for software/IT professionals; in Ireland, India, Israel, Vietnam, USA...?

Using problem-based cases for self-directed learning

How do you read a case and engage with it as a problem-based learning exercise for self-directed learning?

When a learner asks "why?" Often the last thing they want or need is for the answer to be given to them. What we as teachers should enable, is not to provide answers to questions, but to facilitate learning through personal discovery. So when someone asks "why?", a good answer might be "I don't know, but I think I might know how to start the process of finding an answer".

Let's say you are reading a case study but you aren't sure how to deal with it. On the one hand perhaps the case study presents basic statements as facts, or perhaps the case presents so much rich context that it is difficult to see the underlying challenges. It is confusing. Sometimes the problems are well sign-posted, sometimes not. PBL, problem-based cases and self-directed learning offer a way to personalise your own learning, encouraging you to explore, extrapolate and investigate wider issues under your own initiative, an investigation that addresses your personal knowledge-gaps and enables you to further your own learning objectives.

One of the goals of case based learning is to have readers react, question, go out and research, and eventually recommend some change or solution. But crucially, the reader should be looking at the challenges 'in general', the wider issues affecting similar initiatives in today's environment. Furthermore recommendations will be based on research, readings, applicable theory, and evidence; usually evidence you will have gathered yourself (aka research).

Consider case analysis as a process in which the learner poses or structures the problem, explores and shapes solutions to the problem. A reflective turn on the "case as a process" raises the circumstance where the "problems" that the case raises can be construed as personal knowledge gaps. Problem solving drives the underlying personal process of learning.

In order to put some shape on this as a process consider the following "moves":

• Diagnose: Identify the problems(s)
• Discover: Independently research the problem area(s)
• Develop: Propose a response or responses, recommendations to resolve, improve etc.

Remember that recommendations and resolutions based on abstract rules will not necessarily fit actual situations therefore 'expert', rather than simply proficient, determinations will account for both the general issues and those that are context dependent.


The method: in brief.

1. Quickly 'first read' the case/paper/whatever. You will skip some sentences and words. The goal is to read the whole thing in a single sitting, without taking notes, just to get the first impression.

2. After the 'first read' write a sentence or paragraph from memory. This is your initial impression after first reading. Don't go back to re-read parts or seek clarity yet.

3. 'Second read' is also quick but you now underline/circle or write a list of concepts, jargon, terms, identities that are new or confuse, or are unknown to you. These are your personal knowledge gaps. Some of these you will resolve during homework time.

4. 'Third read' you can focus on sections or impressions; come up with a minimum of at least 3 initial diagnosis (continue during homework time). Encourage a variety of analyses, otherwise everyone focuses on perhaps one big superficial criticism like 'the business strategy is broken for these reasons and needs to change'.

5. Homework, self-directed and self-paced learning; address the personal knowledge gaps, work on diagnosis, work on prescribing more than one potential remedy to the problems.

The following are similar structured processes for reading and case analysis. You will probably have your own approach or adapt and modify the steps to suit the your own style and conditions.

Schwartz et al. (2001) outline a typical sequence of learning-centred activities for case analysis.

• First encounter a problem ‘cold’, without doing any preparatory study in the area of the problem.
• Interact with each other to explore their existing knowledge as it relates to the problem.
• Form and test hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms that might account for the problem (up to their current levels of knowledge).
• Identify further knowledge gaps or learning needs for making progress with the problem.
• Undertake self-study between group meetings group to satisfy identified learning needs.
• Return to the group to integrate the newly gained knowledge and apply it to the problem.
• Repeat steps 3 to 6 as necessary.
• Reflect on the process and on the content that has been learnt.

The Seven Jump or Maastricht process offers a similar template for structuring small-group case learning (Grave et al., 1996).

