🚧Project Management: Quality (Just the Quotes)

"Managers jeopardize product quality by setting unreachable deadlines. They don’​​​​​​t think about their action in such terms; they think rather that what they’​​​​​​re doing is throwing down an interesting challenge to their workers, something to help them strive for excellence." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams", 1987)

"People under time pressure don’​​​​​​t work better - ​​​​​​they just work faster. In order to work faster, they may have to sacrifice the quality of the product and of their own work experience." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams", 1987)

"The [software] builders’​​​​​​ view of quality, on the other hand, is very different. Since their self-esteem is strongly tied to the quality of the product, they tend to impose quality standards of their own. The minimum that will satisfy them is more or less the best quality they have achieved in the past. This is invariably a higher standard than what the market requires and is willing to pay for." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams", 1987)

"Even when you have skilled, motivated, hard-working people, the wrong team structure can undercut their efforts instead of catapulting them to success. A poor team structure can increase development time, reduce quality, damage morale, increase turnover, and ultimately lead to project cancellation." (Steve McConnell, "Rapid Development", 1996)

"Issues of quality, timeliness and change are the conditions that are forcing us to face up to the issues of enterprise architecture. The precedent of all the older disciplines known today establishes the concept of architecture as central to the ability to produce quality and timely results and to manage change in complex products. Architecture is the cornerstone for containing enterprise frustration and leveraging technology innovations to fulfill the expectations of a viable and dynamic Information Age enterprise." (John Zachman, "Enterprise Architecture: The Issue of The Century", 1997)

"The aim of leadership should be to improve the performance of man and machine, to improve quality, to increase output, and simultaneously to bring pride of workmanship to people. Put in a negative way, the aim of leadership is not merely to find and record failures of men, but to remove the causes of failure: to help people to do a better job with less effort." (W Edwards Deming, "Out of the Crisis", 2000)

"Stakeholder management to me is key, as success or failure is in the eye of the beholder. Time, cost and quality fall prey to the perceptions of the key stakeholders, who may have nothing to do with the running of the project." (Peter Parkes, "NLP for Project Managers", 2011)

"Complexity is one of the causes of failing projects; failing to split the project into smaller tasks also causes software quality issues or project failure. Complexity can also be caused by the size of the  project; if the project is too big, there is a huge possibility that the project may become complex and complicated." (Abu S Mahfuz,"Software Quality Assurance", 2016)

"A project is usually considered a failure if it is late, is over budget, or does not meet the customer’s expectations. Without the control that project management provides, a project is more likely to have problems with one of these areas. A problem with only one constraint (scope, schedule, cost, resources, quality, and risk) can jeopardize the entire project." (Sandra F Rowe, "Project Management for Small Projects" 3rd Ed., 2020)

🚧Project Management: Estimation (Just the Quotes)

"Programmers seem to be a bit more productive after they’​​​​​​ve done the estimate themselves, compared to cases in which the manager did it without even consulting them." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams", 1987)

"[The common definition of estimate is] 'the most optimistic prediction that has a non-zero probability of coming true' [...] Accepting this definition leads irrevocably toward a method called what's-the-earliest-date-by-which-you-can't-prove-you-won't-be-finished estimating" (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams", 1987)

"Because one has to be an optimist to begin an ambitious project, it is not surprising that underestimation of completion time is the norm." (Fernando J Corbató, "On Building Systems That Will Fail", 1991)

"[…] all activities are probabilistic, not deterministic! There is a probability that a task can be completed in a certain time, given a fixed level of effort. If you want to guarantee that the task is finished in a fixed time period, then you must vary effort, reduce scope, or sacrifice quality. You can’t have it all. Therefore, an exact estimate is an oxymoron." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"Be sure you understand whether you're presenting uncertainty in an estimate or uncertainty that affects your ability to meet a commitment." (Steve McConnell, "Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art", 2006)

"Don't expect better estimation practices alone to provide more accurate estimates for chaotic projects. You can't accurately estimate an out-of-control process." (Steve McConnell, "Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art", 2006)

"Don't intentionally underestimate. The penalty for underestimation is more severe than the penalty for overestimation. Address concerns about overestimation through planning and control, not by biasing your estimates." (Steve McConnell, "Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art", 2006)

"Not all estimation methods are equal. When looking for convergence or spread among estimates, give more weight to the techniques that tend to produce the most accurate results." (Steve McConnell, "Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art", 2006)

"The primary purpose of software estimation is not to predict a project's outcome; it is to determine whether a project's targets are realistic enough to allow the project to be controlled to meet them." (Steve McConnell, "Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art", 2006)

"Treat estimation discussions as problem solving, not negotiation. Recognize that all project stakeholders are on the same side of the table. Everyone wins, or everyone loses." (Steve McConnell, "Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art", 2006)

🚧Project Management: Control (Just the Quotes)

