GeekSI
  • Blog
  • Who We Are
  • Get In Touch
  • Blog
  • Who We Are
  • Get In Touch
​​GeekSI

A Tech Blog for the People

Are you looking for an IT blog that speaks to you?
One that cares not only about the tech, but about the people behind the tech, the people the tech is for?
We want to be that blog for you.
We're here to offer reviews of new programs and products, insights into the ever-changing world of IT, and a glimpse into our day-to-day activities.

Easing the Process of Home Buying Through Loan Guaranty Services

7/20/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Loan Guaranty Service (LGY) is a service provided through the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) that allows veterans who have served their country the benefit of owning a home. Over 21 million men and women who currently work or have worked in the military have received a home loan through this service, which does its best to provide help to veterans by having relatively easy to meet requirements of minimum service time, and the promise to guaranty a portion of the loan against default and other foreclosure options, up to $104,250 if the veteran has full eligibility. This allows individuals who otherwise may not qualify for a civilian loan the benefit of obtaining one, at competitive rates and with little to no down payment. The LGY program is conducted within the Veterans Benefits Administration and is accessible to the public through Regional Loan Centers located in eight major cities across the United States, with Regional Offices across the country. These regional loan centers service every state in the country and all of the US’s offshore territories. Using these regional offices and loan centers, veterans can obtain mortgage loans through external lending institutions such as Veterans United and USAA, or government-funded programs like the Native American Direct Loan Program or the LGY-provided Vendee Loan program. Through these external lenders more than 740,000 loans were guaranteed in 2017, with the estimated total loan amount at more than $180 billion dollars.
 
In the event of a loan default, mortgage servicers continue to provide primary servicing, and the VA Loan Electronic Reporting Interface (VALERI) enables VA staff to conduct oversight to ensure that veterans are afforded every possible opportunity to retain their home. Overhauled in 2017, VALERI is the system that manages servicers and VA staff, and provides loss-mitigation assistance to individuals who have defaulted on their loans.
 
Although LGY is a government program, it is participating external lenders who delegate loan origination, underwriting, appraisal review, and loan closings. LGY direct loans are currently originated and underwritten using a manual process. Because the LGY program is so large, many lenders have VA automatic approval status, which means that lenders can guaranty the closing of loans to qualified veterans without prior approval of the VA. Supervised Lenders who do not have automatic approval authority are required to submit loan packages to the nearest Regional Loan Center for Prior Approval, and a commit letter is automatically generated in order to make the loan process easier. LGY processed 3,658 Prior Approval Loans in the 2016 fiscal year alone.

Picture
Geek Source’s primary goal on the LGY project is to provide the web-based functionality needed for users to complete the process of property appraisal that is required by the VA. Properties that are currently part of, or may be part of, the VA Home Loan process must go through a valuation process that determines the current worth of a property. The section of the application that we worked on eliminated the need for a separate appraisal system by consolidating appraisal information for new loans and interest rate reduction loans, as well as liquidations, into the enterprise development tool, WebLGY. Through our work, Geek Sources improved the overall communication among interfacing systems and users by allowing the appraisal tool in the WebLGY application to handle the end-to-end process. Now, everything from the appraisal request to the issue of the valuation notice is handled through the WebLGY application. To be precise, we reduced Technical Debt from over 6,000 open defects (Release 17.1) to 600 (Release 17.2) to zero (Release 17.3), thus achieving Authority to Operate (ATO) within two releases. During this time frame, we also increased development Velocity from 5 (Release 17.1) to 150 (Release 17.3), which provides additional economies of scale. This level of rapid adaptation and performance gives our customers the proven advantage to execute highly efficient business operations.

Picture
If you’re unfamiliar with the VA Home Loan Appraisal System, it was the original repository for the veteran home loan valuation information before 2010. The appraisal system, called TAS, provided the agents who participated in the LGY program access to appraisal and case information, status of appraisal requests, and the verification and updated basic reference file information. Working in tandem with this system was the E-Appraisal system that was introduced in 2004. Using the E-Appraisal system, TAS automatically updated every appraisal record as “pending review”, which allowed Staff Appraisal Reviewers to immediately review the appraisal and issue a Notice of Value without having to wait for an appraiser or lender to send reviewers an appraisal. This moved the valuation process along significantly.
 
