Apps for Troublemakers

“Just like success stories being failures, failures can be personal successes”

This has been a dream of mine, to enable newbie developers or experienced ones who are bored beyond belief. Let them take small applications, modify them as needed, have fun and in the process bother pricks of all kinds .. inflict pain on managers of all kinds, old ones, new ones, wannabees, hookers and pimps, beggars and thieves. NEEHEEHEEHEEHAHAHA!

The notion of small apps needs clarifying. This first blog post is all about them. So, what’s a “Micro App” really?

These small apps are called “Micro Apps”, because they are really tiny, composed of only a few pages. You can consider them as “base apps” which can be used as starting points for “enterprise level apps” if you will. It doesn’t stop there, however. An app has to meet certain criteria before we can call it “Micro”:

• Must be small meaning only a few pages
• Must provide means for customization as in they must not be domain specific
• Must be open source
• Must provide easy deployment
• Base version must be distributable in the form of APK (Android)
• Base version must be downloadable and usable
• Must come with a tutorial in the form of an e-book
• E-books must have sections for requirement models

Did you say “What about the technology?” Well, as long as it’s easy & cheap, it’s my cup of tea. Micro apps as well as the giant app are all mobile apps. So, we will use the upcoming standard with Amazon Web Services. This way, anyone can get the code, customize it, compile it and deploy it on a cheap machine. There, you have your own micro app in less than thirty minutes. How cool is that?

• MAUI
• MongoDB
• AWS

In the course of this adventure, we will develop 12 micro apps and 1 giant app. A “Giant App” is an app that exploits the data created by micro apps and, you guessed it, inflicts pain on the unsuspecting managers of all kinds, old ones, new ones, wannabees, hookers and pimps, beggars and thieves on a grander scheme. NEEHEEHEEHEEHAHAHA! Sorry, I must stop oversharing, but I just can’t. The very thought of it makes me feel very very good. NEEHEEHEEHEEHAHAHA!

While this may all change, here’s the list of my Micro Apps. “Moody” and “Bonobuk” will survive no matter what, but I don’t know about the others. Any suggestions?

• Moody = “disrupt workplaces”
• Bonobuk = “accelerate office romance”
• Equalizer = “send a buck, change the world”
• I Hate You = “expose wrong decisions”
• Verdict = “personal performance management in real-time”
• Someone to Watch Over Me = “affirmative action for small businesses”
• Walk for Me = “getting intelligence on casual matters”
• Peer Pressure = “let your friends decide for you”
• The Most Eligible Bachelor = “ladies, manage your potential grooms”
• Sucks or Rocks = “learn more about a firm before you make a decision”
• Message in a Bottle = “have remote Platonic affairs”
• Handle Danger = “report emergencies with the click of a button”

By the way, if want you to make these Micro App Tutorial Series a community effort, you can do one of the following:

• “1 seasoned analyst AKA teacher” + “12 newbie programmers each with their own micro app” and “1 seasoned programmer working on the giant app”
• “1 seasoned analyst AKA teacher” +“12 newbie analyst - programmer teams each with their own micro app” and “1 seasoned programmer working on the giant app”

While this is a hobby project, it’s actually a part of business. We call it “Quick & Dirty Prototypes”. Have a look at the details on our website, MikiMoka. So, your app may be the next one on our list, if the price is right, of course ;o)

Enough with the foolishness. Let’s get started. Our first micro app will also help you understand the steps we will take from the crazy idea to the app that inflicts pain. So, in this first step, pay close attention to the process as well as the app we are interested in.

“Moody” is our first micro app ;o)

• goal = {disrupt workplaces}
• idea = {expose state of mind anonymously, piss off managers}
• ecosystem = {business settings, departments}
• actors = {employees, human resources managers}
• membership = {email, name, surname, department}
• functions 1 = {update criteria, update icons, update segments}
• functions 2 = {invite friend, vote, view state of mind, commit}

Here’s the main story,

1. Jane is a developer at Initech and she is pissed off because of the “work-private life balance”.
2. Jane opens Moody.
3. Moody prompts for a vote “How are you feeling today?”
4. (option 1) Jane clicks the big “Red Button” that says “I’m mad like hell!”
5. (option 2) Jane clicks the big “Green Button” that says “I’m fine and dandy!”
6. Moody prompts for a category = {c1 .. c12}
7. Jane selects a category (work-private life balance).
8. Moody takes a note of that paying close attention to Jane’s department and her category choice.
9. Moody consolidates votes of the day at the end of that day’s shift and publishes results, so that human resources managers can see the result and act on it or ignore it, hopefully bother upper managers with it as in “pass along the pain”. NEEHEEHEEHEEHAHAHA! Bitch, I’m loving this.

A few business rules as starters.

• Employees can see the result in their own department filtered by their category choice. Don’t worry, there will be an egg here which will let you see everything without leaving a trace ;o)
• Human resource managers can see everything as well as trends and history on a department basis.

Here’s the list of my 12 criteria. When we are finished, you will have the option to customize it.

1) work — private life balance

2) benefits

3) career goals

4) equipment

5) management style

6) quality orientation

7) work environment

8) training

9) extra activities

10) process orientation

11) compensation

12) employee profile

Here’s my list of the 12 departments. When we are finished, you will have the option to customize it.

1) business department

2) technology department

3) support department

4) engineering department

5) operation department

6) finance department

7) accounting department

8) marketing department

9) sales department

10) office management department

11) purchasing department

12) human resources department

Enough talking. Let’s rock ’n’ roll!

Coming soon = Part 2 = “Moody begins”

In this chapter, we will have a look at our first micro app, “Moody”. Also, we will introduce a few concepts from the world’s lightest processes, “Do it before you do it” and “Fun oriented software”. Don’t worry, there will be a complete section on “.NET MAUI” as well, only the bits you need to know that is ;o)