"Project management is needed only for situations which are out of the ordinary; but when the need exists, this may often be the only way by which the task may be handled successfully. These situations require a different attitude on the part of the top management, the undivided attention of a project manager and different methods for control and communications than those used in the normal routine business situation. […] Pure project management assigns complete responsibility for the task and resources needed for its accomplishment to one project manager. The organization of a large project, though it will be dissolved upon completion of the task, operates for its duration much like a regular division and is relatively independent of any other division or staff group." (Executive Sciences Institute, Operations Research/Management Science Vol 6, 1964)

"Probably the most neglected area in systems analysis involves the planning and control of the project, especially those projects requiring automation. More than one disastrous project has been launched by 'computer people' who communicated their aims to the vexed manager using technical data processing jargon in lieu of specific lists of easily understood tasks, schedules, and costs. This problem applies equally to in-house projects or those requiring the services of outside consultants. Each project must first be planned in detail. Control is involved with comparing actual progress with the plan and taking corrective action when the two do not correspond. Without the plan, true control is not possible; the need for corrective action, its nature, extent, and urgency cannot be accurately determined." (Robert D Carlsen & James A Lewis, "The Systems Analysis Workbook: A complete guide to project implementation and control", 1973)

"Project management is the process by which it is assured that the objective is achieved and resources are not wasted. Planning is one of the two parts of project management. Control is the other." (Robert D Carlsen & James A Lewis, "The Systems Analysis Workbook: A complete guide to project implementation and control", 1973)

"Project management is the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of company resources for a relatively short-term objective that has been established to complete specific goals and objectives. Furthermore, project management utilises the systems approach to management by having functional personnel (the vertical hierarchy) assigned to a specific project (the horizontal hierarchy)." (Harold Kerzner, "Project Management for Executives", 1982)

"Control cannot be achieved through micromanaging." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"Control is exercised by comparing progress against planned performance, and taking steps to correct for any deviations from the proper course." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"If you have no plan, you cannot have control, by definition, because it is your plan that tells where you are supposed to be in the first place. Further, if you don’t know where you are, you can’t have control. This comes from your information system. Most organizations have difficulties with both of these." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"In any system of humans or machines, the element in the system that has the greatest variability in its behavior will control the system." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"Success or failure of a project depends upon the ability of key personnel to have sufficient data for decision-making. Project management is often considered to be both an art and a science. It is an art because of the strong need for interpersonal skills, and the project planning and control forms attempt to convert part of the 'art' into a science." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"The entire reason for managing a project is to make sure you get the results desired by the organization. This is commonly called being in control, and it is what is expected of a project manager." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"Don't intentionally underestimate. The penalty for underestimation is more severe than the penalty for overestimation. Address concerns about overestimation through planning and control, not by biasing your estimates." (Steve McConnell, "Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art", 2006)

"The primary purpose of software estimation is not to predict a project's outcome; it is to determine whether a project's targets are realistic enough to allow the project to be controlled to meet them." (Steve McConnell, "Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art", 2006)

"A project is usually considered a failure if it is late, is over budget, or does not meet the customer’s expectations. Without the control that project management provides, a project is more likely to have problems with one of these areas. A problem with only one constraint (scope, schedule, cost, resources, quality, and risk) can jeopardize the entire project." (Sandra F Rowe, "Project Management for Small Projects" 3rd Ed., 2020)

🚧Project Management: Project Management (Just the Quips)

Change Management

"Anything that can be changed will be changed until there is no time left to change anything."

"Change is inevitable - except from vending machines."

"If project content is allowed to change freely the rate of change will exceed the rate of progress."

"There is no such thing as scope creep, only scope gallop."

Cost Management

"A project ain't over until the fat cheque is cashed."

"Fast - cheap - good: you can have any two."

"For a project manager overruns are as certain as death and taxes."

[Juhani's Law:] "The cost of a compromise will always be more than that of either of the uncompromised alternatives."

"The more ridiculous the deadline the more money will be wasted trying to meet it."

Project Execution

"Activity is not achievement."

"Furious activity does not necessarily equate to progress and is no substitute for understanding."

"Good control reveals problems early - which only means you'll have longer to worry about them."

"If it happens once it's ignorance, if it happens twice it's neglect, if it happens three times it's policy."

"If you can interpret project status data in several different ways, only the most painful interpretation will be correct."

"If you don't know how to do a task, start it, then ten people who know less than you will tell you how to do it."

"Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it."

"The person who says it will take the longest and cost the most is the only one with a clue how to do the job."

Project Managers

"A project is one small step for the project sponsor, one giant leap for the project manager."

"All project managers face problems on Monday mornings - good project managers are working on next Monday's problems."

"Everyone asks for a strong project manager - when they get him they don't want him."

"Good project management is not so much knowing what to do and when, as knowing what excuses to give and when."

"Good project managers admit mistakes: that's why you so rarely meet a good project manager."

"Good project managers know when not to manage a project."

"If you're 6 months late on a milestone due next week but nevertheless really believe you can make it, you're a project manager."

