Nerds N' Geeks IT Magazine - Issue 2

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CONTENTS At the Bottom of 4G Networks Page 06

Page 08

How to Build Your Web Application on the Cloud Page 11

Basics of Search Engine Optimization Page 14

Recruitment Interviews Page 09

CUTTING EDGE 2010 Page 12

A Gamer’s Perspective Page 13

Employees Provident Fund Page 16 Financial Management for Individuals and Family Units Page 20 Software Quality Assurance Page 18

A Game Review Page 22 Communication Issues Page 24 www.nerds-n-geeks.com

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S EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief

Chaman Ipalawatta chaman@nerds-n-geeks.com

Technical Editor

Tharaka de Alwis ndealwis@gmail.com

Sub-Editors

Ramanee Ipalawatta Nirmala Perera Namalie Ipalawatta

Contributors

N.J. Perera Andre Perera (Thé Doc) Dian Gunathilaka Maduranga Liyanage Ramanee Ipalawatta Tharaka de Alwis Chinthana Seneviratne L.W.C. Nirosh Hemal Alwis Zeinab Shabbir

Chief Designer

Logo Design

DESIGN

It’s been three good long months since we launched the first issue of Nerds N’ Geeks IT Magazine in Sri Lanka and we got a really good response from our dear readers. We keep reaching out to our IT experts and professionals to bring their experiences and best practises to you through this magazine.

SerQ IT Shanaka Kulasinghe Email: skulasinghe@serq.biz Web: www.serq.biz

While keeping to our goals of bridging the knowledge gap, we have decided to publish this magazine as an e-Magazine to reach out to more readers island wide. This initiative not only brings this magazine to a new, one of the most advanced publishing platforms on the Internet, but also helps the environment by minimizing paper usage.

NuClear Ambitions & Lalintha Perera

At Nerds N’ Geeks, we believe that knowledge should be given out free. To be in line with our beliefs, we decided to make this publication available to the public as a free publication. As the Editor-in-Cheif, I would humbly request all readers to transfer your learnings from this publication to all your friends, colleagues and family members.

PRODUCTION Publisher

Nerds N’ Geeks 49B, Woodland Avenue Kohuwala Nugegoda Sri Lanka

We could not have jumped all the hurdles that were in front of us if not for our contributors who spent hours writing these great articles and our sub-editors and technical editors who made sure these articles were correct. Lastly, this beautiful magazine would have not come to life without the massive effort made by our designer, Shanaka of SerQ IT. Again, thank you all who helped us to make this a success once again!

ADVERTISING Advertising inquiries: 077 363 3327-8 011 282 8944 Website: www.nerds-n-geeks.com/advertisements

CONTACT US Email: chaman@nerds-n-geeks.com Web: www.nerds-n-geeks.com Phone: 011 282 8944 Street: 49B, Woodland Avenue, Kohuwala, Nugegoda

Chaman Ipalawatta Editor-in-Chief

PERMISSIONS AND REPRINTS Material in Nerds N’ Geeks IT Magazine may not be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the copyright holders. Nerds N’ Geeks logos are property of Nerds N’ Geeks.

ISSUE 2 SEPTEMBER 2010

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OFDM

At the Bottom of 4G Networks

By : Maduranga Liyanage

B

y now many of you are probably familiar with WiMAX or LTE. They are the nextgeneration (or could be this-generation) wireless communications: the 4th generation (4G).

Although there are overlaps and blurred areas, generally GSM is considered 2G, while CDMA2000 and WCDMA are considered 3G. WiMAX and LTE services are getting ready for a showdown very soon. WiMAX networks have been popping up around the world and are already in service in many countries, but those networks are not operating to the full 4G potential. That is, the claimed high throughputs.

If you are reading this, you have definitely used a computer, and most definitely used the internet, and probably have a mobile with a data connection.

Chances are high that you are not satisfied with your connection speed on your mobile, because most mobile users in the world are not. People are getting tired of waiting for their YouTube videos to buffer and load or upload their photos to Facebook.

People need speedy connections and that’s exactly what these 4G technologies are trying to do ... give you higher data speeds. The specification sheet will boast data rates exceeding 100Mbps, but in reality you will experience only a fraction of that. Still, that’s much better than what you now get with your 3G connection.

These 4G wireless technologies (sometimes called “broadband wireless”) have been on roadmaps of many service providers for sometime and now we www.nerds-n-geeks.com

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see them coming to mainstream. So, let’s find out a little bit about 4G technologies which you will experience pretty soon, especially about what’s at the very bottom of these two technologies.

OFDM, abbreviated for orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing, lies at the bottom of WiMAX or LTE technologies. This is the technology used in the “physical layer”. If you have fiddled around a bit in “Internet Connections” in “Control Panel” of Microsoft Windows, you’d probably have come across TCP/IP, MAC address, DNS, etc.

Those refer to special functions of the 7-layer OSI model. At the bottom of that model is the “physical layer”. The physical layer is basically responsible for transmitting bits, or 1’s and 0’s.

It does not care what information it is sending.

It could be a YouTube video, or a Wikipedia search, when those reach the physical layer, they are just 1’s and 0’s. The duty of the physical layer is to transmit those 1’s and 0’s. In 4G networks, we want to transmit those bits as fast as possible.

That’s the major purpose of 4G networks. To send those bits as fast as possible, from one end to the other. But when you send bits from one end to another, there are many intermediary entities, such as routers, switches, servers, etc. However, as far as the physical layer is concerned, it does not have any control over those, but what it can control, is the speed at which it sends bits. Right now, we just want our physical layers to send those bits as fast as it can. OFDM is the one responsible in sending those bits in 4G networks.

OFDM is the technology used in physical layer 4G network standards for sending data. So what does OFDM actually look like?

Bandwidth and power are the two most important factors determining the data speed of a network. You probably have heard of 900Mhz, 1800Mhz, etc. mentioned in phone specification listings. This is the position of the bandwidth.

Bandwidth is basically a range of frequencies.

Unfortunately, these two factors are not in abundance. Power is limited by the standard or a regulatory body of each country. Bandwidth is also something that’s controlled by a governing body. For example, in Sri Lanka, it’s controlled by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) and service providers have to bid to get the bandwidth. This is usually very costly and hence service providers want to utilize it as efficiently as possible. This is one of the major advantages OFDM gives. It is much www.nerds-n-geeks.com

more bandwidth efficient. To see why, refer to the figure:

form is very difficult and costly to implement practically. To implement OFDM, the transmitter

Top of the figure shows how the bandwidth is utilized in a conventional system. Bottom shows how OFDM does it. The figure only serves an illustrative purpose. In practice, there is no such one-to-one mapping between the two but by this illustration, you get the idea.

and receiver is required to perform a DFT (Discrete-Fourier-Transform) operation, which is one form of the famous Fourier Transforms.

