June 29th, 2008

SlideShare: user communication failure

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 9:20 am

Categories: Availability and reliability, End-user impact, Enterprise 2.0, Failure 2.0

Tags: Object-oriented Programming, File, SlideShare, Ooa/Ood/Oop, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Michael Krigsman

While Enterprise 2.0 applications can be useful, hassles sometimes abound. In this case, I innocently tried to upload a simple file to SlideShare, only to learn things aren’t always straightforward.After attempting to upload the file, I received an error message stating in part:

There’s a big chance this is just a temporary/random glitch with our servers; just retry after 5 minutes and see if it works.

Here’s a screen capture, highlighting the relevant message:

The troubleshooting FAQ offers a bit more information:

I am getting a file conversion error while uploading my file. It gives me an “OOPs”. What is this?

This means your file could not be converted to our format. Reasons could be varied
- it’s possible our converter is temporarily down, try uploading once again
- if your file is password protected or contains macros, you might get an OOPs; remove them and upload again
- sometimes uploading the pdf version instead of the original ppt/odp file (or vice-versa) helps to overcome the OOPs

If none of the above helped, this could be due to some incompatibility between our converter & your file.

While every application suffers bugs and errors, I don’t understand why SlideShare doesn’t state whether or not their converter is down. As the screen capture shows, I spent 41 minutes screwing around — converting the file, uploading, re-converting, and so on. SlideShare, if your converter isn’t working, please speak up so I don’t waste my time.

Although I generally like SlideShare, communicating errors and problems clearly to users is obviously not a strong point. It’s time the company learned this important skill.

Update 6/30/08, 8:30am EDT: The SlideShare blog reports the upload problem has been resolved. Amit Ranja, one of SlideShare’s founders, sent the following comment by email:

Regarding your suggestion to add intelligence to upload error messages, it is definitely a good idea. Let me discuss this internally and see if we can incorporate that.

June 16th, 2008

Selling SOA: Stating the obvious

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 7:02 am

Categories: CIO issues, IT issues, SaaS, PaaS, and SOA

Tags: SOA, David, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Web Services, Middleware, Enterprise Software, Software, Michael Krigsman

Successful IT projects, including Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) initiatives, begin with a clear rationale designed to help an organization solve specific business or technology problems. Practitioners frequently ignore this obvious point, which causes many failed projects.

With this in mind, I had mixed reactions reading a post by David Linthicum on How to Sell SOA. David says the following:

So, how do you sell? Let’s look at a few key concepts, including:

1. Shining light on existing limitations
2. Creating the business case
3. Creating the execution plan
4. Delivering the goods

From one perspective, it’s easy to dismiss this general advice as a form of insipid business pablum applicable to any large organizational endeavor whether IT or not. However, David’s discussion of these basics suggests the degree to which many enterprises misunderstand SOA. Failure remains an integral part of the entire IT landscape, so David is absolutely correct in offering such admonitions.

Selling expensive SOA projects depends on defining a business case, developing a workable implementation plan, and presenting benefits to senior management. However, there’s also a fine line between selling hyped-up concepts and offering something practical and achievable within stated times and budgets.

How do you sell SOA internally? Please share your thoughts.

April 19th, 2006

Stating the Obvious?

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 4:21 pm

Categories: Project failures, Project management

Tags: Michael Krigsman

According to KPMG, lots of IT projects fail as a result of poor management. From the article:

KPMG International’s survey of 600 organisations across 22 countries revealed that 86% of respondents reported the loss of up to a quarter of their targeted benefits across their project portfolios.

Nearly half of respondents reported at least one project failure in the past year, an improvement from KPMG’s 2003 survey where 57% experienced one or more project failures in the previous 12 months.

Standish Group has been saying the same thing for years in their CHAOS Report. Please, Mr. KPMG, give us specific advice on how to actually solve these project failures. Generalizations about management are nice, but I want hard news.

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