"There are no good project managers - only lucky ones."

"Overtime is a figment of the naïve project manager's imagination."

"Powerful project managers don't solve problems, they get rid of them."

"The most successful project managers have perfected the skill of being comfortable being uncomfortable."

"The most valuable and least used PHRASE in a project manager's vocabulary is "I don't know"."

"The most valuable and least used WORD in a project manager's vocabulary is "NO"."

Project Planning 

"A badly planned project will take three times longer than expected - a well planned project only twice as long as expected."

"A change freeze is like the abominable snowman: it is a myth and would anyway melt when heat is applied."

"A minute saved at the start is just as effective as one saved at the end."

"Any project can be estimated accurately (once it's completed)."

Fyfe's Laws: (1) Information necessitating a change in plans will be communicated to the planner after - and only after - the plans are complete. (2) The more innocuous the change in plans appears the great the change will actually be. (3) It is always simpler to start over from scratch than make changes in a plan already started. (4) The more carefully and painstakingly a sample is analyzed the greater the probability it will be found irrelevant.

"If everything is going exactly to plan, something somewhere is going massively wrong."

"If everything seems to be going well, you obviously don't know what's going on.” (Edward Murphy)

"If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs, you haven't understood the plan."

"No plan ever survived contact with the enemy."

"If it wasn't for the 'last minute' nothing would get done."

"If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."

"If you don't plan, it doesn't work. If you do plan, it doesn't work either. Why plan!"

"If you fail to plan you are planning to fail."

"If you have time to do it over again, you'll never get away with doing it right the first time."

"If you want to make God laugh have a definite plan."

"Never put off until tomorrow what you can leave until the day after."

"People make a plan work, a plan alone seldom makes people work."

"Planning is an unnatural process, doing something is much more fun."

"Planning reduces uncertainty: you rule out at least one way the project could turn out."

"Planning without action is futile, action without planning is fatal."

"Quantitative project management is for predicting cost and schedule overruns well in advance."

"Some projects finish on time in spite of project management best practices."

"The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time the last 10% takes the other 90%."

"The more you plan the luckier you get."

"The nice thing about no planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression."

"The same work under the same conditions will be estimated differently by ten different estimators or by one estimator at ten different times."

"The sooner you get behind schedule, the more time you have to make it up."

"There is such a thing as an unrealistic timescale."

"There's never enough time to do it right first time but there's always enough time to go back and do it again."

"To estimate a project, work out how long it would take one person to do it then multiply that by the number of people on the project."

"Warning: dates in the calendar are closer than you think."

Projects 

"A project gets a year late one day at a time."

"At some point in the project you're going to have to break down and finally define the requirements."

"At the heart of every large project is a small project trying to get out."

[Gordon's First Law:] "If a project is not worth doing at all, it's not worth doing well."

"If an IT project works the first time, it is wrong."

"No project has ever finished on time, within budget, to requirement - yours won't be the first to."

"Projects happen in two ways: a) Planned and then executed or b) Executed, stopped, planned and then executed."

"Projects don't all fail in the end, they fail at the beginning."

"The project would not have been started if the truth had been told about the cost and timescale."

"There is no such thing as an IT project only business projects some of which happen to involve IT."

Risk Management

"A little risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning."

"If you don't attack the risks, the risks will attack you."

Senior Management

"Never underestimate the ability of senior management to buy a bad idea and fail to buy a good idea."

"The typical project sponsor would rather starts ten projects than complete one single project. (Vrisou van Eck)

📦Data Migrations (DM): Data Quality’s Perspective I (A Bird’s-Eye View)

Data Migrations Series

Imagine you just finished a Data Migration (DM) project, everything went smoothly, the data were loaded into the new system with a minimum amount of issues, inherent sometimes to such complex projects, the users started to use the new system, everybody seemed to be satisfied, and a few weeks later within the company rumors propagate with the speed of light – “the migrated data are wrong”, “the new system can’t be used” , “IT did a bad job”, “we have to get back to the previous system”, and so on. The panic propagates, a few heads fall, the business tries to revert to the old system but there’s lot of new data available in the new system, and it’s not so trivial to move the data back to the old, in the meantime other rumors appear, and… it’s just a scenario but this could happen to any company if not the appropriate measures were taken at the right time. What could help a company when something like this happens?! A good Plan B aka a good Migration Fallback Plan/Policy, but that’s something nobody would like to do except extreme situations.

A common approach to any type of projects as well to a DM project is to identify and mitigate the risks before or during the project. That’s something I started to do a few days ago, to prepare a list with the risks associated with DM projects. For this exercise I tried to remember what things went wrong in previous similar projects I worked on and to figure out what else could go wrong. Some online resources helped me to refresh my memory too, and I think I found also two or three things I haven’t really thought about. My attempt was primarily focused on this type of problem mentioned above – minimizing the risks of not having the right data when the new system goes live. Before jumping into the thematic I would like to sketch the bigger picture, as I perceive it.