In its mathematical form, DFT is very difficult and inefficient to implement in a device. It is the finding of the Fast-Fourier-Transform (FFT) algorithm that led to the feasibility of using OFDM in devices. FFT is basically a very efficient way of doing DFT in a signal processor. After all, that is what’s important. We need to be able to implement any technology in a processor, otherwise we cannot use it in a mobile phone or any other device. FFT paved the way for mass adoption of this technology. Now there are Digital Signal Processors, (DSPs) dedicated to perform FFT, because DFT is one of the most used transforms in digital technologies.

In conventional wireless systems, you need guard bands. Those are the gaps between the frequency bands. The guard bands are used to eliminate interference. Since no data can be sent in these guard bands, that bandwidth is essentially wasted.

Now, if you look at the OFDM, there are no guard bands. In fact, the frequencies are overlapping each other.

So how does OFDM work with all that interference? That’s the beauty of OFDM. The name “orthogonal” itself says it all. OFDM uses the principle of orthorgonality to avoid the interference. Basically, at the receiver, there is zero interference from the neighbouring bands.

This is one major advantage. There are other advantages of OFDM too, for example, relatively simple receiver structure and immunity from channel facts, of which I will not go into detail.

So, if OFDM is so advantageous, why didn’t earlier systems use it? Actually, a few did. ADSL Standard uses it. In ADSL, it’s usually called DMT (Discrete Multi Tone) but it’s basically the same thing. IEEE802.11a/g Standards use OFDM too, as does the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) services, which is one of the first commercial services to use OFDM. OFDM was actually found a long time ago, as far back as the 1960s but OFDM in it’s theoretical

Well, although OFDM looks very good on paper, it does pose quite a bit of challenges when used in practical situations but the technology is luckily mature enough for us to work through those challenges. OFDM has huge potential. The fact that OFDM has been used in commercial services like DVB more than 10 years ago, and is still being adopted into the next generation wireless standards by the IEEE standardization body, shows the superiority of the technology.

4G will be here for at least another decade and choosing OFDM as the technology to support the data needs for the next generation to come, shows the experts faith in OFDM to be a very able technology. After all, it’s been around for about 50 years.

Maduranga Liyanage holds a PhD in Wireless Communications and currently working at Schlumberger, Japan page | 7

Dotnutz Solutions introduces

Panda Internet Security & Panda Office Cloud Protection

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anda is indeed in Sri Lanka, and here to protect your PC. I think I should first enlighten you on what Panda is, apart from being that cute four-legged black and white bear type animal belonging to the raccoon family. The Panda I refer to is The Panda Security, and more importantly to us, the Panda Internet Security antivirus software and Panda Cloud Protection which has been introduced to us through Dotnutz Solutions Pvt Ltd from Panda Security.

Panda Security SL, formerly Panda Software, is a computer security company founded in 1990

by Panda’s former CEO, Mikel Urizarbarrena, in the city of Bilbao, Spain. Initially, centered on the production of anti-virus software, the company has expanded its line of applications to include firewall applications, spam and spyware detection applications, cyber crime prevention technology, and other system management and security tools for businesses and home users.

Panda’s products include security tools for home users and enterprises, including protection against cyber crime and kinds of malware that can damage IT systems, such as spam, hackers, spyware, dialers and undesirable web content, as well as detection of WiFi intrusions. Its trademark technology, branded TruPrevent, is a set of proactive capabilities aimed at blocking

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unknown viruses and intruders. In 2007, Panda introduced a new collective intelligence security model which utilizes grid computing for malware collection and detection.

samples per day, guaranteeing corporate customers and home users the most effective protection against Internet threats with minimum impact on PC performance.

In 2005, Panda Security was the 4th largest antivirus vendor worldwide, with 3.2% of the marketplace. The company has been ranked among the 500 fastest growing European companies since 1997. Panda Security is a market leader in Spain and in 1998, the company became Europe’s leading antivirus software developer. In 2003, Panda Security has experienced 1,000% growth in revenues worldwide.

According to recent on-demand proactive test results (av-comparatives.org) , Panda is the number one all-rounder out of all the AV products in the market.

Panda Security products are now available in Sri Lanka and it has clients across 200 countries and 50 offices including Uruguay, USA, Canada, Germany, China, the United Kingdom, France, Thailand, Greece, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Peru, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Poland, Turkey, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.

In 2003, Panda Security reached Japan, Argentina, Korea and Australia.

Charith Kulatunga,the Managing Director & CEO of Dotnutz Solutions said that “they are proud to introduce the best and the latest e-security technology to Sri Lankans”.

Panda Security was the first IT security company to harness the power of cloud computing with its Collective Intelligence Technology. This innovative security model can automatically analyze and classify thousands of new malware

Dotnutz Solutions (Private) Limited will be the first IT solution provider in Sri Lanka to promote Cloud-Based e-security solutions for home users and medium & large scale business users in Sri Lanka.

He also said that Dotnutz Solutions & Panda Security Sri Lanka will be commencing Seminars island-wide to educate Sri Lankan youth about cyber crimes and how it can be prevented by any individual.

For more information, please visit Dotnutz official site www.dotnutz.com or contact them on 077-495-1837. page | 8

Recruitment Interviews

By: Dian Gunathilaka

“An investigation may take six months. A quick interview, profile, a day”

- Diane Sawyer

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he importance of interviews, more specifically job interviews seems to be increasing and becoming a crucial moment for both individuals and organizations.

In majority of Sri Lankan organizations, it is more or less the first interaction between prospective employees and employer. From an employee’s point of view, it’s the only chance he/ she would get to create a lasting first impression that is bound to go a long way and make his/her first step towards joining an organization he/she desires, and may change his /her life forever.

As for the employer, or better known as the Organization, it is about picking the “best fit” from a group of “average to good fit” individuals.

Thus, the importance is just the same, if not more. www.nerds-n-geeks.com

Entering Always walk in when someone has called your name and asked you to enter. It might be a secretary, assistant or someone from the panel itself. If you are to walk through a closed door, always knock before you enter, and wait for an indication to proceed.

Walk in confidently and greet the panel appropriately. Shake hands while maintaining eye contact. Remain standing until you are offered a seat. When you are offered a seat, sit down calmly and place your things carefully in an appropriate place.

