Oxnard , California ITIL Training

Since you asked for the three most important things that non-programmers should know about, and I’ve spent most of my career working with more non-programmers than programmers, I have a few interesting things that would help.

Number One - It Is Impossible To Accurately Estimate Software Projects

No matter what is tried. No matter what tool, agile approach, or magic fairy dust people try to apply to creating software… accurately predicting software project timelines is basically impossible.

There are many good reasons for this. Usually, requirements and feature ideas change on a daily/weekly basis. Often it is impossible to know what needs to be done without actually digging into the code itself. Debugging and QA can take an extraordinary amount of time.

And worst of all…

Project Managers are always pushing for shorter timelines. They largely have no respect for reality. So, at some point they are given estimates just to make them feel better about planning.

No matter how much planning and estimation you do, it will be wrong. At best it will be directionally correct +/- 300% of what you estimated. So, a one year project could actually take anywhere between 0 and 5 years, maybe even 10 years.

If you think I’m joking, look at how many major ERP projects that go over time and over budget by many years and many hundreds of millions of dollars. Look at the F-35 fighter jet software issues.

Or in the small, you can find many cases where a “simple bug fix” can take days when you thought it was hours.

All estimates are lies made up to make everyone feel better. I’ve never met a developer or manager who could accurately estimate software projects even as well as the local weatherman(or woman) predicts the weather.

Number Two - Productivity Is Unevenly Distributed

What if I told you that in the average eight hour work day the majority of the work will get done in a 30 minute timeframe? Sound crazy?

Well, for most programmers there is a 30–90 minute window where you are extraordinarily productive. We call this the flow state.

Being in the flow state is wonderful and amazing. It often is where the “magic” of building software happens.

Getting into flow can be difficult. It’s akin to meditation in that you have to have a period of uninterrupted focus of say 30 minutes to “get in” the flow, but a tiny interruption can pull you right out.

Now consider the modern workplace environment. Programmers work in open office environments where they are invited to distract each other constantly.

Most people need a 1–2 hour uninterrupted block to get 30–90 minutes of flow.

Take the 8 hour day and break it in half with a lunch break, and then pile in a few meetings and all of a sudden you are lucky to get one decent flow state session in place.

That is why I say that most of the work that gets done happens in a 30 minute timeframe. The other 7–8 hours are spent being distracted, answering email, going to meetings, hanging around the water cooler, going to the bathroom, and trying to remember what you were working on before all these distractions.

Ironically, writers, musicians, and other creative professionals have their own version of this problem and largely work alone and away from other people when they are creating new things.

Someday the programming world might catch on, but I doubt it.

Even if this became obvious, it doesn’t sit well with most companies to think that programmers would be paid for an 8 hour day and only be cranking out code for a few hours on a good day. Some corporate middle manager would probably get the bright idea to have mandatory flow state training where a guru came in and then there would be a corporate policy from a pointy haired boss mandating that programmers are now required to spend 8 hours a day in flow state and they must fill out forms to track their time and notify their superiors of their flow state activities, otherwise there would be more meetings about the current flow state reports not being filed correctly and that programmers were spending too much time “zoning out” instead of being in flow.

Thus, programmers would spent 7–8 hours a day pretending to be in flow state, reporting on their progress, and getting all their work done in 30 minutes of accidental flow state somewhere in the middle of all that flow state reporting.

If you think I’m joking about this, I’m not. I promise you this is what would happen to any company of more than 2 employees. (Even the ones run by programmers.)

Number Three - It Will Cost 10x What You Think

Being a programmer, I get a lot of non-programmers telling me about their brilliant app ideas. Usually they want me to build something for free and are so generous as to pay me up to 5% of the profits for doing 100% of the work.

Their ideas are just that good.

Now, I gently tell them that I’m not interested in building anything for free.

At that point they get angry, but a few ask how much it will cost. I give them a reasonable (and very incorrect) estimate of what it would cost to create the incredibly simple version of their app idea.

Let’s say it’s some number like $25,000.

They look at me like I’m a lunatic, and so I explain how much it costs to hire a contract programmer and how long it will actually take. For example’s sake let’s say it is $100/hr for 250 hours.

To be clear, these are made up numbers and bad estimates (See Number One for details…)

In actuality, to build the actual thing they want might cost $250,000, or even $2,500,000 when it’s all said and done.