Having the right data when a system goes live primarily means having good Data Quality (DQ) in the target system after the data were migrated! As a DM is the best exemplification of the GIGO (Garbage-In Garbage-Out) principle, in order to have good DQ in the target is important to handle DQ latest during the DM project. That’s essential and common sense – you can’t expect to have good data in the new system when there’s lot of garbage in the old. So, a DM and a Risk Management for such a project should be built around this. In fact not having a DQ initiative or project in a DM project is one of the most important risks a company can take. Maybe in small DM, a DQ initiative isn’t necessary, though when the data are important for your company, DQ is a must! In addition DQ assessments have to be performed in alignment with the new system, and not the old. Even if the data have good quality into the old system, the quality of your data after DM will be judged in corroboration with the new system. This is a requirement that can be easily overlooked and its implications misunderstood!

Many think that DQ is one time activity, we do it for a DM project and we’ll have quality data and never have to care about their quality anymore. Totally false! DQ has to be part of a broader strategy, call it Data Governance, Master Data Management, Data Management or any other initiative in which data plays an important role. DQ is an on going, iterative and consolidated effort, it doesn’t end after DM but continues for the whole data life-cycle, as long the data have value for an organization. It doesn’t help if the data have high quality when the data are migrated and a few weeks or months later the overall quality and trust in data decreased considerably.

Keeping an acceptable level of DQ must be an organization’s strategy, and must be built a culture toward DQ. People need to be aware of the importance of having good quality data, and especially the consequences of having bad quality data. DQ doesn’t concern only the owners or stewards of data, or the people working with data, it concerns the whole organization because decisions are made based on those data, processes are changed and improved, an organization’s performance is often judged based on data. The quality of data is a matter of perception, on how users see the quality of data in corroboration with the needs they have, and the needs change over time. Primarily being aware what good DQ means and which are an organization’s needs in respect to data, it’s also a way of minimizing the negative perception of data, of gaining trust in data and some solid basis on which decisions can be made. Secondarily, these organizational data needs need to be addressed in a DM, they are the success factors upon which the success of a DM project is judged.

For sure considerable costs are associated with DQ initiatives and everything related to data which doesn’t always represent a direct cost component in the products or services handled by an organization. Considering that not all data have the same importance for an organization, it makes sense to prioritize the DQ effort as a whole and the data cleaning needs in particular, the focus should be the data with the highest impact and with time to tackle data with lower and lower impact. It must be found equilibrium between the DQ costs and the value of data. Most probably is important to spend resources on raising people’s awareness in respect to DQ early rather than cleaning retroactively data later. It also make sense to invest in tools that help to clean data using automated or semi-automated methods, though some manual/visual control need to be in place too.

DQ and the way the problems associated with it are tackled depends more on an organization’s internal kitchen – people, partners, organization, strategy, maturity, culture, geography, infrastructure, methodologies used, etc. What it matters is how the various negative and important aspects of an organization are aligned in order to take advantage of one of the most important assets an organization has is its data! For this is important to adopt methodologies that support DQ, align them and tweak them as requested, in order to make most of your data! But before or while doing that remember that a DM is an organization’s opportunity to change the quality of its data and its data strategy!

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Programming: Framework (Definitions)

"Unifying, guiding architectural approach, as in the data warehouse bus architecture." (Ralph Kimball & Margy Ross, "The Data Warehouse Toolkit" 2nd Ed., 2002)

"A collection of classes, functions, protocols, documentation, and header files and other resources that are all related." (Stephen G Kochan, "Programming in Objective-C", 2003)

"A set of collaborating abstract and concrete classes that may be used as a template to solve a related family of problems. It is usually extended via subclassing for application-specific behavior." (Craig Larman, "Applying UML and Patterns", 2004)

"A coherent architecture that provides an incomplete template for systems within a specific domain; a coherent set of design patterns." (Bruce P Douglass, "Real-Time Agility", 2009)

"A support structure for developing software products." (Judith Hurwitz et al, "Service Oriented Architecture For Dummies" 2nd Ed., 2009)

"1.Generally, a basic skeletal structure. 2.Conceptually, a classification scheme used to better understand a topic; a defined and documented paradigm, used as a lens to view a complex problem. 3.In software development, a reusable object-oriented design, including a library of reusable classes and other components, along with standards for designing additional components and how they interact." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"A support structure for developing and managing software products." (Marcia Kaufman et al, "Big Data For Dummies", 2013)

"A structure for supporting something else." ( Manish Agrawal, "Information Security and IT Risk Management", 2014)

"A support structure for developing and managing software." (Judith S Hurwitz, "Cognitive Computing and Big Data Analytics", 2015)

"A conceptual set of rules and ideas that provide structure to a complex and challenging situation." (Weiss, "Auditing IT Infrastructures for Compliance" 2nd Ed., 2015)

