Daughter: "Dad. Are you an entrepreneur? What's an entrepreneur?"

The other day my daughter was given a homework assignment by the Business Studies teacher at her high school. She was briefed to go and ask an "entrepreneur" a set of questions about what makes an entrepreneur.  Over dinner she asked me "Dad. Are you an entrepreneur  because I need to interview one.".  My immediate reaction was to try to back away from her tricky question.  Entrepreneur has become somewhat of an overused term that the panellists on "Have I got News for You" on the BBC joke is synonymous with the state of being "unemployed", mainly due to the multitude of false claims of being an entrepreneur from contestants on Alan Sugar's The Apprentice reality TV shows.

It used to be reserved for describing the likes of "inventors" and "billionaires" such as Sir Richard Branson or James Dyson, of the cyclone based vacuum cleaner fame. Putting the japes of comedians aside, today I think entrepreneur has become a term used to describe someone who has an idea and tries to bring it into reality, with a view to creating a successful business and ultimately lots of money.

The Collins English Dictionary (well the pocket version on my bookshelf) defines the word as meaning "a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit.".  

So what makes a successful entrepreneur. Well, I don't rate myself as "successful" - not just yet. If I was, I'd definitely be in the Caribbean right now, reading a good book and not writing a blog.  So perhaps my daughter should be asking what makes a happy entrepreneur such that they are more likely to become successful... Here's what I ultimately told her.

For me, being an entrepreneur is about dedication, passion and desire for the end goal - which has to be in some way to "add value".  I also don't think it necessarily means working all hours under the sun with unmanageable and constant stress. If being an entrepreneur is about leading the lifestyle you crave and being your own boss, what would be the point of being controlled and constrained by time and work pressure?

Being an entrepreneur therefore is partly about proper work/life balance. The two seem to meld into one, without either really dominating the other.  A family holiday, for example, is still relaxing even if you dip out every so often to check your emails - on the other extreme - what's the point being your own boss if you can't take time off with the kids? If you look at Richard Branson's photos on Twitter, you'll notice most of them are of him kite surfing, flying his balloon or doing some other leisure activity. He knows how to have fun and what matters and how to mix this with setting up and running successful businesses.

As for my daughter's assignment, her list of the characteristics of an entrepreneur ended up looking something like this:

• They do what they enjoy.
• They are passionate about what they do, without taking it too seriously - it's not the be all and end all, it's a means to an end.
• They are expert planners but equally comfortable playing it by ear as events unfold
• They want to make a difference. If you make a difference, someone, somewhere will be willing to pay for it. Then the profit will follow.
• They observe and critique everything. If something doesn't work as well as it could, making it better will make a difference. And we know what making a difference leads to...
• They have a good work/life balance. Because their goals are ultimately about doing what they enjoy, they can blend work life and personal life like an intricate weaving.
• They make things happen. If you enjoy something, and you're clear what difference doing it will make, you're more inclined to work at it, overcome barriers and ignore (the worse barrier of all) those that say "can't, don't or no" to everything that's not already cast in stone.

On that basis, I think I can declare myself an entrepreneur without suffering the ridicule of one of Lord Sugar's wannabe prodigies.  

I hope my daughter gets a good mark for her homework assignment and that I haven't put her off being an entrepreneur completely.  In the meantime, what do you think? What's an entrepreneur mean to you?

Using SCRUM for Agile Development of Complex Apps

Here at Appdragon we believe in close Client engagement in our software development projects. A recent example is where one of our current client, social media firm Rottweiler Productions, are working closely with our SCRUM Product Owner and the SCRUM development team to evolve their latest offering, MatchDayMe (MDM).

MDM is complex in that it's a new concept and the requirements were difficult to pin down at the start of the project and they are evolving at a rapid rate as the project progresses.  Competitor activity, new library code, user expectations and desires all affect the way the client wants their iPhone and Android phone apps to look and feel and the functionality they need to deliver.

We could follow the traditional 'waterfall' model and spend endless meetings trying to pin the client down to a specific, well defined set of requirements.  It would cost him a fortune in expensive consultant and facilitator time and the minute the requirement specification was signed off, I guarantee it will require changing.

We can quickly get barriers removed by continuous sprint reviews, pulling in the Product Owner (and the client if the two aren't the same person) and scoping out individual features as we develop.

Most importantly, we can get feedback from the client on whether the function we've just "Sprinted" (if that's a correct SCRUM term) is actually what they wanted, or whether what they wanted is actually slightly different now they've seen how it works.

With SCRUM we evolve towards a quality end product which not only meets all of the Client's expectations, but goes beyond that. It meets the expectations the client didn't even have at the start of the project.

At Appdragon we're working towards having a team of fully trained and, where appropriate, accredited SCRUM professionals. We see that as being the best way to deliver the best possible solutions to our clients so that they can envisage their goals and objectives and please their own customers.

If you're interested in joining the Appdragon development team and learning how to develop in an agile way, contact us via our web site or email your CV to us.  We're currently recruiting in our Dhaka office, looking for especially talented developers with 2 years plus experience on iOS, Android and Python.  Don't worry - the SCRUM way of life is something easily learnt on the job and you'll love the way we work.