In 2010, TAS was incorporated into the WebLGY application and an even more streamlined process was initiated. While working on WebLGY, Geek Sources designed the application to maximize data-processing performance. Before WebLGY, lenders and appraisers needed to use TAS and E-Appraisal as separate systems, but now the loan-processing, appraisal processing, and eligibility functions are in one handy design and are much easier to use. The entire process was streamlined for both end-users and LGY representatives alike. Geek Sources is proud of the work we’ve done to improve the operational efficiency of the automated appraisal process in terms of response time, accuracy, consistency, and transparency.
 ​

0 Comments

Multiple Sclerosis Surveillance Registry: Using Big Data and Health Informatics to Heal and Cure MS

4/19/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
This article later appeared in FedGov.News: http://bit.ly/2osldI1
​In 2015, all of us at Geek Sources, a Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) specializing in information technology (IT), were honored to be selected to support the researchers and medical practitioners at the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) dedicated to solving the puzzle of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). We were awarded a project with the VA and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to enhance the Multiple Sclerosis Surveillance Registry (MSSR) system to add critical new data elements for significant analytics. With a longstanding, successful history with the VA, we have also worked on the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS)-Ratings, VBMS-Awards, Eliminating Veteran Homelessness (EVH) system, Loan Guarantee (LGY) system, Memorial Enterprise Letters (MEL) system, and Research Administrative Management System (RAMS). In addition, our team of health IT (HIT) experts bring a wealth of VA health registry experience, including, but not limited to, the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) registry, the Embedded Fragments Registry (EFR), the Breast Care Registry (BCR), the Oncology (ONC) registry, the VA Eye Injury Data Store (EIDS), and the Clinical Case Registry (CCR). The enhancements we made to the MSSR are a prime example of our Geek expertise in big data and health informatics.
Picture

​​MSSR is a web-based registry application that provides clinical data surveillance tracking and longitudinal patient data analysis and reporting for the entire MS population within the VHA. In response to Congressional legislation, the system tracks and monitors the VA’s MS patient cohort, demographics, diagnoses, symptoms, and treatments over a span of time and geography. MSSR provides extensive health data analytics for the Multiple Sclerosis Centers of Excellence (MSCoE) directors, in addition to providing them with the MS Assessment Tool (MSAT) to assist MS specialists with the difficulty of diagnosis. The MSCoE in the East and West have endeavored to actively study and examine MS, publishing and sharing their findings for healthcare academia and other communities.

One article in the Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development reveals that one of the problems that MS patients and physicians have encountered over the years is that “there is no gold standard MS cohort/registry in the United States nor has there been a comparison of the MS databases that do exist.” What this means is that in order “to further our understanding of risk factors for the development and progression of MS as well as to conduct comparative effectiveness studies, we need a large, longitudinal, and diverse cohort of MS patients.”
Picture
The VA’s MSSR system meets those needs. With over 30,000 Veterans who suffer from MS, 1500 new MS cases annually, and 125 new cases every month, MSSR provides a vast demographic that ranges in age and location, and “findings suggest that MSSR is generally representative of the larger MS population in the United States. The detailed healthcare utilization and cost data maintained by the VHA combined with data from MSSR provides a unique and demographically diverse MS cohort for future study.”

​For our part, Geek Sources was tasked with big data needs for inpatient/outpatient utilization, prosthetics, vital signs, vital statuses, death dates and causes, non-VA/fee-based medications, and Decision Support System (DSS) data - specifically laboratory, radiographics, pharmacy, and costs. Considering the VA operates “the largest integrated health care system in the United States” (per the VA’s website), this was no easy feat. Currently, the VHA includes “168 VA Medical Centers and 1,053 outpatient sites…serving more than 8.9 million Veterans each year.” ​To persist the Veteran’s heath record, the VA leverages the Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA), implemented in MUMPS, as its Electronic Health Record (EHR). To complicate matters in terms of big data, VistA has more than 130 installations deployed at different VA facilities across the nation. Hence, if a Veteran visits multiple facilities, it is possible that different portions of his/her health record exists in multiple instances of VistA. The VA’s Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW), an Oracle database (DB), contains exports from all the VistA instances. Consequently, these original data sources feeding the CDW are primarily decentralized and customized instances of VistA, which provide a disparate, non-centralized source of clinical MS data that makes reporting and analytics difficult. The CDW addresses some of these issues but has data quality issues and holes with respect to MS.
Picture
Geek Sources began the MSSR enhancements project by reviewing and confirming existing requirements, development artifacts, and testing artifacts, including user stories and acceptance criteria.
​We then held Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and data source SMEs to verify the current data workflows from a business process perspective by performing the initial analysis of the state of the data sources targeted for the enhancements. The SMEs included clinicians, statisticians, and epidemiologists to review existing data models and schema within the CDW to identify potential tables and fields as sources for the data enhancements.

