Anticlue

CFAjax

In the arena of new things to try out arrives CFAjax.

CFAjax is the AJAX implementation for coldfusion. It makes coldfusion method calls on server directly from HTML page using JavaScript and return backs the result to the calling HTML page. CFAjax comes with simple to use JavaScript API and simple coldfusion implementation that marshal’s the response between your CF methods and HTML page. Using CFAjax you can create highly interactive websites with greater performance and usability

Thank you IndianKey!

IT governance and business

A few thoughts on it governance and business, just exactly what is IT governance? Governance refers to assigning the authority to make decisions and a level of accountability for those decisions, hopefully that combination will motivate the individual or body to act in the best spirit of the business.

Governance covers how one runs a business, there is the long term vision, the daily operations, and the foundation upon which the business is built.

It is often said if you are going to go someplace, you have to have a plan how to get there. This is the strategy component of governance, it is the vision of where you want to go, and strategy also comprises how to pay for it, and how to overcome the obstacles along the way. In this area, enterprise business planning is the IT governance module. It is the creation of business cases, with return on investment, present value, and future values of the dollars of the case. The business cases are immediately entered into the budgeting process. There also needs to be defined criteria for what projects need to be a business case. For example, I’d be willing to gander that any project that comprises over $40,000 and 1000 man hours is a business case. That’s a lot of resource in a healthcare environment.

The next portion of governance is the daily operations, keeping things going. There are a lot of parts to IT, network, hardware, software, and applications. The collage of how it all works together is at times mystical. And then there are the new items we need to accomplish, setting priorities to projects, and ensuring there are enough resources and funds to get the job done is a key factor of the daily operations. Also creating and maintaining a collaborative relationship with your business counterparts is a essential to managing operations. Finally you don’t really know what you have done if there isn’t a way to measure it, so a measurement criteria for success is necessary.

Finally, since you have a plan and daily work, there needs to be a standard for how things are done. If everyone manages a project the same way, the practice of thinking of things as a project becomes the standard way of doing business. There needs to be guidelines of the technical architecture, for example if the house is a vb shop, maybe implementing that new opensource alpha ware in ruby isn’t a great choice. Also maybe your company can’t take the risk of buying software from a mom and pop shop, vendors need to be able to display their ability to execute. And hear there are also the basics, like how to move things into production, how to maintain the inventory of assets that the department has.

These three components comprise an IT governance structure, in reviewing them wouldn’t these be good to have in any business?

A nice introduction to Lucene

Lucene is a high-performance, scalable, search engine technology which comprises both indexing and searching features. Lucene Intro by Erik Hatcher provide an example of using Lucene to index all the text files in a director and its subdirectories.

Non coding uses of subversion

In a recent project, we went through a major refactoring of the billing interfaces. This was a large endeavor, first we reviewed the current architecture of the billing interface, and one of the most alarming items was teh amount of knowledge loss that had occurred over the years. We uncovered several issues, one of which there was no clear concise source or owner of data.

The next step was to establish the authoritative source and data owners for all of the interfaced data elements. The authoritative source is the correct source of the data, like for instance admit date/time and discharge date/time authoritative source is the registration system. The data owner is the business department responsible for the accuracy and integrity of that data element. We had a couple of instances where we have to interface information to the authoritative source system, from the system that the data owner's utilize.

Next we went into a major specification review. We had a registration, billing, interface expert, and coding expert create interface specifications using standard hl7 as a template. The interesting item is with legacy systems for registration and billing, some of these systems where created before HL7 so it is more of a guideline than a rule.

The key lesson learned after 3 overwrites and the receiving of manic pages from the specifiers for lost information, it that we need to use a control system for revisions to these documents. The other item was that we had team decisions made, all parties need to be included.

Something that can improve our life in the future has been pointed out by Dru Lavigne's Setting up a Secure Subversion Server. Imagine collaborating on documents with safe and secure version control.

Clinical Effectiveness of Safe Practices

Came across this over at Commonwealth today, interesting stuff.

Mediation Administration and Decision Support

Just automating a process, may still have the affects of the manual process. A recent study by the Archives of Internal Medicine examined the type and frequency of inpatient adverse drug events across the implementation of many clinical systems including a computerized physician order entry system. The finding is again non-spectacular and very common sense based. Just placing a system in place alone doesn’t reduce the adverse drug events, one needs to provide information where there are troublesome aspects of the medication administration process. This type of information comes from a decision support system.

This is very basic, if you have a process in place, and you only perform automation of that process by implementing the system. There will be minimal business improvements, because at this point in the game, one only has data. Making the data into information that improves the business.

