Author: Idexcel Technologies

How To Regain Your Leadership Confidence – Idexcel Leadership Roundup

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1. How To Regain Your Leadership Confidence

Business can be tough. Business can be especially hard for the leader of an organization who has lost their confidence in their ability to lead. Leaders have the hard task of setting vision, unifying the team, and building structure. When a leader loses their confidence these tasks and so many more like them can become more difficult and can cause major issues in the organization. Read more…

2. Project Freedom (or: Liberate your Low Performers)

As team leader, you probably are familiar with the following situation: A member of your team is not really at his or her top performance. He may be wicked smart. You might have fought hard to get him. You might like him on a personal level. But for one reason or another, things are not working out. So what should you do? Read more…

3. The 4 Most Creative Kinds of Leaders

In today’s snappy corporate speak, forms of creative leadership are like statement blazers or ultra low-rise jeans: they’re either in or they’re out. Every year, the most popular business magazines claim that a certain type of person is the most innovative of the moment. This month, it might be the triumph of the technological guru. In the fall, it might be the rise of the artistic genius. Pundits treat innovation strategies as if they were fashion trends, hot during one season only to turn pass the next. Read more…

4. What Successful People Know that You Need to Learn!

This might surprise you, but success is all about structure. As a matter of fact, we do not get better, we do not change our behavior, and we do not become successful without it! Yet, most people don’t. Not only is having and utilizing structure a challenge, but you have the added test of incorporating the right structure – meaning a structure that fits the situation and personalities involved, including yours. Read more…

STAREAST 2015 Interview with Andy Glover: Idexcel Testing Roundup

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1. STAREAST 2015 Interview with Andy Glover: Problem Solving for Testers

Summary:In this STAREAST interview, Andy Glover explains how testers solve problems. He digs into visual testing and its uses, as well as how we need to innovate in order to move the industry forward. Take a look.

2. The Economics Of Testing

What makes us professional?

I’ve heard many answers. But over the last few years I’ve established my own definition: Professionals understand the impact of the money they are given. Professionals do not waste that money, but invest their skills for maximal customer value. Professionals understand that value in terms of business impact for the customers.

This post explores the different facets of software testing economics and outlines a plan testers can use to become true professionals. Read on…

3. Technical and Non-Technical Testing Skills

One of the sessions at the Romanian testing conference in Cluj last week was a debate on do testers need to be technical or non-technical. It was an interesting debate and one which causes some great discussions. One of the first observations was many of the people present were willing to come forward and present the case that testers need to be technical. The framing of the definitions to me made it difficult to choose which side to present for, since no one had come forward for the non-technical side I put myself forward along with Richard Bradshaw (@friendly tester) and a couple of other people, unfortunately their names have escaped me.

Read on to find out which side was voted the most persuasive.

4. Discussion: Would having a Certificate help?

I have been in the Banking and Finance Industry for almost a year as a Quality Assurance Engineer. I am planning to explore other options and expand my knowledge.Contribute your response here!

Outsourcing- Finding the best Business Partner

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Across different businesses and functions, organizations are confronted with multiple challenges. Operating in the global environment where the dynamics expand and shift relentlessly, concentrating on all the business processes may lead to compromises in the core competencies. However, some priorities stay constant across different businesses, and one such business choice is Outsourcing. Outsourcing is a major strategic decision which involves weighing the benefits against the consequences and entrusting the business processes to external vendors. It is encompassing functions closer to the core business, offering economic and strategic benefits. Outsourcing is gradually gaining popularity as a critical management lever to improve competitive advantage, business innovation and customer relationships. Cost reduction is usually the most oft-cited reason for outsourcing, and to some extent, service or product improvement as well, however, there are several subtle benefits which are not so easy to quantify.