​We also analyzed existing interfaces to CDW, its Extract Transform and Load (ETL) code, the availability of data, the expected accuracy of the data, and the timing of data transfers and their frequency. Once the fields were confirmed, we reviewed sample data from CDW to determine the quality of the data prior to targeting the information for export. We then enhanced and developed ETLs in C#/SQL within Visual Studio to export and import the data using SQL Server Information Services (SSIS) into MSSR’s Microsoft (MS) SQL Server DB from CDW. In addition, we enhanced MSAT within Computerized Patient Record Systems (CPRS), the User Interface (UI) of VistA. This included enhancing the messaging to VistA. MSAT sends a Text Integration Utility (TIU) note with health factors through a VistA Integration Adapter (VIA) message, routed through the VistA Integration Engine (VIE), using HL7 messaging to VistA.
Picture
Geek Sources also developed new analytic reports using chart controls within .NET framework for the enhancements leveraged by the researchers. To ensure a quality system, we enhanced and developed master test plans, test cases, and scripts to verify the delivered user stories, epics, and traced requirements – all maintained within the Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM). Geek Sources maintained requirements as well as code versioning and configuration management within the IBM Rational Jazz Toolset Rational Team Concert (RTC), Rational Requirements Composer (RRC), and Rational Quality Manager (RQM). Our enhancements were tested and passed for cyber security leveraging HP Fortify Secure, as well as ADA 508 compliance using Deque WorldSpace and FireEyes. We successfully executed the project, adhering to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and quality standards, including the VA’s Project Management Accountability System (PMAS) using MS Projects and Primavera tools.
Picture
​Our MSSR Enhancements Project Manager, Cathryn Patterson, explains some of the hurdles overcome during the project: “The enhancement of MSSR was a flagship project for Big Data management at the VA. No one before us had been granted more access to the different health data sets as requested by the Business Owner. CDW-Raw is where data from multiple Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs) are first loaded from across the nation before being mined, cleaned, and loaded into CDW-Prod. It is where a lot of the DSS data resides. We had to analyze huge datasets, and normalize them to display the new data in a meaningful way. ​Our data architect and Extract Transform Load (ETL) developer did all of this while working with the VA doctors and researchers. I have never been prouder of our Geeks – we overcame so many obstacles to enhance this powerful healthcare system that helps provide quality care to our Veterans suffering from MS.”

​For the first time ever, MS clinicians now have more meaningful data, which allows for more accurate diagnoses, treatments, and epidemiological studies. In so doing, the lives of all MS-afflicted Veterans have been made a little bit easier in the process, and Geek Sources has successfully contributed to advancing MS research – bringing us a step closer to finding a cure. Sheetal Nilak, our data architect on the project, reveals that “the customers were happy with the data that we pulled for them from CDW. This [data] will help them make better/faster decisions, evaluate treatment plans, and, thus, help Veterans.” By collecting, organizing, and delivering data from multiple sources in a single registry, MSSR makes it possible for the VHA and its employees to use this data to better diagnose and treat those Veterans that have been affected by MS, hopefully making their lives a little easier in the process.
Picture
According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, MS is “an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body.” Part of the difficulty with diagnosing and treating MS is that its symptoms vary from fatigue and bladder problems, to dizziness and difficulty walking, to more psychological issues, like depression and lower cognitive functioning. ​

Unlike other diseases, MS is incredibly difficult to diagnose, with it being mistaken for Clinically Isolated Syndrome (CIS) or Neuromyelitis Optica, also known as Devic’s Disease, and vice versa. Unfortunately, this means that the patient must often take various drugs, try different rehabilitation programs, and see multiple specialists – relaying their history with the disease each time they encounter a new doctor or hospital. For anyone, let alone our Veterans, MS is a debilitating disease that makes everyday life activities, that we all take for granted, massively challenging, with sufferers taking various disease modification treatments (DMTs) within different rehabilitation programs under the care of several MS specialists.
Picture
With little private sector funding, Americans suffering from MS rely on the data integrity and longitudinal analysis of the VA’s MSSR system. Although the MSSR focuses on our Veteran population, the information it gathers and the data it creates on MS helps all Americans affected by the disease.

