Daily Tech Digest - November 22, 2021

Why you should choose Node.js for developing server-side applications

Node allows you to quickly develop an MVP. Node has already developed a large number of packages with various functions. You don't have to spend time developing the basic functionality, but just focus on the business logic. ... You don't have to reinvent the wheel on every project, which inevitably causes a lot of mistakes and makes the work boring, but you can work closely on tasks that are important for the project. Greater freedom in choosing an approach, building an architecture, and finalizing standard functionality that does not meet the requirements of the architect and/or customer. Node is built on the basis of the JavaScript language. As a result, this significantly increases the likelihood of developing full-stack specialists in the development team: front-enders who are well versed in the backend, or backenders who are well versed in the frontend. ... If you had to work closely with the front-end before, then you have a good understanding of the processes that occur with data in the user part of the resource, and, as a result, a simpler dialogue with front-end users. A good full-stack specialist is often more valued in the market than a good backend or frontend developer


How autonomous automation is the future

An APM solution measures application performance to identify potential bottlenecks, ideally already before deployment, e.g., in a test phase. Most of them do that fine. Some of them even have predictive capabilities in a sense that they can warn before a critical situation arises. Even better, an APM system that predicts that excessive runtimes will arise for operations in given circumstances before a significant usability incident occurs would be incredibly useful. The scenario above was caused by a high number of calls between the systems in combination with a high latency due to the long distance routing. Situations like this one can be identified and therefore solved before they occur. Scoring of opportunities already helps salespersons, now doubt. Still, additionally offering the actions that could be performed to improve the likelihood for successfully closing opportunities is far more helpful. Or in the case of the ticket routing based upon (bad) sentiment: suggesting which actions could be taken to improve the situation would help many agents.


The Daily Scrum event: 5 surprisingly common misconceptions

The purpose of the Daily Scrum is to improve the likelihood of delivering an increment that meets the Sprint Goal. According to the 2020 Scrum Guide, “Daily Scrums improve communications, identify impediments, promote quick decision-making, and consequently eliminate the need for other meetings.” These benefits won’t come through an email thread or even a group chat. The Daily Scrum is not a status report; it’s a collaborative event that involves discussion and group decision-making. If your team can replace its daily Scrum with an email, you might not be practicing the Daily Scrum in the right way. ... One of the most popular formats that Developers use for the Daily Scrum involves each Developer sharing in turn what they did yesterday to help the team meet the Sprint Goal, what they will do today to help the team meet the Sprint Goal, and whether they have any impediments. It can be a useful structure, but if the team follows it robitcally, they might miss the POINT of the Daily Scrum. At the Daily Scrum, the Developers should be inspecting progress towards the Sprint Goal together and talking about how it's going. This isn’t just a burn-up chart, or three questions to tick off.


Mastercard opens fintech, cybersecurity innovation lab in Beersheba

The lab has a number of focus areas including API (Application Programming Interface) security, vulnerability management, ransomware, digital identity and authentication, virtual payment wallets, and fraud prevention, said FinSec Innovation Lab CEO Sidney Gottesman. “Anything that Mastercard or Enel can use to protect themselves or to provide to their respective customers,” Gottesman told The Times of Israel on Sunday. Gottesman is senior vice president of Corporate Security at Mastercard, and the program owner for employee identity and access management. He previously held senior roles at Bank Leumi USA and Citigroup. The FinSec Innovation Lab is currently working with five Israeli startups to help them develop and test their solutions at the new center in Beersheba, offering the physical space, services, mentorship, and real-world data with which the companies can perform simulations of complex financial processes and cyber product testing, said Gottesman. The startups will also be able to receive funding from the Israel Innovation Authority.


Want to Stand Out as a Data Scientist? Start Practicing These Non-Technical Skills

Having good communication skills is not unique to just data science but quite frankly, any other professional work environment. Communication in the workplace can be broken down into two types: verbal communication and written communication. Without diving into too much detail, the main differences between the two are the speed of transmission and proof of record. Verbal communication has a high speed of transmission but no proof of record. As a result, it is more often used in internal stand-ups or client meetings where you are simply providing an update to the team or need immediate feedback on a particular idea. Written communication, on the other hand, has a low speed of transmission but offers proof of record. This can be in the form of emails, Slack messages or even comments in your code. Having good communication skills can go a long way when working in a collaborative environment. Not only does it make or break a team’s efficiency but it also helps with persuading others to pursue an idea during a project.