How to begin The businessdictionary site defines “Interview” as a ‘somewhat formal discussion between two parties in which information is exchanged.

For a business looking out to fill an open job position, an employer might interview potential

candidates to gain a better understanding of their background, qualifications and skills.

Therefore, it must be understood that exchange of the required information between both parties will be crucial as the first step.

What will organizations look for?

Organizations will often look for a selfintroduction by the prospective employee with information about his/her education, career, family background, etc. It is not merely the information that matters but also your communication skills, level of confidence and self-presentation that will be judged from this moment onwards and will help you to generate a positive image of yourself which is likely to affect the rest of the interview as well as the recruitment process.

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What should candidates look for?

Usually, professional interview panels will give a description of the organization they represent in order to generate interest and excitement in the candidate about the organization itself and the job. Ideally, the interview panel should disclose information about the opportunity available and the criteria they are looking for. Most organizations are keen in explaining the entire recruitment process in brief at this point so that the candidate will know what exactly is expected of him/her and how they will progress.

So the next time you go for an interview and the process fits this description, you can be confident the organization is pretty organized!

How should you prepare As highlighted above, first impressions can go a long way. Therefore, it is advised that you do some homework before you face the panel. Your homework should include visiting the company website, and gaining an understanding of the company’s vision, mission, background, nature of business, management as well as ethics, values, competencies, CSR projects, etc if available. You need not memorize or by-heart any information but being well informed will create a good impression to the panel. Apart from this, gathering information about the organization will help you to decide if this is the kind of organization you would want to work in.

Have your certificates neatly organized, preferably in clear folder so that the panel can easily flip through the pages instead of shuffling papers around. Most interview panels nowadays usually don’t look into certificates but it’s always good to be prepared.

What should you wear?

It’s best that you dress formal. Formal for a guy will mean trousers with a neatly ironed shirt; tucked in and matching tie worn at the appropriate length, kept in place with a proper tie knot. Polished shoes, well combed hair and clean shaven or well kept point are essentials of formal dress.

Ladies formal dress can include a pant suit with jacket or saree. Sarees should be simple and draped neatly with simple shoes. Use high heeled shoes only if you are comfortable walking about with it. Always have your hair neatly pulled back in a ponytail or bun. Avoid going in loose hair if hair falls below shoulders. www.nerds-n-geeks.com

Loose hair should be well arranged in order to avoid a windblown, messy look. A light make up is suggested.

Perfume, tie pin, cuff-links, necklace & earrings, bracelet, etc can enhance your image but should be chosen with care. Avoid heavy, chunky and dangling items and vibrant make up.

A handful of companies, especially those into information technology, advertising, etc may adhere to a casual dress policy but it’s safer to dress formal for any interview.

What information should you probe?

You should probe information about the job, the responsibilities, reporting hierarchy, working hours and days, etc if not intimated to you. It is also advisable to check on dress code, how soon they would like you to start work and the opportunities for growth you will have. This will make the panel feel you are serious and career minded. It’s best to avoid questions relating to salary at the first interview. Such matters should be discussed as you get a clear indication of progress. When discussing salaries, be precise and keep to a justifiable “ask”. Your ask should be compatible with your qualifications, experience and current salary, if any. Avoid over-rating or under-rating yourself and do not give into any organization that is hesitating to offer even the market value. Organizations should also be able to justify their pay criteria and be in line with what they have advertised or communicated to job agents, etc.

Conclusion When the panel has indicated to you that they have completed their questioning, you may ask them anything else that you have in mind.

If not, you can thank them, shake hands while maintaining eye contact, collect your belongings slowly and walk out confidently. Do not try to rush off and drop and knock on things, or trip and fall in the midst of it.

had no required qualifications but succeeded in securing a job merely by how they handled the interview and vice versa. It’s not only your explicit knowledge that an interview panel is keen to find out but to understand if you are the person who will bloom in the given environment and turn soil into gold. Therefore, the key words should be “impress” and “achieve” through selfpresentation and demonstration. However, you should be cautious not to over-do it. You should be careful to maintain a neutral view on sensitive issues and not show any biases towards any parties or circumstances. The chances are that your CV was short-listed because you’ve got what it requires. It’s all about playing your cards right at the interview and if you do; you won’t have to wait till your chicks hatch to count.

ALL THE BEST FOR YOUR NEXT INTERVIEW!

“As critical acclaim and response has built up, every interview I give is a chance to puncture the myth I’ve created about my work and refine it.”

- James Ellroy

Dian Gunathilaka Director Human Resources Trelleborg Lanka (Pvt) Ltd

Think back on the past moments and do a selfevaluation of your performance at the interview.

If you are called in for the next round, you will know what worked for you, and if you’re not, you will know what didn’t. Identify the areas you felt were your weaknesses and try to correct them.

It will benefit you the next time.

Interviews can be your Golden Path to success. There are instances of people who page | 10

How to build your web application on the

cloud A

few years ago, a significant investment was required to host your web application on the Internet.

Companies or individuals had to buy powerful servers and software. As the number of users to the application grew, you had to throw away your old servers and go for more powerful server environments. Administrators always preferred over-provision of server environments to allow the maximum number of users to login and perform their work. However, this was required only at peak hours. So most of the time, your infrastructure would have been idling without much utilization. You also needed trained support staff to ensure your web application was up and running without any hiccups. The bottom line is that your web application maintenance was expensive. It took a long time for ROI on Internet based businesses to cherish.

However, presently hosting your web applications on the cloud is becoming a popular choice. When you host your web application on a cloud, you need to pay on an hourly basis for its usage. At the end of the month you get the monthly bill from the cloud provider. With this approach, initial investment is significantly reduced. Changing your server landscape is an easier option compared to traditional approach.

Currently, there are two options available to host your applications on the cloud.

One is on Cloud Infrastructure like Amazon EC2 The other is on Cloud Platform like Google App Engine and Microsoft Azure.

We will briefly discuss these options in this article.

Amazon is well known for selling books on-line from the company’s inception. In 2006, they entered the cloud computing terrain providing a cloud environment. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Cloud) service gives you options of choosing different server environments with pre-installed operating systems and software (web server and database) [1]. Transition from one server to another or termination of an instance is just a simple click on the Amazon admin console.

