We operate in an ever changing landscape of technology and consumer demands. It is increasingly important for our site to establish a presence that is able to engage and communicate with our customers while building brand awareness through relevant and useful content. Our blogs are an illustration of our stories, our work and the passion that we share to build the best software. We want to reflect all the positive energy we have built throughout the years to each and every customer through our story sharing, our blogs.

Enjoy TENTON’s experience through a series of little narrative.

Blog

The role of technology in education 

We are living in an area when education is a must, and it has to be completed in the most advanced methods to produce great and excellent ideas in the future from the students. 
Technology is doing its magic in this field, and its help is irreplaceable. 

As living in a world that depends on technology, we must admit that we have been improving our various skills while being exposed to various tech equipment.
Technology is now everywhere and has become an important key, especially in learning in schools. 

As everyone is being engaged with technology, so are being kids. Not only is technology being used for class material, but is being used as an entertainment and being interactive from kids, as letting it become part of their lifestyle.

Nowadays, technology is used by teachers more than ever, considering it as a necessity for the learning environment. 
For years now, technology is helping teachers make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun.
This is why new generations are now called technological learners, but it is also true that technology keeps children engaged, focused, and helps them learn faster.

Nowadays, technology is becoming a need for students, and so is the idea of integrating technology into the classrooms. It would be a great benefit from which students would easily access educational resources. 
It’s a smart move to integrate technology into classrooms because children and students already have access to the Internet daily, why not use it to study? 

Technology can make the learning experience way more attractive, because teachers can use so many creative and innovative lesson plans, to make students pay attention in class. It looks more professional and entertaining at the same time. 

The future screams out in codes and pixels that in one word, it sums up to All of the Technology, so students must be prepared. 
Technology is widely used by many professionals across a wide range of fields and industries. So if students practice the proper use of the Internet and technology, it will help them prepare for their future careers. 

Children are used to growing up with the use of technology (nowadays), so when it comes to introducing new ideas by using tools that they already know their use, they feel confident in their ability to learn about the problem and solve it, or its usage. 
Technology is one way, or another, simplifies the way teachers teach students, making it easier and more entertaining to create a relationship between them and their students. 

Technology makes you believe that there will never be a question coming to you that you won’t find its answer. This way, it boosts our confidence in participating in different conversations, controversy, taking over any decision making, or participate in different events. 
You can take the best of technology and use it to create something enormously huge and useful for other people. This way of using technology can make you proud of yourself, and technology is smart, so learn how to use it, don’t waste its power. 

Is Technology really causing social isolation?

People find it hard to accept that time changes as the years go by, and we should all adopt into the present time.
Nowadays, we are surrounded by technology, and it is incredible how many things you can do with the help of it. Technology can teach you numerous things, and it also shows you how to use it. 
At the same time, it keeps you busy, and sometimes you find yourself busy while scrolling the news feed. 

Social isolation happens after you pay attention to every post on the Internet, but seldom in what is happening around you. Why does this happen? 
People will always feel the need to be informed and updated with the news and trends of the Internet. But this doesn’t mean that the need to be informed for everything is a reason to stay connected to technology but disconnected to reality. 

It is you and your personality, the one that decides if it is better to stay and have a conversation with people around you, or to chat with an online friend. 
It is up to you if you want to enjoy a festival, an event, a birthday, a gathering, by being present with your mind and heart, besides your physical appearance, or if you are there to record every moment of it so that you can in one way or another show off to your friends and followers on social media. 
It is a different thing if you want to capture a specific thing because you want to keep memories, you want to promote the happening, but that does not have to keep you busy all the time. That is only your choice. 

Technology would be the best thing that happened to humanity if it is used well and smart. 
Many people would think that technology is causing social isolation and depression.

People do not like to get in touch with strangers. And some of them that constantly want to meet new people find it hard to start a conversation, so in such cases, smartphones are their protection. While being in a public space, or traveling alone, it is a little bit creepy to want to start a conversation with a stranger just because you want to avoid using your phone. The idea to meet someone new or start a discussion out of nowhere with a stranger, usually, comes naturally, you can not just go around in a public space and pick someone to start a conversation with. 

