Career Paths in IT

I've been teaching at SAIT again this week.  Generally before every class gets going in the morning I like to do a little 'blurb' on concepts or thoughts that aren't covered in the course the students get.  One of the things I find is that the vast majority of students (and the population at large for that matter) don't realize how many different career paths there are in just the software side of IT.  Guaranteed there are some students in the course that I teach who, by the time I get the chance to teach them, are very concerned they made the wrong decision by getting into software programming.  They don't feel like they are cut out for programming.  I try to put their fears at rest by suggesting that there are other opportunities for them - careers that can utilize the coding experience that they are getting, but allow them to use talents that they are more comfortable with.  Here's a list (by no means exhaustive) of some other opportunities in the software field.

- Project Management.  Project managers who have coding experience or at least a technical background are a step ahead of PM's who aren't techies.  I myself have considered taking some project management courses or getting my PMP, but thought the better of it after seriously thinking about what I like to do at work.  PMs need to have a great soft-skill set.  While I don't think I'd have a problem with that, I would missing troubleshooting/solving problems.  They also have to be politically savvy and have patience for meetings.

- Business Analyst.  BA's also need to have a great soft-skill set, as they need to be talking with everyone (the business, the developers, and the PM) and writing down the requirements.  It also helps if they are technically competent, and they enjoy documenting/writing.  For some reason in Calgary right now, there have been a lot of postings for BAs over the past 6 months. I just found out today that a variety of institutions offer certificates/diplomas for a Business Analyst career path. (NAIT and Mount Royal University are two local options)

- Quality Assurance.  This field has been growing a lot over the past 8 - 10 years, and frankly I don't think projects that I've been on over the past 5 years would have been successful without our QA teams.  QA experts need to have a penchant for detail and process.  They need to be able to understand the business and relevant business rules well.  Most of the QA people I've worked with haven't had a certification, but you apparently can get more info on a software QA certification here.

- Release Management.  This is what I (like to think I) specialize in.  We ensure that teams are using a continuous integration server and QA has the builds they need for testing where and when then need them.  We have two main goals: 1. Keep downtime in production to a minimum and 2. Keep lost man days in QA to a minimum.  I like release engineering because I get to see the whole picture - I have to understand the code and it's dependencies, I need to understand the infrastructure, and I'm responsible for the product getting through all the environments to production.  For me (being a bit proactive), this has also lead to automating deployments of database objects and datascripts, server configurations, and code, as well as installing monitoring tools to ensure that every environment is ready to 'rock'.

- Security Analyst.  These dudes make sure the good people have access to everything they need access to, and the bad people are locked out.  They spend a lot of time combing though logs and configuring IPSec rules.  They also perform software audits on code, all kinds of different tests on web sites, and network audits.  I wouldn't mind moving my career this direction in the future as they also need to have a pretty good idea of the whole system/infrastructure/architecture.  Great web sites for more resources on these types of positions are here and here.

Even more specialized positions:
- GIS (Geographic Information System) developer or architect or analyst.  Working with digital 2d and 3d mapping systems.  Having some limited experience with this at the ERCB (deploying mapping systems that display reservoirs,etc in Alberta) I think this is pretty cool stuff.
- Search Engineer (Search Engine Optimization specialist)  I've dabbled in this off and on for my clients.  You definitely need to be on top of your game and know how the search algorithms are changing.
- Business Process Specialist - there's lots of software to specialize in here.  Tibco, Agile Point, SAP, JDEdwards, etc.
- Document Management Specialist - Sharepoint, Edocs, Documentum, etc.  This involves the automated management of documents - not the writing of them, but their storage.  Government bodies and law firms definitely have a need for these kinds of systems.

Another emergency software fix

A couple of weeks ago I had another client take advantage of my Emergency Software Troubleshooting services.  They had a web site maintained by a popular CMS system.  Unfortunately, their scheduled backups weren't as scheduled or robust as they thought and they were left without a website (or backend database) after their hard disk died.  I was called to help.

After some invesigation, we surmised we were left with:
- a bunch of .myd, .myi file backups for MySql (they were a couple of months old)
- another .sql file backup of the database 12 months old
- a file system backup of the site a couple of months old
- and another file system backup around 12 months old.