Subversion 1.2

A new release and documentation too! Subversion announced a new release the other day.

The new features and functions are:

• Optional locking ("reserved checkouts")
• Full WebDAV autoversioning
• FSFS repository back end is now the default

Deploy .Net Apps on Tomcat

In the arena of cool tools to check out in the future, the newest candidate is mainsoft's grasshopper. From an eweek article, Grasshopper is a post-processor that converts .NET code into Java bytecode. The application can be then deployed on Windows, Java appservers, and Linux (through the use of mono)

Project Risk Factors

Let's take a moment to discuss risk factors, a friend of mine was nice enough to share his list with me yesterday. It is a good checklist of general risk factors. These are general items that if and when they hit a project can place you in the land of projects that headed south of the border.

Project Risk Factors

• Lack of team skills and head count
• Unrealistic Schedules and budgets
• Developing the wrong software functions
• Developing the wrong user interface
• Gold Plating
• Continuing stream of requirement changes
• Shortfalls in externally furnished components
• Shortfalls in performed tasks
• Real-time performance shortfalls
• Straining technical architecture
• No or little planning

ISNT

Sometimes one just beings to truly believe that those in healthcare it should rename the information services department to information services neanderthal technology.

Why one may ask, well take a look at the latest version of healthcare analytics.

The key findings of the report are:

• The under-investment in IT continues
• Emerging replacement technologies and applications in the electronic medical record (EMR) environment will significantly impact current legacy applications
• Interoperability concerns, driven by increasing EMR implementation, are impacting ancillary and clinical department applications as well as regional health information organization
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) has just begun to penetrate the market--fewer than one in five hospitals use this technology

dotCMS initial Release

In the process of looking for a good tool or application to start to utilize a CMS on your website.

Take a quick gander at the recently released dotCMS. It is a J2EE/portal based CMS with CRM-like features. dotCMS is basically database agnostic since it uses Hibernate for data abstraction.

The nice enterprise level features are:

• User tracking and click path analysis.
• Marketing list builders/managers
• eNewsletter/email campaign manager
• Calendaring and Events/Facilities Management system
• Portal Integration

GanttProject

GanttProject is a tool definitely worth its salt. This tool allows one to create a work breakdown structure in a clear concise manner. It allows one to visualize the project, and see the sequencing and dependencies. The other tab for resources assists in managing resource, which at times is a critical risk to the project.

The one problem with most PM tools that I have found is that there needs to be the level of detail wbs plan, and the high level milestone plan. This is still the case with this tool, but the cost of the tool is not very prohibitive.

JSR 248: Mobile Service Architecture for CLDC

The future of mobile programming is coming to age. Just check out the latest features on the N91 phone. The Mobile Service Architecture JSR will bring numerous beneficial advances to mobile programming.

Just check out the JSR included within the MSA

Required Component JSRs
JSR 75 PDA - File API
JSR 75 PDA - PIM API
JSR 118 Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) 2.0
JSR 135 Mobile Media API (MMAPI)
JSR 139 Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) 1.1
JSR 172 Web Services API for J2ME - XML (JAXP) Parser API
JSR 177 Security and Trust Services API (SATSA) - CRYPTO API
JSR 180 SIP API
JSR 184 Mobile 3D Graphics API for J2ME
JSR 185 Java Technology for the Wireless Industry
JSR 205 Wireless Messaging API 2.0
JSR 211 Content Handling API (CHAPI)
JSR 226 Scalable 2D Vector Graphics API for J2ME
JSR 229 Payment API
JSR 234 Advanced Multimedia Supplements
JSR 238 Mobile Internationalization API

Conditionally Required Component JSRs
JSR 82 Java APIs for Bluetooth Wireless Technology - Core BT API
JSR 82 Java APIs for Bluetooth Wireless Technology - OBEX API
JSR 177 Security and Trust Services API - SATSA PKI API
JSR 177 Security and Trust Services API - SATSA APDU
JSR 179 Location API for J2ME

Now that's an advance.

Principles behind the Agile Manifesto

Things are changing. Imagine a world in which IT followed the Agile Manifesto. Just read the priniciples below, wouldn't it be great to be in a collaborative relationship with the customers?

We follow these principles:
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer
through early and continuous delivery
of valuable software.

Welcome changing requirements, even late in
development. Agile processes harness change for
the customer's competitive advantage.

Deliver working software frequently, from a
couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a
preference to the shorter timescale.

Business people and developers must work
together daily throughout the project.

Build projects around motivated individuals.
Give them the environment and support they need,
and trust them to get the job done.

The most efficient and effective method of
conveying information to and within a development
team is face-to-face conversation.

