Read the full job posting here:

https://hrnt.jhu.edu/jhujobs/job_view.cfm?view_req_id=52513&view=sch

Now cut that lumber on an angle and add a bracing plate. It’s still strong, but not as strong. Now replace the bracing plate with a hinge. It’s still strong, but not steady. Now add ten more hinges to the piece of lumber, heat the wood a little to add a curve in the bottom tenth, and stain it red. Now use it as a support joist for a house.

Welcome to Process Development.

Why the Word “Except” will Cost you Money

When developing a process, it is important to imagine each process as a vector – which means “All things coming in here will come out there. All variables and outcomes will be the same every time.” Building a project plan involves identifying and arranging your process vectors.

Each time the project team uses the word “Except” in a process development discussion, go ahead and add $100,000 to your final project price. The word “Except” cuts your process vector in half – like our lumber example above. Sure a few exceptions are possible, but the more exceptions in your process, the less reliable it becomes. And if your project team loses their ability to restrain their exceptions, the final project turns into garbage.

Why so inflexible, dude?

Don’t take it personally – this is system design, not “idea squashing.” Many project teams misconstrue system design as an exercise in creative thought, and they take it personally when their ideas are reined in for being outside of the scope of the project. It’s not a matter that your idea is or isn’t creative, interesting or funny, it’s that the system is probably not built to handle that the exceptions being bandied wildly about during your process meeting.

When designing a system (such as a software process, manufacturing process, business workflow, etc.) it is more useful to focus on the vectors that will be used by the greatest number of processes in the same way each time. Start there, and try to stay there.

Give your exceptions a procedural escape hatch in your system design so that customer service humans handle the exceptions. You’ll provide far better service overall by handling exceptions this way instead of trying to build them into your software or services procedures.

Let your processes be straight, strong, predictable and reliable. If some strange phenomenon might occur outside of that process, let a person handle it. That’s what they’re there for.

And… If I were your customer, I’d far rather talk to “Marge” for my exceptional situation than to try to wrestle with a software system that doesn’t know how to handle my inquiry. Marge is friendlier and baby, she GETS me.

Why… Why…. WHY???

The reason I have so many distracting connections is because I bought into the hype from 2008 where we were all supposed to friend everyone we knew and everyone we had ever met, and then expose ourselves to the constant drivel of their lives. For a while it was spectacularly interesting. Then it became somewhat disturbing. Today it seems downright unimportant.

Back in 2008 people were actually running their own profiles, and they had years… no… decades of stored up witticisms and astute observations pent up inside of them, just aching for an outlet. It was so cool to tap into this steady stream of ideas I’d never had before and new ways of thinking about things.

Fast forward to 2012 and it is obvious that we’ve all pretty much run out of interesting things to say. Many of the most intelligent, most “friended” business leaders have outsourced their updates and writing to a small army of 20 year olds. Not that there’s anything wrong with 20 year olds, but I miss the wit and wisdom just a little.

What does this mean for Businesses?

Take this as a warning shot across the bow, business. The masses are bored and they’re reclaiming their attention span.  Those of you who have a Facebook profile “just because you think you should” are part of the problem, but the even more egregious error in social media is perpetrated by companies who have created the Persona.

If you’ve created a fictional hipster persona at your company to do all of your Tweeting and Facebook updates, you’d better ‘up the ante’ in your content creation. Not only does this fictional content stream need to be interesting, it has to sound actually real. Your audience has become savvier than Tim Roth, the detective on “Lie to Me” at sniffing out real people versus corporate personas.

Who will survive the 2012 Un-friending?

According to my sources, I’m not the only one un-friending this month. There’s a groundswell of irritation about Facebook in particular, followed by Twitter and Google +. (LinkedIn is the only social network that has avoided this Love/Hate relationship so far, probably because it has stayed true to its mission throughout the social media frenzy.)

Who will be cut: First will be all business pages, followed closely by business avatars and salespeople who became connections because they heard me lecture somewhere along the line. Next are strategic partners who aren’t friends. I’m also getting rid of everyone from high school and old co-workers. (Get over it, people)

Survivors of the cut include: Family and close friends who aren’t aggravating. That’s it.