The benefits of outsourcing are not limited to any particular industry or domain, and outsourcing partners can design and implements systems that best fit any given business, their ambition and their budget. Businesses can dodge expensive overhauls due to scalability of outsourcing. There are several reasons to outsource, and some of the most common benefits are:

  • Cost Advantage
  • Access to state-of-the-art capabilities and skilled resources
  • Improved organization focus
  • Increased Efficiency
  • Access to resources unavailable internally
  • Freed-up available internal resource
  • Accelerated Re-engineering benefits
  • Savings on Infrastructure and technology
  • Time Zone Advantage

What to look for In Outsourcing Partner

Outsourcing is a boon for many enterprises as it enables them to concentrate on what they do best. However, to reap full benefits of outsourcing, consider the following guidelines:

  • The most important step in the decision for outsourcing is to identify whether or not it is something you need. It is tricky, however if you have identified the tasks and processes you need to outsource, you are in the right direction. Once the needs are defined, you need to dig at the specifics of each business function that needs to be outsourced so that the goals and objectives of outsourcing can be clearly identified.
  • An important consideration while choosing the outsourcing partner is to see if their business aims and objective match with yours, and the partner is able to clearly understand your business objectives.
  • Service Level Agreement (SLA) lays out key deliverables in writing and is a good way to compare the offerings of different service providers. Look for hit rates to understand if their targets are the accurate representation of the actual service.
  • While communicating with the potential outsourcing partners, you need to communicate how business functions need to be done, what is the budget, expectations of the results and turnover time.
  • Seek proof of proven skills in the key areas. Ask for references to find more about the service quality, support and deliveries.
  • Ensure the financial stability of the partnering firm. It may be helpful to find out details about directors, managers, their qualifications and their experience. This information will enable you to gauge the worthiness and credentials of the firm. Visit the partner’s workplace to ensure that they have high-end technology and best-of-breed infrastructure that are relevant for your project. This will also help you better understand their methodologies and processes.
  • Outsourcing partner should have good networking with the high-end suppliers that provides easy point of contact for all technical and non-technical requirements. The products recommended by the partners should fit the businesses well, and decision should not be based on maximum commission that the partnering company gets from its suppliers.
  • The outsourcing partner should be able to provide reliable service desk support whether it is a quick advice or an underlying technical problem. Due to economies of scale, it is cheaper to outsource, than to have onsite employees. However, the outsourcing partner should be able to provide complete visibility to the raised tickets, and convenient access to the service desk staff.
  • The staff of the outsourcing partner should be able to communicate in the same language as good communication can assure good long term relationship.
  • Ensure that “24×7” involves around-the-clock help from the trained engineers if required, else the support given will be of the answering machine, or unknowledgeable call center staff.
  • Ensure that the account manager has the essential skill and knowledge, and is willing to have personal face-to-face meetings to cover targets and areas of improvement
  • To boost the relationship between the in-house and service provider’s staff, scheduled visits can help understand key processes and products better.
  • Clarify the inclusions of support package and ensure clear terms for transparent billing.
  • The service provider should be able to give right to jump the queue in case of critical scenarios. The cases should be prioritized based on operational impact.
  • There must be a reliable and proven management platform so that the systems and be analyzed and rectified remotely. In-house tools may not have been tested thoroughly, and resources might be more concentrated on development rather than providing services.
  • The service provider should be able to accurately forecast and anticipate the growth in the business, and be able to scale accordingly, without losing the focus on service.
  • Great workforce can lead to great partnership. For any outsourcing partnership, look for the staff award, workplace accolades and other indications that employees in the company are given competitive environment and tools for professional growth.

Once the research is complete, form a special team to conduct the evaluation of the few finalized outsourcing partners, and prepare a plan for Request for Information (RFI) in order to gather the essential information. Once the shortlisted vendors submit their request for proposal (RFP), you can start the evaluation. After all the details are obtained from the service provider, choose the company that is most closely aligned with your outsourcing objectives. It is also important to keep the internal staff well-informed about the participation of external vendor as their cooperation and support is mandatory for the successful integration and materialization.

How Modern Code Generation Works

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In the recent years, web applications have seen dramatic enhancements in the features and user experience, and this has raised the bar for all kinds of software applications. Even the corporate management expects that their internally developed applications should include the latest features, and also support industry standard technologies and platforms. To meet these raised expectations, the developers come under tremendous pressure to produce the best in the least possible time. Businesses are limiting budgets, and shrinking in head counts. In the midst of limited resources and mounting expectations, the developers must find ways to improve productivity, reduce development backlog and migrate projects to the latest technology standards.