The use of technology has helped people in various forms. Social media connects people, and this is the truth. Technology has made many businesses grow and also helped a lot of people to create healthy relationships. It only depends on how you use the Internet, and technology gives back the awards you are aiming for. 
Technology does not drag you or anyone else in depression. People do not like to see others having fun, doing plans, achieving their goals, going into different events, especially if for some reason these occasions are not possible for them at the moment, nor for the near future. These thoughts that keep growing inside of our heads are very toxic and can cause anxiety and depression. 
Yet, once again, this is all under our control. You can avoid negative thoughts, and accept the life you are living because everyone struggles with unknown problems that we can not know for. So there is no need to wish for the things that other people have, technology and social media can be better managed just by enjoying the features and updates that are served to us. It does not bring you depression, or neither does it push you to a social isolation situation.

Enjoying life does not mean leaving your smartphone or technology offline and behind. You can be online, and for sure, you can fully enjoy life and remain present at the table.
We must accept that life is changing more and more every day, and what is strange here is that we like the modern world that we are living in, but we feel like smartphones, and their usage keeps us distracted and is taking a lot of our time.

When feeling like so, just put your smartphone down, look around and try to imagine a world without smartphones, the Internet, and technology. 
What could appear in that imagination? 

A world without technology is a world that holds everyone into a giant balloon, without any connection outside, or further. This giant balloon appears grey, but sometimes we can imagine it being more friendly than it is now, more alive, and more colorful.
The real truth is that we have created all of this; it just needs another perspective of looking at it, to give you the right feeling of what is happening in life. Life is still beautiful, like before; in fact, life is more beautiful than it ever was. No technology in the world can socially isolate you if you do not want to. We admit it, technology can be attractive, but you are the one that chooses if you’re going to stay present with other people or to be socially isolated in technology. 

Technology is capable of doing both to people, helping connect people, or isolate them. 
Technology most likely can affect adolescents, and it can bring to life the problem of social isolation in high school. But at this period, adolescents are known to be very focused on technology rather than going out and hanging out with family members or friends. Technology fascinates them, but at the same time teaches them a lot of exciting stuff. It is up to them what they want to learn, observe, and create in the future. 

We are lucky to be living in this period of advanced technology and proving that technology changed the way of living, and has made it way more comfortable. 

Once again, technology and smartphones, or any other smart equipment should not be blamed for the actions that people decide to make when they are being surrounded with other people, or when they make any decision. Technology always has, and I firmly believe, will forever update our way of living, thinking, and being. 

What people need in their life is much more positive vibes, and positive vibes bring positive thoughts and energy.
Nothing can take that from you, no technology in the world can consume your energy or time if you do not let it so. Learn to control your time and your life.
Put priorities, and know your ones. Do not blame technology because of your interest in understanding and being informed about what is happening outside. 

Software Development Life Cycle

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE (SDLC) is a systematic procedure for building Software that ensures the quality and precision of the Software developed. SDLC procedure aims to produce high-quality Software that meets customer expectations. 
SDLC embraces Every phase of the SDLC life cycle has its process and deliverables that feed into the next step. SDLC stands for Software Development Lifecycle.

SDLC Phases
The entire SDLC procedure divided into the following stages:
 

Phase 1: Requirement collection and analysis:

This stage gives a coherent picture of the scope of the entire project and the anticipated issues, opportunities, and directives that triggered it.
The requirements gathering stage needs teams to get detailed and precise requirements. This helps companies to end the necessary timeline to finalize the work of that structure.

Phase 2: Feasibility study:
Once the requirement analysis phase is finalized, the next step is to define and document software needs. This process conducted with the help of the ‘Software Requirement Specification’ document, also known as the ‘SRS’ document. It contains everything that should be designed and developed during the project life cycle.

Phase 3: Design:
In the third phase, the system and software design documents are prepared as per the requirement specification document. This helps define general system architecture.
This design phase serves as input for the next phase of the model.
There exist two kinds of design documents developed in this phase:
High-Level Design (HLD)
Low-Level Design(LLD)

Phase 4: Coding:
Developers start to build the entire system by writing code using the chosen programming language. 
In the coding phase, tasks are divided into units or modules and assigned to the various developers. This remains to be the most extended phase of the Software Development Life Cycle process.

