TIBant™ v2 has just been released and for us, it’s very special. It’s not special because of any particular new feature within TIBant itself; it’s special because of how it has been released.

For a while now (see item 4) we’ve been students and advocates of continuous delivery and its sometimes scary cousin, continuous deployment, and it’s about time we started taking our own advice for our current projects. This is exactly what we have done with TIBant. TIBant was released using a continuous deployment approach, with commits to the code repository triggering a series of dependant Jenkins Jobs that run automated tests, create the TIBant zip files, publish them to an Ivy repository, upload them to Assembla and then post a notice on our website. All of it is automated; it’s been quite an experience. Read the rest of this entry »

TIBant™ v2 has just been released and for us, it’s very special. It’s not special because of any particular new feature within TIBant itself; it’s special because of how it has been released. For a while now (see item 4) we’ve been students and advocates of continuous delivery and its sometimes scary cousin, continuous deployment, and it’s about time ...

TIBant v2 has been released. For details, please see the Closed Defects and Implemented Features List.

TIBant v2 has been released. For details, please see the Closed Defects and Implemented Features List.

Evan Bottcher has written an excellent article on why Projects are a source of ‘instant legacy.’

The article reminds me of a saying I heard not too long ago, which I think sums up the article's theme perfectly:

'A project doesn’t end when it goes into production; it ends when it’s decommissioned.'

- Unattributed

If anyone knows the correct person this quote should be attributed to, please let me know via the comments section below.

Zendesk (the SaaS Helpdesk Windy Road uses) have produced a great graphic pitting Customer Experience against Advertising.

Here is how I read it: If word of mouth is your best form of advertising and word of mouth is driven by good customer service, then good customer service is your best form of advertising.

Image originally posted on Zengage, The Zendesk Blog

Zendesk (the SaaS Helpdesk Windy Road uses) have produced a great graphic pitting Customer Experience against Advertising. Here is how I read it: If word of mouth is your best form of advertising and word of mouth is driven by good customer service, then good customer service is your best form of advertising. Image originally posted ...

We’re sorry it took a bit longer than we had hoped, but we are glad to finally release TIBant™ 1.4.2. While there are a couple of new features and defect fixes, we really want to draw attention to the new extract-properties macro, which converts existing configuration xml files to properties files that you can use with the configure-ear. So, if one of the reasons you aren’t using TIBant is because it's too hard to migrate your existing configuration, now you have one less excuse.

A big thank you goes out to John Menzies from Think Platinum, who implemented this feature. This is our first community-implemented feature, which we think is really exciting. We don’t want to ’own’ TIBant, we want it to be a tool used by and belonging to the community. If there’s a feature you think is missing or you think should work differently, then please join in or at the very least please let us know.

We’re sorry it took a bit longer than we had hoped, but we are glad to finally release TIBant™ 1.4.2. While there are a couple of new features and defect fixes, we really want to draw attention to the new extract-properties macro, which converts existing configuration xml files to properties files that you can ...

We are really excited about a new web site we have started, Docorro. In our line of work we regularly find ourselves producing documentation for a web service based on a WSDL and some schemas. We also get to see how fast that documentation can become out of date and how hard it can be to try to keep it up to date as the service evolves.

We finally decided to solve this problem once and for all with Docorro. Docorro will use the documentation embedded in your WSDLs and Schemas and produce beautiful and accurate documentation with the least amount of effort. We think that's cool. But what is going to make Docorro really special is it's ability to allow you to mark up the embedded documentation with headings, tables, lists, code blocks and even images.  Now that's über cool. We've seen some preliminary results and we are really excited. We hope you are too.

We are really excited about a new web site we have started, Docorro. In our line of work we regularly find ourselves producing documentation for a web service based on a WSDL and some schemas. We also get to see how fast that documentation can become out of date and how hard it can be to try ...

I've been a very big fan of Continuous Delivery since I stumbled upon the book last year. One of the things that's been harder than it should be is setting up build pipelines in Jenkins, our CI server of choice.

That looks to be a whole lot easier now thanks to Centrum Systems, who recently released a Build Pipeline Plugin for Jenkins. It looks like just the trick. If you want to give it a go, there is a good build pipeline introduction over at java.net

I've been a very big fan of Continuous Delivery since I stumbled upon the book last year. One of the things that's been harder than it should be is setting up build pipelines in Jenkins, our CI server of choice. That looks to be a whole lot easier now thanks to Centrum Systems, who recently released ...

MSDN have a great article on why Data Replication is an Anti-pattern and why you might want to use it anyway.

Data Replication as an Enterprise SOA Antipattern.

MSDN have a great article on why Data Replication is an Anti-pattern and why you might want to use it anyway. Data Replication as an Enterprise SOA Antipattern.

