Insights

Alternative notifications for Entityforms in Drupal 7

        Filed under: Agile development, Drupal, How to

Entityform already offers a way to send notifications: by integrating with Rules module you can configure your notifications for administrators or other recipients, some of those may be inputs in the form itself, so this is perfect for most of cases, ah and if you need to migrate the form from one environment to another … Continued

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Agile Development: What is the difference between “Ready” and “Done”?

        Filed under: Agile development, Project Management, Web Development

When working with Agile, you will always hear the terms ready and done; they are an essential part of all agile projects. Unfortunately, some people try to use these two terms interchangeably . On this blog post, I plan to explain the difference between these two, and also try to guide you on how to … Continued

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apache solr logo

Intelligent searching using Apache Solr

        Filed under: Apache Solr, Drupal

Have you ever misspelt your search term in Google but Google suggests you the right term anyways? I know I have been in that situation, many a times. Wouldn’t you love your Apache Solr to disregard the spelling mistakes and search for the right term anyway too? That would be cool, isn’t it? Here’s how … Continued

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drupal 7 logo

How to Get URL Parameters in Drupal 7

        Filed under: Agile development, Drupal, How to

I’ve seen the horror! (allow me some drama here) I’ve seen code in Drupal projects, trying to get parameters from URLs in this way: $params = $_GET; or $some_var = $_GET[‘some_var’] Drupal has some functions to deal with parameters coming from a URL. Now, let me be honest, it’s not more secure if you use … Continued

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laptop with code on the screen

Why Government Contractors should Open Source their Software

        Filed under: Government, Technology, Web Development

Open source software is nothing new, but the rise in demand for open source contractors is. From small companies to large enterprises like Google, the open source movement is in full swing. Unsurprisingly, most governments are a few steps behind the latest social and technological trends, so naturally, government contractors are hesitant to join the open … Continued

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Statue of liberty

Why the Government should Open Source their Software

        Filed under: Government, Internet trends, Technology, Web Development

Let’s begin with a more pressing question, why does the government insist on using closed source software in the first place? Ben Balter, a reputable Project Manager at GitHub rightly points out the following: The federal government is the single largest purchaser of code in the world. So why is this code — taxpayer-funded and integral to the day-to-day … Continued

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User Research Methods for UI and UX Designers

        Filed under: User Centered Design, Web Design

So you’ve been handed a project, told who your target audience is, and it’s time to get started on researching your users to ensure the final result of your project suits them and ideally fulfils a specific need. The end game for any project where users are concerned can be to appeal to them and lead … Continued

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Fairfax County Economic Development Authority

What I heard at the Procurement Academy

        Filed under: Government websites

Falls Church, Virginia – The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority is holding a series of free seminars around the subject of Procurement and Marketing to federal, state, and local government agencies.  The title of this particularly procurement academy workshop was called, “Marketing and Selling to the Federal Government”.  These are my notes: Speakers: Sharon Jones, Director … Continued

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What flavor is your Agile?

        Filed under: Agile development

Some people refer to the various tools, processes, methods, and approaches to agile as flavors of agile. To us, they are quite a bit more complex and nuanced than simply flavors. Like choosing the right tools for the job, we strive to use the most appropriate approach and methodology for the task and environment. Kanban. For example, … Continued

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Prism Kite Technology

What is modernized, mobile, agile, and lean? Russia’s defense.

        Filed under: Agile development

When it comes to the right way of doing (agile) software development versus the proven wrong way of (waterfall) software development, we often hear the terms: Strategic Modern Mobile Agile Lean Unconventional So, it was somewhat surprising and interesting when I noticed these words in a CNN article regarding Russia and its Department of Defense. … Continued

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arkansas.gov

Best Government Websites: Arkansas.gov

        Filed under: Government websites

The government website for the state of Arkansas took User Centered Design (UCD) to another level with its Best of the Web award winning website.  This is what I like about Arkansas.gov: They clearly identified and segmented their target audiences: Parents & Families, Citizens, Business Owners, State Employees They created a modern, visually pleasing, aesthetic … Continued

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Alabama.gov

Alabama.gov great government web design

        Filed under: Government websites

Government websites are not known for their beauty, style, or elegance.  But Alabama.gov demonstrates that government websites do not have to look dull, boring, and ugly.  On the contrary, the Alabama website is quite the opposite – just like it’s tagline: Be Bold. Government websites have strict standards that most commercial websites are not constrained … Continued

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Agile Development, Washington DC, GSA Schedule 70

        Filed under: Agile development

First and foremost, we are an agile development company. This means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but to us this means: Client driven prioritization and periodic reprioritization of our work Absolute transparency of our activities, progress, and obstacles Early and frequent user involvement to steer the user experience Early … Continued

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Drupal developer in Washington DC with GSA Schedule 70

        Filed under: Drupal

WASHINGTON DC DRUPAL DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, Agileana proudly presents its portfolio of past performance projects that involved Drupal: These are only a few of our recent Drupal project, others include: USAspending George Mason MR University Fulbright Scholar Program English Language Program FHI 360 Education Policy and Data Center Administrative Conference of the United States District of … Continued

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