Phase 5: Testing:
Once the Software is finalized and deployed in the testing environment, the testing team starts testing the entire system’s functionality. 
During this phase, QA and testing team may find some bugs/defects which they communicate to developers. The development team fixes the bug and sends back to QA for a re-test. This process continues until the Software is bug-free, stable, and working according to that system’s business needs.

Phase 6: Installation/Deployment:
 Based on the project manager’s feedback, the final Software is released and checked for deployment issues.

Phase 7: Maintenance:
Once the system is deployed, and customers start using the developed system, the following three activities occur.
– Bug fixing
– Upgrade
– Enhancement
This SDLC phase’s main focus is to ensure that needs continue to be met and that it continues to perform as per the specification mentioned in the first phase.

Popular SDLC models

Waterfall model
The waterfall is a widely accepted SDLC model. In this approach, the whole process of software development is divided into various phases. In this SDLC model, the outcome of one phase acts as the input for the next step.

Incremental Approach
The incremental model is not separate. The requirements are divided into groups at the start of the project. For each group, the SDLC model is followed to develop Software. The SDLC process is repeated, with each release adding more functionality until all requirements are met. Modification to the incremental model allows development cycles to overlap. After that subsequent cycle may begin before the previous cycle is complete.

V-Model
In this type of SDLC model testing and development, the phase is planned in parallel. So, there are verification phases on the side and the validation phase on the other side. V-Model joins by the Coding phase.

Agile Model
In the Agile method, the entire project is divided into small incremental builds. 

Spiral Model
The spiral model is a risk-driven process model. 
The spiral methodology is a combination of rapid prototyping and concurrency in design and development activities.

Big Bang Model
The big bang model focuses on all types of resources in software development and coding, with little or no planning. 
This model works best for small projects with smaller size development team which are working together. 

New Year’s Resolutions for Developers

2019 is almost over and hopefully it has been a great year for each and every one of you. Whether it has or it hasn’t, 2020 should be a year where you create your own opportunities, sit back and reflect upon your daily work. Here is a list we have made for developers’ New Year’s resolution.

Clean our code: 

In 2020, our code will be clean and proud.

What’s the point of being fast today if it slows us down tomorrow? For this New Year, we are committed to respecting these 10 developer’s commandments: 

  • Avoid code complexity as much as possible
  • Don’t wait 6 months to fix low priority bugs
  • Always try to reduce the technical debt
  • Regularly check monitoring and alerting thresholds
  • Comment our code more wisely
  • Create smart functions instead of duplicating code
  • Communicate with each other to avoid mistakes
  • Accept the fact that we’re just humans and ask for code reviews from peers
  • Create and update more documentation

Learn something new:

In 2020, each and every one of us will explore a new language, a new framework or a new methodology.

We truly believe in continuous learning. We may not need this technology today, but what about tomorrow? It’s all about thinking out of the box and being curious. Here are a few good practices that we’d like to establish in 2020:

Read and watch more about tech: Internet is an amazing source of knowledge, but it needs to be tamed. There are too many things published each day, it’s impossible to read them all, but the more you watch and read, the more creative and inspired you are at work.

Participate in hackathons: Look out for hackathons near you they are great for learning loads of things and building your network as a developer.

Start working on your idea: We all have a dream project in our mind but we somehow end up doing something else or procrastinating. Break all those barriers just do what you want to do and start your dream project. The worst that can happen is that it will not work out, but at least you will know what does not work out and thus focus on things that can really work.

Share our experience

In 2020, we’ll share our expertise to benefit the community.

Write more articles: We encourage every single developer to write an article about his/her work. In 2020, we will focus in following the good practice of publishing blog posts on any site or medium that we can, including our own website.

Speak and participate at more public events: It’s never easy to jump ahead and speak in public. However, this practice will help you share your knowledge and experience which as a return will help or inspire someone else. Additionally, it will help you build more trust and confidence about yourself and your abilities.

Take care of ourselves:

In 2020, we’ll take time to respect our inner rhythms and needs.

Adopt better postures: While we get lost in our work, it is important to remember to take care of ourselves. In 2020, we’ll take better care of our spines: poor postures contribute to increasing back and shoulder pain. Some of us already started the trend of using monitor stands, footrests, ergonomic chairs and computer mice.