Get ready for the Real Social Media, where we actually use it to connect to people we love. Business, we’re going to have to find another way in … Again. But look at the bright side; I suspect there is another avenue for customer relations coming along in a few months.  We’re on the Internet – there’s always something new. I can feel the next breakthrough blazing through development now… Stay tuned.

We need Java developers familiar with systems engineering and deployment who thrive on the challenges of building and deploying distributed, scalable systems. You will manage, maintain, and support the build and deploy system and manage the web and app tier through monitoring and resource management. You will contribute to developing Java/Spring/Maven applications.

Responsibilities include:
- Java development (primarily back-end; JSP/HTML/CSS skills are a plus)
- Manage developer resources such as continuous integration and deployment systems
- Debug runtime problems
- Monitor and manage all environments
- Build, deploy and destroy servers

Required Skills:
- Java/Spring/Maven
- Cloud services (AWS, EC2)
- Experience with SQL and NoSQL databases
- Source control (Jira, SVN)
- Continuous integration and deployment (Jenkins, Hudson)
- Linux admin
- Agile development experience
- Experience with Solr is a plus

It’s my mobile carrier that’s doing this to me, and I hate it. Just this week I upgraded to the new iPhone with mobile hot spot (which means I can use my phone as a portable Internet connection for my tablets and laptops) but in order to do that, I had to sacrifice my unlimited data plan from AT&T.

And now that I’ve switched, I can never go back to an unlimited data plan. Not at any price. That ship has sailed. Now, instead of running my iPhone as an additional bandwidth solution for my online addiction, I now will spend a lot of time worrying about how much I’ve downloaded (or uploaded) and what it’s going to cost me.

Was it worth it to get a mobile hot spot?

*Sniff* I do need a mobile hot spot. Web professionals really can’t get through a day without a pervasive Internet connection. And I’ve limped along using patchy and unreliable Wi-Fi hotspots, which I find overwhelmingly disappointing solution.

I’ve found myself looking like an idiot in meetings a few too many times when the clients’ offices don’t have wireless service. All of my planned online demos go right out the window and I’m left trying to sketch out how software works on a notepad. These meetings don’t go very well.

It’s utterly un-cool to have to beg for a connection like a hapless Web junkie. Clients are hip to the trick of storing Web sites locally on your laptop. It’s just so… amateur. So yes, a hot spot is a must-have service.

Is it really that bad, or are am I overreacting?

 I tend to react strongly whenever my connection to the Internet is limited in any way, as you can see. However, the bandwidth limit for my new hotspot connection is 4Gigs per month. That’s actually kind of a lot of bandwidth.

When I heard about the new limits, I explored my historical usage on an unlimited plan. Guess what?  To date I’ve never exceeded 4Gigs.  I’d consider myself an extreme user, where I email graphic design files and let my son stream as many episodes of Wonder Pets as he wants to. And let’s not talk about how often I check in with Facebook…  So it real life a 4gig limit is not too bad.

My main concern is that I can’t really go desk-free with 4gigs. I’ll still need my office Internet connection and will need to go to the office a lot to function with a 4gig limit, because my actual 100% Internet usage is more like 30gigs/month.

That’s why I’m upset. My dream of working from the beach all day every day is delayed yet again. While it’s probably not even a realistic dream, I still want the freedom to be able to try it. But I know someday I’ll get there. Someday.

Bridgeline Digital is a developer of an award-winning web engagement management software suite and interactive business technology solutions that help customers leverage best in class web-based technologies to achieve their business objectives. The iAPPS Product Suite is an innovative SaaS solution that deeply unifies web Content Management, eCommerce, eMarketing, and web Analytics capabilities into the heart of websites, online stores, intranets, extranets or portals – enabling users to swiftly enhance and optimize the value of their web assets.