Working software is the primary measure of progress.

Agile processes promote sustainable development.
The sponsors, developers, and users should be able
to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

Continuous attention to technical excellence
and good design enhances agility.

Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount
of work not done--is essential.

The best architectures, requirements, and designs
emerge from self-organizing teams.

At regular intervals, the team reflects on how
to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts
its behavior accordingly.

HandAndGo

Handandgo is a neat concept. It’s a software mobile software distribution mechanism for shrink wrapped apps. Handango covers the cost of distribution and payment fulfillment, and small software shrink wrap companies get the money. It is a good mix for the out of the box mechanism.

Eclipse Project Proposal – Open Healthcare Framework

Eclipse.org has a proposal to build an Open Healthcare Framework proposal is to build an interoperable, extensible, open-source healthcare framework on top of the Eclipse platform. It is a very ambitious project to produce a framework that addresses the needs of not only the healthcare industry, but government regulators, patients and insurance providers.

Here is a visual schema of the proposed project.

There are some large interested parties within this solution, such as the DOD, Veterans Health Administration, and Kaiser-Permanente.

This will be something to watch in the future, the newest thing since Soarian. What would really be interesting is if the VA contributes its latest projects, HealtheVet and CoreFLS to the opensource community. Rumor has it that the project funding this year isn’t going to be anywhere near what is needed.

So here is a proposal, there has been alot of discussions about healthcare it in america, how it lacks standardization, and is very costly. I think the idea of a well-constructed opensource system may be what the doctor ordered - just be sure to enclude the mobility aspect of a clinicians life.

It wasn’t enough is enough.

Had the meeting on Friday about the resource conflict. It was a good meeting, although I had a couple of revelations during the meeting. The resource hadn’t done an enough is enough in the team meeting as I had assumed. What actually had happened was this.

At the beginning of the month, I had scheduled a quick 30-minute daily build meeting between all building resources. The meeting was to create a time to chat for all builders, discuss issues and get quick status with where the project was and if the team needed anything. We meet daily, all via a conference line. This was people can also try something quick on the computer if needed.

I had made it my mission to type up minutes and distribute the minutes to the group and management daily. I tried to have someone else type up the minutes, but we don’t have that type of resource spread, or I don’t have enough pull with the secretarial staff. The minutes detail discussions, decisions, and next steps. They also plainly stated what was done and what was missed.

The problem is that this resource was overscheduled, and well the director finally realized it. I had asked for a full-time resource. I only got one dedicated 25% of her time. The resource silently worked a lot of voluntary overtime to get things to where they needed to be. So the director’s solution was to yank the resource for the other project, and offered no alternatives. Every minute that resource spends or doesn’t spend on this project directly either shortens it or elongates the project. The resource is working the critical path.

The other problem was with the design, even though the interface group approved the interface design. Now apparently, they need some training in how to do real-time hl7 charges to a file within Open Link.

My main problem with this situation, is that I was offered no alternatives and the situation wasn’t set up to be a negotiation. It was leave me scenario, and now I’m trying to brainstorm as to alternatives so the project once again isn’t held up. When the resource risk hits, it sure expands the project timeline.

The resource risk

Boy, I could see this one coming a mile away. Too many chiefs, too little injuns, and not enough of resources to go around the posy.

When I first got the resource, I explained that there would be a problem. That other project needed to be redirected to another person. This project needs to get done or we severely impede the billing process come the new grouper in the fall. The timelines between the two projects aren’t compatible. The resource though is phenomenal. She still actually cares about doing things right for the right reasons. Her work is of high quality and well documented. She believes in a good QA process through out the project.

But, the management wouldn’t redirect the other project, too few qualified injuns. We have been a couple weeks into the heavy build of my project and the cross roads have come to bear. I could see it happening for the past couple of weeks. The person was just beginning to overly organize her time, and her stress level was going up. The daily team building meetings didn’t help the resource’s stress level, but the build is going good. Now, I’m getting the term bulldozer applied. It’s a running joke, but it is honestly time to drink the kool aid.

So now we have an emergent meeting, because the other project needs time. My guess is at the team meeting with the functional director the resource kinda went with enough is enough. Its near the live time of the other project. We all know that the other system’s live, is not going to yield productive build time for my project. We also all know that without productive build time, my project is going to be delayed.

As PM, there are many times when I just wish we were a project base organizational structure instead of this functional based. The resource risk would be eliminated, and things would be better. Its hard trying to get a project done without resources. The project simply does not get done. In this case, that just isn’t acceptable.

Sometimes I miss a life without the political intrigue.