Take a break sometimes: It’s recommended to take a 5min break every hour. One of our ideas for 2020 is to create a clock program that will remind us to leave our screens when needed. Our team is also starting to explore the various techniques to improve productivity.

Happy New Year from TENTON!


‘Tech for Autism’ event by TENTON and Zombie Soup

As a software development company, Tenton is always focused in finding the optimal solutions for our clients through meeting their specific requirements while introducing innovative ideas in the process. Simultaneously, we are constantly seeking ways how we can meet innovation and technology with societal needs through the various events and activities.

The week we left behind Tenton together with Zombie Soup decided to embark the journey of helping kids under the autism spectrum by inviting tech companies in Kosovo to come together and support this initiative in various forms through donation and participation. We decided to organize a football tournament ‘Tech for Autsim’ – a cheerful event that brought joy and a friendly competitive spirit between the participating teams. The tournament was supported by 24 tech companies, which added a great value to the initiative. These companies, without which we would not be able to make this event come to life, were: Zombie Soup, Sunny Hill Tech, Telegrafi, Vianova, Gjirafa, Kutia, Frakton, Imbus, Fitonomy, Starlabs, Kartela, Autoshkolla, Codatech, Webtiser, Kode Labs, 3CIS, Inspire11, Competence Center and Strategic Initiatives, Formon, Trigonom, Jusa Print, Deinde and Nerdy Creative. Our goal was to help kids with autism through creating an event that brings together our technology community and puts forward an enjoyable and memorable experience.

The tournament was held on Saturday, November 2nd, from 09:00 until 16:00 where 27 games were played by the 16 participating teams. The past Saturday is therefore an embodiment of how our tech companies do not only excel in the technological setting through the technology they develop, but they also excel in helping our society. Each of the teams had their soul in the game thus giving the tournament the most joyous spirit. We can wholeheartedly say that all the teams were great and we thank each of them for giving out their best. Furthermore, we must recognize and give credits to the Sunny Hill Tech team who won the first place. We shall also acknowledge the efforts that Tenton team put in all the games especially during the finals.

But of course, this was not about who was going to get the first place, instead the focus was on gathering these tech companies for a humanitarian cause and also cherishing an enjoyable experience. As a result, we managed to collect a total of 6,360.00€ which we donated to the “Autism” association on Monday, November 4th. The association together with all the kids expressed their thanks in the most heartwarming way for all of the teams who contributed to this cause.

As Tenton, we also want to leave a big thank you note as heartwarming as the associations’, to all of the teams who joined and played football with us, all of the companies that donated and to all of the people who showed up on Saturday and cheered for the teams. You have made this experience an unforgettable one for us. Thank you!

Greetings from Cologne!

As the Internet becomes entwined with everything we do, the importance of digital marketing is becoming crystal clear. Being part of such a dynamic world, full or trends and ideas, it is critical we keep up with the digital development pace by continuously coming up with new ideas and generating new ways of delivering the best outcomes. As key players that drive constant positive change in our societies, we are categorized by our continuous endeavors, activities and events that help us grow, develop and share. One of the many undertakings is the DMEXCO 2019 – the biggest digital fair held in Cologne, Germany.

DMEXCO is the meeting place for key players in digital business, marketing and innovation. It is a community that brings together industry leaders, marketing and media professionals, and tech pioneers to set the digital agenda. Both globally informed and locally focused, DMEXCO offers an ecosystem with seminars, debates, and expositions outlining the future of the digital economy and driving market value. Bringing together 41,000 visitors, about 1,000 exhibitors, and more than 550 speakers from around the world for a one-of-a-kind event each year in Cologne, DMEXCO has set the standard as the place for business minds to learn and inspire, build connections, and for ideas to become actions.. Being part of such a digital marketing fair with an international impact and reach, was exciting and beyond inspiring. Having been able to present Tenton to the eyes of the world’s key business minds and share the stage with more than 40,000 forward-looking brand innovators and professionals worldwide, including Google, Microsoft, Slack, Paypal, YouTube, and many others has been a wonderful shaping adventure. It was an honor for our company to attend Europe’s most important event for the digital economy, where the industry is not only discussing the latest trends in technology and marketing, but also the digital economy’s responsibility and the required foundation of trust between companies and users while simultaneously drawing the roadmap for the future of digital marketing.