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By:Tharaka De Alwis

Before purchasing a server, you can calculate the monthly cost of the infrastructure and make your decision. For further details, you can check the link http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

To make use of Amazon services, you need to create an Amazon account with a valid Credit Card. Then you can purchase an Amazon EC2 instance through the console. You will be given a secure certificate to connect to your instance through Remote Desktop (Windows) or Putty (Linux). Once connected, you can install your preferred web server and database software.

Thereafter, deploy your web application on this instance. Once everything is ready, bind the IP address of the instance with the DNS. The following is an article [4] that Support Engineers refer to when they create Amazon EC2 instances: http://paulstamatiou.com/howto-getting-started-with-amazon-ec2.

Based on the web traffic you get, you will receive a monthly usage bill from Amazon debiting your credit card. Amazon has special features like adding load balancers and assigning monitoring tools to take care of the environment. Currently, for a single Amazon EC2 instance, a company pays USD 60 for a small server with Fedora, Tomcat 5.5 and My SQL 5 environment. This environment supports a maximum of 150 concurrent user connections.

If you host it on a platform, you need to support the programming language and platform API given in the platform. Google App engine (platform) requires you to develop your web application in Java or Python [3]. Microsoft Azure is another platform that gives ASP. net based web applications [5]. All platform providers have their data centres that allow deployment of web applications in a scalable environment. The good thing about platforms is that, they give you the best of a single technology but lacks flexibility to tweak around the server environments. All platforms give free usage up to a limit and charge you in the same way as Amazon. They also work on pay-as-yougo model.

Not all web applications should be hosted on clouds either. Within clouds, your data would get copied among different virtual environments.

There is always a doubt about how secure and trusted the cloud environments are. So, if you are in an industry where data needs to be secured from the hands of competitors, hosting on the cloud may not be an option for you.

To summarize everything, now there are cloud infrastructures and platforms to host web application based solutions and since they work on a subscription based model, a significant amount of your e-business investment can be cut down. Hence, the next time you want to host a web application, consider hosting it on the cloud and save your money from unnecessary IT infrastructure investments.

Reference: [1] “Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud -

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.” [Online]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Elastic_ Compute_Cloud [Accessed: August. 16, 2010].

[2] “Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2).” [Online]. http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/ [Accessed: August.

16, 2010].

[3] “Google App Engine.” [Online]. http://code.google.com/appengine [Accessed: July. 16, 2010].

[4] “How To: Getting Started with Amazon EC2 — PaulStamatiou.com).” [Online]. http://paulstamatiou.com/how-to-gettingstarted-with-amazon-ec2 [Accessed: August.

16, 2010].

[5] “Windows Azure Platform.).” [Online]. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/ [Accessed: August. 16, 2010].

Tharaka De Alwis has been in the IT industry for over six years and currently he is working at Sabre Technologies playing the Tech Lead role on Java, Java EE, Mobile, SAP e-commerce and Cloud Computing – SaaS projects.

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CUTTING EDGE 2010 An exhibition of innovative state-of-the-art IT and Business solutions researched and developed by IIT students

E

ach year, Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) holds an event, aptly named Cutting Edge, which stages some of its students’ most novel innovations and conceptualizations in the fields of Information Technology and Business Management.

Just as in previous years, this year too, Cutting Edge 2010 exhibited a wide range of projects by IIT’s final year students as well as the junior batches. The final year projects on display ranged from categories like Advanced Programming Concepts, Artificial Intelligence, Communication Networks, Database Systems, Hardware-based Solutions, Multimedia and Graphics, Web-based Solutions and Wireless Solutions to more business-oriented projects classified under E-Learning, Corporate Social Responsibility, Finance, E-Commerce, Human Resource Management, Sales & Marketing and Supply Chain Management, etc. This alone sufficiently indicates the versatility of the students of IIT, which substantiates why they are the most sought-after undergraduates in their respective industries today.

A panel of external judges consisting of academia and industry experts in the relevant fields evaluated the numerous projects displayed and chose the best three in order of merit.

This process was carried out for the Software Engineering and the Information Systems with Business Management degree programmes.

These awards are not only considered as the most fulfilling honour for all the hard work put in by each winner, but also marks the performance of a true star in the world of academia. This year, the following students emerged winners of these prestigious awards.

Academic Excellence awards for the Software Engineering category

Business Innovation awards for the Information Systems with Business Management category

1st prize: Engage - A framework for gesture-based human-computer interaction Mr. Mohamed Hamzeen

1st prize: DysTS - An initiative to eradicate the inadequate treatment of dyslexia in Sri Lanka.

Ms. Zeinab Shabbir

2nd prize: Smart Anywhere - An intelligent framework to integrate smart environments via mobile Mr. Kalana Kasun

2nd prize: Project Greenleaf - A research into developing effective green IT strategy.

Mr. Thilanka Marasinghe

3rd prize: Intelligent tea leaf disease identification system Mr. Channimala Jayamanne

3rd prize: An explorative study on the Sri Lankan tea industry.

Mr. Maduranga Perera

The winners of the Software Engineering category. Academic Excellence Awards for the Software Engineering Category awarded by Virtusa Corporation

The winners of the Information Systems & Business category. Business Innovation Awards for the Information Systems with Business Management Category awarded by Informatics (Pvt) Ltd

Cutting Edge not only provides a platform for students of IIT to display their academic competence to a broad spectrum of viewers, but also invites other students and spectators to learn from the experiences of its students. As a part of this initiative, this year, IIT extended invitations to students from Jaffna to visit its Colombo campus for the inauguration of Cutting Edge 2010. This step, along with the newly established branch of IIT in the Jaffna peninsula, portrays the spread and reach of IIT in several parts of Sri Lanka. As part of promoting and supporting Cutting Edge this year, IIT also ran a multilingual radio broadcasting station, I-FM 96.1 MHz round-the-clock for a period of three days, the first of its kind in the history of IIT. The two days of Cutting Edge sailed to a smooth end with the awards ceremony, which was organised to acknowledge the wealth of talent that IIT holds. The term ‘Cutting Edge’ is defined as ‘the leading position in any movement or field’ – and all in all, this is exactly the kind of event that Cutting Edge 2010 emerged to be.

Zeinab Shabbir Final Year Student, Informatics Institute of Technology

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A Gamer's Perspecti ve

by Thé Doc

Here’s a fact: By 2011 the international gaming industry will reach close to $50 billion in revenue worldwide. While giants like Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo keep churning out title after title and numerous smaller, but certainly not less important, independent companies bring up the rear, it’s clear that the gaming industry has made its mark in almost all of our lives. Whether you’re a teenager or a kid at heart, much like me, there’s one thing in common; games give us the capacity to escape from our own world, even if it’s just for an hour.