"A framework is a set of concepts that provide the basic structure for understanding a domain, enabling a common vocabulary for different explanatory theories." (Robert J Glushko, "The Discipline of Organizing: Professional Edition" 4th Ed., 2016)

Programming: Assertion (Definitions)

"A constraint that is not attached to a table but is instead a distinct database object. It can therefore be used to enforce rules that apply to multiple tables or to verify that tables are not empty." (Jan L Harrington, "SQL Clearly Explained" 3rd Ed., 2010)

"A declaration or statement, often without support." (Janice M Roehl-Anderson, "IT Best Practices for Financial Managers", 2010)

"A statement about a program that the code claims to be true." (Rod Stephens, "Start Here!™ Fundamentals of Microsoft® .NET Programming", 2011)

"A statement that the code claims is true. If the statement is false, the program stops running so you can decide whether a bug occurred." (Rod Stephens, "Stephens' Visual Basic® Programming 24-Hour Trainer", 2011)

"A component of a regular expression that must be true for the pattern to match but does not necessarily match any characters itself. Often used specifically to mean a zero-width assertion." (Jon Orwant et al, "Programming Perl" 4th Ed., 2012)

"A statement about the program and its data that is supposed to be true. If the statement isn’t true, the assertion throws an exception to tell you that something is wrong." (Rod Stephens, "Beginning Software Engineering", 2015)

"A language feature used to test for conditions that should be guaranteed by program logic. If a condition checked by an assertion is found to be false, a fatal error is thrown. For added performance, assertions can be disabled when an application is deployed." (Daniel Leuck et al, "Learning Java" 5th Ed., 2020)

"A way of ensuring that a method has access to a particular resource, even if the method's callers do not have the required permission. During a stack walk, if a stack frame asserting the required permission is encountered, a security check for that permission will succeed without proceeding further. To perform an assertion of a permission, code must not only have that permission, but also be granted the SecurityPermission.Assertion permission. Unwise use of assertions can create security holes, so they should be used only with the utmost caution." (Damien Watkins et al, "Programming in the .NET Environment", 2002)

Programming: Assembly (Definitions)

"An assembly is the unit of deployment and versioning in the .NET Framework. An assembly contains a manifest, metadata, MSIL, and possibly binary resources. Most assemblies are single files, but an assembly can consist of multiple files, such as DLLs, picture files, and even HTML files." (Adam Nathan, ".NET and COM: The Complete Interoperability Guide", 2002)

"The unit of deployment and versioning in the .NET Framework. It establishes the namespace for resolving requests for types and determines which types and resources are exposed externally and which are accessible only from within the assembly. An assembly includes an assembly manifest that describes the assembly's contents." (Damien Watkins et al, "Programming in the .NET Environment", 2002)

"A managed application module that contains class metadata and managed code as an object in SQL Server. By referencing an assembly, CLR functions, CLR stored procedures, CLR triggers, user-defined aggregates, and user-defined types can be created in SQL Server." (Thomas Moore, "MCTS 70-431: Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2005", 2006)

"A managed application module, composed of class metadata and managed code, that can be embedded in a database solution as a database object in SQL Server 2005." (Marilyn Miller-White et al, "MCITP Administrator: Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 Optimization and Maintenance 70-444", 2007)

"Application logic that is stored in, and managed by, the SQL Server database server, including objects like triggers, CLR software, and stored procedures. Assemblies are written in a .NET language, such a C# or Visual Basic." (Robert D. Schneider and Darril Gibson, "Microsoft SQL Server 2008 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies", 2008)

"In SQL Server, a .NET assembly is a compiled SQL CLR executable or DLL." (Michael Coles, "Pro T-SQL 2008 Programmer's Guide", 2008)

"A managed application module that contains class metadata and managed code." (Jim Joseph et al, "Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2008 Reporting Services Unleashed", 2009)

"In .NET applications, the smallest self-contained unit of compiled code. An assembly can be a complete application, or a library that can be called by other applications." (Rod Stephens, "Start Here!™ Fundamentals of Microsoft® .NET Programming", 2011)

"The smallest independent unit of compiled code. Typically, this is a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) or executable program." (Rod Stephens, "Stephens' Visual Basic® Programming 24-Hour Trainer", 2011)

"A managed application module containing class metadata and managed code as an object in SQL Server, against which CLR functions, stored procedures, triggers, user-defined aggregates, and user-defined types can be created in SQL Server." (Microsoft, "SQL Server 2012 Glossary", 2012)

"In SQL Server, a .NET assembly is a compiled SQL CLR executable or DLL." (Jay Natarajan et al, "Pro T-SQL 2012 Programmer's Guide" 3rd Ed., 2012)

"The fundamental logical unit of managed code, consisting of one or more files containing Common Intermediate Language instructions and metadata. See also CIL." (Mark Rhodes-Ousley, "Information Security: The Complete Reference" 2nd Ed., 2013)

Programming: Array (Definitions)