With our work on the Multiple Sclerosis Surveillance Registry, Geek Sources has been a pivotal force behind the furthering of MS research and, with our team of dedicated IT professionals, we continue to serve America’s Veterans by helping provide quality IT healthcare systems.
0 Comments

Getting a High-Heeled Leg Up: How the Federal Government Can Encourage Women-Owned Businesses

3/3/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Wonder Woman has often been referenced as a champion for female equality, especially in the workforce.
In our last blog, we explored ways to get young women more interested in STEM by increasing the representation of women in STEM-related careers in popular culture. While this is a great first step, it isn’t enough. We also need our government to help encourage the hiring and promoting of women professionals and Women-Owned Businesses (WOBs), especially Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs). Currently, the federal government has programs in place to help WOSBs; however, they rarely, if ever, meet their goals for contracting WOSBs and there are virtually no repercussions for federal agencies who do not meet these goals.
Picture
On December 31, 2015, the U.S. Department of Commerce created a report for the WOSB Program of the Small Business Administration titled “Utilization of Women-Owned Businesses in Federal Prime Contracting.” The report, over 60 pages in length, details how WOBs and WOSBs are not chosen for government contracts at the same rate as similar non-women-owned businesses. No matter what field the contract may be in, STEM-related or otherwise, WOBs and WOSBs face an uphill battle. In fact, “the odds of winning a contract for Woman-Owned Businesses are estimated to be roughly 21 percent lower relative to the odds of winning contracts by otherwise similar firms that were not identified as WOBs.”

The report goes on to say that “WOBs have statistically significant lower odds of winning contracts” and that “the industries in which WOBs are less likely to win contracts account for about 85 percent of contracts and of dollars obligated,” meaning that WOBs and WOSBs are missing out on 85% of the federal government’s contracts and missing out on a significant amount of money. How can the U.S. government help women, WOBs, and WOSBs overcome these odds? Let’s take a look at a few possible ways to close this gap and give women and their businesses a fighting chance.


​​Make WOSBs a Bigger Priority for Set-Asides:
​The U.S. General Services Administration explains that set-asides are used so that “the federal government establishes formal goals to ensure small businesses get their fair share of work in the federal market.” To accomplish this, “each federal agency must set an annual goal for participation by different types of small businesses.” The initial suggested percent for WOSBs is only 5%, which seems like it should be no big deal; however, only once in the more than 15 years since the 5% set-aside for WOSBs was suggested has that number been reached (during the 2015 fiscal year with 5.06%). In fact, it took until 2013 for federal agencies to reach 4%. The current fiscal year has only reached 4.28%.
Picture
​Create North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Codes for Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Businesses (EDWOSBs) in Technology:
According to the United States Census Bureau, NAICS codes are “the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.” NAICS may be a classification system, but it also helps small businesses have a better chance of being considered for big time jobs. Contracts will specify that the contract has been set aside for companies that are classified with certain codes, including WOBs, WOSBs, and EDWOSBs. The problem is that there are no NAICS codes for EDWOSBs in the technology category, meaning EDWOSBs don’t receive any more special consideration than WOSBs, even though they face even more hardships by being economically disadvantaged in addition to being women-owned.
Picture
Require a Minimum Percentage for the Female Workforce:
​
Geek Sources is a WOSB whose workforce is 64% women and we are incredibly proud of that fact. Unfortunately, as a women-majority IT company, we are basically an unheard-of anomaly. Most companies don’t have a minimum threshold for hiring females, or if they do, it’s minimal. One group that does have a great track record of going above and beyond their required hiring amount for a specific demographic is Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (VOSBs). VOSBs go above and beyond their imposed requirements by employing a higher-than-average percentage of Veterans. However, VOSBs have an advantage because a lot of government contracts in recent years have required that the winning contractor have a minimum percentage of employed Veterans in order to apply for the project, encouraging contractors to team up with VOSBs.
​​
​Deniz Franck, our CEO at Geek Sources, states that “one way we could really see change is for the government to just nudge more business towards WOSBs that specialize in IT/Engineering.” If the government were to have the same or at least similar requirements for employing women as they do for employing Veterans, chances are we would see the number of women employed in IT rise. Franck takes this idea a step further, daring the government and the IT field to step up to the plate: “If they want to add a requirement that the workforce is 50% women, then we won't have any problem matching it.”

