Want to be an Entrepreneur?

Editorial for the latest edition of Entrepreneur had some interesting quotes, thought I should add some of here - Also comment if you agree:

1. Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won't, so that you can spend the rest of you life like most people can't

2. I am not judged by number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed. And the number of time I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times In can fail and keep trying

3. If it hasn't been done, it can be done. If someone else has done it, you can do it. But - is it worth it?

4. If you are in the front of the dog sled team, the view never changes

5. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve

6. When you come to the end of the rope, tie a knot and hang on

The "Phase Out Phase"

This post is the result of a discussion I had with a Sales Executive of a software company. We were talking about the process for the software product's "Phased Out" version replacement by the latest release of that product. Many a times we think about SDLC as four phases (or sometime five phases), but we often miss out on the last phase that will help us retain customers. It is relatively easier to make a customer but really difficult to maintain them (renew licenses etc). This is delicate process where we want create the need for the new release. I am not referring to an update or a defect fix or the next minor release. I am referring to the next mass release the company is/will plan.

There are different scenarios i.e. do we want to update the existing one or do we want to replace the existing one. You may want to replace the product due to different reasons i.e. current release is not up to the technological standards for delivering a customer focused "latest" feature set, the current underlying technology for the product is not compatible with the new OS or simply because we want to move to Dot Net since our competitors are using the .Net marketing "buzzz" words!

The strategy can also be to capture bigger and wider markets (or market share). In that case we may have to create the demand first and this may very well be through the existing customer feed back or "demand" for new features. This may also be due to a shift in the market place created by the competitors. In either case the process and convincing customers can begin with business strategy alignment with the market place as well as the technical goals alignment with the business goals. The rest is dependent on the the strategic vision.

DBA2 Website

I have always been trying to figure ways out to bridge the gap between technology and the business processes. Its one thing to look at how the business process for SDLC can be improved, I am talking about how the entire business cycle for an organization can be automated using one framework. Yes, a framework for business management infrastructure "processes" automation!
This is the primary reason I worked on writing something like DBA2 (Dymanic Business Management Application Architecture" framework. Since it will be published soon and I do intend building upon this framework (of course with a team of professionals who have better brains on their shoulders than me :-)) I have decided to put together a website for the framework. The website will have the latest updates on the framework, best practices on implementing the framework and also the team members who are helping me develop this. The website is http://www.dba-2.com. The website doesn't have a whole lot on it right now but I will add details to it very soon.

I am looking for the team to now...I have Awais Shibli (Phd. student with MS in Software Engineering in Sweden), Waseem Ahmed (Project Manager at USDA) and Geoff Brantner (Marketing and Content Management). If you are interesed in joining the team read the framework and post a comment here.

Thanks,
Moiz

DBA2 (To be) published by Microsoft

I posted about my DBA2 framework (http://moizahmedblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/visibility-in-software-development.html). I got a green signal from MS publishing this framework. I will add the link here soon.