With such pressing conditions, writing unnecessary code is painful, and a waste of time. It can be quite unproductive for any organisation to use senior development resources to work on time-intensive, low-level hand coding tasks. At the same time, there is usually insufficient junior staff, and even when they are available, they may not be trained enough for coding or code reviews.

IT departments can address these problems by investing in reliable tools that are easy to use and can automate and manage the development process. Application generators are the code generation tools that offer significant advantages. Application generator helps create application programs that can run on a particular platform. These generators take basic set of inputs and jumpstart the application development process by generating basic code which is more bug-free and reliable as compared to the hand-written code. This also makes the testing and bug-fixing much easier. Sophisticated application generators deliver code which is consistent with the pre-decided set of functionality. Additionally, these generators can generate complex web pages including reports, forms, filter and several other advanced navigation features. The generated code is comparable to the one written by the senior developers. Passive code generators create code and then have nothing to do with the project. Active code generators create code and keep track of the generated code during its lifecycle. The modern code generators are capable of:

  • 1. Starting from scratch with an application-specific data model
  • 2. Creating comprehensive functional applications that link everything and deliver executable, bug-free applications as a base
  • 3. Generating source code native to the target environment or platform
  • 4. Providing easily modifiable and well-organised source code
  • 5. Preserving customizations and modifications during subsequent application regenerations

Modern code generators mainly fall into three categories:

  • Templating– One-shot code generation, supported in editors and IDEs to some extent and code can be easily edited
  • Round-Tripping– Code is generated to be edited and the edited code can be re-imported into the generator
  • Compiling– Binary code or source code generated is not intended to be edited

Additionally, code generators can also be classified as:

Database Script Generators – They write incremental script to create and update relational database model based on the given model.

Application source code generators – Create code in any particular programming language to work with the database. The generated code includes classes to manage database access and to publish the access layer as Web service.

Code generation process is iterative, developers can add databound controls, user interface pages and databases tables to the application in any order. The generated base classes can be customized, and existing or third party code assets can be imbedded. Effects of changes can be easily seen by just regenerating the application at any time. With each new iteration, all the extensions and customizations are automatically preserved. Some of the most commonly used code generation tools are:

  • 1. Acceleo- An open source code generator that allows developers to use model-driven approach for building applications. It provides tools for code generation from EMF based models, and allows incremental generation so that users can generate a piece of code, modify the generated code and regenerate the code without losing previous modifications. Acceleo allows code generation from any kind of metamodel compatible with EMF like UML1, 2 etc. It also allows customization of the generation with the user defined templates and generation of any textual language such as Java, C, Python, etc
  • 2. Actifsource- A model driven software development to create any graphical editor for the domain models. A comprehensive design and code generator tool that covers domain driven software development. It is Eclipse-based, multi-user graphical tool, and offers sophisticated multi-model support
  • 3. Altova MapForce – Any-to-any graphical data mapping, conversion and integration tool which maps data between any combination of database, XML, XBRL, EDI, EXCEL, flat file, JSON or Web service. It instantly transforms data or auto-generates data integration code
  • 4. Spring Roo- Easy to use productivity tool, it is much more than a code generator. The code is automatically changed when changes are made to the Entities. User just needs to give commands, and Spring Roo does the rest
  • 5. RISE- A software application that operates on a RISE model and produces some kind of output. RISE model contains entire life-cycle of the data model, and code generator translates this into an incremental database specific scripts. Additionally, RISE supports C#(.NET) and PHP
  • 6. MyGeneration- Fairly straightforward, flexible and simple tool written in Microsfot .NET. It is good for generating code for ORM architectures. The database metadata is available to the templates through MyMeta API
  • 7. CodeSmith Generator- Template driven source code generator that automates the creation for application source code for any language (Java, C#, PHP, VB, .NET< SQL etc.)

Few other code generation tools are Visual Paradigm and Netbeans IDE to generate code from UML, and Netbeans IDE and MS Visual Studio for editing/generating GUIs.

Modern code generation tools can help develop code for today’s complex applications framework. These generators produce high-quality output which is maintainable and consistent. Code generation tools abstract the code design, and multiple outputs can be generated from a single application functionality model. This also relieves the development team so that they can focus on other strategic-issues and high-level design work. These tools help reduce the time and cost of development.