Personally, I enjoy coming home from work, turning on my PS3 and delving into the world of make-believe, because let’s face it …. reality can most often suck. When you’re really into a game, the real world melts away and the stress of work and responsibilities waft away into the background while the scene in front of you demands your utmost focus, be it by demolishing a horde of evil monsters or riding through the open Wild West on your trusty steed.

The other side of the coin is that, when you’re in that gaming world, you’re oblivious to the fact that the rest of the real world continues around you, and most likely, there’s a mother yelling at you to turn off the TV and do your homework or a girlfriend silently sending daggers at your insensitivity and your blissful ignorance for not paying attention to her instead of that silly little box.

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However, you continue to sit and dive deeper into every level, every nook and cranny, which the game companies have designed just for you, to be explored. Monster after monster come at you and all you have are your trusty fiery blades to defend yourself. What’s homework and dinner compared to riding freely through a world with a six gun by your side on a sturdy horse? Now, add the fact that you can call up your friend and connect with him online to discover the realm of multiplayer, and that dinner can get as cold as it can. The only reason you’d ever need to press “pause” is, when your poor bladder can’t take it anymore.

With the abundance of gaming studios out there, you’re almost assured that there’s a title right there for you. From blockbuster titles based on movies to imaginative storytelling and beautiful breathtaking worlds, there’s something for everyone. It has become almost a cultural media movement where society gets together to discuss the games of today and tomorrow at annual international gaming conferences such as E3. While gamers tend to gravitate to their favourite game studios for continuous funding of their ever-growing gaming needs, this does put additional pressure on those studios to churn out the next version of a game series that’s many times better, not only by using the latest technology and improving game play but by engrossing story lines that keep gamers on the edge of their seats.

I used to be a PC gamer for a long time, till I got my first console from Sony, the PS2. Since then, I’ve spent countless hours escaping into coded realities and enjoyed every moment of it.

My recent purchase was a PS3, which I must say, is an absolutely brilliant piece of gaming hardware. Blue-ray driven technology gives you High Definition video and sounds that take your gaming experience to a whole new level. Couple that with a HDTV and you’re pretty much sorted for the next 3 years easily.

As far as the future of gaming is concerned, I have no idea what tomorrow will bring. Gesture controls and 3D LED HDTVs may become mainstream in our households while high bandwidth networks may continue to bring us downloadable gaming content at the touch of our eager fingertips. Whatever the future holds, this gamer can’t wait for the next exciting escape!

Recommended Games: Modern Warfare 2 [Infinity Ward], God of War III [Sony Santa Monica], Red Dead Redemption [Rockstar Games] Recommended Game Sites: www.gamespot.com, www.ign. com, www.gamer.lk

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Ba sics of

By: Chinthana Seneviratne

Op ti mi zatio n Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making sure your website appears at the highest possible position in search engine results. This does not refer to paid listings, also known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SEO is not something that a webmaster, designer or marketer can do once and forget about.

Many website owners do not acknowledge the importance of SEO and the role it plays in the success of the website.

There are a few basic rules that you can follow to optimize your site for search engines and get your site into the front page of organic search results.

SEO Stage 1 1. Great Content Content is the most fundamental element in search engine optimization. Without it, none of the other optimization techniques would work.

Look at optimizing your site’s content to include the following: •

Subject matter expertise – The content of your site should be relevant to the theme of the site and comprehensive details should be given. The articles or descriptions published should be stuff that people want to read and want to link to from their websites. Spending time on getting the facts right will pay off well in the long run.

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Use a keyword tool like www.wordtracker. com to find popular keywords to include in your articles, posts or descriptions.

Well-structured content – your content should be structured to allow users to read through it easily. Cluttered articles with information strewn all over will not be appreciated by peers and will make them reluctant to link to their own sites.

Keep it updated – It’s imperative to update your content often. Most search engine spiders look for new content on a given website. So, make sure that there’s ready supply of fresh content on the website.

As a general rule, extensive marketing jargon and promotional text should be avoided. Try to write content that delves into the features of the product or service that is being offered.

2. Technical stuff Contrary to popular belief, there are a few technical optimizations that should be done to the website. Following are a few techniques that can be employed to gain an SEO advantage: • Implement a clear navigation within the site that enables visitors and search engine spiders to access website content easily.

• Ensure users can arrive at specific content with the least number of clicks. Generally, a spider will conclude that the number of clicks to a particular section of the

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website is inversely proportionate to the importance of that particular section and its content.

Include pages that have text based content and links with high keyword density closer to the home page (minimum number of clicks).

Link to other websites with relevant content. It’s also helpful to link from within the text of a product or service description.

Add meta description tags.

Include <h1> and <h2> tags to highlight headings in your content.

Submit your sitemap.xml file to Google and other search engines.

SEO Stage 2 After the SEO base has been built and the site is ready for search spiders to crawl over and catalog its content, it’s time to get down to the seriously labour intensive stuff.

Getting people to link to your website is a really good way to reinforce the status of your content and the value of your website. The more websites you can get to link back to your website, the better the chance of spiders finding your site and knowing that it is an important site. However, don’t be fooled by link exchange programs that offer links from totally irrelevant websites. For example, if your website provides information on tourist locations, there is no value in getting links from a website that sells cars in page | 14

another country. This may even diminish your site’s ranking that you’ve worked so hard for.

So, how do you do it? One of the key methods for link building is to earn the target site’s trust.

You need to find a way to get the owner or webmaster of the target site to visit your site and read the content so that he or she will link to it (assuming your site has great content). The best way is to find a blog associated with the target site and leave comments. DO NOT spam these sites with hoards of comments. Read the posts and leave real comments. Do not ask for links either, instead comment on their content.

Submit your site to web directories such as www.dmoz.org, www.dir.yahoo.com etc. These directories link backs will be extremely valuable for your site.

Add your site to social media. This does not necessarily mean creating a Facebook fan page. Use sites like del.icio.us, digg, reddit and even Twitter to promote your site and its content.

Submitting to these sites will create awareness and also help search engine crawlers to find your site easily.

SEO Stage 3 The objective of Stage 2 is to create a web of links surrounding your website. Simply having a site floating around in cyber space without any links is useless. No one will be able to find it and that includes the search engine spiders. Once www.nerds-n-geeks.com

you’ve managed to create this web of links that allows users and search engine crawlers to locate your site, you should get started on analyzing your traffic and the sources.

Set-up an analytics tool like Google Analytics.