We rebuilt the database using a combination of the most recent myd and myi files.  This was a bit of a trick as the .frm files were missing in some cases.  What we did in those cases was create a dummy .frm file, rebuild the tables from the myd/myi files and when we did that we had mysql replace the frm file (it's an option you can enable during this operation).  We then used the data from the older database to populate the tables that didn't have the frm files.

With the file systems, it was a matter of patching together what worked between the two file system backups with the data we had in the database.  Since the old system was pretty much blown away, it was decided to upgrade the OS and the web server at the same time.  This meant reconfiguring the web server and ensuring the majority of the site worked.  In the end, the site was pretty much ready to go after 8.5 hours of work.

Licenses.Licx error with DevExpress in Visual Studio 2010

While refactoring a business solution at work to deploy using Visual Build rather than InstalShield, I ran into an issue with our DevExpress web components not seeing the correct licenses in the licenses.licx file.  After googling for a bit and discovering how the licenses.licx files are created and manged in VS2010, I started troubleshooting to see if I could resolve my issue - seeing the red text on every web page telling me that I'm using a 'trial' edition of the software when I clearly wasn't.
 
I deleted the file to get VS to recreate it.  That didn't seem to work for me.  I renamed it.  I checked permissions on it.  I investigated how it got deployed and whether I needed it on the server or not (if I remember correctly, you don't have to explicitly move it to the server).  In the end, my solution sort of knocked my socks off.  I deleted all of the content in the file and left it blank.  I then built my msi and deployed.  Imagine my surprise when the blank licenses.licx file got rid of my trial license message!  I don't know if this is a bug with VS2010 or it's integration with DevExpress 8.2.2, but my fix seemed like a total hack.  However we've tested this in multiple environments and it's solid.

The Phoenix and Projectors

Two business ideas in this post.  Actually one is a business model, the other is an idea.

The Phoenix
The business model that I ran across I'd like to call 'The Phoenix'.  Basically the idea is to take a dead business or business idea, and resurrect it.  The tale of the Twin Otter, a Canadian built Short Takeoff and Landing Utility plane is a classic example of this business model.  Details of it's life, death, and resurrection can be read on Wikipedia here.

In its first life, production ended on the Twin Otter in 1988.  The aircraft's versatility made it a bush pilot favorite and demand for the planes have increased.  Viking Air of Victoria, BC, picked up on this and bought the rights to build the plane again.  After nearly 20 years of being out of production, new Twin Otters are now being built in Calgary and the company has over 50 orders from all over the world.

Nov 14 update - I just ran into an article in The Globe and Mail about another brand that did something similar.  In fact, some work colleagues and I had been musing about this turn-around in the summer as we found some Pop-Shoppe bottles in a nearby convenience store.  Here's the link to the article in the Globe and Mail.


Projectors
The second idea isn't nearly as sexy.  Watching my project manager try juggle between a spreadsheet of software development stories and another of schedules and tasks, I got to thinking why can't there be a single projector with the ability to support and display like two monitors?  Or even right a button into the software/firmware of the projector so it can flip between screen instances.  For that matter, why hasn't windows come up with the ability to manage screen instances like Linux has? Maybe that functionality is there and I just haven't been paying attention...

The importance of soft skills in IT

Soft skills are crucial to being a successful developer in the IT industry.  Some of the soft skills I've found beneficial in my career are:

• Being a good communicator.  It's not just about talking, but listening as well.  Dirareah of the mouth is never cool, especially when a job needs to get done.  Strive for mutual understanding in a conversation. Communicating in the IT world isn't just limited to talking and listening though.  
• Having the discernment to know when to write an email versus actually talking to a person is important as well. I do not recommend doing all your communication through email.  Communication in emails can easily be mis-understood or mis-construed and take on an entirely different meaning and tone than you originally intended.  Emails are great for documenting decisions.  
• Make sure that the content of your email deals with the subject you've put in  your subject line.  For example, having a subject line of 'Quote for project XYZ' but then talking about quotes for that project AND other projects in that email is bad news.  Send you quotes for the other projects in a different email with a more relevent subject line (I know this from experience).
• Developing relationships.  Extending communication a bit further and actually developing relationship with people in the office is huge as well.  Questions like "How was your vacation?", "Where are you going on vacation?", or "What did you do over the weekend?" are great for this. When you've got a relationship in place, there's trust.  Many times I've been granted exceptional privileges and become more productive in my work because I've had a relationship with a key person who trusts me.  These relationships can also help in the future as well when you are looking for that next gig.
• Having patience.  Whether it's letting somebody else go to the front of the 'line' for access to production, or having forbearance when dealing with a difficult client, patience can go a long way to strengthening that 'trust' in your relationships.  Sometimes work (or working with clients) in IT can get frustrating.  Things I do to help me step back and get some perspective are:

