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Logistics Data Crunch

I help transport and logistics companies automate their processes

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Antonis Christofides

Why our companies often lack in backup and security

2020-08-07 By Antonis Christofides

Pretty much for the same reason the 2020 Beirut explosion happened.

Filed Under: Company processes

Why is information exchange a hard problem?

2020-08-04 By Antonis Christofides

two square blue LED lights

Getting the systems of two companies to exchange information is tricky. Not because the technology is hard, but because there are two parties involved.

Filed Under: Information exchange, IT

Stupid ways in which a project can fail

2020-07-28 By Antonis Christofides

Lessons from the kitchen timer.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Amateur vs. professional speakers

2020-07-17 By Antonis Christofides

microphone on DJ controller

Even if the task looks trivial, sometimes you need a professional.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Wrapping up the programmer/user chasm

2020-07-07 By Antonis Christofides

people sitting on chair in front of table while holding pens during daytime

When developing software, the contractor needs to understand the difficulties and the methodologies, and the client needs to be willing to step out of his “that’s the way we’ve always done it” habit of working with traditional contracts.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

The programmer/user chasm: estimating resources needed to build software

2020-07-03 By Antonis Christofides

Oakland Bay Bridge, San Francisco

When you make a bridge you have a plan. You know exactly how much you have to dig and how much concrete and iron you’ll use. You can ask a contractor how much and how long. If the bridge was software, all you’d know before you started to build it is some vague requirements like “it must have a capacity of 7 thousand vehicles per hour in each direction”. A contractor wouldn’t be able to give you a quote. However, it’s not impossible to make good estimates for software.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

The programmer/user chasm: contracts and billing

2020-06-26 By Antonis Christofides

person writing on white paper

In IT projects, both requirements-based contracts and time-based contracts create tension between the contractor and the client.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT

The programmer/user chasm: the methodology

2020-06-23 By Antonis Christofides

NASA airplane and shuttle

Until 20–30 years ago, we approached software projects as if they were bridges. We’d write a list of requirements, and a contractor would develop and deliver the software based on these requirements. Today we know that this doesn’t work.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT

The programmer/user chasm: Blacksmiths and swordsmen

2020-06-16 By Antonis Christofides

man holding black and gray katana

Why do we perceive as a problem the transfer of business knowledge from the logistics professional to the programmer? Why do we not perceive as a problem the transfer of business knowledge from a manager to a management consultant?

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT

The programmer/user chasm

2020-06-12 By Antonis Christofides

Richard Stallman speaking on day 2 of the GPL v3 Conference

At a fundamental level, writing software is easy. Why, then, are good programmers so hard to find and expensive to hire?

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT

Will we need programmers in the future?

2020-06-09 By Antonis Christofides

“Ten years ago, if I wanted to do a simple computing task, I needed to hire a programmer. Today I do it myself in Excel. It seems unlikely we will be needing any programmers at all in a few more years.”

—My boss, c1995

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

“Strategic vs. transactional” and putting out fires

2020-06-05 By Antonis Christofides

fireman wearing firesuit

I think that everyone uses “strategic” and “transactional” differently. One person may say “we’re strategic”, but what they actually do might be termed transactional by another person. If we aren’t certain we are on the same wavelength, “be strategic” becomes a meaningless slogan.

Filed Under: Company processes

Better, more expensive service

2020-06-02 By Antonis Christofides

pile of assorted-color bikes on concrete pavemenet

There are always many businesses who are willing to pay for a better service.

Filed Under: Company processes

Where is my shipment?

2020-05-26 By Antonis Christofides

shallow focus photography of bicycle brake lever

It might not occur to customers how hard it is to know where a shipment is.

Filed Under: Company processes

The bank and the plane

2020-05-22 By Antonis Christofides

It’s hard for laypeople to handle bank passwords properly. Can computer professionals be trusted with it?

Filed Under: Company processes

On the Internet

2020-05-19 By Antonis Christofides

close up photography of mining rig

Can remote working be successful? What about remote schooling?

Filed Under: Artificial intelligence, Company processes

How COVID19 makes us reconsider how we view investments

2020-05-15 By Antonis Christofides

Visualization of the Coronavirus

Like today’s CEOs who have lots of pressure to show ROI within a trimester, I’ve often been looking at the costs and the ROI in a short-sighted manner.

Filed Under: IT

Refusing to believe

2020-05-12 By Antonis Christofides

man wearing white top using MacBook

Paradoxically, we may sometimes fail in order to not feel failure.

Filed Under: Company processes

Stories from Greek engineers

2020-05-08 By Antonis Christofides

beam design-printed paper on desk

Software projects don’t need to be late or exceed the budget—but they need to get rid of a bad tradition.

Filed Under: Company processes

The believe-in-what-you-wish-for mentality

2020-05-05 By Antonis Christofides

When we are overwhelmed, our primary urge is to sit down and work, when we should pause and think instead.

Filed Under: Company processes

We fail to observe ourselves when it’s most needed

2020-05-01 By Antonis Christofides

brown and white pastry on blue round plate

Stories from a crêperie.