• Clarify unknown terms or concepts in the problem description.
• Define the problem(s). List the phenomena or events to be explained.
• Analyse the problem(s). Step 1. Brainstorm. Try to produce as many different explanations for the phenomena as you [can] think of. Use prior knowledge and common sense.
• Analyse the problem(s). Step 2. Discuss. Criticize the explanations proposed and try to produce a coherent description of the processes that, according to what you think, underlie the phenomena or events.
• Formulate learning issues for self-directed learning.
• Fill the gaps in your knowledge through self-study.
• Share your findings with your group and try to integrate the knowledge acquired into a comprehensive explanation for the phenomena or events. Check whether you know enough now.

The MacMaster ‘triple jump’ describes three main stages for student-driven problem investigation: initial analysis, independent research, and synthesis. Each stage consists of a series of activities (not necessarily taking place in sequence).

• Initial analysis: identify problems, explore extant knowledge, hypothesise, identify knowledge gaps
• Independent research: research knowledge gaps
• Synthesis: present findings – relating them to the problem(s), integrate learning from others, generate a synthesis, self-assessment of learning process, repeat ‘triple jump’ if needed.

You can also try one or more of the following methods to capture and order your analyses, diagnoses, recommendations etc.

Discover the issues...

• Create an Empathy Map (from a key actor's perspective: the person, what they see, say, do, feel, hear, think)
• Brainstorm
• Anti-problem (state the antithesis to the problem and resolve it)
• Context Map (depict rich context)
• History Map (depict the past)
• Low-Tech Social Network (sketch relationships between actors)
• Storycard the Problem(s)
• Draw the Problem(s) (graphical system depiction or representation)

Having identified problems...

• Stakeholder Analysis
• The 4 Cs or the 4 Ds or the 5 Whys (components, characteristics, challenges, characters; or discover, design, damage, deliver; or ask why 5 times)
• The SQUID (sequential question and insight diagram)
• Root cause analysis (cause-reason fishbone diagram)

References:

• GRAVE, W. S., BOSHUIZEN, H. P. A. & SCHMIDT, H. G. (1996) Problem based learning: Cognitive and metacognitive processes during problem analysis. Instructional Science, 24, 321-341.
• SCHWARTZ, P., MENNIN, S. & WEBB, G. (Eds.) (2001) Problem-Based Learning: Case studies, experience and practice, London, Routledge.

Our 2016 student projects and homework

A collaborative site for our 2016 student projects and homework
http://mdd-2016.blogspot.ie/

Postgraduate Diploma in UX Design

An interesting post-graduate degree for UX and IX design is being offered by the Irish Software Association (ISA), the Software Skillnet and Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT).

See http://www.isa-skillnet.com/postgraduate-diploma-in-ux-design/

The Product Designer Role

In this post Chris Jones from SVPG has put together a thoughtful essay on the product designer role and what it is that they do, their orientation, approaches, attitude and responsibilities. 

See The Product Designer Role (http://www.svpg.com/the-product-designer-role)

n.b. Marty Cagan's Silicon Valley Product Group promotes and develops a lot of really useful ideas about high-tech product management.

Responsible Sharing : Digital Content...

What can I do with digital content accessible via the University's subscriptions or invisibly accessible via my student login with the University? Journal subscription and other scholarly sources are licensed and managed by the University Library. But what can I do with it? Put another way; what constitutes responsible sharing of digital content?

Well, it all depends on the copyright.

Science Direct sets out a clear table of what is allowed and what is not when it comes to sharing scientific publications - or indeed any publication covered under a range of copyright types.

The ScienceDirect WebHelp page.

The key table is at the bottom of the above link page (source: ScienceDirect, 2016).

Reading: The Activity Checklist

Kaptelinin, V., Nardi, B. A. & Macaulay, C. (1999) The activity checklist: a tool for representing the “space” of context. interactions, 6, 27-39. (search link)

---

Read the assigned sections and provide a summary in this live document (and your own website!).

goo.gl/W33EHJ

Digital Skills and Technology for organisational configurations

This page offers pointers to some essential and interesting services that business owners, product managers and producers of digital goods should know about; some old some new (this list will grow and grow). You might think of each technology as a skill to acquire and to gain experience in too.

