The calm before the storm

Were in that waiting phase well known in all IT projects. The requirements are out and understood. The developers are busy developing and I'm getting the environment ready for production. On the 17th of March the hectic phase will begin. I'll have the code and we'll start the user acceptance test. Since I already have changes to the original design, I know this will not be the production candidate release. But that's a controlled situation and I think we'll probably have 3 to 4 code drops before the May 1 launch date. I just can't wait to see the finished product and trial it by selling the managing directors very expensive motor bike :).

As the end of the months draws nearer, so does the time I have to fly off to Morocco for my crazy 6 days running in the sand. I'll be making sure the guys don't sit on their hands while I'm away and they'll be testing a creating as many incidents as they can (but not too many please).

Now for something techy, so if you don't know your ip from your hostname, you're excused. I read in a news article this weekend that Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar University and Texas A&M University have collaborated with IBM to launch a cloud computing center in Qatar. I love the Amazon cloud which I'm currently using, but it would be great to have a local cloud. I've had a bit of a search, but I can't find any information on how I can sign up for a virtual server on the cloud. I guess they'll publish soon. I'm also wondering if it will be as easy to manage as the Amazon cloud. I can pretty much run everything from one firefox extension called Elasticfox and setting up backups is a lot nicer experience than I've had in the past.

Well, no more news for now. Just wait for the code and fingers crossed we made the requirements clear.

We have a launch date

During the weekend, I did a lot of running in the dunes near sealine. It was tough going, since I stuck to the soft sand, but it also gave me time to mull over the launch date for qbay. I came up with the date when the technical solution will be ready and then did my best to avoid heat stroke and crazy drivers. That's unfair actually. I've heard a lot of stories about mad drivers in the dunes, but after 4 weekends of running in Qatar, I've only had offers of water, lifts, support etc... and no near misses.

Having a technical solution is only part of the challenge, we also need to have content and some marketing to backup the launch. So, I had a word with the marketing department and the CEO and we've come up with May 1 2009. We have a lot to do before the launch. We'll be getting Qatar based stores signed up for store fronts, planning a public launch party and working on spreading the word that there's a new auction site in town.

As for technical news, I've been busy getting the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) building blocks in place for the launch and making sure that the site is properly monitored and optimised. I've still got to setup Nagios, but once that's done, I'll have an early warning as soon as there's a problem with the site.

In the beginning

I was sat at my desk in Holland, dealing with the usual torrent of work involved in keeping a department running in a large corporate environment. Outside, the sky was the usual gray of late November and I was looking forwards to the orderly traffic jam back home. Pretty much an ordinary day in a job I'd been doing for over 8 years. On an impulse a colleague told me about a friend in Qatar who was working for a company called Qatcom which was looking out for a CTO. I decided to take a look and before I knew it, here was on a plane for a week long interview. I passed the audition and moved out to Doha at the end of January. My wife works for a rather large software company (actually, the largest) and will join me in April once I'm settled in and she's completed some commitments. At the moment my life revolves around work, running and sleeping, with the odd near death experience on the road.

The mission statement given to me when I started was simple, "build Qatar an online auction, make sure everyone knows about it and make it the best auction site in the world". Not a bad challenge, I thougt. So, a month into the challenge where am I. I've selected my hosting solution. I'll be using linux servers running on the Amazon cloud (yep, they do more than just sells books). Using cloud computing instead of a traditional hosting company is something I've wanted to do for a long time. It will allow me to expand on demand, makes backups a breeze and fits the budget. I've also completed the requirements analysis and kicked off development of the software. I'm keeping things simple. We'll start off offering simple auctions, with the buy it now option and add more functionality as we move forwards. We'll also be offering store fronts to allow retailers, startups and anyone who feels they want to open a store online the chance to get involved. One of the most important challenges was security. We want to ensure that qbay.com is a safe place to trade, so we came up with the idea of making everyone register with a mobile phone sms confirmation mechanism. This will allow us to track down anyone breaking the rules, right to their homes if required.

So, with the initial frenzy over and development underway, I also wanted to document the process and allow people to provide feedback, hints, abuse (if I mess up), so I created this blog. I firmly believe that the best people to drive change and improvement are the users, so please use this blog as an opportunity to interact with me and get your ideas heard.

I look forwards to getting this show on the road and with the help of community feedback giving the guys at ebay a run for their money.

I bet your wondering when it will be live. Well, I don't know quite yet. I first need to get the system in my test envrionment and see how it shapes up. For now, please go along to www.qbay.com and register for the email shots and listing discounts and take a look at some of the crazy auction stories I've pulled together. As soon as I have a firm go live date, I'll be the first to shout it from the rooftops.