Free Education on Websphere

Want to learn about WebSphere? Check out IBM's education assistant. It is a nice introduction to the gambit.

Quick Reference Cards

Sometimes my memory is just not what it use to be. I think in the future, I'll be using some of the quick reference cards from digilife. One worth looking at is the Oracle Server Architecture.

802.11 Radios vs Cell Phones

Haven’t set up your wireless network and wondering which way is the best to go. Medical Connectivity has a link to a Mark Blatt MD’s presentation on Electro Magnetic Interference in a HealthCare Environment. For those of us who are not familiar with Mark, he runs Intel’s healthcare business.

End result, Cell phones are disruptive to medical devices.

Does Linux need Mono?

While surfing today, over on Cafe au Lait, I came across Novell recently releasing Mono.

Now what is Mono?

Mono, the open source development platform based on the .NET framework, allows developers to build Linux and cross-platform applications with improved developer productivity. Mono's .NET implementation is based on the ECMA standards for C# (http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-334.htm) and the Common Language Infrastructure

Mono includes compilers, an ECMA-compatible runtime engine (the Common Language Runtime, or CLR), and many libraries. The libraries include Microsoft .NET compatibility libraries (including ADO.NET, System.Windows.Forms and ASP.NET), Mono's own and third party class libraries.Gtk# (http://www.mono-project.com/using/gtk-sharp.html), a set of .NET bindings for the gtk+ toolkit and assorted GNOME libraries can be found in the latter. This library allows you to build fully native Gnome application using Mono and includes support for user interfaces built with the Glade interface builder. Furthermore, Mono's runtime can be embedded into applications for simplified packaging and shipping. In addition, the Mono project offers an IDE (http://www.monodevelop.com), Debugging, and a documentation browser.

I haven't played with the package yet, especially since I just came across it. But I have to say the possibility of deploying windows apps to another platform is appealing. Whose to assume that those developing will actually test and verify on the Linux Platform. Those besides Novell?

HIPAA Compliant Wireless Security

LucidLink Wireless Security protects patient information transmitted over Wi-Fi Networks with strong security that complies with HIPAA standards, and is easy enough to be deployed and managed in small and mid-size practices.

Download Preparing for HIPAA with LucidLink for quick overview

WSUnit 1.0

WSUnit 1.0 has been released.

WSUnit is a tool that can help you test Web Service consumers. Mainly for use as a unit testing tool. It is a Java servlet that listens on a port of an HTTP request.

It is out of the download as an Eclipse Plugin utilizing an embedded Tomcat Engine. It can be deployed to any J2EE Container. I'm hoping to get the time to test it with JRUN soon.

Berkley XML Database New Version 2.1.7

Sleepycat release a new version of Berkley XML DB.

Check it out here.

A Nice feature is the windows installer does the compilation for us.

Neat CIS Mobile App Concept

Chris Richardson relates a very practical and useful application for ER docs found here.

The Application is a hand hold that has alerts and medical information passed right through to the physicians waist.

What a great way for a doc to work.

Maybe the handheld is going to be the next computer.

AXIS 1.2 Released

After 2 years, the next major release of AXIS has arrived. AXIS is the web toolkit for web services for Java. (It is used by ColdFusion)

The curious, not faint of heart, and those with a high risk propensity can download the release.

JSR 208: JavaTM Business Integration (JBI)

Check out the JavaTM Business Integration Specification Request.

Mobile Devices sales are popping

An article from Canalys reviews the market growth of smart phones. Take a look to see who is hot, and who is not.

Standardizing the CCR

I guess the lesson learned here is that standardization takes time. The Continuity of Care Record standardization by ASTM has delayed so that technical concerns can be alleviated. Full Story here.

Open Source Evaluation Site

Evaluating or even sometimes getting to the short list of vendors is a trying experience. WE have a list of feature and functions, they have a list. And then there sometimes comes into the question should we use an open sourced solution.

A nice tool to use as a part of the selection process maybe the Free and Open Source Software Evaluation Center AKA FOSS. Its an indepth questionaire but well worth the time when comparing solutions. There are evensome none opensource firms as a part of the criteria.

IDE4LASZLO 2.0

One nice thank you to IBM, they released version 2.0 of the IDE4Laszlo on alphaWorks on Apr 29, 2005. This Eclipse IDE plug-in adds support for OpenLaszlo 3.0 and introduces a visual editor for OpenLaszlo application development.

Cool Beans!

Flash Lite Expansion

An interesting bit of news this weekend, Cisco and Macromedia bought an 18.2% interest in Indiagames Ltd. Interesting positioning for flashlite.