Social Recruitment- Changing Trends

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Great people make great companies, and good employees are the biggest strength of any organization. Recruiting and retaining these employees is a continuous endeavor, which requires investments in terms of time, money and effort. Despite high unemployment rates, it is at times difficult to find the candidates with right qualifications and qualities to fill a position. Recruiters are always looking for newer and better ways to hire the right talent, and to make their hiring more effective, they need to develop new recruitment strategies covering wider channels. Ascendance of professional and casual social media sites with hundreds and millions of users worldwide has enabled corporates to use these networks as recruiting tools to research and reach out to potential candidates. Since 2011, use of social media for recruitment has seen a tremendous growth which offers unprecedented access to large number of candidates, and reach out to them directly.

As per Jobvite’s 2014 social recruiting survey covering 1,855 recruiters, a whopping 93% use or plan to use social media as part of their recruitment strategy. Respondents also stated that the use of social media improves the quality of candidates by 44% as compared to using only traditional hiring techniques such as filtering resumes and phone screening solely based on the experience and skills.

1

The key to success in social recruitment is to know where to find the right people. Recruiters have already nailed big three of social media: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and these have been extensively mined for hiring quality talent due to their large user base.

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As seen in the charts above, the social networks are being extensively used by the employers at each stage of recruitment, However, companies need to keep in mind that it is a two way lane, and candidates are looking at them as well. Moving beyond LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, companies can use several unconventional technologies and platforms to make their mark on the net and gain more visibility to attract more talent. These different platforms are an inexpensive way to create exceptionally targeted ads, and focus on the specified audiences based on location, ages, gender and even keywords. The employer brand can be reached out to a much larger audience, and by helping candidates understand what it’s like to work in your company, it is easier to create a pipeline of the talent pool, even before the job opening is posted.

Some of the channels that can be explored for recruitment to build employer brand over social media are:

Video Hubs– You Tube has more than a billion users, and companies can use this channel to embed video clips of their company, giving a glimpse of what employees can expect. The video should be entertaining and engaging, and this can help build a good company brand.

SlideShare– It focuses on the professional content, and can be used to target more relevant group of users.

Pinterest – It is an online pinboard for sharing graphics, images and other information, and is growing at a rapid rate. Companies can use the visual coverage to showcase their USP and build a strong brand image.

On the other hand, social media can be used by the hiring managers to gauge what an individual is like prior to time consuming process of application review and scanning. These channels can be used to get a better glimpse into the values, lifestyle and cultural fit of the candidate, which is critical information not only for recruitment, but also in engaging employees and increase the rate of retention.

3

Some of the social channels to better gauge the candidates include:

Quora – An organized question-answer forum, edited and monitored by the users, and can be effectively used for hiring. Quora enables employers to take a deeper look into the potential candidates in terms of reflective experience and competitive intelligence. It is an easy medium to gauge the experience, knowledge and conceptual thinking ability of the candidates on any given topic. Quora is also an effective channel to follow the passive candidates.

Google+ – Can be used by the employers to add candidates to their circles. The circles can be categorized, and recruiters can contact or follow them publicly or privately as per the set preferences.

Dribbble – Used by all kinds of designers to showcase their projects, works and processes. Quora was not designed for recruiting and sourcing use, however, Dribbble has been designed just for that, to generate leads for the designers. If you like any candidate, you can follow them on other channels too.

Github– A niche site for powerful collaboration, all things code, mainly for developers and coders. Employers can get a glimpse of the code, insights and reviews to get the idea of candidate’s work.

FourSquare – Not built for recruiters, however, can definitely be used to get some additional information. This tool provides a good way to interact with the candidates on a more personal level to know their personal interests and preferences, and see if they match with those of the organization.

With all these new tools and platforms, the world is becoming more technologically driven, and social networking is bridging the gap between candidates and recruiters. However, just like any other technology, use of social media for recruitment has its own set of dos and don’ts. Recruitment through social media is a new phenomenon, and as of now, it is difficult to gauge the breadth of pitfalls. Companies have to be very careful with the information acquired from the internet about the candidate, and information must be verified to avoid liability. Misuse of the information can lead to unintentional discrimination or infringement of privacy.