Transferring Existing Repositories to GitLab

Here at Appdragon we have some of the best coders using the industry's best SDK tools and applications. One of the apps we use is GitLab.  Here, our system admin, Musa, provides a quick change of pace from our usual blogs and dives into something a little more technical.

We used to use Gerrit Code Review along with git-web before migrating to GitLab. So we had to transfer all our existing repositories to GitLab. This tutorial can also be used for migrating from other git based issue tracking systems. The GitLab documentation says to put all your bare repositories, the ".git" directories, into this location - "/home/git/repositories" and then use the import command. But this doesn't do the job, it only creates blank empty projects under the Admin group with no source files or previous issues. So to solve this, just follow the steps below -

?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

# Copy all the bare repositories from Gerrit to GitLab # You should change $newdir into something you prefer # The command is going to create a new directory inside the repositories directory sudo cp -R /usr/local/gerrit2/git /home/git/repositories/$newdir # Change ownership of the directory sudo chown -R git:git /home/git/repositories/$newdir

This is for Gitlab versions 6 and less

?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

# And now you can run this command, provided by the GitLab Team # Change to root user and go to GitLab's directory cd /home/git/gitlab sudo su sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:import:repos RAILS_ENV=production

For Gitlab versions 7 and onwards (That is, if you've installed Gitlab using the debian package)

?

1 2	# Just run the following command sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:import:repos

When you run the above command GitLab is going to create a new group named $newdir (i.e., the directory's name) and import the repositories perfectly. Now you can access GitLab with your admin account and access all the projects under the newly created group.

Thanks for reading this, I hope this slight modification helps you guys. To read more of Musa's hints and tips visit his own blog at http://www.redmoses.me.

Telehealth in the Middle East

Appdragon's business development director, Saadi Hussain, has been flying in and out of the middle east region on a regular basis and has developed a good understanding of the Telehealth opportunity there.  

With a penchant for running marathons in the Sahara Desert, he understands the challenges and ideologies of the region and the benefits that Telehealth could bring if implemented well.

It's by far from a complete view as the cultural, political, geographical and socioeconomic mix is broad and varied, but its conclusion is fairly similar to that reached in other geographies - Telehealth is going to be major.

If you look at Bahrain for example, the population is relatively small at 1.3m people (smaller than Greater Manchester) and close to 89% live in urban areas.  Kuwait has a population of 3.2m and 98% of those live in urban areas.  Oman however, has a less urban society with just 73% living in urban areas.  The geography and social history of the region explains why there's a penchant for urban living, but what affect might this have on health provision and in particular Telehealth services.

Well one of the usually cited USPs of Telehealth is somewhat negated by such a large urbanite population - that Telehealth brings quality healthcare to the remote, generally poorer rural communities.  If most people live in the cities, where hospitals and clinics also tend to be located, then the inconvenience of travelling to a healthcare provider is less prevalent. 

Kuwait has some state of the art health facilities but faces challenges like anywhere else

However, city living also has its health related drawbacks. Both the ability to afford and the availability of rich, luxury foods makes diet a big concern and the high, growing occurrences of diabetes and obesity as well as the knock-on heart conditions, are testament to this.  Also, more of the population undertake "city" jobs, often based in offices   or factories, with less fresh air and exercise that their rural counterparts.

Let's consider obesity and males in particular.  In the UAE 30% are considered obese. In Saudi Arabia it's just shy of 29%. Over 31% in Qatar are considered obese and almost 38% in Kuwait. Bahrain and Oman have the lowest rates at 24% and 19% respectively.

So we've established that city living could cause more health problems, but how can Telehealth help in the urban setting?  Well, getting around in the city isn't as easy as you might think because of traffic and transport issues. Busy, hectic lifestyles leave little time to visit clinics for checkups and the high pace of life has a telling effect on blood pressure - especially for those individuals with poor diet and exercise regimes.

Telehealth allows the busy city slicker to keep tabs on their health and vital signs at a time that's convenient for them, without having to take time out of their day.  Spotting symptoms early can enable more effective intervention and potentially improved health outcomes as a consequence.

Telehealth also, importantly, provides healthcare providers, governments and employers with a wealth of important health trend data that can be used to spot and deal with trouble spots or high risk jobs or areas.

Also, with some many people in one small space, waiting rooms and hospital wards become overcrowded.  This is especially the case in countries like Kuwait where a large part of the healthcare provision is funded by the state, so budget is limited.  Telehealth can help manage this by reducing the need for in- and out-patient appointments for checkups and also to reduce the number of interventions requiring clinic or hospital attendance.

Setting up a patient to use SmartMed to monitor their own health in the home

Telehealth also allows those undergoing treatment to be discharged sooner, in the knowledge that they can monitor their recovery from the comfort of their own home using Telehealth services such as SmartMed's HomeCare solution.

This is just a snippet of the opportunities for improved healthcare that Telehealth can bring in the Middle East.  For further information and to find out more about SmartMed speak to our agents in the region Harrington Consultants.

Saadi Hussain
Business Development Director
SmartMed mHealthcare Solutions