Building software can be incredibly complex and expensive. What most people can’t wrap their head around is the fact that a company like Google, Apple, or Microsoft has spent BILLIONS of dollars to create something that looks so simple to the end user.

Somehow, the assumption is that something that looks simple is cheap and fast to build.

Building something simple and easy for the end user is time consuming and expensive. Most people just can’t do it.

So, the average person with a brilliant app idea thinks it will cost a few hundred or maybe a few thousand dollars to make and it will be done in a weekend is so off the mark it’s not worth considering their ideas.

And programmers are too eager to play along with these bad ideas (by making bad estimates and under charging for their time) that this notion is perpetuated to the average non-programmer.

So, a good rule of thumb is that software will cost 10 times as much as you think and take 10 times as long to finish.

And that leads to a bonus point…

BONUS - Software Is Never Done

Programmers never complete a software project, they only stop working on it. Software is never done.

I’ve worked at many software companies and I’ve never seen a software project “completed”.

Sure, software gets released and used. But, it is always changing, being updated, bugs get fixed, and there are always new customer requests for features.

Look at your favorite software and you’ll quickly realize how true this is. Facebook, Instagram, Google Search, Google Maps, GMail, iOS, Android, Windows, and now even most video games are never done.

There are small armies of developers just trying to keep all the software you use every day stable and bug free. Add on the fact that there are always feature requests, small changes, and new platforms to deal with, it’s a treadmill.

So, the only way out of the game is to stop working on software. At that point, the software begins to decay until it is no longer secure or supported.

Think about old Windows 3.1 software or maybe old Nintendo Cartridge video games. The current computers and video game consoles don’t even attempt to run that software anymore.

You can’t put an old video game in your new Nintendo Switch and have it “just work”. That is what happens when you think software is done.

When programmers stop working on software the software starts to die. The code itself is probably fine, but all the other software keeps moving forward until your software is no longer compatible with the current technology.

So, those are the four most important things that non-programmers should know about programming. I know you asked for only three, so I hope the bonus was valuable to you as well.

Can Python Predict Outcomes Based on Historical Data?

[Sep, 21, 2017] |
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Python programming language is general purpose open source programming language. One of its main features is flexibility and ease of use. Python has a variety of useful set of utilities and libraries for data processing and analytical tasks. Currently due to the rise in demand of big data processing python has grown in popularity because its features are easy to use which are core to the processing of huge chunks of information.

Guido Van Rossum, the pioneer of python, introduced python in the year 1980 and then implemented it in 1989. The intention behind the development of python was to make it open source language that can also be used for commercial projects. The fundamental principle of python is to write the code that is easy to use, highly readable and embrace writing fewer lines of code for achieving a particular task. One of the most popular standard libraries which have ready to use tools for performing a various work is Python Package Index. It was introduced in January 2016 and contains more than 72,000 packages for third-party software usage.

Python plays a critical role in linking data to customers. Recently python has found few entry barriers and many people have had access to have experienced the power of python in the past. So, what makes python the best language for big data analytics?

One of the reasons to choose python is that python ecosystem is very vibrant, the ratings at Redmonk are a proof of the strength python community. The Redmonk ranking is based on StackOverflow discussions and contribution made in Github to determine the popularity of programming language on the method used by users to ask questions about Python and the number of the open source projects contributions.

The Templatization of Business Rules

[Jul, 05, 2012] |
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A business rule is the basic unit of rule processing in a Business Rule Management System (BRMS) and, as such, requires a fundamental understanding. Rules consist of a set of actions and a set of conditions whereby actions are the consequences of each condition statement being satisfied or true. With rare exception, conditions test the property values of objects taken from an object model which itself is gleaned from a Data Dictionary and UML diagrams. See my article on Data Dictionaries for a better understanding on this subject matter.

A simple rule takes the form:

if condition(s)

then actions.

An alternative form includes an else statement where alternate actions are executed in the event that the conditions in the if statement are not satisfied:

if condition(s)

then actions

else alternate_actions

It is not considered a best prectice to write rules via nested if-then-else statements as they tend to be difficult to understand, hard to maintain and even harder to extend as the depth of these statements increases; in other words, adding if statements within a then clause makes it especially hard to determine which if statement was executed when looking at a bucket of rules. Moreoever, how can we determine whether the if or the else statement was satisfied without having to read the rule itself. Rules such as these are often organized into simple rule statements and provided with a name so that when reviewing rule execution logs one can determine which rule fired and not worry about whether the if or else statement was satisfied. Another limitation of this type of rule processing is that it does not take full advantage of rule inferencing and may have a negative performance impact on the Rete engine execution. Take a class with HSG and find out why.

