How an SMS Application Took a Job (i.e. Task)

David Pitt Articles, Automation, Conversational Apps, JavaScript, Keyhole Creations Leave a Comment

This blog is about a humanโ€™s job being replaced by automation. But, before you start composing emails and social media responses, know that itโ€™s a job that I think most folks would gladly allow an automated mechanism to take over.

The โ€œjobโ€ discussed in this blog is the need to contact individual users (in this case, employees) when those users forgot to accomplish a required task.

In this blog, we discuss a conversational application solution used internally at Keyhole Software for automated SMS text messaging features surrounding time tracking. The solution, implemented with conversational application platform KHS {Convo}, allowed for time entries to be submitted via text and automated, schedule-based notifications….

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Technical Debt โ€“ Observe, React, Prevent

Keith Shakib Articles, Consulting, Opinion, Soft Skills Leave a Comment

The term โ€œtechnical debtโ€ was coined over a decade ago to help highlight a common problem in software development. Generally you can think of technical debt like this:

The cost of additional rework created by choosing an easy, shortcut solution now instead of the better approach that would take longer.

Delivering software to meet deadlines or functional goals that are wrought with technical debt is like buying items before you can afford them. Both practices can drastically affect your ability to reach your future goals, both long term and short term.

This article is a gentle reminder to recognize, fix, and avoid technical debt in your software projects.

Four Common Mistakes That Make Automated Testing More Difficult

Billy Korando Articles, Development Technologies & Tools, Effective Automated Testing With Spring Series, Java, Spring, Testing 2 Comments

Attention: This article was published over 8 years ago, and the information provided may be aged or outdated. While some topics are evergreen, technology moves fast, so please keep that in mind as you read the post.This article is part of my blog series on automated testing promoting my new Pluralsight course Effective Automated Testing with Spring. Automated testing is …

Keyhole Labs Releases KHS {Convo} Under Open Source License

Lauren Fournier Bogner Articles, Company News, Conversational Apps, Keyhole Creations 1 Comment

Keyhole Labs has announced its release of the KHS {Convo} conversational application development platform under anย Apache 2.0ย open source license. Development teams can now use and modify KHS {Convo} for their own uses (even commercially) using the open source platform.

KHS {Convo} is a Node.js based platform for creating SMS text message and web-based conversational experiences. It was created by our team at Keyhole Labs.

What’s a Conversational Application? A Conversational Application provides a messaging interface for a personalized conversation between your company and a user. The ad hoc interaction is designed to provide hyper-relevant & personalized content via automated SMS text messaging that doesnโ€™tย feelย automated.

For more information, please visit…

Without Automated Testing You Are Building Legacy

Billy Korando Agile, Articles, Effective Automated Testing With Spring Series, Testing 2 Comments

I have worked with several different organizations in my career on initiatives to rewrite legacy applications. A common theme for each project was that the organization struggled to deliver both maintainable and โ€œagileโ€ applications.

As developers, we’re curious by nature. I needed to understand exactly why this happens. In my contemplation of this common challenge, I discovered Automated Testing and became fascinated by it. I have since worked to include it as a central step as I write and maintain applications.

In this article particularly, I lay out how automated testing, or rather the lack there of, lies at the heart of many of the struggles we face as developers…