"A group of cells arranged by dimensions. A table is a two-dimensional array in which the cells are arranged in rows and columns, with one dimension forming the rows and the other dimension forming the columns. A cube is a three-dimensional array and can be visualized as a cube, with each dimension of the array forming one edge of the cube." (Microsoft Corporation, "Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Data Warehouse Training Kit", 2000)

"A collection of objects all of the same type." (Jesse Liberty, "Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"A list of variables that have the same name and data type." (Greg Perry, "Sams Teach Yourself Beginning Programming in 24 Hours" 2nd Ed., 2001)

"Values whose members, called elements, are accessed by an index rather than by name. An array has a rank that specifies the number of indices needed to locate an element (sometimes called the number of dimensions) within the array. It may have either zero or nonzero lower bounds in each dimension." (Damien Watkins et al, "Programming in the .NET Environment", 2002)

"A collection of data items, all of the same type, in which each item is uniquely addressed by a 32-bit integer index. Java arrays behave like objects but have some special syntax. Java arrays begin with the index value 0." (Marcus Green & Bill Brogden, "Java 2™ Programmer Exam Cram™ 2 (Exam CX-310-035)", 2003)

"A device that aggregates large collections of hard drives into a logical whole." (Tom Petrocelli, "Data Protection and Information Lifecycle Management", 2005)

"An arithmetically derived matrix or table of rows and columns that is used to impose an order for efficient experimentation. The rows contain the individual experiments. The columns contain the experimental factors and their individual levels or set points." (Clyde M Creveling, "Six Sigma for Technical Processes: An Overview for R Executives, Technical Leaders, and Engineering Managers", 2006)

"A data structure containing an ordered list of elements—any Ruby object—starting with an index of 0." (Michael Fitzgerald, "Learning Ruby", 2007)

"An arithmetically derived matrix or table of rows and columns that is used to impose an order for efficient experimentation. The rows contain the individual experiments. The columns contain the experimental factors and their individual levels or set points." (Lynne Hambleton, "Treasure Chest of Six Sigma Growth Methods, Tools, and Best Practices", 2007)

"In a SQL database, an ordered collection of elements of the same data type stored in a single column and row of a table." (Jan L Harrington, "SQL Clearly Explained" 3rd Ed., 2010)

"A group of values stored together in a single variable and accessed by index." (Rod Stephens, "Stephens' Visual Basic® Programming 24-Hour Trainer", 2011)

"A grouping of similar items of the same storage type in a sequential pattern, and referenced by a sequential index value." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"A variable that holds a series of values with the same data type. An index into the array lets the program select a particular value." (Rod Stephens, "Start Here!™ Fundamentals of Microsoft® .NET Programming", 2011)

"An ordered collection of values. Arrays can be defined as a basic Objective-C type and are implemented as objects under Foundation through the NSArray, and NSMutableArray classes." (Stephen G Kochan, "Programming in Objective-C" 4th Ed., 2011)

"A basic collection of values that is a sequence represented by a single block of memory. Arrays have efficient direct access, but do not easily grow or shrink." (Mark C Lewis, "Introduction to the Art of Programming Using Scala", 2012)

"An ordered sequence of values, stored such that you can easily access any of the values using an integer subscript that specifies the value’s offset in the sequence." (Jon Orwant et al, "Programming Perl" 4th Ed., 2012)

"A group of variables stored under a single name." (Matt Telles, "Beginning Programming", 2014)

"A structure composed of multiple identical variables that can be individually addressed." (Sybase, "Open Server Server-Library/C Reference Manual", 2019)

"A structure that contains an ordered collection of elements of the same data type in which each element can be referenced by its index value or ordinal position in the collection. See also element, ordinary array." (Sybase, "Open Server Server-Library/C Reference Manual", 2019)

"An array is a data structure where elements are associated with an index. They are implemented differently in different programming languages." (Alex Thomas, "Natural Language Processing with Spark NLP", 2020)

🗄️Data Management: Business Rules – An Introduction

Data Management Series

    "Business rules" seems to be a recurring theme these days – developers, DBAs, architects, business analysts, IT and non-IT professionals talk about the necessity to enforce them in data and semantic models, information systems, processes, departments or whole organizations. They seem to affect the important layers of an organization. In fact the same business rule can affect multiple levels either directly, or indirectly through the hierarchical or networked structure of causality it belongs to. When considered all the business rules, the overall picture can become very complex. The fact that there are multiple levels of interconnected layers, with applications and implications at macro or micro level, makes the complexity to fight back because in order to solve business-specific problems often you have to go at least one level above the level where the problems were defined, or to simplify the problems to a level of detail that allows to tackled.

    The Business Rules Group defines a business rule as "a statement that defines or constrains some aspect of the business" [1], definition which seems to be closer to the vocabulary of IT people. Ronald G. Ross, in his book Principles of the Business Rule Approach, defines it as "a directive intended to influence or guide business behavior" [2], definition closer to the vocabulary of HR people. In fact the two definitions are kind of similar, highlighting the constrictor or guiding role of business rules. They raise also an important question – can everything that is catalogued as constraint or guidelines considered as a business rule? In theory yes, practically there are constraints and guidelines that have different impact on the business, so depending on context they need to be considered or not. What to consider is itself an art, which adds up to the art of problem solving.

