Who Owns the Source Code?

A client had developed an app and asked us to do some minor work on their existing app. I told him that we would need access to the source code so the client went back to the original developer to get the source code only to find that the developer claimed the source code as his intellectual property and refused to provide it. Unfortunately, this is not the first time I’ve seen this source code ownership issue. Here are some of the implications of not having the source code to your app:

• You are forever tied to the developer. Any modification, bug fix, or upgrade has to go through that developer. This is problematic because the developer could raise the price of development and is problematic if that developer becomes sick, busy with other projects, etc.
• Raising funds or selling your project becomes more difficult because there’s a question of who owns the intellectual property.

Common Law

(Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer; if this is a concern, please get good legal counsel). In general, the author of content owns the copyright. In the case of a software developer, it’s the person physically typing on the key board to create the code. An exception occurs under the “Work for Hire” doctrine where the work is developed by an employee with the scope of their employment. However, when contractors are used, this becomes a little more unclear.

Personal Opinion

If I hire someone to buy a house, at the end of the project, I want the keys to it. In a similar fashion, if I pay someone to develop an app for me, I would expect to have the source code upon completion. At Apptology, this is our general policy. The exception is when we develop an app based off one of our templates. In which case, the template is our intellectual property.

Recommendations

If you are having an app developed by a contractor, have an open discussion about the source code ownership as part of the vetting process. If you don’t agree with their source code policy, move on. If you decide to go with that developer, make sure the ownership of the source code is spelled out in the contract.

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10 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Project

These questions are primarily intended for the web developer who is stepping into a new role at an organization that is already established. It is not necessarily suited to the entrepreneur web developer who is creating their own site for their personal usage.

The questions are intended for business web site development and enhancements. For example, a particular small business might already have a web site, but they want to take it to the next level.

That's why they hired you.

Now it's time for you to step up to the plate.

1. Determine who the powers-that-be are and who has a say in how the content appears on the site. It's best to get a sense of what is expected before you do anything at all. Of course, if the site is already online, study what was already done so you have a sense of what is currently taking place.
2. Determine the scope of the site. What purpose will the site serve? Will it be merely an online brochure? Do you want it to attract new customers? Will you publish company deliverables? Do you want to list your clients? How do you want prospective and existing customers to contact you? Will you be selling goods and services through the site? Now is a good time to create a list of features and functionality. You can break this down into Must Haves to Get Started, Nice to Haves if Time Permits, and Plans for Future Expansion.
   As you discuss the purpose of the site with the Powers That Be, start keeping a list of keywords that are essential to the business. This will help you later as you work towards building up strong search engine optimization (SEO) tactics.
3. Start thinking about the infrastructure of the site. Will you need a CMS, an image library, or is the site better suited as a Portal, or maybe a static HTML site is all that you need. This is also a good time to start asking budget questions and if the company can afford an expensive solution or if the budget is calling for a hand-built site. Also, will the site be hosted locally, or will a third-party host the site? This is also a good time to discuss the ways and means the site will be updated. How the site is built has much to do with current needs, future growth plans and available resources.
4. Ask who is going to provide the initial content and who will provide content on an on-going basis. Keeping the site fresh with new and relevant content is an important step to keep the site vibrant and gives existing customers a reason to check back on the site.
   This is also a good time to start thinking about procedures and guidelines. Having a straight forward approach to content publication is essential to a well-run website.
5. Now that you have an idea of the content and who is providing it, it's time to start thinking about how your visitors are going to find that content. How are you going to establish your navigation, menus, search functions and the home page?
6. Before you start creating any pages, it's important to set up a standard for the URLs. This is important for SEO. Also, if you are running a content site and you want your articles to appear in Google News, then you must follow Google's URL guidelines.
7. Now is a good time to start thinking about the common pages found on websites. Does your site need an About Us page, Contact Us page, Careers page, a listing of the current Staff, and/or Overviews of the company and the different departments?
8. Establish branding and identity into the templates, wire frames and CSS. Ask for any existing artwork, logos and fonts. This information will help determine the attitude of the site and the overall presentation.
9. After laying the ground work, start creating a few sample pages and format them in different ways. Use different functionality and test them. For example, on the home page, do you want visitors to rotate through different information (presenting information in a pseudo image gallery) or do you want them to click through to new pages? After you have a few versions prepared on your hard drive--before putting anything online for the world to see--get some feedback from the Powers That Be and listen to their ideas and suggestions.
10. Now that you have company approval and buy in, the last question to ask is, are you ready to do this? If so, get going!