Filed Under: Company processes

Self-observation during a project

2020-04-28 By Antonis Christofides

aerial view of cars parked on parking lot

Lack of self-observation can lead to Increased costs, missed deadlines, unsatisfied customers and frustrated employees. All that while a better solution may be staring you in the face.

Filed Under: Company processes

Self-observation

2020-04-24 By Antonis Christofides

aerial view photography of soldiers queue

Lack of self-observation is detrimental to businesses.

Filed Under: Company processes

Do you need a web site? (redux)

2020-04-21 By Antonis Christofides

white printing paper with Marketing Strategy text

A web site is a tool. Asking whether you need a web site is like asking whether you need a pen.

Filed Under: IT, Types of software

How to throw away files, business processes, and clients

2020-04-18 By Antonis Christofides

black metal tool lot

It’s not just our homes that can benefit from Marie Kondo’s method—it’s also our businesses.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

How to throw away years of effort

2020-04-14 By Antonis Christofides

person's eyes looking on left side

If throwing it away is going to pay off, you should throw it away—the amount of previous money and effort is irrelevant.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Finding the right context can be hard

2020-04-10 By Antonis Christofides

Looking for the right context is important, both when dealing with COVID-19 and when we examine the cost of automation.

Filed Under: IT

Context matters

2020-04-07 By Antonis Christofides

The cost of automation for a trucking company is dwarfed by the cost of trucks and drivers. Why, then, do many small trucking companies run on pen-and-paper or Excel?

Filed Under: IT

“Strategic vs. transactional” and the home-grown Excel

2020-04-01 By Antonis Christofides

Do you want to be “strategic” rather than “transactional”? Do something about your home-grown Excel.

Filed Under: IT

“Who knows what’s waiting for us down there?”

2020-03-27 By Antonis Christofides

We need to keep calm in the face of the unknown.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

How your home-grown Excel came to be

2020-03-26 By Antonis Christofides

“Oh, this thing is so complicated! I’ll just do something simple in Excel.” If you ever said this to yourself, here is the result you got.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

What does the coronavirus have in common with a software project?

2020-03-24 By Antonis Christofides

It’s an old Greek saying that however bad something is, there’s always a good side to it.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

The Census Crunch: How much does a real software development project cost?

2020-03-23 By Antonis Christofides

I created a toy application, which, if you were lucky, would cost you 500 or 1000 dollars/euros. Real projects cost much more.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

The Census Crunch: Is it decent enough?

2020-03-20 By Antonis Christofides

Despite having taken 18 hours of work, it the application needs have some way to go.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

The Census Crunch: Why do some trivial things take so long?

2020-03-19 By Antonis Christofides

A developer will sometimes be able to do wonders in minutes, and sometimes get stuck for hours while trying to change a comma.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

The Census Crunch: Why is software development so expensive?

2020-03-18 By Antonis Christofides

A graphic that shows where a programmer spends his time in order to write a simple program.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

The Census Crunch: What is the cost of a small application?

2020-03-10 By Antonis Christofides

I thought I’d take this small application for breakfast, but it took me two weeks.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

The Census Crunch

2020-03-09 By Antonis Christofides

Search in 1.7 million U.S. transport businesses; the FMCSA census data for humans.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Do you need a web site?

2020-03-06 By Antonis Christofides

You don’t have to have a web site. Make one if it’s useful for your customers.

Filed Under: IT, Types of software

Your brand new IT system sucks? Great! Throw it away!

2020-03-05 By Antonis Christofides

“We paid for it, therefore now it must pay off.” Here’s how to escape that damaging mentality.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Email

2020-02-10 By Antonis Christofides

A question that can lead to good automation is “how can we reduce the volume of emails?”

Filed Under: IT, Types of software

Professional vs. nephew software development

2020-02-06 By Antonis Christofides

If you have your nephew develop software for you, costs will be way smaller. But these savings come at a, well, cost.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

What is “document management”?

2020-02-04 By Antonis Christofides

The first step towards good document management is to eliminate as much as possible.

Filed Under: IT, Types of software

What is “integration”?

2020-01-31 By Antonis Christofides

“Integration” is a slightly confusing term and in many cases “bridging” and “connecting” are simpler and tell the whole story.

Filed Under: IT

Questions to ask your potential IT provider

2020-01-29 By Antonis Christofides

Even if you’re not an expert, it doesn’t harm to ask some questions about your prospective IT provider’s software development habits.

Filed Under: IT

Off-the-shelf vs. custom made

2020-01-23 By Antonis Christofides

All software solutions suck. The thing is to find one that sucks less.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

How a company can be brought down by bad code

2020-01-22 By Antonis Christofides

If you are a new business you may think you shouldn’t worry about code quality now, and you’ll do it “later”. This mentality has driven companies out of business.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

What is an “ERP”?

2020-01-21 By Antonis Christofides

If you use “ERP” as a meaningless sequence of letters, it’s OK. If you try to look it up, you may be in trouble.

Filed Under: IT, Types of software

Should I automate?

2020-01-20 By Antonis Christofides

We often worry a lot about how to proceed with automation. Sometimes we fail to ask: Should we proceed with automation?

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Warranties

2020-01-16 By Antonis Christofides

Warranties can help, but they are not the answer to the problem of automation.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

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