AI-driven adaptive protection against human-operated ransomware

The adaptive protection feature works on top of the existing robust cloud protection, which defends against threats through different next-generation technologies. Compared to the existing cloud protection level feature, which relies on admins to manually adjust the cloud protection level, the adaptive protection is smarter and faster. It can, when queried by a device, automatically ramp the aggressiveness of cloud-delivered blocking verdicts up or down based on real-time machine learning predictions, thus proactively protecting the device. We can see the AI-driven adaptive protection in action in a case where the system blocked a certain file. Before the occurrence of this file on the device, there were suspicious behaviors observed on the device such as system code injection and task scheduling. These signals, among others, were all taken into consideration by the AI-driven adaptive protection’s intelligent cloud classifiers, and when the device was predicted as “at risk,” the cloud blocking aggressiveness was instantly ramped up. 


Mastering the connection between strategy and culture

Ideally, you develop strategy and organizational culture together in a connected, integrated approach from the beginning. You experiment, learn, and iterate as you align your strategic direction with the behaviors that will help you get there. Indeed, in a recent online poll I conducted with 300 executives, 56% said that they used this approach; 30% said strategy came first. Sometimes it is necessary to put more emphasis on one aspect before connecting the two. A toxic workplace, an ethical issue, or a poor relationship with a supplier may require immediate attention to the culture, especially if important stakeholders, such as investors or regulators, express their concerns. This requires interrogating the causes, taking remedial action, dealing with the immediate impacts, and starting to build new ways of thinking and working. In this scenario, developing a new strategy might need to wait until there is sufficient cultural progress. At other times, the strength of competitor activity (e.g., in launching new products or services, or in pursuing aggressive pricing policies) or the dynamics of customer behavior may require a company to make strategic choices before working on the evolution of the culture.


A Design Thinking Roadmap for Process Improvement and Organizational Change

Structured interviews were the first step to engage people in the organization into the change initiative. Each interview session lasted two hours. I engaged the members of the management team and learned their perspective on the proposal process for the various work roles they performed. Questions were tailored to the organization and the proposal process, and addressed the following five categories: stakeholder role, problem discovery (i.e. pains), problem validation, opportunity discovery (i.e. gains), and opportunity validation. The structured interviews provided a safe environment for people to share their candid opinion on the process and potential ideas for improvement, and provided an opportunity to build trust with the key stakeholders in the organization. During the observation phase of the change effort, I used the interviews as a way to get to know the people in the organization, learn about the process, and the problems and potential solutions for improvement. 

As the business begins to refocus and reformulate business strategies, CIOs will need to reformulate IT strategies. The direction your business heads may be very different from where it was headed pre-2020, so it’s critical to remain well-informed about business objectives. ... While looking at strategic alignment, be sure to evaluate which IT initiatives are meant to run the business and which are intended to improve the business. If you don’t address basic IT operations, other efforts will be wasted. If you focus solely on IT operations, you’ll be seen as a utility and not an innovative business partner. Running the IT business means delivering business value. This includes improving cost, speed, and capabilities as well as reducing technical debt by decommissioning technology and deselecting projects. Shaping the business involves investments in innovation and enabling the business to respond quickly to new opportunities using IT. These efforts are future-facing. Any IT department that is not actively moving forward is actively falling behind.


Global AI regulation? Possibly, and it’s starting in the EU

Before we can delve into the impact of the proposed legislation, it’s helpful to understand what the Act defines as AI. At this early stage of this draft Act, the current definition is pretty broad and includes machine learning approaches, logic- and knowledge-based approaches, expert systems, statistical approaches, Bayesian estimation, other statistical methods, and search and optimisation methods. It then stands to reason that all modeling performed by augmented analytics and data science will also fall under the Act. In addition, not dissimilar to GDPR, it won’t matter if your company falls outside the EU’s borders. If you have a link to the EU, have customers, suppliers, staff in the EU, or even produce products for the EU, then you will have to comply. Non-compliance will include financial penalties for an organisation, and if you look closely at the draft, it speaks about fines of up to €30 million or 6% of your global annual turnover. For those companies looking to take a shortcut, don’t — the Act clearly states that if you provide the regulatory bodies with incorrect, incomplete, or misleading information, fines of €10 million or 2% of turnover will be instated.



Quote for the day:

"It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from followers." -- Warren G. Bennis

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