Rule Conditions

Agile Development with Scrum Practices

[Nov, 21, 2019] |
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We’re often asked by companies about how they can get the most value from Agile/Scrum practices. More specifically, they want to know if they are being as effective as best they possibly can be by using the Scrum framework for their explicit needs.

The other objective for individuals is determining if it necessary to be certified in order to be effective in the Agile Scrum world? In short, a good Scrum Master must understand four things: the business they work in, the technology they work with, the Agile and Scrum principles, and, most importantly, people! Based on these facts, Scrum Master Certification is not enough – real life experience and a bit of soft skills should be part and parcel of their training. For organizations, the main goal is to understand industry best practices when adopting and applying agile principles, to build strong teams, understand and distill business needs into software requirements.

In terms of getting a good grip on training for Agile/Scrum, one can opt to pursue a certification in Scrum (CSM) Certified Scrum Master for personal reasons or for a job requirement. Or, one can simply opt to learn the benefits and pitfalls of the methodology and decide the best approach for them.

There are different ways to get started with Agile training. Below are two of the most common paths to Agile our students take.

Tech Life in California

Largely influenced by several immigrant populations California has experienced several technological, entertainment and economic booms over the years. As for technology, Silicon Valley, in the southern part of San Francisco is an integral part of the world?s innovators, high-tech businesses and a myriad of techie start-ups. It also accounts for 1/3rd of all venture capital investments.

Wise men learn by other men's mistakes, fools by their own. ~Unknown

other Learning Options

Software developers near Oxnard have ample opportunities to meet like minded techie individuals, collaborate and expend their career choices by participating in Meet-Up Groups. The following is a list of Technology Groups in the area.

Los Angeles HTML5 Developers Group · DDLA · SF Entrepreneurs & Startups ·

Fortune 500 and 1000 companies in California that offer opportunities for IT Infrastructure Library developers