Picture
​​If we were to give more WOBs, WOSBs, and EDWOSBs the tools they need to compete for large and small contracts, we would see a rise in both the success of these businesses and the number of women in the workforce, especially in IT and other STEM fields. If women and young girls see that WOBs working in technology fields are getting the resources, recognition, and income they need and deserve, they’ll be more likely to enter the technology workforce themselves.

In a 2016 article from The Washington Post, it states that “a more targeted focus on [females] could triple the number of women working in computing, from 1.2 million today to 3.9 million by 2025.” This would increase their share of jobs in these fields by over 10% in less than 10 years. Technology growth isn’t going anywhere but up and the jobs it creates are only going to increase. ​Already, “employers simply cannot fill [computing] positions that are becoming increasingly critical to their businesses.” If we want the U.S. to contribute to and keep up with expanding technology fields, we have to encourage more women and WOBs and give them the tools they need to succeed. Put bluntly, “U.S. business can’t meet the demands of our digital economy if we do not unlock our pool of female talent.” It would be much easier to unlock this pool of talent if our government and federal agencies provided the necessary keys to do so.
0 Comments

Bringing Female Representation to STEM

1/23/2017

2 Comments

 
Picture
Our CEO, Deniz Franck, programming in 1991.
​Here at Geek Sources, we are proud that we are a Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) and that our CEO, Deniz Franck, has been leading this company for almost twenty years. Being a woman in a STEM career is a unique experience, and one that can often feel isolating. Luckily, more and more women are being encouraged to pursue STEM degrees and careers. But more needs to be done.
In January of 2016, the National Science Board released its biennial Science and Engineering Indicators report. While women have been showing overall progress, albeit slow progress, to being better represented in STEM fields, women still only make up about 29% of the science and engineering workforce. Additionally, as a company working specifically in tech, it is upsetting to learn that less than 11% of computer engineers are women. And it’s not because there aren’t women who are qualified – there are so many women out there with untapped potential who could help us achieve parity.
​
According to the National Girls Collaborative Project’s summary of the report, when it comes to K-12 education, “female students' achievement in mathematics and science is on par with their male peers and female students participate in high level mathematics and science courses at similar rates as their male peers.” In other words, female and male students are equally successful in STEM-related courses in their formative years. So what keeps these female students from pursuing engineering degrees and careers at the same rate as their male peers? Representation. It’s hard to feel like a part of a community when you don’t see or hear about other people like you in that community. Young women need to know that there are women out there studying and working in engineering fields every day.
To help make women in STEM fields more visible, books, movies, TV shows, and news segments need to highlight these women and tell their stories. The new Ghostbusters movie may be a comedy and may focus on paranormal science, but it also shows three female physicists who speak using actual science and engineering terminology and who build the technology to save their city all by themselves. The Oscar-contender Hidden Figures takes a different approach but also tells the story of three female engineers. Based on a true story, the movie follows these women as they help NASA send the first American into space. Even more importantly, all three women are black, meaning not only women, but women of color are seeing someone who looks like them participating in STEM careers and making a difference.
​
Here’s how you can make a difference: Encourage the women in your life to pursue what they’re passionate about, whether it be art, science, literature, or aerobics. And for females who show an interest and an aptitude for STEM fields, give them a little extra push. Show them examples of real and fictional women who have pursued these fields: Ada Lovelace, Katherine Johnson, and Marie Curie; Hermione Granger, Temperance “Bones” Brennan, and Scully. Let them know that both men and women can contribute to and succeed in these fields. Help them crack that glass ceiling little by little, until all that’s left is shards.
2 Comments