Start looking at where your visitors are coming from, where they go to from the landing page and what your bounce rate is (this is the percentage of visitors who leave the landing page without continuing to any other page on your site). You should also look at how much time an user spends on a particular page and try to determine why they did so. Using these analyses, you will be able to fine tune your content to suit your audience. By using an analytics tool, you will also be able to find the sites that link to your site and if they are relevant, link back to them, further strengthening the web you have built around your site.

If you follow the above steps, you will start seeing results within a few weeks. Do not give up just because you do not see results immediately. SEO takes time and practice.

There is no exact science to SEO, it’s just a guideline. Once you’ve gotten the basics right, it’s a matter of trial and error. Try different tactics, and consistently update the content and continue with link building activities. You should also continue to read and expand your SEO knowledge base as technologies and tactics for SEO change rapidly.

Chinthana Seneviratne Manager, Operations at Latitude655 (Pvt) Ltd. page | 15

E

mployees Provident Fund (EPF) is a fund established to grant superannuation/ retiring benefits to certain classes of employees. This fund is administered jointly by the Labour Department and the Central Bank.

Persons covered: Practically every employment in the country is now covered under these regulations except – • • • • •

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domestic servants, those self-employed, non-working directors, a partner in a partnership, Local Authority employees, contributors to Approved Provident Funds or Pension Schemes, an employer’s spouse, persons under 14 years of age, charitable institutions with less than 10 employees, persons employed outside Sri Lanka and Ex-pats for whom superannuation benefits are provided under any such scheme outside Sri Lanka.

It should be noted that this Act covers casual employees, temporary workers and apprentices (except NAITA apprentices).

No Age Restriction:

Provident Fund is payable to an employee irrespective of his/her age.

Rates of Contribution:

The minimum contribution by an employee and employer is 8% and 12% respectively of the employee’s total earnings for each month, ie basic wage/salary plus cost of living, special living allowances, meal allowances, payments in respect of holidays, etc.

Bonus, service charge and allowances which are in the nature of reimbursements such as travelling & entertainment are excluded.

Enhanced Rates of Contribution:

Payment of Benefits:

A person is entitled to be paid the total amount lying to his/her credit in the fund after reaching 55 years in the case of males and 50 years in the case of females, once the person has ceased to be employed, or Benefits could be withdrawn earlier under certain prescribed circumstances as follows : • •

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when a person leaves Sri Lanka with no intention of returning, or when a person is certified to be unfit for work due to a permanent and total incapacity, or when a female ceases to be employed after marriage, or when such a person takes up a pensionable appointment in the Public or Local Government Service, or when State owned enterprises are privatized.

It is possible for persons to obtain housing loans from the following institutions by using the EPF contributions lying to his/her credit as security.

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State Mortgage Bank National Housing Development Authority Housing Development Finance Corporation People’s Bank Bank of Ceylon National Savings Bank Multi-Purpose Co-operative Societies

Employees Trust Fund

Employees Trust Fund (ETF) is a fund established to provide non-contributory benefits to employees on retirement.

Rate of Contribution:

Employers are required to contribute a percentage of the earnings of an employee.

The current rate is 3%. No contributions are required to be made by an employee.

Persons eligible:

However, once higher contributions are made, the rates cannot thereafter be reduced.

Dividends & Interest:

Interest is paid on the amount standing to the credit of each person as at the 31st day of December each year. www.nerds-n-geeks.com

Benefits could also be withdrawn due to disability as in the case of EPF.

Ramanee Ipalawatta, LLB Attorney-at-Law & Notary Public The next issue will cover details of Gratuity payments.

Housing Loans:

Enhanced rates of contributions are possible by mutual agreement, eg 10% by the employee & 15% by the employer.

Interest:

Payment of Benefits: Contributions can be withdrawn on termination of employment unlike in the case of EPF. However, such withdrawals cannot be made more than once in five years.

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Provide

Persons eligible to receive this benefit are the same as for EPF except NAITA apprentices.

Dividends declared from profits are credited to the individual accounts of members and interest is paid on the amount standing to the credit of each member at the end of every year.

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mployees

ent Fund

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By: Ramanee Ipalawatta

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Softwar

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e c n a r u s s A By: Hemal Alwis

I have seen most of the fresh graduates choose Software Quality Assurance as a career path without knowing real facts about what is mean

by Software Quality Assurance. This article is all about what is mean by Software Quality Assurance.

What is meant by Software Quality?

Industry accepted definitions of quality are “conformance to requirements” (from Philip Crosby) and “fit for use” (from Dr. Joseph Juran and Dr. W. Edwards Deming).

One might think that either one of these quality guru’s should be wrong. In fact, they are not; these two definitions are not inconsistent. The two world famous quality guru’s addressed different views of different stakeholders’ interests of products being produced.

In operational context, the word “quality” refers to an attribute of a product. A product can be identified as a quality product if it is defect free.

It is not surprising that many of you have heard only about the product quality. This is because, what is important for the end user is the product quality and measures base on operational fit for the purpose of his/her intent.

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Process quality is more important to the producer, to ensure that he will deliver the right product to the customer on time and carry out operations effectively & efficiently.

Therefore, first of all, it is important to keep in mind that different stakeholders have different views on quality of products being produced.

Quality – Producer’s View To the producer, a product is a quality product if it meets or conforms to the statement of requirements that defines the product. In more simplistic terms, “quality” means “meets requirements”. The producer’s view of quality has these four characteristics : • • • •

Doing the right thing Doing it the right way Doing it right the first time Doing it on time without exceeding costs.

This is the view of a software vendor who is responsible for the project and processes, and the products and services developed and maintained by those processes. A software vendor needs to ensure that the team building a product does so in accordance with the requirements. Requirements can be very complex or they can be simple, but they must be

defined in a measurable format, so that it can be determined whether they have been met. Keep in mind that you cannot determine success or failure of a task which is not measurable.

Quality – Customer’s View To the customer, a product is a quality product if it meets the customer’s needs and expectations, regardless of whether the product requirements were met. This is referred to as “fit for use”.

The customer’s view of quality has these characteristics: • • • •

Receiving the right product for their use Being satisfied that their needs have been met Meeting their expectations Being treated with integrity, courtesy and respect

Out of the above two definitions of quality, “fit for use” seems to be more important.

The Two Quality Gaps Software applications developed and delivered to the end users have two quality gaps: the producer’s gap and the customer’s gap as shown in Figure 1.