Social media groups are only as good as the efforts put into them, and companies need to participate and take time to develop and become integral part of the communities by being consistent. Keep in mind that social media is just another tool, and not a complete solution to recruitment. These are easy to use tools, with endless possibilities. Interact, share, comment, follow, do whatever it takes to strike a deal.

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Key is to identify which tool and channel is able to deliver best results, and ROI on time, effort and money

Staffing Trends – Digitization, Flexibility, Passive Hiring

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Top performing employees are vital for the success of any organization and companies are under constant pressure to find the right talent, at the lowest cost. Innovative recruitment techniques and technologies are emerging almost every day, and any company can find the high quality talent by employing right tools and strategies. Hiring budgets and volumes in the recruitment industry are perfectly poised for the upward swing this year, and talent acquisition leaders are getting ready to scale their operations. Recruiting leaders are getting smart, and are using data driven technique to find the top talent. Some of the recruitment trends for 2015 are:

Digitization
The explosive growth in internet and use of social media has made the world smaller, and more transparent. What eBook did to paperback, digitization is doing to resume/CV. For recruiters and hiring organizations, it has become much easier to find the candidates, and gather more professional and personal information about them.

In 2015, the traditional resume will fade away to some extent, and writing will be more on the digital wall. The static profiles in resume will be replaced by dynamic content which is maintained online. Candidates are using several URLs for controlling and sharing what they have done, what they are capable of doing, and showcase their talent, capabilities and knowledge via blogs and other channels. Additionally, 2015 will witness a more candidate-friendly and human approach for applicant tracking as compared to relying on algorithms and keywords to match skills and experience. Mobile-optimized format, machine learning adaptive algorithms, Big data etc. all are becoming an integral part of hiring trends in 2015.

The cliché “Who you know is more important than what you know” is seeing a turnaround as well. Digitization makes it much easier to find “what you know”, and Internet is changing the old networking concepts. The first-hand contacts and networks are still important, however, the relationships and introduction are moving online.

Flexible Staffing
Another emerging recruitment trend is the gradual shift towards a more distributed labor model, which is flexible, and can respond to the changing business requirements. To improve the hiring process and quality by lowering cost and maximizing time utilization, employers are collaborating with temporary staffing firms to find talented and skilled workforce. This helps them find the right talent, and stay productive. Before committing resources to the new hires, employers can hire through staffing firm on a trial basis to ensure a good fit not only for the job, but also for their own organization. Skilled and professional flexible staffing solutions firms can help employers save money and time in the long run. These firms can be used to hire highly skilled individuals capable of handling critical projects in virtually every industry as these firms have broad networks, and extensive database of resume from skilled local professionals. Flexible staffing firms can conduct the initial screening, interviews and reference checks on behalf of the employer. Employers that staff flexibly by employing a mix of temporary and flexible professionals will be able to navigate well through both good and turbulent times.

Additionally, there are lots of other costs associated with hiring permanent employees, such as health benefits, compensation insurance, and unemployment taxes. These additional expenses and the complexity of hiring will lead to increased usage of flexible staffing arrangements that help organizations quickly fill in vacant positions, without the obligations associated with full-time employment. Some of the major advantages of flexible staffing solutions are:

• Reduced Cost
• Reduced Vulnerability
• Increased Job Satisfaction
• Better Resource Allocation
• Evaluating Potentials
• Wider Choices
• Avoid Burning Out

Using Talent pool for passive hiring
People with right capabilities and skills stay high in demand, but low in supply, and stiff competition stays the biggest challenge to hiring. Hence, recruiters are using the talent pool reports to quantify the supply and demand for the right skill set. There are vast majority of professionals who identify themselves as passive candidates, and can be a top recruitment source for several talent acquisition leaders. 2015 will see a leap towards closing the gap between active and passive candidates. Recruiting passive talent requires different set of skills, and recruiters must be trained in finding the right channels to source candidates, crafting personalized messages, and presenting the opportunities in the organization as a much more than just a pay raise.