For example: Conversational software for persistent collaboration covers a few different application categories. The area is fast evolving with lots of feature/functionality replication washing across all the various offerings...
Team communication tools: any kind of open Wiki, Slack, Google+Hangouts, Skype, etc.
Social networking tools: FB, SnapChat, WhatsApp, Yammer, LinkedIn, etc.
Collaborative software: any kind of Wiki, plus a whole range of other products mixing database, web and markup (like wiki, structured text, restructured text, rich text, native Word, html, etc), with features like fine grained (or not) user/account/rights, workflow, content management, discussion, blogging, file systems, change tracking, versioning, tagging, bookmarking, etc.
Basic digital competencies: graphic design - the use of colour, space, perception for display, communicating, representing, aesthetics; UX, ID, UCD; the presentation structure of web pages; image editing and manipulation; information management.

Our growing list of interesting / essential digital services

@optimalworkshop Tools and approaches to managing user research

@github The most active of the quasi-open source software-service offerings for versioning digital artefacts and source code control

@sensu for monitoring operational infrastructure; control, report, configurations, availability etc

@nagiosinc, also for operational infrastructure monitoring.

@tortoisesvn Subversion (svn) + Tortoise SVN (the very nice workstation client for svn). The worthy heir to cvs; industrial strength + open source source code control and versioning system

@Zendesk 'software for better customer service'! Highly regarded I hear.

@SlackHQ Don't forget the wonderfully fluid and open ended SLACK! What is it? A kind of Lego for collective mind? Interested? Then ask to be added to https://mscdigitalinnovation.slack.com/

@CrazyEgg for integrating gaze heatmap and other tracking tools with website analytics.

And then there is @vtigercrm an open source web based sales and marketing platform
@mantisbt the venerable web based issue tracking system, open source, an excellent system for customer issue management.

@bugzilla another excellent problem tracking system, again, open source, web based.

@UniTuitionHQ a market for matching tutors with students at Uni level, and perhaps even secondary school? https://www.unituition.com/

@servicenow a scarily polished crm, issue tracking, service and it management system. Customer self-service portal system thingys.

@HP SAW. Their service access workbench has been mentioned as a 'good thing'. What they are calling 'hybrid infrastructure'.

@jetbrains Awesomely good TeamCity for continuous integration, i.e. automated build, package, test.

@Atlassian 's @JIRA issue, sprint, project, product tracking software system wonderfulness.

@trello visual to-do lists and project management in the cloud.

On the topic of CRM I suppose we should mention one of the elephants in the room @MSFTDynamics

@SonarQube (previously sonarsource) can be a useful additional tool for assessing the quality of your source code. See http://www.sonarqube.org/ and demo at http://nemo.sonarqube.org/

@aha_io for Product Roadmap and/or project manager views of the world.

@productboard their strapline is the "Beautiful and powerful product management platform."

@moqups for wireframe designs and software mock-ups.

@balsamiq also for wireframe designs and software mock-ups.

LICEcap from @Cockos for simple animated screen captures, great for teaching and explaining stuff on the web.

Consultancy - from opportunity, issue, problem, assumptions to solutions

IT Consultancy - from opportunity, issue, problem, assumptions to solution generation.

Consultancy is often more a process of facilitation rather than parachuting into a conflict zone and troubleshooting.

The consultant will often focus mainly on problem identification, digging in to the case to identify possible/potential issues.
Often you will need to make some assumptions, if so then decide and state them as they will probably form a background to further analysis.

For an operational technology case; possibly look at business process and workflows. For example, activity flows involving people, documents, and IT. Some of this may provide opportunities to redesign the user interaction or to devise shifts between digital and manual recording.

For a product/service feature development case; look at customer/user needs (met/unmet), feature usage, technology logs as evidence of use, prototyping, participant observation.

For a product/market/fit case; look at the economic characteristics of the product/service; market size, equivalent or substitute products, where is value produced? who benefits? network effects? transaction costs?


Problem/issue solutions might be suggested after this.

Roll your own: using Trello with Scrum

Roll your own: using Trello with Scrum by Robert Warren

http://www.infoq.com/articles/scrum-trello

Student Reflections from 2015

A selection of student quotes from 2015

#1.