• go for a walk
• find something else to do for a while
• talk to someone - use them as a sounding board
• take a day off or go on vacation

• Positive Attitude. I like to keep my workplace fun, interesting, and upbeat.  To promote this around me I'll sometimes:
• Bring baking from home to share
• Audibly rejoice in small victories (getting a solution migrated and compiling from VS2005 to VS2010 for example)
• Write thank-you notes (either hard or soft copy) to others who help me
• Encourage people who are down. We had a large project I was helping with and the lead was concerned that between the time and the technical challenges he had, he wasn't going to be able to finish on time.  I believe he could and I told him so (and backed it up with my help).  In the end, he did finish.
• Being Flexible.  Generally, you are always working for a client.  Invariably, they will change their mind or want an enhancement.  Microsoft will upgrade their software, the US president will change daylight savings time one more time, the CTO will be convinced that Tibco will solve all the business problems again.  I've found that being able to take these changes in stride is crucial to maintaining my mental health (avoid being overcome with frustration).  It's all part of the territory - and frankly, job security.

Business Idea - Jam Joint or Practice Pad

I was getting into some music on the commute home the other day, lamenting the fact that I don't have a drum set to practice on anymore when I was struck with this business idea.  Rent a smaller stand-alone building and renovate it to have reasonably sound-proof practice rooms.  Furnish smaller rooms with drum kits, leave some empty (for electric guitar/bagpipe/tuba practice), and make some bigger for bands to jam in.

Many drummers, musicians in general have no where to practice in cities because it disturbs the peace.  Renting these practice/jam rooms out might be an interesting and franchise-able business opportunity.  My wife could only listen to me play the piano at home for so long (and I don't think I'm that bad - 11 years Royal Conservatory).  As soon as I started practicing technique, her patience got thin. :-)

Log4Net performance issue with WCF

We ran into an interesting production problem recently that had an interesting resolution. After upgrading our application server to use WCF calls, we found that performance was lagging in production. We were able to replicate this problem in our development environments and spent a good deal of time trying to resolve the issue.  Avenues we explored included profiling calls to the databases (using Sql Server Profiler and filtering on database name and login Id), mining activity logs in the database, pouring over configuration files, utilizing Wireshark,  SysInternals Process Explorer , SysInternals ProcessMonitor (and filtering by processName and PID), and the Windows PerfMon (performance Monitor - viewing the defaults and various performance objects).

Interesting things I learned/discovered were:
- IE browsers (IE 7 and older) default to only two connections to the web server See this link
- It seems IE processes javascript before rendering a page while Firefox process javascript after the page is rendered in some cases
- The default for WCF connections to the database is serializable rather the read committed!
- WCF connections default to some low threasholds for ConcurrentCalls, ConcurrentSessions, and ConcurrentInstances.  These can be changed using the serviceThrottling node and attributes of a service behavior you create.  See this link for more detail
- In dos, you can filter a netstat to only show specific ports and statuses like this:
netstat /n | find "ESTABLISHED" | find "8085"
- Use /n with netstat to not resolve dns names - without /n, dns name resolution can make netstat take a while.
- In dos, you can use the 'tasklist' command to show something akin to a process list in the Task Manager
- Retrieve IIS process names from the command line by executing this command:
cscript c:\WINDOWS\system32\iisapp.vbs

In the end, the resolution to our problem was to turn off a custom implementation of Log4Net that had running.  In the process monitor we saw that log4net was re-initializing, re-reading it's configs, and re-creating all the log files for EVERY page request.  We discovered this because it seemed that there was a several second lag time between when the request was executed on the browser and when the web server actually acted on it.  Disabling log4net entirely improved our performance by a significant amount. (10's of seconds)

Update - Nov 26, 2010.  One of the reasons we were running into the issue above is the log4net configuration loader was placing a lock (being very pessimistic) on the configuration file every time it was loading.  Agreed, this solution should likely have been using a static logger - one instance for the application.  However, given the way it was implemented, I'm thinking that we could have avoided a bunch of hurt if we had made the configuration loader a little more optimistic and used:
<lockingModel type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender+MinimalLock" />