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Are Your Staff Meetings a Waste of Time???

Meetings have a terrible reputation. Lots of talk and no action. The "real" issues are never discussed. There's always an "elephant in the room" which only gets bigger as the meeting goes on. When the meeting started its purpose was not clear and when the meeting ended no problems had been solved. So, it should be no surprise that when somebody even speculates that perhaps a new or additional meeting is needed, the response is, "oh no, not another meeting."

The real problem however is not how many meetings you have or how long they last, the issue is whether or not they are productive. Is the cost of staff time to hold the meeting outweighed by the value of the decisions that were made. That value can be in terms of better services or organizational efficiency. Increasingly however, in this pay for performance environment, the decisions that are made in our meetings

need to be monetized; i.e. their financial value. For example if eight people are at the meeting for two hours and their time is valued at an average $30 per hour each, that means that the value of the work done needs to be about $500 in order to say that the meeting was worthwhile financially.

But before we get too arrogant about getting value from meetings, let's remember that the majority of our work requires input from other staff members to complete. So, from that perspective, time spent alone at our desk, could be the real time-waster. Plus we are by nature, social beings; we actually enjoy being with other people and therefore meetings should be much more enjoyable than we usually find them.

So what can we do to make sure that our meetings are productive, interesting and even enjoyable. Here are several suggestions:

1. Introduce variety and physical activity into your meetings. Bring toys to your meetings: nerf balls; play-doh; paper airplanes. Great relaxation and positive mood-inducing tools. Invite guest speakers. Can be an outside "expert" or simply another employee who does not normally attend. Having walking meetings or stand-up meetings. Meet in a different location or arrange the seating in a different way. Allow - schedule - time for "transition". Give 5 or 10 minutes at the beginning for small talk or serious, heavy duty stuff that people need to talk about before it makes any sense to start the regular agenda. An especially important point here is physical activity. By getting up and moving around you are increasing the possibility that people's thought processes will be more creative and productive.

2. Utilize individual differences. It means we need to get to know other committee members; I mean really get to know them. So that we know what they are good at and what are the tasks that they will need help with in order to satisfactorily complete. You need to know their communication styles and their temperaments. You need to know that you will be able to acknowledge a mistake or a failure without getting personally criticized for what was an honest mistake. You need to be able to trust everyone. Work at developing and maintaining trust must be a mandate and a priority.

3. Subject the meeting to a CQI process; always looking to make good meetings better. Take five minutes at the end of each meeting to talk about the following: call attention to especially positive contributions that group members have made to the discussion; thank them for their effort; discuss what went especially well with the meeting (did standing up for five minutes really result in more creativity); admit that some mistakes were made that should not be repeated; discuss whether or not any old habits might have reared their ugly heads again and how they could be blocked next time; have participants jot down their feelings about the meeting; collect their comments and every 3-4 months review them to identify progress that has been made or areas where improvement is still needed.

Finally, good, fun, productive meetings are everyone's responsibility - not just the leader. Yes, strong facilitation is needed but everyone can, and should, identify problem areas as well as affirm positive group performance. Now go and have a great meeting!

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RESUME SKILLS | Hobbies & Interests. The How to write them and the WHY.

The Rules to make sure you Ace The Interview with your Hobbies & Interests.

Most applicants know where they were born, what they did, their education, information about parents etc. 

Somehow when they get to the hobbies and interests part it all seems pointless.

Most have hobbies & Interests on the resume, because it came with the format they were copying . Some of them, choose to copy the interests and hobbies of friends or worse, what the college placement cell advised!

Be honest. Do you have one of the following listed under your hobbies and interests section?

Reading
Traveling
Music
Internet Browsing

If you do, you are only one of the 96% candidates out there.

Hobbies and Interests are something to talk about. 

It’s a window into your personality, that is beyond the standard work stuff. These are things you are supposed to be passionate about. 

You should be using this extensively to not just market yourself, but also to steer the direction the interview takes.

Here are the rules:

Make them true
Have something you are passionate about. Something no one needs you to work upon, or do. Something that excites you, something that makes your eyes sparkle when you talk about it.

Make them Unique
As far as possible mention your hobby in a way that sounds unique. 
Use this as a lever for the interviewer to remember you. 
Don’t say reading, when you can say ‘classics’ or ‘Indian art history’ or something more specific. 
If it is music talk about genre, artist or even a special decade!