We have an immediate opening for a Director of Design who will work from our Columbia, MD office.  To learn more about Bridgeline Digital, please visit www.blinedigital.com

Job Description

In this Director of Design position at Bridgeline Digital you will lead the team in our Baltimore, MD office in the creative direction and creative development of our customers’ web properties.  You will implement the creative determined from user experience findings, user experience best practices, and customer style standards to produce high quality designs for related web applications.  We are looking for someone who is: ready to listen to our customers and wow them with beautiful and intuitive interactive designs; always thinking and learning about how to improve the user experience; thrives in a collaborative environment working closely with both the design and leadership teams; and aspires to mentor team members for creative excellence. You will be required to have strong communication skills (oral and written) with customer-ready presentation skills and be adept at pitching strategy and vision to customers. This position requires minimally a bachelor’s degree or an equivalent with at least 7 years of experience of designing high quality interfaces for web applications.

As the Director of Design, you will have a passion for design, as well as working directly with customers to assess overall user experience.  You will work on many new projects for a variety of clients across all different industries (Retail, Education, Financial, Etc.), to name a few, L’Oreal, The Marriott Hotels and AARP.  These projects are for public facing websites that our visited by thousands of users.  You will be in control of strategy, design and the user experience from beginning to end.  This is a highly visible position with approximately 25% travel to customer sites within MD, DC and VA.  You will also be attending a specific yearly industry conference with the rest of the UI/UX team.

Requirements

• Must be authorized to work in the United States on a permanent basis
• Must provide a web-based portfolio upon applying and be able to present your work in person
• User interface design to provide appropriate user experience and interface functionality
• Strong knowledge of best practices and mental models for desktop and mobile interfaces for interaction design
• Ability to prepare for and interview both stakeholders and users
• Ability to analyze stakeholder and user needs, and define strategies for meeting them
• Ability to prepare, conduct, analyze, and report on usability tests
• Strong client-facing skills; Strong presentation and negotiation skills
• An understanding of branding as it relates to user experience
• Strong conceptual design thinking
• Excellent overall design sense across multiple mediums and applications -composition, typography, color, etc.
• Strong leadership skills – responsible ownership of projects, mentorship of other team members
• Estimating costs, creating timelines, and generally helping contribute to a successful team

Technical Skills Include

• Requirements-gathering stakeholder and via user interviews and other user-centered design methods
• Experience in building information architecture, sitemaps and wireframes for a variety of multi-page, multi-function sites (e.g., Visio, OmniGraffle, InDesign, Axure)
• Integration of digital (web usage, research, data analysis, statistics, etc.) and content strategy in wireframe documentation
• Expertise in Adobe Creative programs
• Firm knowledge of the requirements of designing production-ready files for the web or other digital environments
• Understanding of the uses of different web development languages and technologies

Operating systems loyalists have created something akin to a religion about their favorite OS. They seem to be somehow defined personally by it.  They’ll shout at you, “I’m a Mac guy” or “I’m PC all the way.” For the lesser nerds out there, they lend some confusing ideas to the marketplace, because they make it sound like you need to be consistent between all of your devices. It’s as though your very soul is in peril if you stray from your OS.

The good news is that if you have a PC Operating System on your computer or office network, you don’t have to go with a Windows phone unless you want to. If you’re on a Mac, you don’t have to buy an iPhone. I use a PC with a Droid tablet and an iPhone…and I haven’t caused the apocalypse… yet.

Maybe that makes me a Unitarian technologist.

In Search of the OS Holy Grail

So now that we know we can mix devices with different operating systems, the question is should we? If you’re in charge of buying mobile devices for your company, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you actually should try to keep the OS consistent. Once users’ brains learn how to handle the menus and information storage on one device, it is pretty luxurious to keep the experience consistent though their entire string of devices.  But there are notable exceptions:

If you’re an ad agency you need iPhones

• There are too many marketing apps to check out for your clients and their competitors. Since most apps are still developed first for iPhones and then retrofitted for other devices, you’ll want to use iPhones.
• But if you don’t need to force everyone to use Macs in the office. Most software (graphic design software notably excepted) is built for PCs (still) so don’t be weird. Buy PCs.