Talent Brand
A step forward for the organizations in the year 2015 will be proper funding in recruitment, and measuring their talent brand, which is the public, social version of the company brand. The research shows that if a company has a strong talent brand, the turnover rates can be lowered by 28% and cost per hire can be reduced by 50%. Strong talent brand in place also significantly increases the ability to hire good talent. The companies will have to benchmark their talent brand budgets against other human resource investments to fund the talent brand as per their priorities. Employees can be leveraged as the talent brand ambassadors.

2015 is going to be a competitive year for hiring professionals, and tapping into the key recruitment trends will ensure that they can keep up with the hiring demands and competition. There is no lagging behind this year.

Challenges in Developing IoT Services

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After Big Data and Cloud, Internet of Things (IoT) has now arrived as a buzzword, showing the promising future of completely interconnected world with self-driving cars, connected home appliances and real-time collection and analysis of data for instant results. Internet, PCs and Smartphones changed the way we live and work, on the same lines, IoT will change the way we interact with each other and our eco system

To understand the features and connotations of the IoT, it has been structured into a five-layered architecture format. At the bottom is the Device layer which is the main data source and includes sensing devices that are capable of sensing the surrounding environment, collect data, and transmit it on regular intervals. These sensors need to interact with the intelligent gateway which provides data aggregator and device level data processing capabilities. Data is transmitted over the network through a service provider. The next layer enables the seamless connectivity with different Machine to Machine (M2M) devices, and offers remote monitoring and managing of device connectivity.

This layered architecture helps understand the essence of the IoT, which offers great business opportunities and holds a great potential to integrate everything in this world. It is not just a simple extension of the Telecommunications Network or the Internet. It has the feature of both, in addition to its own unique features. This technical revolution represents the future of communications and computing, however we must acknowledge the fact that IoT brings unique set of challenges from technology side as well as from the business side. Some of the major challenges of IoT development have been discussed below:

IoT Protocols– The next wave of Internet, or IoT is about intelligent, connected devices, supporting hundreds of protocols for successful interaction. These devices communicate with each other (D2D) and data collected from this communication is sent to the server infrastructure (D2S), which then shares the device data (S2S). The data can be provided back to the devices, people, or analysis programs. IoT system can be built on familiar Web technologies, however, the result will not be as efficient as with the new protocols as IoT protocols must produce smaller data overheads, and should be optimized for constrained devices and networks. MQTT, DDS, XMPP and AMQP protocols are gaining popularity, however, there are at least 10 implementations of each, and hence confusion is inevitable. As a result, despite set standards, adoptability has been slow, and many different protocols are being used due to business and technological limitations. There are however several standardization groups and bodies that are actively working to create more inter-operable protocol stacks and open standards for IoT.

Security– When millions of smart devices are inter-connected, there is a continuous flow of data, travelling between devices, networks, and gateways. IoT is opening the networks that were previously closed, making them more vulnerable to the hackers. Whether in motion, or at rest, data security must be ensured. Most gadgets these days lack the basic protection against hacking, and vendors need to come up with smart solutions. Operators can employ stricter encryption standards that are scalable, efficient and affordable.

Another challenge is to educate consumers to utilize security features built into their devices, and users need to keep updating their devices regularly. For end users, security procedures cannot be too complicated, yet they should provide sufficient privacy and protection.

Privacy– With growing number of connected devices, IoT will generate and store more and more personal information, which will be very attractive for the hackers, leading to more security breaches. Due to the recent NSA revelations, people and organizations are becoming more conscious about maintaining their privacy, and this is affecting the way they are storing the information. To enable development of IoT, international alignment on privacy rules is required. Different countries have different privacy policies when it comes to grasping personal data, and if this alignment is not made, companies will have to choose their selective markets, instead of providing their services all around the world.

Data Flood-Undoubtedly, IoT will be generating unimaginable amount of data, and existing infrastructure in terms of wireless carriers to the data-centre is inadequate to handle such enormous data volumes. Additionally, this data needs to be processed and stored, resulting in huge infrastructure and maintenance cost. To facilitate data storage, bigger data centers and data farms need to be established, and this will require large investments.

IPv6 adoption– IoT involves billions of devices, and hence requires billions of new IP addresses. Although we will run out of IPv4 addresses soon, still the adoption of IPv6 is not growing as fast as required and 2013 saw a decline of IPv6 traffic.