"I was quickly drawn by the idea of documenting your learning by using a Blog. This was not a concept I had heard of before but I was drawn to it as a good idea as it allowed you to discuss topics of interest as well as post assignments for your lecturer to view." 

"Within the first lecture we discussed systems development with a particular emphasis on design. I had experience of Systems Development from modules I had taken in my undergraduate. What is a System?????, I was very rusty here for sure. " 

"My main take away from this module is the improvements I have made in my approach towards design and thinking laterally. In terms of my design approach I have learned that there really is no substitute to field work. Field work allows you to interpret a situation using all your senses and get a really clear picture of what is occurring in an environment."

#2.

"Getting right into this module from week one Allen sent us as a class to go and do field research on a specific topic. Research is a key part of this degree. I feel that doing hands-on research, dealing with consumers, allows me the opportunity to see [the impact of designs] like getting a greater understanding of a particular [system]."

#3.

"When I started the programme I was afraid that my lack of real world experience would hinder my ability to learn in this course, in fact I think this was the opposite, because I had come from a business background I was able to look at technology a different way to my colleagues who had already worked in large firm on technology projects."

"In this module I have expanded my knowledge of technology, this new information will help give me the dual focus on business and technology that I will need for my future career."

"one aspect that I noticed was that teams were an underlying subject every week. Whether we were talking about planning, design or development, it all centred on teams. To me, this link is the simple fact is that everything we have learned in this class is for application in the real world. The use of team examples from the Soul of a New Machine and the Iona cases highlighted real world aspects of team dynamics and how teams interacted."

"My favourite part of the course was when we started to learn about the trade-off between creativity and control. I think this was of real interest to me and it’s something that I have noticed in every college project that I have ever done. I would consider myself creative and I have always found it hard as a team leader to manage the balance between control, in terms of completing the objective, and creativity, producing something that is creative compared to other groups. Even this year I had struggled with this concept."

"I learned a lot form my blogging experience, firstly blogging is a habit it is not a natural phenomenon. The reason why I didn’t post more blogs was paralysis by analysis. I adopted a mind frame that everything I put up onto my blog had to be prefect and long. After reading the Pixar case in week 9, I realised I should take the adoption that Pixar have and to put my ideas and thoughts up on the blog and to let classmate, Allen and others, critique, review and add to my own ideas. Having adopted this new attitude after week 10’s class I decided to do my own quick and dirty experiment and when I posted this on my blog I felt that I finally had grasped the most effective way to use my blog, that is taking ideas expressed in class, giving the main points and then to build on those ideas, whether it be a quick experiment, case study or critique of what was talked about. This was when I started to understand the real value from my blog."

#4.

"Being a software engineer I am able to relate the learnings of this course with my previous industry experience." 

"Mock-up design exercise of sketching a text free search page gave us the insight with the tools like Balsamic which can be used to present the design of the system to the clients and to get a feedback from them. I really think it is a best practice to customise the idea and design in short time."

#5.

"During the class we designed basic websites using quick and rough sketches, and paper prototypes of our sites, with the goal being to design a sight that the user didn’t have to type commands into. We then used these prototypes to design composite versions using the Balsamic website. I would have considered doing a sketch to be are fairly useless tool in designing a product prior to this exercise, however having created the more realistic version using the paper prototype as a model I could see the value in it. They allow for quick iterations and changes which is key in defining what it is exactly that the user is looking for." 

"If I had to use one word that sticks as the main theme in this module its context, regardless of whether it’s a lifecycle, management system or any of the other frameworks for managing and developing software design, there is no one magic way of doing things. It depends on the context of the firm or project, whether that be in terms of the product, the customer, how dynamic the environment or any other variable."

#6.

"To begin I thought about the first exercise we’ve had, which was how to define a system. That was a tricky question for me. From what I’ve learned before, I’ve tried to come up with a quick and generic definition, such as ‘something that receives an income and delivers an outcome’. This for me was something standard, from what I could see in my graduation and in my work experience. However, when we discussed each individual’s definitions, it was interesting to see that most of the class had the same view around what a system was, drawing a box with inputs and outputs. Then we had one better definition: A combination of resources (Money, technology, software, hardware, people, norms), providing incomes and outcomes that benefits providers and users, linking these two parts, in order to enhance the quality of life." 