If you worry about employees using too much bandwidth by downloading dumb apps

• Get Windows OS phones. The important stuff for business is retrofitted for this OS and there aren’t nearly as many games and time/bandwidth wasting apps for Windows phones

If your office relies on the Google Cloud for Email, file sharing, calendar sharing and so on

• Get Droid devices. The integration with Google apps is instant, seamless and TOTALLY AWESOME. It’s the single most impressive cloud integration I’ve ever seen.
• Non-Droid devices can’t do this Google cloud integration for you unless you integrate using Outlook and other such foolish programs.

But My Employees are all “Mac Heads”

The really good news here is that any mobile device OS can work in any Mac/PC OS context, so don’t worry. If your employees have fallen in love with the iPhone hype, you can still make them happy and have a productive workforce at the same time.  But you may want to throw a bucket of cold water on them all the same. That’s what they get for pledging their devotion to a phone.

But it illustrates to me misunderstanding that people have technology. For example, if robots were ever actually going to replace people in football, they wouldn’t run around a field knocking each other down like people do. Robots fight with data pulses, magnetic and electrical manipulation and other things that are only exciting to techies. To the humans, it looks simply like wires and circuit boards getting hot. (yawn)

Robots could be programmed to run a football play, but what’s the point? If a play isn’t driven by desire and morphed by experience, then it’s all just a show. The magnificent accidents and spectacular surprises are what make it exciting.

What does this have to do with Business

Since the introduction of computers and technology into the workplace, managers have expected humans to snap into line and never make any more mistakes. They’ve decided that people should act like computers. Conversely, businesspeople have also asked that computers create art and run illogical procedures like people do.

The point is that if we clearly sort out which tasks should be done by computers and which are human tasks, the workplace will run much more smoothly. And the output will be much more compelling – like a winning football team.

It sounds like a no-brainer, but we keep messing it up.

What are Computer Tasks

Just for the sake of clarification, this is what computers are really good at:

1)      Data Entry

2)      Moving data from one machine to another, or one software program to another

3)      Doing mathematical calculations

4)      Compiling vast amounts of data and returning correct data in response to data queries

5)      Running procedures on a predefined schedule (back up all the machines at 11pm)

6)      Displaying data or behaviors in response to user cues (think: video games)

Remember that computers are just big buckets that we fill with data and function scripts. You won’t ever get something out of a computer that you or your programmer didn’t put in there.

What are People Tasks

Creation, art, surprise are all jobs that people are uniquely positioned to accomplish. And the beauty of people in processes is that the process is imperfect. Think about this; we have the equipment today to play a perfect symphony using computerized instruments. But nobody is interested in listening to a robot orchestra.  It’s the blend of a variety of human skills and variations in sounds that create the majesty of music.

When running your teams and companies, remember that people are not instruments of perfection. It’s the combination of them all that creates the excitement and future of your company. Enjoy people for who they are. And leave the boring ‘perfect process’ stuff to the computers.

How Email works:

Email is actually a function of your Domain Name –so when you buy a Web address such as www.greatcompany.com the email address comes with two records – an “A” record and an “MX” record. The “A” record tells the Internet where your Web site is hosted, and the MX record tells the Internet where your mail is hosted. While you usually have just one vendor for your email and web address (the A and MX records), they are really two different things.

Once an email is sent to your email address – nancy@greatcompany.com, it is sorted by the MX record to an email server where it is stored until you retrieve it from a computer. Small companies often have their email hosted with the same vendor as their Web site hosting. Larger companies often have an email server vendor.

From the email server, it travels through your internet provider’s cables (think; cable or telephone company lines) until it reaches the office. Then the email is retrieved either through an email software like Outlook or through a web browser.

Where does email break?

As you can see, email has a lot of moving pieces that can all break.

However, in my experience, 99% of the time, email breaks at the desktop level. And most of the support calls come into the hosting company, which is the wrong vendor to call. The host company can’t help with your desktop email retrieval because that’s not really what they do.