Make them demonstrable
You may like to think, but really that is not a hobby. 
If you put something like singing, be ready to sing in the interview. 
If you put something like dramatics, be ready to emote. 
Put something that can give the interviewers a little break from the monotony of taking interviews. 
If you say coin collection, carry a unique coin with you!

Make them relatable
Be honest at all times, but if you have more than one hobby, choose the one that the interviewers may be able to relate to. 
Yes, you read that right. 
This like all other parts of your resume, this one needs to be customized according to the people you are sending it out to.

If you don’t have a hobby or interest, get one! 

It’s not just something to talk about in an interview, it is something to treasure and add value to yourself as an individual.

There you have it.

The Rules to make sure you Ace The Interview with your Hobbies & Interests.

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Interviewing 101

Whether you are breaking into the job market for the first time, or are ready to write the next chapter of your career, nailing the interview is always a crucial step in the process.

Pre-interview preparation is important – know about the company. Start with their website, current press releases, look up the LinkedIn profiles of the interviewers if you have that information, and see what Glassdoor.com says about what it’s like to work there. Write down a few key questions you’d like to know more about. A few generic but helpful questions for any interview include:

• What is a typical day like in this role?
• What are the expectations about accomplishments expected in the first 3/6/12 months of this job?
• What do you like best about working here?

Now that you’ve completed your homework on the company, next you should know how to dress – should you wear a suit? Or business casual attire? If in doubt, it’s always better to be overdressed than under-dressed. Many companies will coordinate the interview and send you an email with information on what to expect, how to dress, and who you will be meeting with – this information can allow you to feel more relaxed about what the interview will be like, so take a deep breath and soak that information in.

It’s important for all job seekers, not just recent college grads, to identify their skills and interests and be ready to verbalize them easily and convincingly. Consider these questions when evaluating what your key skills and interests might be:

• In your past work experience, what have you been energized by?
• What gets you out of bed in the morning?
• What would your last supervisor say is your biggest asset?

Once you have answered these questions, spend some time thinking about how you’d explain your competitive edge – why should they hire you over other candidates? Be ready to sell yourself as the best candidate in a confident but non-boastful way.

Be familiar with behavioral interview questions, where you will be asked to tell a story about a time when you experienced a certain situation. Do so briefly and effectively, further convincing your interviewer that you are capable of the doing the job. Quantify whenever possible. Briefly tell the story using the STAR method: the Situation you were in, the Task you were faced with, the Action you took to get the job done, and the Result. By preparing a few key stories that back up your competitive edge and skills, you’ll feel more confident handling typical interview questions.

Finally, close the interview by asking for the job, if you feel like the role is a good fit for you. The interview is as much about them evaluating you as a potential employee as it is about you deciding whether you can see yourself thriving in the role with the company. Ask what next steps are, and when you get home, send a thank you email to your interviewers.

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What Recruiters Look For in a Cover Letter

Capturing the attention of a recruiter with your cover letter is challenging to say the least. It is common knowledge that cover letters need to be customized for each position an executive applies for. But what details do recruiters really want to read in a cover letter? What format do they like best?

Customize

A cover letter should indicate that you are familiar with the company, and/or job, and show how you would be a great fit. Including some relevant industry news or recent product launches shows that you are interested and following industry trends. Recruiters want to know that you are paying attention to their needs and that you fulfill the criteria they are looking for.

Format

Recruiters don’t want to take a lot of time to pour over lengthy dense paragraphs to extract information. Keep paragraphs short and details concise. Let the resume shine with more facts and save in-depth details for the interview.

Errors

You may be in a hurry to submit your resume and cover letter for a listed position or just too busy to re-read your documents, but those few extra minutes could save you from quick elimination. It is critical to proof any written materials that you submit for a potential job. While some think that autocorrect is a wonderful feature in a program, it can autocorrect you right into the round file.

Professional

Some people think that an “out-of-the-box” cover letter will get more attention and in a few instances that may be true. Let’s say if you are a marketing executive and want to show your creative side. Generally though, at the executive level, recruiters want to read a professionally written cover letter. They see this as an extension of how you communicate, and it helps them evaluate your potential with the hiring company.

Match experience

Recruiters play the match game. How quickly they can match your past work experience with the qualities and requirements of their current job order is key. What’s most important in the cover letter is to highlight those skills and experiences so the reader can instantly see you as a good match.