"Afterwards, we have started to discuss the essence of design. What is important to an user? This is a really interesting theme for me, because as a costumer, I think that a lot of products and services that we consume today are designed under the producer’s point of view and his preferences. I feel like there’s a gap between what the producer think that his client wants and that the client actually wants. This gap is very troublesome, as it might endanger a whole business, since the consumers might no longer use a product and opt for the competition. It’s important to know that It’s not just about engineering the product, the user experience has to be paired down, in order to get to know as much as possible about the whole experience. We’ll be worried about the whole construct around the product, not just its physical appearance."

#7.

"If there is one observation I would make it is this – I never realised that system development was all about people – now I do." 

"I didn’t like going out on the streets for that IDEO mini project but got a lot out of it. My view of design was that it started with the specification, a clear list of what the system should do, so the emphasis the whole picture, I think freed me from an engineering myopia." 

"The IONA case and the Pixar case confirmed that it is about selecting the organisational structure, design and implementation "mythologies" from as social perspective that allows good systems to be built by those people. " 

"I now get the power of the prototype as a platform to grow and link into usability. What struck me most about the general use of this approach (mock-up tools) is that despite the dominance of the PMI model as a way of reducing risk, it is in fact this little prototyping tool that reduces the risk and cost in an uncertain endeavour."

#8.

"As an experienced person in ICT industry as a software developer, I have experienced many of the concepts that were covered by the module in work but not knew the importance and significance of this concepts. But now I Know how to relate those concepts to the working environment and the importance of the concepts in the industry. And I have learned a lot of new concepts and management tools that can be used in work." 

"The overall learning from this module has helped me understand concepts of design, delivery, creativity, product life cycles, project management and use of various management tools like planning poker and activity checklist. It was not just learning the concepts, but it was experiencing the application of these various concepts through class activities, teamwork, research work and how to use these concepts in solving the real time project management issues in the ICT-based development organisation."

#9.

"We were asked to maintain a blog or a website through which Allen could easily monitor our progress. I think it’s success was moderate as people were not too prompt in uploading the work except a few as till the time of submission I encountered two to three blogs which were completely empty. Allen was prompt in checking our work and I received regular feedbacks from him which in turn ignited my eagerness to update the blog in a timely manner."

#10.

"We had to make our own blog and post our class learnings on it. I pretty much liked this idea, as at the end of module you have all your notes collected in a single place. I used www.wix.com to create my own blog. I would say, I did not updated my blog regularly, but had all my notes written in papers which helped me to post my learnings twice every month. I did put in information like- First research work using IDEO method cards, weekly reading points, case studies, my project proposal, summary of the book-“Soul of a New Machine” and most of the weekly exercises. Maintaining a blog did make me realize the importance of and ease of cumulating our own learning stuff in a single place and others can also utilize it for their reference."

#11.

"This course focussed both on the techniques of development side of the ICT projects as well as the management techniques. The techniques of development ranged from conventional approaches to agile and lean methods. The management techniques involved understanding of lifecycles and frameworks for development. It also taught how to work efficiently in teams and how to inculcate innovative ideas in the teams. We have developed a better understanding of how a system works, how to analyse it and look for developments in the same." 

"The exercises involved ranged from Individual to Group Ones. The group exercises also fostered teambuilding. Some of the exercises were: Sketching a Text Free Engine, Building a spaghetti cantilever bridge, planning poker, Sutton’s creative strategies, Lego construction and design exercise." 

"I learnt about the various processes and practices involved in software design and delivery. In a professional ICT environment, I will be aware of the various lifecycles and frameworks that are involved in software development lifecycles. I hope to be able to be identify and critically evaluate processes, activities and practices necessary for design and development. The knowledge that I gained from this course will help me to act to industry situations where analysing and adapting methods for development will be required."