Context:

A few people have been asking me to put together some points I've learnt over the years on leading TIBCO Developers.  Reading through this however, I think some of these techniques could be applicable to anyone in a Technology leadership role. This all started with a single request from a colleague interested in expanding their skills in Leadership of a small TIBCO Development team.  I thought over it for several days before I sat down and put these words together.  The result is below, and I thought I would share it.

Architecture:
I can't stress enough how important it is to have a good handle on Architectural Principles and Styles. By Principles I'm referring to the processes, practices and techniques used to illustrate and communicate an Architecture. By Styles I'm referring to all the different dimensions of Architecture like SOA, Federation, Patterns etc. The better you understand the background behind an Architecture the easier it will become for you to communicate with people about it.

In Terms of the Technology:
Continually look for the "Correct" way to do things. Get access to as many white papers, best practices, professional services team members or consultants as you possibly can. Continually ask questions of everything and everyone, absorb the responses you get. These all help to build your confidence, having significant impact to your ability to communicate on topics surrounding the technology.

People (Especially Developers):
Communication is the key to being a good leader. Tact and a thoughtful approach are key to successfully communicating an idea. There are a few good principles and techniques around when it comes to getting people to see the solution and the majority of the ones I'm aware of require high levels of patience. With Developers (you know as well as anyone how diverse their personalities can be) I find the best thing to do is "lead" them to the solution. If they think it's their's they will own it, when they own it, they will innovate and make it work, because it's theirs.

With Architects, ask questions about the solution (or strategy), they like to be looked up to (they will see themselves of leaders, at a different level). If you see issues or problems with a solution or strategy, discuss it with them.  More often than not Architects are more interested in having the right solution than their own. Sometime you need to use the "lead" technique with them as well.

With Managers, you need to understand their focus, It's not on the n'th level of detail about what your doing. They want to know you have the situation under control, but more importantly they need to know if there is anything that's going to blow up in their face. Keep them honestly informed of the potential risks (things that could happen) and issues (things that have happened) and let them know what you or they need to do for a resolution. Give them all the information they need, as you get better at this you'll learn what's important to them and the most efficient way to give them the info (as an example, when providing a collection of estimates, take all the detailed tasks, provide a calculated total of the estimates that are suitable for use in a project plan, You can also provide the detailed estimates, should the manager be interested).

Communication:
When speaking in groups with people, especially in meetings, it's important to come across as confident. This is not talking louder or faster than anyone else, in fact I find it the exact opposite. I find a confident person is someone who is specific in what they say but takes the right amount of time to say it. This also fits in with the first point on Architecture, the more knowledge you have of a subject the easier it will be to speak about it. Again there are some techniques to sounding more confident that you really are, for example, focus on the concept of a solution or idea and include people who potentially know more about the detail. Work on these techniques as often as you can, take every opportunity to talk in front of people, you will learn more as and become more confident with time. A couple of years ago I was confident with speaking up, but not really in front of people I didn't know. In recent times, I have been able to speak in large auditoriums of 100+ people with some nerves, but still sounding confident. A lot of this was due to work I'd done in understanding the subject matter of the conversation.

More Generally:

The other key things that you need to realise is that it's a big world. There are a lot of people with a lot of ideas, as a leader, you need to recognise this and make consultation with those people your main priority. It's rare that as a leader of a group you are also the person that has all of the answers.

A tip I got as a youngling looking at moving in to leadership roles was to read this book, there are a few different versions, get the latest one you can find. Know that it's old, but the principles it covers are still very valid, you might just need to find modern ways to use them.

"How to Win Friends and Influence People"

You might have heard of it before, but it's one of the only books I have ever gone BACK to read again.

About The Author:

John Menzies is a Director and Consultant for Think Platinum, a small organization committed to helping people realize the benefits of their investment in Integration Technologies. He has worked in the IT industry for almost 15 years, having spent the last 10 years working with Integrated Solutions implemented using TIBCO. Based out of Port Macquarie and working mostly in the Sydney area he has worked in the Energy and Financial Services sectors.

Context: A few people have been asking me to put together some points I've learnt over the years on leading TIBCO Developers.  Reading through this however, I think some of these techniques could be applicable to anyone in a Technology leadership role. This all started with a single request from a colleague interested in expanding their ...

BWUnit™ 1.4.0 has just been released. It's been a while between releases and in case you interested, in that time we have created and stabilised TIBant™. TIBant is an open source set of build and deploy macros of TIBCO Business Works.

The TIBant macros originated in BWUnit and have undergone significant changes and improvements during their life as a separate product. We are really happy to have finally pulled those changes and improvements back into BWUnit and we are sure it's will make your test automation work a lot easier.

Go get your copy now.

BWUnit™ 1.4.0 has just been released. It's been a while between releases and in case you interested, in that time we have created and stabilised TIBant™. TIBant is an open source set of build and deploy macros of TIBCO Business Works. The TIBant macros originated in BWUnit and have undergone significant changes and improvements during ...