Sequence Diagram Video

Here is a video from Udacity explaining the System Sequence Diagram in a way that may make more sense for how it works.   Feel free to ask any questions.

Bitcoin Basics

I know we talked about Blockchain, but the question is always asked about why bitcoin prices fluctuate so much.  I found this link helpful to understanding digital currency basics at Coinbase.  You can also ask a question there, if these links are not helpful.

DevOps: What is DORA and Why You Should Care

Here is an introduction to DORA, and Dr. Nicole Forsgren, who was a Ph.D. student in MIS here.

Gene Kim, Jez Humble and Dr. Nicole Forsgren launched a new company called DORA. DORA stands for DevOps Research and Assessment.

DORA and the individuals behind it have been providing a lot of the science and analysis behind the State of DevOps survey and report for a number of years now (I posted the 2016 State of DevOps report on D2L). Here is the 2017 State of DevOps report (with new measures).

But what is DORA really about?  What is the business model to generate revenue? According to DORA CEO, Dr. Nicole Forsgren, after developing the annual State of DevOps Survey for years, they now have something like 25,000 responses over the past years. DORA has been able to create baselines and models from which they can compare how your organization compares to others who have taken the survey. They can pinpoint where you are lacking or not performing up to par, as well as where you are over performing. The entire process is built on rock solid statistical modeling and has already proven itself with several large enterprises.

If A Robot Offers You A Cookie…

I heard this on Science Friday last week, based on a new book, Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve and/or Ruin Everything by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith.  Read an excerpt on Amazon.

Here is a link to the podcast of the interview (or link to Soundcloud).

There is also a Soonish AR app.

This app is intended as a simple way to show you how AR works without you having to spend any money. Just open the app, point your camera at an image of the Soonish cover, and enjoy a custom space elevator Kyle Horseman designed for us (not to scale). 

Please note: You *do not* need to buy the book to use the app. We'd like if you did, but all you need to make it work is the free app and an image of the cover, like the one provided below.

Take a look... or listen.

Blockchain

At the talk during the IT Summit, of which many of you participated, I thought I would share with you other events and videos.  A video and articles helps to get your head around this process.

First, here is a brief 2-minute intro to Blockchain.

 

The speaker mentioned the MIT Media Lab.  Of course, there are many labs around the world working on this.  With that said, here is a link to an event on "The Business of Blockchain" at the MIT Media Lab and published (with videos) in the MIT Technology Review.  We can continue the discussion in class, but feel free to comment here, or ask questions.

The Essence of Agile Software

According to Martin Fowler,

It's been over a decade since the developers of agile methods first started to talk about their approaches. In this time agile thinking has changed from a niche activity to an approach that is widely used. However, like any popular technique, agile software development has suffered from semantic diffusion, so much of what we see under the name of agile doesn't bear much resemblance to what the early pioneers were doing. So I think it's important to revisit the essential elements of agile thinking

I've always seen the essence of agile thinking resting on two contrasts with traditional plan-driven software engineering.

Plan-driven engineering expects us to come up with a predictive plan that precedes development. The plan lays out the people, resources and timelines for the overall project. Software design is also done up-front, with implementation expected to conform with this design. Success is measured according to how well development follows this plan.

Agile plans are a baseline that we use to help us control change. Agile teams plan just as carefully as traditional teams, but the plans are constantly changing to reflect the things we learn during a project. Success is based on value delivered by the software.

Watch the 20-minute video of Martin Fowler explaining the history of software projects with the beginnings of plan-driven engineering (i.e., Waterfall) with agile plans.

Extra Credit: iSpace Events

Here is the general link to iSpace events, including Friday Tech Talks, Drop-In Help, and the Women Techmakers Hackathon, September 30–October 1.  Check it out @ http://new.library.arizona.edu/ispace.