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Logistics Data Crunch

I help transport and logistics companies automate their processes

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Difficulties in 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mundane IT problems

2020-01-09 By Antonis Christofides

The press likes a good story like an automated vehicle, but you’d better ignore that and concentrate on whatever actual improvements your business needs.

Tagged With: aiFiled Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

The scope of the project grows

2020-01-07 By Antonis Christofides

Many companies get into trouble believing that they can just install the software and throw in some data. Inevitably, the scope of the project grows and what was supposed to be a simple system ends up a confusing mess.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Disaster recovery

2020-01-03 By Antonis Christofides

Two stories, one from Truckstop.com and one from Pixar, illustrate an issue that is often overlooked in young companies.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

To get entangled, or not to get entangled?

2020-01-02 By Antonis Christofides

Becoming dependent on an IT system can hinder progress. Not becoming dependent can make an IT project fail.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

IT projects are experiments

2019-12-30 By Antonis Christofides

The five times more rule is figurative. If you take it at face value, it’s stupid and pointless. It’s just a guide to a different way of thinking.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

300k trucks on a 60k budget

2019-12-24 By Antonis Christofides

When you estimate the cost of an IT solution, multiply it by five. What if you don’t have that amount? The same thing you will do if you need a 300k truck and can only spare 60k.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Five times less

2019-12-18 By Antonis Christofides

Yesterday I wrote that when you are about to automate your logistics business, you should be prepared to spend five times as much as you initially think. What if you don’t have that much?

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Five times more

2019-12-17 By Antonis Christofides

When you are about to automate your logistics business, get into a mentality of “we are building it in order to throw it away”.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Peripheral issues in IT

2019-12-16 By Antonis Christofides

When you give an employee a device, you might need to give it bundled with a carrying case, a specialized charger, or a towel.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

The “safe” choice isn’t nearly as safe as it seems

2019-12-13 By Antonis Christofides

Celadon Trucking, one of the largest trucking companies, failed. This can happen to software companies, and the results can be worse.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Deploying an IT solution requires other changes

2019-12-12 By Antonis Christofides

When the Manchester ambulance dispatching service added decision support software, they had to change the way they were seated.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Technology is not a solution in and of itself

2019-12-11 By Antonis Christofides

ISO 9001

If you rush to adopt some automation without thinking about the repercussions first, you are headed towards a nasty disruption.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Fixing IT problems the hard way

2019-12-10 By Antonis Christofides

The story of Twitter illustrates how software can start OK and then fail big. Twitter was able to overcome the problems with a brave decision.

Filed Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Sometimes size matters less

2019-12-09 By Antonis Christofides

It seems easy to trust someone to build a small software solution compared to a large one. What matters, however, is the impact this solution has on your business.

Tagged With: trustFiled Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Does size matter?

2019-12-06 By Antonis Christofides

If you need IT support, whom should you trust more? An individual, a small company, or a large company?

Tagged With: trustFiled Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

Why it’s risky to trust an IT person

2019-12-05 By Antonis Christofides

The way to move forward with automation is to trust someone. And trusting someone in IT is risky.

Tagged With: trustFiled Under: Difficulties in IT, IT

The problem of automation is a problem of trust

2019-12-04 By Antonis Christofides

Imagine if you had an IT consultant whom you’d trust so much that you could say “fix my company and give me the bill”. It’s hard to find one, because IT has some peculiarities.

Tagged With: trustFiled Under: Difficulties in IT, IT