Analytics– To deal with the data, enterprises will have to think beyond conventional business intelligence tools. As an example, in case of medical emergency, the data received from the monitoring devices needs to be analyzed real-time. This data then needs to be stored and reused so that patient care can be improved based on his or her medical history over the past few months. In IoT, data will come in smaller pieces which will not overload the bandwidth, and we can throw away the data which is not required. However, we need to have mechanisms in place to collect only relevant data that is useful for analytics and semantics, and filter the irrelevant data.

Fragmentation– IoT is a complex interconnection of software and hardware working together, creating a platform of the developers and organizations. Due to this vertical platform, the existing M2M related standards and technological landscape have become highly fragmented, which can be seen across several applied domains with almost no re-use of technologies. Each IoT device is installed in its own platform and ecosystem, and companies have become more interested in owning the vertical stack rather than developing products and services to benefit developers and consumers. Open source platform will encourage the collaboration and creativity, and will also help reduce the cost of product development. The entire ecosystem of users and solution providers will benefit by striving towards use of common set of tools, leading to less fragmentation.

Interoperability– IoT requires connecting heterogeneous objects amongst themselves and also with the Internet. The people have been connected anywhere, anytime, and now the next step is to interconnect heterogeneous applications and services that can be integrated with existing and new processes. Interoperability is extremely important and challenging in IoT which requires effective and efficient management of resources. The future networks of IoT will continue to be multi-services, multi-vendors and largely distributed, which will increase the risk of interoperability. The lack of such interoperability could lead to loss of some key information or unavailability of some services for the users, unless standards are set both between and within domains.

Quality of Service (QoS)– Quality of the service is the idea that error rates, transmission rates and other factors can be captured and improved. As IoT is inherently a complex shared system with integrated plethora of network components, applications and resources, there are many dynamic and heterogeneous constraints in terms of communication, computation and energy. IoT applications must have a robust and expressive set of abstractions to consider these multiple dimensions of QoS. In the network, the applications interact, and multi-dimensional QoS requires active compliance with both sides of communication and the network There must be a balance in the demands of different parties (resources, applications, intermediate network) in a highly dynamic, unpredictable and diverse network of IoT.

Deployment challenges –IoT encompasses a wide range of devices, wearables and embedded technologies. There are staggering possibilities with numerous algorithms and schemes that can possibly create a mesh of deployment complexities. This poses significant challenge to the application developers, as they have to cope with the exceptionally large number of supported devices and form factors, and extensive network compatibility issues in order to make front and backend more responsive. Developers also have to deal with the highly capable edge devices. Additionally, they have to capture, process and support business requirements from the data generated by all these devices.

Lack of Common Standards– Within the IoT space, the lack of open standards is manifested at the institutional level. As an example, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) involves multiple stakeholders and policy makers including engineers who help formulate framework for the development of Internet. However, there is no such establishment for IoT. Such standards are required for IoT growth, and first step towards open standards could be well-documented APIs.

Complexity-IoT technology will connect equipment and devices that have never been connected before, and hence, there must be ease in the design and development to have more connections. The technologies required to create intelligent systems can get extremely complex and broad, and to provide seamless experience, the solutions need to be customized to some extent.

Power Management– The things in IoT will have to be portable and self-sustaining to be more energy efficient, and hence adding power management to these equipment needs to be made easier. For future development of IoT, unconventional power sources must be tapped.

Devices in IoT have to handle several different tasks. The biggest question however still remains: Do we really need or want all these connected devices? Would we buy more devices because they connect? And discard the existing devices? Do people really need self-driving car, or a connected tennis racket to improve the game? Some people feel that IoT is much hyped at this stage by the companies who are designing services and equipment for it. Only future will tell how different devices connect, and if they hold the potential as promised. IoT comes with technological, business and societal challenges, and we need to ensure that this internet wave breaks smoothly on our beaches.

Recruitment- The Changing Trends

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Use of new technology for recruitment has been around for many years, however, there is now a seismic shift that is altering the ways of interaction between job seekers and employers. Web and smartphones together are changing the level of expectations, making recruitment systems more efficient and rewarding to use. As technology is slowly paving its way in all aspects of recruitment processes, it is reducing cost and time, and increasing overall user satisfaction. There have been many years of slack hiring, and the coming year will witness intense competition in recruitment of IT talent. As a result, recruitment teams are going to be under extreme pressure, and will have to embrace the latest technological trends to stay competitive.