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1. The producer quality gap is the difference between : What is specified (the documented requirements (SRS) and internal standards (Organizational or industry benchmarks)) Versus What is delivered (what is actually built and sent to the customer) 2. The customer quality gap is the difference between : What the producer actually delivered Versus What the customer really wanted

Figure 1

Quality Function Closing these two quality gaps is the primary responsibility of the quality function in a software organization. Quality function should first establish the Software Quality Assurance activities in an organization. The quality assurance team should first study activities performed by the organization to capture and transform business requirements into software systems/applications. The outcome of this may require defining of new processes or improving the existing processes to the point where the software organization can develop the products according to requirements received and its own internal standards (Process Quality).

Closing the producer’s gap enables the software vendor to provide its customers consistency in what it can produce. This has been referred to as the “McDonald’s effect” (at any McDonald’s in the world, a Big Mac should taste the same. It doesn’t mean that every customer likes the Big Mac or that it meets everyone’s needs, but rather, that McDonald’s has now produced consistency in its delivered product).

It is a required quality function to understand the real needs of the customer to close the customer’s quality gap. This can be done by getting more user involvement throughout the process of building software applications.

The agile software development has addressed this issue to a greater extent by keeping the customer as a member of the/

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its software development team and getting continuous feedback. The agile methods recommended to delivered testable version of software system to client at frequent phases by maintaining shorter delivery cycles. The processes can then be changed to close the customer’s gap, keeping consistency while producing products and services needed by the customer.

Attributes of Quality Quality is a complicated concept driven by customer requirements. The level of quality can vary significantly from project to project and between organizations. In IT, the attributes of quality are examined in order to understand the components of quality, and as a basis for measuring quality. Some of the commonly accepted quality attributes in information systems are described in Table 1.

Management needs to develop quantitative “standards” for each of these attributes to measure quality of their development projects. For example, management must decide the degree of maintenance effort that is acceptable, the amount of time that it should take for a user to learn how to use the system, etc. How to use metrics to measure and improve quality will be discussed in a later publication.

Attributes

Definition

Correctness

Extent to which a program satisfies its specifications and fulfills the user’s objectives.

Reliability

Extent to which a program can be expected to perform its intended function with required precision.

Efficiency

The amount of computing resources and code required by a program to perform a function.

Reusability

Extent to which a program can be used in other applications – related to the scope of the functions that programs perform.

Integrity

Extent to which access to software or data by unauthorized persons can be controlled.

Flexibility

Effort required modifying an operational program.

Maintainability

Effort required locating and fixing an error in an operational program.

Usability

Effort required learning, operating, preparing input, and interpreting output of a program.

Interoperability

Effort required to couple one system with another.

Testability

Effort required testing a program to ensure that it performs its intended function.

Table 1

More on “Software Quality Assurance” in the next publication.

Hemal Alwis QA Lead/Design Analyst at Sabre Technologies (Pvt) Ltd

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Financial Management for Individuals and Family Units By: N.J. Perera (Ex Banker)

In this chapter we will explore means of managing expenses on a stable income.

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he total expenditure we have to bear as cost of living for one month includes various adhoc and permanent types of expenditure. Among these there are mandatory fixed expenses.

Expense management can be carried out in three ways. Managing expenditure on a low income, a moderate income and a high income.

The first step in managing your expenditure is to compile a comprehensive list of living expenses for one month. In doing so, priority should be given to mandatory expenses such as house rent, electricity, water & telephone bills, repayment of loans, etc. These cannot be postponed and have to be settled within the same month.

Vehicle maintenance, fuel, food, and entertainment expenses & investments can be considered as variable expenses and should be managed accordingly. For example, expenditure on fuel can be reduced by making alternate arrangements for travelling instead of using your own vehicle. Various tactics can also be adopted to reduce expenses on food. Here, you should carefully evaluate food items which are essential for a balanced diet, purchase and prepare food which is sufficient for a couple of days and store in the refrigerator. By doing so, you not only save on electricity/gas but also your time and energy which can be utilized for some other useful purpose. Another very important factor is to make provisions for entertainment and leisure activities and investments.

In planning living expenses of most low income earners, after spending on fixed expenditure and food etc, there may not be sufficient funds to spend on leisure, entertainment or investments.

It is imperative that some provision be made for such activities and investments by cutting down on other expenses and balancing your budget.

In this context there may be ups and downs in the living standards. It may be necessary to obtain loans etc, in order to maintain a stable standard of living. However, resorting to such measures is not advisable. Allocating funds for investments in spite of a temporary drop in living standards would result in a better standard of living in the long term.

Another method for controlling of living expenditure is to compile a statement listing all anticipated expenses for the next month. As stated earlier, this should include: 1. Mandatory fixed expenses 2. Meal plans along with menu where possible www.nerds-n-geeks.com

3. Plan for investments and entertainment Accordingly, prepare an outline statement of general expenses for the month which would facilitate a comfortable standard of living.

Thereafter, allocate expenses (in figures) for each activity listed. If the total of the above exceeds the expected permanent monthly income, reduce and adjust allocated amounts to match the expected monthly income.

Variable expenses such as fuel for vehicles, food, entertainment and investments may be reduced slightly to fall in line with the expected total income. Being able to maintain a stable lifestyle whilst balancing your income and expenditure in this manner would be quite commendable.

It is important that you spend according to your planned forecast without exceeding the set limits. If your total income exceeds your total expenditure for the month, it could be considered a very successful management of finances. It is necessary to deposit these excess funds in a special savings account. In the event that your expenses happen to exceed your income during a particular month, you would then have an option of bridging this deficit out of the monies lying in this special account.

also proposed future expenditure can also be provided for by advanced planning and allocation of funds. For example, expenditure such as tickets, insurance for a trip overseas, scheduled for 6 months or one year or any proposed capital expenditure can be considered. A forecast should be prepared to determine the approximate amount of funds required for such events. Therefore, as stated earlier, spend less than you earn, deposit the excess in a special account and utilize same for special events. Thereby, whatever your income may be, satisfactory living conditions can be maintained by strategic planning of expenditure.

You can improve on the quote “Live within your means” to “Live beneath your means” !

Taking into consideration the above stated factors, it may appear that it would be easier for moderate to high income earners to manage their monthly living expenses than low income earners. In actual fact, this is not the case.

Most often the likes and dislikes, needs and wants and social expectations of the above three income groups may differ considerably.

Low income earners may use a motor cycle, bicycle or public transport as their mode of transport whereas high income earners would generally use their own vehicles. A film hall provides different seating arrangements to cater to the needs of these varied income groups.