Company Name	City	Industry	Secondary Industry
Mattel, Inc.	El Segundo	Retail	Sporting Goods, Hobby, Book, and Music Stores
Spectrum Group International, Inc.	Irvine	Retail	Retail Other
Chevron Corp	San Ramon	Energy and Utilities	Gasoline and Oil Refineries
Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.	Pasadena	Real Estate and Construction	Construction and Remodeling
eBay Inc.	San Jose	Software and Internet	E-commerce and Internet Businesses
Broadcom Corporation	Irvine	Computers and Electronics	Semiconductor and Microchip Manufacturing
Franklin Templeton Investments	San Mateo	Financial Services	Investment Banking and Venture Capital
Pacific Life Insurance Company	Newport Beach	Financial Services	Insurance and Risk Management
Tutor Perini Corporation	Sylmar	Real Estate and Construction	Construction and Remodeling
SYNNEX Corporation	Fremont	Software and Internet	Data Analytics, Management and Storage
Core-Mark International Inc	South San Francisco	Manufacturing	Food and Dairy Product Manufacturing and Packaging
Occidental Petroleum Corporation	Los Angeles	Manufacturing	Chemicals and Petrochemicals
Yahoo!, Inc.	Sunnyvale	Software and Internet	Software and Internet Other
Edison International	Rosemead	Energy and Utilities	Gas and Electric Utilities
Ingram Micro, Inc.	Santa Ana	Computers and Electronics	Consumer Electronics, Parts and Repair
Safeway, Inc.	Pleasanton	Retail	Grocery and Specialty Food Stores
Gilead Sciences, Inc.	San Mateo	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech	Pharmaceuticals
AECOM Technology Corporation	Los Angeles	Real Estate and Construction	Architecture,Engineering and Design
Reliance Steel and Aluminum	Los Angeles	Manufacturing	Metals Manufacturing
Live Nation, Inc.	Beverly Hills	Media and Entertainment	Performing Arts
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.	Sunnyvale	Computers and Electronics	Semiconductor and Microchip Manufacturing
Pacific Gas and Electric Corp	San Francisco	Energy and Utilities	Gas and Electric Utilities
Electronic Arts Inc.	Redwood City	Software and Internet	Games and Gaming
Oracle Corporation	Redwood City	Software and Internet	Software and Internet Other
Symantec Corporation	Mountain View	Software and Internet	Data Analytics, Management and Storage
Dole Food Company, Inc.	Thousand Oaks	Manufacturing	Food and Dairy Product Manufacturing and Packaging
CBRE Group, Inc.	Los Angeles	Real Estate and Construction	Real Estate Investment and Development
First American Financial Corporation	Santa Ana	Financial Services	Financial Services Other
The Gap, Inc.	San Francisco	Retail	Clothing and Shoes Stores
Ross Stores, Inc.	Pleasanton	Retail	Clothing and Shoes Stores
Qualcomm Incorporated	San Diego	Telecommunications	Wireless and Mobile
Charles Schwab Corporation	San Francisco	Financial Services	Securities Agents and Brokers
Sempra Energy	San Diego	Energy and Utilities	Gas and Electric Utilities
Western Digital Corporation	Irvine	Computers and Electronics	Consumer Electronics, Parts and Repair
Health Net, Inc.	Woodland Hills	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech Other
Allergan, Inc.	Irvine	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech	Biotechnology
The Walt Disney Company	Burbank	Media and Entertainment	Motion Picture and Recording Producers
Hewlett-Packard Company	Palo Alto	Computers and Electronics	Consumer Electronics, Parts and Repair
URS Corporation	San Francisco	Real Estate and Construction	Architecture,Engineering and Design
Cisco Systems, Inc.	San Jose	Computers and Electronics	Networking Equipment and Systems
Wells Fargo and Company	San Francisco	Financial Services	Banks
Intel Corporation	Santa Clara	Computers and Electronics	Semiconductor and Microchip Manufacturing
Applied Materials, Inc.	Santa Clara	Computers and Electronics	Semiconductor and Microchip Manufacturing
Sanmina Corporation	San Jose	Computers and Electronics	Semiconductor and Microchip Manufacturing
Agilent Technologies, Inc.	Santa Clara	Telecommunications	Telecommunications Equipment and Accessories
Avery Dennison Corporation	Pasadena	Manufacturing	Paper and Paper Products
The Clorox Company	Oakland	Manufacturing	Chemicals and Petrochemicals
Apple Inc.	Cupertino	Computers and Electronics	Consumer Electronics, Parts and Repair
Amgen Inc	Thousand Oaks	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech	Biotechnology
McKesson Corporation	San Francisco	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech	Pharmaceuticals
DIRECTV	El Segundo	Telecommunications	Cable Television Providers
Visa, Inc.	San Mateo	Financial Services	Credit Cards and Related Services
Google, Inc.	Mountain View	Software and Internet	E-commerce and Internet Businesses

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the hartmann software group advantage

why take IT Infrastructure Library Training with the hartmann software group?

A successful career as a software developer or other IT professional requires a solid understanding of software development processes, design patterns, enterprise application architectures, web services, security, networking and much more. The progression from novice to expert can be a daunting endeavor; this is especially true when traversing the learning curve without expert guidance. A common experience is that too much time and money is wasted on a career plan or application due to misinformation.

The Hartmann Software Group understands these issues and addresses them and others during any training engagement. Although no IT educational institution can guarantee career or application development success, HSG can get you closer to your goals at a far faster rate than self paced learning and, arguably, than the competition. Here are the reasons why we are so successful at teaching:

Learn from the experts.
1. We have provided software development and other IT related training to many major corporations in California since 2002.
2. Our educators have years of consulting and training experience; moreover, we require each trainer to have cross-discipline expertise i.e. be Java and .NET experts so that you get a broad understanding of how industry wide experts work and think.
Discover tips and tricks about IT Infrastructure Library programming
Get your questions answered by easy to follow, organized IT Infrastructure Library experts
Get up to speed with vital IT Infrastructure Library programming tools
Save on travel expenses by learning right from your desk or home office. Enroll in an online instructor led class. Nearly all of our classes are offered in this way.
Prepare to hit the ground running for a new job or a new position
See the big picture and have the instructor fill in the gaps
We teach with sophisticated learning tools and provide excellent supporting course material
Books and course material are provided in advance
Get a book of your choice from the HSG Store as a gift from us when you register for a class
Gain a lot of practical skills in a short amount of time
We teach what we know…software
We care…

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California cities where we offer IT Infrastructure Library Training Classes

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IT Infrastructure Library Training Classes in Oxnard, California

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Tech Life in California

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