    Besides identification, neither the definition nor management of business rules seems easy tasks. R.G. Ross considers that business rules need to be written and made explicit, expressed in plain language, independent of procedures and workflows, built on facts, motivated by identifiable and important business factors, accessible to authorized parties, specific, single sourced, managed, specified by those people who have relevant knowledge, and they should guide or influence behavior in desired ways [2]. This summarizes the various aspects that need to be considered when defining and managing business rules. Many organization seems to be challenged by this, and it can be challenging when lacks business management maturity.

    Many business rules exist already in functional and technical specifications written for the various software products built on request, in documentation of purchases software, in processes, procedures, standards, internal defined and external enforced policies, in the daily activities and knowledge exchanged or hold by workers. Sure, the formulations existing in such resources need to be enhanced and aggregated in order to be brought at the status of business rule. And here comes the difficulty, as iterative work needs to be performed in order to bring them to the level indicated by R.G Ross. For sure Ross’ specifications are idealistic, though they offer a “framework” for defining business rules. In what concerns their management, there is a lot to be done within an organization, as this aspect needs to be integrated with other activities and strategies existing in an organization.

    Often, when an important initiative, better said project, starts within an organization, then is felt in particular the lack of up-front defined and understood business rules. Such events trigger the identification and elicitation of business rules; they are addressed in documentation and remain buried in there. It is also true that it’s difficult to build a business case for further processing of business rules. An argument could be the costs associated from decisional mistakes taken by not knowing the existing rules, though that’s something difficult to quantify and make visible in an organization. In the end, most probably an organization will recognize the value of business rules when it reached a certain level of maturity.

References:
[1] Business Rules Group (2000) Defining Business Rules - What Are They Really? [Online] Available from: http://businessrulesgroup.org/first_paper/BRG-whatisBR_3ed.pdf
[2] Ronald G. Ross (2003) Principles of the Business Rule Approach. Addison Wesley. ISBN: 0-201-78893-4.

Programming: Pair Programming (Definitions)

"An XP practice requiring that each piece of source code to be integrated into the software product should be created by two programmers jointly at one computer."" (Johannes Link & Peter Fröhlich, "Unit Testing in Java", 2003)

"A coding technique where one programmer (the driver) writes code and explains what he or she is doing, while another watches and looks for problems." (Rod Stephens, "Start Here!™ Fundamentals of Microsoft® .NET Programming", 2011)

"A software development approach whereby lines of code (production and/or test) of a component are written by two programmers sitting at a single computer. This implicitly means ongoing real-time code reviews are performed." (IQBBA, "Standard glossary of terms used in Software Engineering", 2011)

"An Extreme Programming practice where two (or three) programmers work together at the same computer. The driver or pilot types while the observer, navigator, or pointer watches and reviews each line of code as it is typed." (Rod Stephens, "Beginning Software Engineering", 2015)

"A software development approach whereby lines of code (production and/or test) of a component are written by two programmers sitting at a single computer. This implicitly means ongoing real-time code reviews are performed." (SQA)

Programming: BLOB (Definitions)

"A type of data column containing binary data such as graphics, sound, or compiled code. This is a general term for text or image data type. BLOBs are not stored in the table rows themselves, but in separate pages referenced by a pointer in the row." (Microsoft Corporation, "SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Training Kit", 1999)

"BLOB is a data type for fields containing large binary data such as images." (S. Sumathi & S. Esakkirajan, "Fundamentals of Relational Database Management Systems", 2007)

"A binary large object. Large value data types [varchar(max), nvarchar(max), and varbinary(max)] are stored as BLOBs. Within SQL Server 2005, BLOBs can be as large as 2GB." (Darril Gibson, "MCITP SQL Server 2005 Database Developer All-in-One Exam Guide", 2008)

"A data type that can hold large objects of arbitrary content such as video files, audio files, images, and so forth. Because the data can be any arbitrary chunk of binary data, the database does not understand its contents so you cannot search in these fields." (Rod Stephens, "Beginning Database Design Solutions", 2008)

"Binary large object (BLOB) data is data that is stored using the varbinary(max) data type. A BLOB column or variable can hold up to 2.1 GB of data, as opposed to a regular non-LOB varbinary or binary column or variable, which can max out at 8,000 bytes of data." (Michael Coles & Rodney Landrum, , "Expert SQL Server 2008 Encryption", 2008)

"Very large binary representation of multimedia objects that can be stored and used in some enhanced relational databases." (Paulraj Ponniah, "Data Warehousing Fundamentals for IT Professionals", 2010)