A cover letter should explain who you are and why you are perfect for the job. Period. A crisp professionally written cover letter can do that for you.

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Lessons From a Fighter Pilot for Businesses and Leaders

A fighter pilot thrives on the threshold of uncertainty and risk. In combat, a combination of factors makes even the best-equipped pilot vulnerable. A combination of intelligence, execution, and feedback enable a fighter pilot engage or disengage an enemy.

Coincidentally, these are the same things that are needed by businesses or leaders who also thrive on uncertainty and risk, in situations where decisions need to be made quickly and correctly, and executed nimbly.

Let's look at one concept that has enabled the fighter pilots gain advantage in challenging situations.

The Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act (OODA) Loop

If I didn't tell you that this term originated in the US military, you could mistake it for business jargon! And, you will be mostly right. The term, which originated in the US Air Force, has been used in other fields outside of military, and very rightly so. You might be amused to know the concept has been used in F-16 and later fighter jets since the 1970s.

And, it is not much different from business methodologies we use today, or any such tools of decision-making and execution.

The four component of the OODA loop and its analogy in business are:

• Observe: Collect data about the enemy aircraft via various mechanisms and tools. Very similar to the intelligence we gather in businesses.
  
• Orient: Interpret the data as it pertains to the pilot, and all the experience and perspective the pilot has. This is very critical since misreading of the data could mean engaging the enemy or not. In business, we tend to collect a lot of "noise" data. But interpretation of this data could open up choices we need to make. Misreading the data, based on experience and perspective (or lack thereof) could send the business in a wrong direction.
  
• Decide: Based on the intelligence and orientation, decide which of the choices the pilot needs to make - engage, flee, keep observing, anticipate, and so on. Not so different in business world.
  
• Act. Take the chosen path.

The process doesn't stop when the pilot has acted. The loop iterates again based on new intelligence from the altered situation.

Timing is key, but not everything

John Boyd, who developed the OODA loop, was nicknamed "Forty Second Boyd" for his skill in gaining advantage in air combat in a short time.Timing is critical in military situations, given that your life depends on not only the decision and action, but how quickly you can make the decision and act upon it. However, you can't sacrifice other aspects for timing, else you will risk getting into a worse situation than when you started.

By rule, all startup companies start from a position of disadvantage, and need to gain advantage by not only the right decisions, but act upon it, and sustain that - all in a short time. The one way to do it, learning from OODA loop, is to create a constant feedback, decision, and action cycle, adapting every time there is a change in situation.

This also can be applied to almost any aspect of business, where agility and adaptability is key.

The human factor

While the entire cycle can be automated, remember that it is finally humans that decide to act. Like a fighter pilot who has many tools at his/her disposal, the experience and perspective, and finally the ability to decide and act can't be ignored. And, while at it, we can refine our data collection mechanisms to weed out data that's not relevant or contextual.

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iPhone 6 5.5-Inch Model Facing Yield Issues, Launch May be Pushed to 2015: Analyst

It seems nothing is going Apple's way when it comes to the next iPhone's production. A recent report suggested that the company might face component yield issues in an attempt to meet the thin form factor of the iPhone 6.

Now, KGI Securities' analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that due to production issues, the launch of the alleged larger iPhone 6 variant, believed to be the 5.5-inch model, may be delayed to next year. He adds that in any case the phone is indeed launched in October, it is likely be available in limited quantities.

MacRumors quotes Kuo who noted, "Production bottlenecks on 4.7-inch iPhone 6 centre on the yield rate of in-cell touch panel and metal casing. As in-cell touch panel becomes larger in size, the edge of the panel may become insensitive to touch. Meanwhile, under new manufacturing process for the iPhone 6 metal casing, colour unevenness is an issue."

Notably, this is not the first case of yield issues reported for the long-rumoured 5.5-inch iPhone 6 variant. Back in May, a report suggested that the use of costly sapphire as a display material, waslimiting the production of the alleged iPhone 6 with 5.5-inch display.

Last week, a report tipped that Apple might introduce a new haptic feedback technology in its next generation iPhone devices, while another leak suggested that the company had almost doubled orders for the iPhone 6 when compared to the iPhone 5.

Earlier this month, a report revealed a September 25 (Thursday) availability date for the alleged 4.7- and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 models, which is not in line with Apple's traditional Friday launch, while also claiming that the name of the larger 5.5-inch iPhone 6 variant will be iPhone Air.

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