Autoshkolla

Autoshkolla is an informative and educative platform that comes in two different forms – mobile application and website. The main ideas revolve around facilitation and digitalization of theoretical testing and learning process for the driving license procedures. Such app and web bring about new and innovative forms of learning for the driving license through introducing new approaches and means of e-learning.

As emphatic advocates of startups and businesses that bring about positive social change in our society through all forms, we are proud of having built a platform like Autoshkolla, an interactive online learning app/website designed and developed to break through and challenge the current existing system of learning and preparing for a driving license testing process. 

Recognizing how digital transformation has become one of the most powerful drivers of opportunity and change, there is so much space that can be created and used to drive social change effectively. Considering that digital learning increases individuals’ efficiency and productivity, Autoshkolla is a great opportunity to learn since the application and website provide knowledge for free and thus help thousands of people go through this process in an easier and more productive way. Various e-learning tools and technology stimulate the mind and strengthen critical thinking skills, the basis for the development of analytic reasoning and the basis of our goal as company with regards to such platform. Our current issues in Kosovo related to the bountiful accidents, ‘driving anomalies’ etc. require measures that provide educative platforms and raise awareness in such aspect, and Autoshkolla is one step closer in doing so. Moreover, the application, as well as the website have six different categories, where each category is interactive and informative in its own form. While each category offers numerous ways of learning, all six work together and make the app very enjoyable. The first feature provides more than 80 driving license tests, where you can learn through testing yourself, your limits and the knowledge you have gained. The second feature provides a wide literature regarding driving license through different options that offer notions and concepts, and information on all traffic signs, behavior, rules, etc. The third and fourth features reveal the driving license procedure as well as provide illustrative forms of information through the videos. The gamification idea is also incorporated in the application and website, making it more interactive and engaging. One can access the app anywhere at any time and that is one of the main characteristics that differentiates the app from other learning methods and processes.

Kartela

Having seen the continued growth of ecommerce to the rise of experiential retail, the past few years have become a reflection of changes and overall transformative potential of the retail industry. As retail trends continue to evolve in 2019, so do customer loyalty trends and programs. Retailers have therefore continuously shaped their loyalty programs to meet evolving customer expectations. This has, as a result, induced a customer wallet full of loyalty cards. While, improving loyalty programs through providing beneficial customer features is a target for most of the retailers, having many rewards cards in the wallet, as rewarding as they may be, is aggravating for many reasons.

Therefore, we introduce “Kartela” a mobile application that has numerous features and options that facilitate customer buying process and behavior. Kartela comes as a digital form of loyalty cards and programs, printed brochures, and store offers and sales. It also allows you to find the origin of the products you want to purchase as a customer by showing where the product comes from and where it is made. Kartela’s newest feature is the digitization of any type of offer generated by stores, shops or individuals through online forms. Through Kartela, any individual can have access to brochures, new offers and sales announcements without the need to search for them or go to the stores to get them.

The marketing analysis Tenton conducted brings to fore the need for an app like Kartela. Through three main pillars of the analysis, Tenton initially identified the need for digitization of loyalty cards, secondly the need for online brochures and various offers and thirdly the need to know the origin of the product. The smartest way to do it was, of course, through an app that allows customers to access their loyalty cards whenever they want with minimum effort. Not only did this facilitate the buyer, but it also benefited the loyalty card providers through furnishing them with precise data on customer behavior regarding loyalty programs. The fact that Kartela allows users to store all their loyalty cards easily in their smartphones rather than in their wallets, is beneficial in both ways: client wise and business wise.

The app is provided for free for both android and iOS users. You create an account and scan all the loyalty cards that you want to be in your phone, where they are stored and can be usedt anytime by just scanning the barcode from the digitized card. You can also check the origin of the product by just scanning the barcode of the product and it immediately tells you where it came from. Additionally, the online brochures and offers are listed in a catalog-like form where you can scroll and search whatever store, brochure or offer that you are interested in.

The application’s goal is to help towards transforming business and organizational activities, processes, competencies and models to fully leverage changes and opportunities of a mix of digital technologies and their accelerating impact across Kosovan society in a strategic and prioritized way.