Accordingly, the expenditure of a low income earner and a high income earner could vary to a very great extent. Therefore, it is apparent that all three categories of income earners would encounter the same difficulties in preparing the monthly expense schedule. This is due to the fact that low income earners maintain a basic lifestyle whilst moderate income earners maintain a moderate lifestyle and high income groups maintain a very high standard of living.

The most important aspect of individual or family financial management is planning of expenses in advance. Not only monthly expenditure but page | 21

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Operating directly under the National Command Authority, a relatively unknown entity of handpicked warriors are called on when the mission must not fail. They are the Tier 1 Operators.

Over 2 million Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines wear the uniform. Of those, approximately 50 thousand fall under the direct control of the Special Operations Command. The Tier 1 Operator functions on a plane of existence above and beyond even the most highly trained Special Operations Forces. Their exact numbers, while classified, hover in the low hundreds. They are living, breathing, precision instruments of war. They are experts in the application of violence. The new Medal of Honor is inspired by and has been developed with Tier 1 Operators from this elite community.

Players will step into the boots of these warriors and apply their unique skill sets to a new enemy in the most unforgiving and hostile battlefield conditions of present day Afghanistan.

Source : http://www.ea.com/games/medal-of-honor

coming October

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12,

2010

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Communication I Issues By: L.W.C. Nirosh

f you know that you have a communication issue and want to get relieved of it, then please proceed reading through the list below to have some tangible clues for your frailties.

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You start expressing things from the place where you stopped thinking. It is a serious issue that many people know they have. As an example, you were thinking over a mysterious calculation for the past few months. Then suddenly you realized that you found the answer and shouted “Eureka!”, “Eurekaa!!” and start showing some mathematical page | 24

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equations to the ones standing around you. But will that noise you made, or the equations you showed, make the people around you understand the tale behind your outburst? If you really needed them to understand you, you would have to refresh your mind and explain the situation starting from the very beginning, step by step, knowing that nobody has a clue about what you know now.

You are not a great listener. Then you must know that all great leaders are great listeners. If it is to win a customer, then make the customer talk more. Listen to him. In communication, the best way to understand is by listening. So listen with great care, understand the listener and formulate the most accurate answer to his query. In this regard, you must control that urge to jump in with your part of the story.

Don’t distract him and chip in with your bits and pieces when a customer is talking about something familiar to you. That distracts you as a listener and also can hurt the flow of your customer’s ideas. You may have just lost some vital information.

While I was doing one presentation, I saw a guy nodding his head all the time, hinting to me that he is listening and following the presentation well. A quick question directed at him proved that what I thought was right as he was clueless about the entire presentation.

You are not attentive to the gestures, expressions, questions and behaviour of your audience. The presenter should pay close attention to every corner of his/ her audience. In face-to-face meetings, you need to read the listener’s facial expressions and must respond to them by re-shaping your speech.

When your customer is looking at his watch indicating that he needs to go, why don’t you respond to it immediately? It is the context in which you need to win. If you say you need more time to win him, while the customer does not have time for you, you must let him go for now?

Otherwise it is as if you are trying to apply the rules of the game ‘Checkers’ when you are actually playing ‘Chess’. The rule says that ‘the customer does not have time’. So adhere to that rule and adjust your strategy accordingly, but never try to change the rule.

You see things through colored glasses.

Then you always see/hear them the way you want, not the reality. In a meeting if one asks the same question over and

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over again, please recognize that friendly message. He is politely telling you that ‘you are not making any sense with your answer’. At the same time, encourage people to ask questions. The one who is asking a question is really lending a helping hand to shape up your speech.

I say “What a poor code you have written there”, then I have seen developers taking that as “I said, you are a poor coder”. You are not born as a poor coder. I only said in that particular instance, you have written a poor code. It is not a general comment.

You have the option of writing a better code the next time. Don’t you think that this is part of listening too? So pay close attention to every word of the message. I can also say it better, “Do you think you can write this code better?” or “How do you think you can write this code better?”

You under communicate. By doing this, you only invite problems today or for the future. If a mistake you did emerges as a problem later, then that problem will be sudden, much worse, and also in an accumulated form. Avoid this and fully cover all aspects of the situation the very first time when communicating.

One day, I saw an e-mail sent to a customer noting a delay of a delivery by one of our project managers. It stated “The scheduled next release (1.1.0 on 1/Feb) needs to be delayed slightly. We will do the release on 3/Feb”. This e-mail clearly has two issues, firstly, it does not have the reason for the delay and secondly, it does not mention whether it has any ripple effect on the subsequent releases. The next day, the customer came back with the much expected question. That was “Can we get a reason why this is being delayed?”

This is clear under communication. In IT, this is not a habit that you can ignore and survive.

You over communicate. This can lead to people ignoring you, but this is much better than under communicating. Think that nobody knows what you know, tell everyone everything, and thus help avoid problems that would occur otherwise.

You fail to recognize the order in which you need to communicate your points.

This sometimes has to do with not clearly understanding the underlying logic of the situation.

You are afraid of issues. If you are afraid of issues, then you tend to be over excited.

Your blood pressure increases, making it hard to think normally. If you are into IT,

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living with issues is your normal life and a life without issues is your day dream.

If you didn’t receive an e-mail from your customer about an issue from your last delivery, assume the businessman may be sick. So call him and ask if everything is all right. Don’t be afraid. Firefighters are never afraid of fire, are they?

You are not planning things. Once, three of us went to meet a customer, it was a face-to-face meeting. The customer was at his uneasy mood complaining that we have over billed him. We, the team didn’t have the roles defined for the meeting nor had a cumulative strategy to convince the customer. All three had their little tactics waiting to come out in front of that rampant customer. It took us only a couple minutes to make that gentleman hit his desk hard with his palm and pointed his index finger at one of us indicating that he wanted to come out of his seat to beat us. So you need to plan everything, even the content of an e-mail needs to be thoughtfully planned.

If you plan well, you can drive a customer to your advantage. However, in a way, it is like playing with a serpent. Unless precisely calculated, that dangerous move can lead to breaking the relationship with the customer too. A company can sustain long-term damages as a result of bad customer management.

Conclusion An effective communication needs one to address each specific issue separately and uniquely than treating everything as if they have the same needs. When it comes to putting this into practice, it is never an easy task. I have shared my experience, to take that as the basis for you to hopefully develop your own concepts in this area. At a later time, you may need to re-visit this write-up, perhaps to review and challenge your own thinking and concepts.

L.W.C. Nirosh works as a Tech Lead for Sabre Technologies (Pvt) Ltd

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