Having a 30+ year veteran's perspective as a developer, project manager, architect, and manager, I think the single most valuable thing a project manager must bring to the team is a sense and focus on the business context and value of the project. Some projects require moon shot talent and the requisite attention to the technological disciplines each member of the team brings. But let's face the fact that sometimes you're just doing the code equivalent of digging the outhouse hole. There's nothing to be done but get down in the middle of the mess and dig.
This is not a "hack" or "workaround" by Walmart or others (Wegman's, etc.). The PA Liquor Control Board is a knowing partner in this venture. If anything it's them who's using a workaround here. The legislature won't liberalize the law, so the PLCB used the "loophole" created by the fact that the law didn't prohibit this means of selling wine. The real question is whether the public will tolerate the pain of waiting to blow into the breathalizer every time they buy an overpriced bottle of wine. As a long-time PA resident, I find the process painful (my wife and I walked away from one of the machines when a person in line in front of us had to keep resetting their selection to get to the breath test because the sensor could not pick up her breath well enough to pass or fail her). We went to a regular PLCB Wine store a short distance away and got in and out with a bottle of wine in five minutes.
I would love to see the Patent & Trademark Office moved out of the Department of Commerce into a technology-oriented department like a CTO office. Then maybe someone in authority and who understands technology would finally take a stand to recognize that business processes are not patentable...
I have two suggestions for you: (1) I work at a company where we have both a decently managed IT organization and business units who get to "do there own thing". A recent SQL injection attack has opened upper management's eyes that something needs to better control our software quality (in this case for external facing applications). Our tactic is now to create a security policy that is intended to force these "do there own thing" groups open the kimono and let IT review everything.
(2) If you're big enough company, you can also use your internal or external auditors to ask the right questions. If you are aware of unsafe practices like poor or missing source code control, not using a documented SDLC, un-auditable user acceptance practices, lack of DR plans, etc. - you may have audit issues to force some change.
Not the most pleasant of ways to take on the status quo, but it can be effective in getting management interested. CEO's don't like being hacked and they don't like negative audit reports going to the board either.
Slashdot Mirror
Having a 30+ year veteran's perspective as a developer, project manager, architect, and manager, I think the single most valuable thing a project manager must bring to the team is a sense and focus on the business context and value of the project. Some projects require moon shot talent and the requisite attention to the technological disciplines each member of the team brings. But let's face the fact that sometimes you're just doing the code equivalent of digging the outhouse hole. There's nothing to be done but get down in the middle of the mess and dig.
This is not a "hack" or "workaround" by Walmart or others (Wegman's, etc.). The PA Liquor Control Board is a knowing partner in this venture. If anything it's them who's using a workaround here. The legislature won't liberalize the law, so the PLCB used the "loophole" created by the fact that the law didn't prohibit this means of selling wine. The real question is whether the public will tolerate the pain of waiting to blow into the breathalizer every time they buy an overpriced bottle of wine. As a long-time PA resident, I find the process painful (my wife and I walked away from one of the machines when a person in line in front of us had to keep resetting their selection to get to the breath test because the sensor could not pick up her breath well enough to pass or fail her). We went to a regular PLCB Wine store a short distance away and got in and out with a bottle of wine in five minutes.
I would love to see the Patent & Trademark Office moved out of the Department of Commerce into a technology-oriented department like a CTO office. Then maybe someone in authority and who understands technology would finally take a stand to recognize that business processes are not patentable...
I know, dream on...
I have two suggestions for you:
(1) I work at a company where we have both a decently managed IT organization and business units who get to "do there own thing". A recent SQL injection attack has opened upper management's eyes that something needs to better control our software quality (in this case for external facing applications). Our tactic is now to create a security policy that is intended to force these "do there own thing" groups open the kimono and let IT review everything.
(2) If you're big enough company, you can also use your internal or external auditors to ask the right questions. If you are aware of unsafe practices like poor or missing source code control, not using a documented SDLC, un-auditable user acceptance practices, lack of DR plans, etc. - you may have audit issues to force some change.
Not the most pleasant of ways to take on the status quo, but it can be effective in getting management interested. CEO's don't like being hacked and they don't like negative audit reports going to the board either.