“Scrum” ur Development and your teams

Scrum is suplemented to Xp programming

There is a Product owner for any development. Product owner provides a product feature list.

A typical scrum team is 5 members with 2-3 basic coders + 1 visual designers+ coordniator cum researcher. They undergo a Sprint cycle. A typical duration of sprint cycle is 1 – 4 weeks. Mind you these sprint cycles once decided is not flexible in duration. Caution to team members Never over commit . Deliver a presentation of end deliverable or product. The teams come back and see what has been built…The product owner reviews it and either approves the sprint or cancel the sprint.

First sprint cycle – team overcommits and if they dont deliver then they need to take responsibility for it

Second cycle Sprint the team fearing previous failures tends to undercommits and feel that they can do betterThird sprint cycle people optimise. There are daily standup meeting for 15 mins . Review on what did the team got done since last meeting helps reshuffle and is a cool experience to realign their strategy. Scrum teams break down personal barriers and make workplace comfortable..

There is a scrum master is like the sheep dog of the scrum team and he is empowered to do anything to protect the team from external forces and that ensures focus is required. Yahoo podcast was done in this scrum teams and it did in record times less 30% time and also works on colocated offshore teams as well. Ideally by video conferences and two different team standup meetings as on different time zones. And all list was sent back and forth to be update in standup meetings as well.Scrum can be championed into the organization by typically someone like on a top down model.

Setting trends in News integration and feeds for personal viewing

Hi all,

I came across Arjun back at Barcamp chennai but couldnt get an opportunity to hear him on Taazza as we had one of our friends (Ram) was presenting something great on internet rich applications from the house of Adobe (A product called Flex). Today after having a snapshot on Taazza i realised i had missed a " killer " that too done on ROR.

First of all Great work Arjun, perseverance really pays and it shows in your product. We see a visible differentiator and a value sell to see it better than Memmorandum and google news. " I see you think global and act local". Thanx for the vision that you are currently keeping the site clean and focussed,

But at an afterthought sometime down the lane dont you feel Taazza will succumb to the commercial bug thus compromising the vision and settling for much lesser ideals … bcos you need to oil the infrastructural machinery more so…

Is there a visionary objectve and also are you prone to acquisitions …only time will tell. But for today Taazza is really fresh and its upto the ace founders to keep it that way!

Congrats guys!

How to map crime in a growing city with available technology

Executive Snapshot on Crime Scenario in a typical city
Policing has been generally reactive in nature – police try to catch criminals who have committed crimes. In the last decade, however, police have become more proactive in preventing crimes and more effective in allocating scarce resources for the greatest crime reduction. This project is an effort to infuse advanced information technologies such as Geographic information system (GIS) and conventional automated record keeping supports this revolutionary movement. World over Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has become a vital tool for the prevention and control of crime in the developed countries and Police departments of advanced nations have started applying GIS for preventing crime. GIS provides a fresh alternative approach to the conventional statistical methods. Over the last decade, GIS has emerged as a powerful instrument for solving crime problems. Compared to the statistical methods, GIS has several advantages.

A primary advantage of GIS is that it can visualize the spatial patterns of crimes, the relations between crime and its correlates, and the differentiation of crime type and its related attributes. A second advantage is that even with a small sample size, GIS can still show meaningful information. Third, visualized information can be very useful in the deployment of police forces and the allocation of resources. Finally, with improvement in its software and ease for mastery, GIS is rapidly becoming an essential tool for analysis at all levels of police management, administration, and planning.
Objectives:

By implementation of this project we can achieve the following

1. A total integrated solution to help create a seamless Crime fighting unit.
2. Optimising Crime using Bleeding edge Technology.
3. Creation of a knowledge warehouse on Criminals, related crime and profiling crime
4. Patterns to help crime prevention.
5. Creation of a better decision support system for effective resource allocation like
6. Patrolling and police administration.
7. Help the PDRM (Inspector General of Police) on a paradigm Shift from Reactive Policing to Proactive policing.
8. Correlating geographic data with incidence of crime.

Current Scenario – Available Crime Data and assumptions

The overall crime situation at a city like Kuala Lumpur appears very Grim.

• A total of crimes were recorded in 2002, a increase of 5.5 % over 2001 (77,245).
• Violent Crimes were recorded, a surge of 8.5% compared with 2001 (14,812). The number of Violent Crimes recorded was the highest in the past 5 years.
• Looking at Crime Rate, per 100 000 population, the Overall Crime Rate stood at 1084.5, an increase of 6.4 % compared with 2000.
• Crime Detection Rate was 44 %, compared with 43.6% for 2001.

Classification of crime into Bank Robberies, “Copycat” crimes, Goldsmith/Watch Shop Robberies, Burglary, Homicide, Wounding and Serious Assault, Rape and Indecent Assault, Thefts sub classified as Shop Theft, Pick pocketing, Theft of Motor Vehicles and Deception. Serious Narcotics Cases sub classified into Heroin, MDMA (Ecstasy), Cannabis, Herbal Resin, Methamphetamine (Ice), Ketamine etc..Organised Crime and Triads, Cyber Crime, Illegal Immigrants, Juveniles and Young Persons Arrested for Crimes. Having this data separately and viewing the same as a layer in the map will provide insights into patterns.

Implication on proposed Strategy

The proposed new system creates one seamless crime-fighting unit. Combined display of GIS maps and Oracle database will give more information about an area, criminals, crime histories, road maps, shortest routes and hot spots. Query system is more helpful to get specific data and maps from the entire data. By using the integrated 3D mapping system the officers can comprehend crime incidence and detect patterns within a short period.

Information will be made accessible on more than 3,500 PCs throughout the department, providing users with hundreds of easy-to-query reports that provide officers with the most current information. The system spontaneously alerts department members when the data reveals particular crime patterns that might not be evident to the naked eye, thus helping investigators stay one step ahead of criminals. The project could save the department millions of dollars, and allow it to place more emphasis on fighting and deterring crime and less on administration.