Memorial Enterprise Letters: Helping the VA Help Our Vets

12/9/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
This article later appeared in FedGov.News: http://bit.ly/2kTGYxI
Here at Geek Sources, we are firm believers in helping our community and helping those who have served our community. Currently, we’re working on a project for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). We have worked on several projects with the VA over the years and are excited that we get to continue our partnership. Part of what we love about working with the VA is the opportunity to work with an organization that truly cares about the people it serves: America’s Veterans. These soldiers have done so much for us and we appreciate the opportunity to help them and those that serve them.
​
Specifically, the application we’re currently working on serves the VA by helping generate letters sent from the VA to Veterans’ families. Letters to military families from the U.S. government have been around since the Civil War, with most letter-notification correspondence becoming regular practice during World War II. If you’ve ever seen Saving Private Ryan, you’ve seen one of the VA’s most important letter-generation services: Death notices. In the following clip, you can see an office full of women typing each individual letter.
These days, the VA is trying to streamline letter generation so that letters can be created, sent, and received in a more timely and efficient manner. The application we’re developing is called Memorial Enterprise Letters (MEL) and it integrates with the VA’s current applications, Burial Operations Support System (BOSS) and Automated Monument Application System (AMAS). When a Veteran passes away, their family must submit all requests concerning their loved one and their loved one’s memorial to the VA. When the VA responds to these requests, they do so using Resolution Letters. Our current project is to take the VA Resolution Letters application that already exists and improve it, specifically focusing on how to minimize the need for application users to manually input data into the letters that the application can generate on its own. Anita Dixon, a Business Analyst on the project, explains that, in its simplest form, “the purpose of MEL is to generate resolution letters based on applications received from families of Veterans that have passed away.” These letters allow the VA to communicate with the families of deceased Veterans quickly and respectfully.

While the MEL application’s ultimate goal is to generate these letters, the MEL application also has some extra features to help the users outside of the actual generation of letters. Dixon explains that “the MEL application has several reports that can be used by employees and management to monitor and share progress on the work being performed.” These reports allow users to monitor their progress and it allows administrators and upper management users to see how many letters are being generated and by whom. These reports allow the users to see what they’ve done and what needs improvement. Dixon believes that this opportunity for improvement should work across the application: “I am hoping that the MEL application will make the user’s job easier, with less opportunities for errors, and give them a pleasant experience doing their unpleasant work.”

​Unfortunately, the VA often has to do unpleasant work. Helping America’s Veterans and the families of deceased Veterans is a hard job that can be full of heartbreak. Keeping these Veterans and their families in mind is a necessity in a project like this. Dixon echoes this, stating that while she hopes the success of this project will cause the VA “to see the need to use a letter generation application” on a larger scale, ultimately she hopes that “the families of the deceased Veterans get better service.” And we’re working to do just that. As the project enters its final stages, we eagerly wait for the opportunity to see the application in action, knowing that it will affect not just the users at the VA, but the families of our country’s deceased Veterans.
0 Comments

Focusing on People in a Tech World

11/21/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Working in IT is incredibly rewarding, but it can often make you feel distanced from real people and real life, especially if you telecommute: You sit in front of a computer for a large chunk of your day and a lot of the interaction between you and your coworkers is via the computer or phone. You work on your project, attend your scrums, and finish your work items and, unfortunately, a lot of times you end up forgetting why you love technology: Technology enriches our lives and does so in a multitude of ways.

But how can those of us working in technology remember that our tech reaches beyond ourselves? The most important thing to remember is that, as IT workers, even though nearly all our work is done through a machine for an imagined user, the technology we work on directly affects real people.

​First we have the obvious people our tech affects: The users. Whether we’re creating a program, a website, a game, an app, or simply fixing glitches in an existing item, we do so with an end user in mind. This is the person whose needs and desires we are trying to cater to. But to push past our computer screens and into the real world, we must make sure that we don’t see these users as just a means to an end or as nuisances, who we can be rid of as soon as we change this line of code or clarify this epic. End users are both our bosses and our customers: We should want to impress them, make them happy, and give them the product they want. When our end user is happy, we’ve done our job right.

​​The other people our tech affects are a little harder to envision because we haven’t necessarily interacted with them. These are the people our tech affects but who won’t actually be using our product. These people are not users, they will probably never see our product in action, and they won’t be writing us a recommendation or dropping in on an elaboration session anytime soon. And yet, our product will affect them; it will hopefully improve and enrich their lives, or at least make it a little easier at times.


Information technology is a booming industry and new contracts and customers are popping up every day. As workers in this field, our work is reaching more and more people, affecting more lives, and making an even greater difference. It is our job to not only create the product our users want, but to make sure our work is about more than the product itself – our work is about the people the product is for and the people the product will impact.
0 Comments

    Archives

    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016

    Categories

    All
    Advice
    Current Projects
    Government
    Health IT
    MEL
    MSSR
    Multiple Sclerosis
    People
    Pop Culture
    STEM
    Technology
    Users
    Veterans
    Women In Tech

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.