Some of these latest trends have been discussed below:

Advanced Metrics– Recruitment leaders have started to follow the rest of businesses in adopting advanced metrics, and this shift to real-time metrics will enable decision makers know about the latest happenings, and predictive metrics will alert about upcoming recruitment issues and opportunities. This will give the management sufficient time to plan and act appropriately.

Career Portals– With the changing technological landscape, the expectations and long term plans of Gen Y job seekers are changing as well. They want to get accurate feel about the company, want flexible working hours, and are interested in corporate social responsibility (CSR). To cater to the needs of this generation, the career portals need to focus primarily on building a strong relationship with the candidates from the early stages. Company portals must enable the job seekers to understand their interest and competencies, and what job will make perfect sense for them in the company.
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Big Data– Big data is the large volume of data available on the Web which includes forum threads, numbers, blogs, profiles, videos, pictures etc. Many employers are able to identify passive job seekers using external “Big data”. Advanced metrics developed using big data are shifting the recruiting trends towards a data-supported decision model. Smart organizations are using technology to track the online journey of a candidate, such as pages viewed and jobs applied for.

Go Mobile– Mobile phones allow direct application for jobs, and this will become more popular as more and more recruitment-focused mobile apps are being developed. The Mobile Web Watch report by Accenture shows that more than 85% of the people access the web via mobile at least once a day. With faster mobile internet connectivity, larger screen smartphones, and latest apps, it has become much easier to connect and engage with the candidates. Almost 23% of the Google searches that contain the word “Job” are from mobile devices. However, recruiters have not been very adept at this transition to mobile. For the coming year, the impact of mobile platforms will continue to grow and expand.

Branding– Another changing trend is the employer branding as a long-term recruitment strategy. Due to social media, it is quite easy for anyone to spread their views and comments virally. The former or current employees can easily pass on their views about the work environment. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media are transitioning towards smart advertising and are opting for a recommendation-based search so that organisations can approach the right candidates with more precision. Social media can help companies actively position themselves as desirable employers to attract the top talent in the marketplace. Social sharing also helps job seekers understand a company better, its strengths and values.

Impact Analysis– Another changing hiring trend is to demonstrate the direct impact that the recruitment has on business results. Revenue is one of the principal corporate goals, and the recruiters can quantify the revenue impact of great hires, as compared to weak or average hires. Revenue impacts can be monetized, and by making business cases, recruiters can speculate the required funding for the hiring surge.

Move Away from Silos– Recruitment is an integrated process, and cannot work in silos. The succession and recruitment processes must be interlinked, and should not be treated as separate portfolios. Recruitment, talent management and reporting systems need to be integrated, ways to export data must be updated, and analytics applications need to be used efficiently to turn large amounts of data into meaningful information that can provide insights to aid better decision making. Talent management must be treated as a continuous process. Technology can help recruiters pinpoint the exact match, and avoid wasting time sifting through applications.

To save on cost and time, live video interviews are steadily growing in acceptance. They have proven to be quite effective, especially for the initial interview process. Also, many senior executives resist applying for new positions simply because they do not have time to update their resume. Firms can look at their media profiles to initiate the hiring process. This allows them to target the top prospects, who might be interested in changing.
Additionally, using behavioural patterns, biometric data, online skills testing, and proprietary algorithms can also help predict the likely fit. There are behavioural biometrics tests to capture a clear picture of innate behaviours, motivation, aptitude and character that help understand the personality type, and predict the probability of success for a specific job.

Just as advanced technology has touched every part of our lives, it is influencing the professional lives as well. Behaviours, tools, landscape, expectations and generations are constantly changing around us, and recruiters must effectively use new technology to redefine the recruitment process, while improving outcomes for organizations. Recruitment technology offers detailed ways to track sources and combine metrics around time to hire, dropout rates, acceptance rates, and competency and assessment scores. The challenge for companies now is to harness the potential of these information, analyse them, and use them to their advantage to get the best match for the required job.