Hosting support mostly deals with problems related to the Web site (the “A” record) – things like security certificates, server virus attacks, troubleshooting crashed Web sites, restarting servers, and other macro issues. They are responsible for the general health of the Web sites they host. The host will make sure the email is able to be created and stored on the server, but after that they are out of their range of expertise.

Who do I call to keep my email working?

Every business with more than five computers really should have a service agreement with a network services company. This kind of company works inside your office every so often, and their job is to tie all of your computers together onto a network with a server in order to share files. This vendor is also your lifeline or “phone a friend” service for any internal (inside the four walls of your office) technical issue. When your email goes down, this is who you call.

Why are tech people so territorial?

We’re not. Believe me when I say that if we could help you with everything, we would. I stay awake at night haunted by the desperation in the voices of some of my callers. Here’s the thing; if I start telling you to reset things on your desktop computer in order to pull email in, then the person who manages your office network won’t know how to fix it next time. And they’ll be mad at me because they’ll have to reconfigure your machine from scratch because you probably won’t be able to tell them what I changed.

And your network manager shouldn’t change your Web site hosting passwords,  or add software modules to your web site, because then I won’t know how to help bring your site live if it gets attacked or has a software failure.

We work in partnership. And we respect each others’ territory because we have to. It’s for the greater good, really. And if all goes well with your configurations, hopefully you won’t need to call anyone. Stay safe out there…

Then I realized it: Email isn’t that important anymore.

Then I wondered what is the killer communication app right now. And, after much consideration, I have to say that there isn’t one anymore. Why? Because everyone who needs to contact you has so many options for contacting you that they will find you whether or not you read your email or text message, or listen to the voicemail on your mobile phone, or read their post on your Facebook/LinkedIn wall, or  their direct message to you on Twitter. They can ‘poke’ one of your colleagues at work to deliver a message to you in person, or find your address on their GPS and come to your house if they REALLY need you.

We’re behaving badly.

Back in the olden days of the 1990s, if you needed someone to answer a question, you’d send a letter or leave a message with their secretary and you’d wait for a response. And it was acceptable for that person to reply to you in a day or two. In fact, if you were too aggressive it was considered rude.

Since the beginning of the New Year, I have had two instances when I received an email, text message, phone message on my personal mobile phone and a message on Facebook within an hour of each other about issues that were not really that pressing. It feels like the fictional “WUPH” from The Office TV show has come to life.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytc9-wGCHW0)

The politeness barrier — the willingness to wait any amount of time for an answer of any level of importance has been amputated from our mindset by our instant communication technology. This is a mistake.

We’re at the end of our rope.

Without exception, my colleagues have stated that their goal for the New Year is to unplug. Our friends, colleagues and families have become so impatient and rude that we now find ourselves actively hiding from each others’ electronic advances. Instead of technology making us more connected, it’s driving us apart.

One of my friends quoted the book The Four Hour Work Week to me just this afternoon as a rationale to read email only one time each week. A well-known restaurateurs in Federal Hill has thrown out his mobile phone altogether.  I took a two week cyber-vacation over Christmas. It’s happening everywhere.

Is there a technology solution?

So far the answer to our constant badgering by devices and electronic messages has been “well, try this device that does the work faster and in a more interesting way.” But I am starting to think that technology isn’t going to be able to save us from our rudeness any longer. We’ve got to get some manners, and fast.

The demise of email is a symptom of a larger problem. Email is taking the fall because it’s the oldest and most overused, but just wait, because I’ve already heard rumblings that Facebook and Twitter are headed down the same path.

It’s not the technology, it’s the people.

Do you remember back when we used to visit people at their houses, and after a couple of hours we’d slap our knees and say “Well, it’s time to head home” ? The reason we headed home was because we were tired of our friends and wanted to go home. With technology the way it is today, we never get to leave the party.

I think 2011 is the year when people start balancing out their lives and putting their digital conversations into perspective. The party was fun, but we’re all bored with each other, and we’re going home.

Take that Apple Corp and Mark Zuckerberg. We’re taking our lives back.