"A discrete packet of binary data that has an exceptionally large size, such as pictures or audio tracks stored as digital data, or any variable or table column large enough to hold such values. The designation 'binary large object' typically refers to a packet of data that is stored in a database and is treated as a sequence of uninterpreted bytes." (Microsoft, "SQL Server 2012 Glossary", 2012)

"A large assemblage of binary data (e.g., images, movies, multimedia files, even collections of executable binary code) that are associated with a common group identifier and that can, in theory, be moved (from computer to computer) or searched as a singled data object. Traditional databases do not easily handle BLOBs." (Jules H Berman, "Principles of Big Data: Preparing, Sharing, and Analyzing Complex Information", 2013)

"A blob is any resource whose internal structure is functionally opaque for the purpose at hand." (Robert J Glushko, "The Discipline of Organizing: Professional Edition" 4th Ed., 2016)

Programming: Block (Definitions)

"A series of statements enclosed by BEGIN and END. Blocks define which set of statements will be affected by control-of-flow language such as IF or WHILE. You can nest BEGIN...END blocks within other BEGIN... END blocks." (Microsoft Corporation, "SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Training Kit", 1999)

"A section of code grouped together by braces that sets apart a section of code in a smaller area than a full procedure. A procedure might contain several blocks of code." (Greg Perry, "Sams Teach Yourself Beginning Programming in 24 Hours 2nd Ed.", 2001)

"A sequence of PL/SQL code, beginning with DECLARE or BEGIN and ending with END. The block is a core organizational unit of PL/SQL programming. See Chapter 2 for a thorough discussion." (Bill Pribyl & Steven Feuerstein, "Learning Oracle PL/SQL", 2001)

"A series of Transact-SQL statements enclosed by BEGIN and END. You can nest BEGIN...END blocks within other BEGIN...END blocks." (Anthony Sequeira & Brian Alderman, "The SQL Server 2000 Book", 2003)

"A syntactic construct consisting of a sequence of Perl statements that is delimited by braces. The if and while statements are defined in terms of BLOCKs, for instance. Sometimes we also say 'block' to mean a lexical scope; that is, a sequence of statements that acts like a BLOCK, such as within an eval or a file, even though the statements aren’t delimited by braces." (Jon Orwant et al, "Programming Perl" 4th Ed., 2012)

"A Transact-SQL statement enclosed by BEGIN and END." (Microsoft, "SQL Server 2012 Glossary", 2012)

"The information stored in a sector" (Nell Dale & John Lewis, "Computer Science Illuminated" 6th Ed., 2015)

"A set of rows retrieved from a database server that are transmitted as a single result set to satisfy a cursor FETCH request." (Sybase, "Open Server Server-Library/C Reference Manual", 2019)

🚧Project Management: Change Control Board (Definitions)

 "A group of project members, possibly including one or two customers, that reviews and approves or rejects change requests." (Rod Stephens, "Beginning Software Engineering", 2015)

"A committee that makes decisions regarding whether proposed changes to a system should be implemented." (William Stallings, "Effective Cybersecurity: A Guide to Using Best Practices and Standards", 2018)

"A central authority for the management of change requests." (Bruce P Douglass, "Real-Time Agility: The Harmony/ESW Method for Real-Time and Embedded Systems Development", 2009)

"A formally constituted group of stakeholders responsible for reviewing, evaluating, approving, delaying, or rejecting changes to a project, with all decisions and recommendations being recorded." (Project Management Institute, "Practice Standard for Project Estimating", 2010)

🚧Project Management: Project Manager (Definitions)

"The individual responsible for managing a project." (Timothy J  Kloppenborg et al, "Project Leadership", 2003)

"The person responsible for managing a project." (Margaret Y Chu, "Blissful Data ", 2004)

"The person responsible for planning, directing, and controlling a project." (Richard D Stutzke, "Estimating Software-Intensive Systems: Projects, Products, and Processes", 2005)

"The person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives." (Project Management Institute, "The Standard for Program Management" 3rd Ed., 2013)

"A professional who is responsible for managing a project’s pursuit of its intended outputs and/or outcomes. Project managers are operational leaders who are responsible for assuring that a project meets its operational goals for delivering work products with prescribed specifications - on time and on budget." (Richard J Heaslip, "Managing Complex Projects and Programs", 2014)

"Individual or body with authority, accountability and responsibility for managing a project to achieve specific objectives." (Chartered Institute of Building, "Code of Practice for Project Management for Construction and Development" 5th Ed., 2014)

"The individual responsible for managing a project and its completion within its scope, budget, and schedule." (Christopher Carson et al, "CPM Scheduling for Construction: Best Practices and Guidelines", 2014)

"The person primarily responsible for managing a project to its successful completion." (Robert F Smallwood, "Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices", 2014)

"An organizational employee, representative, or consultant appointed to prepare project plans and organize the resources required to complete a project, prior to, during, and upon closure of the project life cycle." (H James Harrington & William S Ruggles, "Project Management for Performance Improvement Teams", 2018)