In the waterfall technique, an idea is conceived, then analyzed, then designed, then built, then tested, and finally released. Each step is completed before work flows to the next step. If the waterfall is a step ladder, agile is a circle. It allows us to treat each unique project as its own story, one that we can craft and edit with our clients in a collaborative, real-time process.

Data is one asset, which is growing in complexity and size day by day and it needs to be transformed to make sense. Certain BI tools come into consideration when an organization needs to fulfill its needs. Here, we’ll compare Power Bi, Tableau, and Qlik Sense to see which one best suits the requirements. Though all three tools took the upper hand in some of the attributes, Power BI comes as the ultimate winner. Let’s compare some of their features: Power BI is a SaaS service, which is seamlessly integrated with Microsoft 365, having Power Query, and Power Pivot features, whereas Tableau comes in Desktop, Server, and Online versions having a range of free visualizations. Qlik Sense helps in shifting from a large SQL-centric model to agile insight discovery, having both private as well as public domain features. Power BI can connect to on-premises as well as cloud enterprises such as Hadoop, and Azure. Tableau can also connect to Redshift, and Cloudera via in-built connectors. Qlik Sense also has in-built connectors. So, Power BI comes out as the winner due to more sources. In terms of data management, every tool has its own significant features for blending, exploring, and modeling the data, so we can consider all three at par. In terms of visualization, all three have good visuals, but Tableau wins the battle, as it has OOTB animations, which makes the dashboard more appealing. Data security is one common aspect that each organization requires. Power BI, being integrated with Office 365, generates an audit log. Also, provides row level, object level, and column level security, whereas Tableau doesn’t have column level security. Qlik Sense also has similar security features as Power BI, but needs a separate tool. Augmented and Embedded Analytics is a common requirement in almost every reporting, in which Power BI leads the race. Power BI leads the pack in terms of Mobile reporting with its easy-to-use features and secured real-time reporting, also in terms of licensing, it’s comparatively cheaper. To sum up, all three tools take the top spot in some of the feature segments, as we see from the above comparison, but when all said and done, it depends upon which one best suits your company’s needs in terms of both features and licensing cost.

Automation testing – what and why? Before we talk about Automation Testing, let’s first understand the term – “automation”. Automation is a process using which we can automate a manual process with the use of technology. The aim is to eliminate or reduce human/manual efforts as much as possible. Now let’s see, Automation Testing. It is a software testing technique to test the software and compare the actual outcome with the expected outcome. This can be achieved by writing test scripts or using any automation testing tool/framework. Test automation is used to automate repetitive tasks and other testing tasks which are difficult to perform manually. Automation Testing is the recommended way to increase the execution speed, effectiveness, and test coverage in software testing. Automated software testing is important due to the following reasons: Rigorous Manual Testing of all scenarios is a time-consuming process. You can execute the test from anywhere in the world and anytime you want to. Test Automation increases the speed of test execution. Automation helps increase Test Coverage. Manual Testing can become boring and hence error-prone. Conclusion – If the quality of your product is your number one priority, I strongly believe in using automated testing as part of your regular day-to-day development practices. It will ensure that your application is tested properly and gives confidence to developers, management, and customers. Automated testing has an upfront cost and they do take time to develop. The investment will pay off in the long term, in terms of reduced workload, eliminating manual errors, accuracy, and savings on cost and time.

Undoubtedly, Azure has put an impact on the Cloud space with its trustworthy services and enterprise support. Competing with giants like AWS and Google Cloud is not easy but updating its existing services to Cloud helped Azure in acquiring significant market share. Terms like SQL Server, SSMS, SSIS, SSAS, and SSRS were already popular among IT professionals and their transition to Azure Data Factory, Azure Analysis Services, Azure Synapse, Azure SQL, and Power BI has given an added advantage to the experienced professionals because they did not have to learn anything from scratch. With a proven track record of handling large data, performing complex calculations, implementing successful ETLs/ELTs, and conveying the outputs with effective visualizations has been widely accepted and praised by the clients. With the ability to handle static as well as real-time data, Azure has become a favorite of all those who were already using Microsoft’s enterprise products like Windows, Office, and Teams. Considering the fact that most laptops and desktops do not have any other stable choice than Windows, Microsoft has an upper hand in enterprise-level work. With additional security features like row-level security and Azure Active Directory, we can rely on Azure for our business decisions! Raghvendra Pratap Singh

“Machines will overtake humans” “Machines will rule us” “End is near” With the advent of the latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and many more, people have been forced to think that these technologies will affect us adversely and we have to stop all this. There is no question that we all have a moral obligation to protect humanity but at the same time, we need to see these advancements from a different perspective too. Obviously, new technologies provide us with an opportunity to either use it positively or negatively. Even Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atomic bomb) had regret of using atomic energy against humanity despite the fact that it had (and still has) a lot of possibilities to be used for humans. Ultimately, it is our responsibility to use these technologies with good intent. We can take the example of Software – they have simplified the processes in the sectors like Banking, Automobile, Finance, FMCG, Space, etc. but at the same time we see many cyber-attacks, Ransomware attacks, cyberbullying, and whatnot. Coming to the technologies, the term AI or Artificial Intelligence has faced the most backlash from those who are against such advancements. But we need to keep in mind that a lot of such technologies are still in a nascent stage and their use of them to annihilate humanity seems too farfetched. In fact, we can use them to discover the untouched and unexplored knowledge of space, science, and history. Moreover, these technologies have already started to prove their worth by helping people with daily tasks, enhancing security, complex medical operations, etc. We can easily see tasks like autocorrect in smartphones, face detection to unlock smartphones, self-driving cars, Assistants like Alexa and Siri, and advertisements on social media platforms based on searches done by you. Without any question, we need a screening system in place to monitor the misuse of these technologies and that’s where the policies like GDPR come into the picture. However, there is a lot of work to be done in this direction but stopping the use of the technologies with take us nowhere. To conclude, this is the time to embrace technological advancement with the intent to use them for humanity and not against them. Raghvendra Pratap Singh