The Lazy tester in me

The topic might not be new, I already heard, read and found a lot of information on google. But yesterday when I went to one of the team members running tests that were failing for our BA I realized that finding test data and information and using it while doing the tests is one of the key reasons why bugs are missed out in test cycles. Keeping all the boundary test data always handy is not something that you would see often and in other words is not even easy.

So when we were to test Cyrillic characters and accented text into our input fields, the process would begin with sending chat messages and emails to everyone asking where the data is stored, then open the appropriate file from a network drive, keep it open all the time while you are doing tests, copy paste in each field every time before you have to run some random [In plain word exploratory test].

I tried and I was tired filling it on 4 different screens at different times. Not to mention returning from every break, system restart or new day reminding yourself that the boundary test file has to be opened is such a pain.

Resolving this issue was not as difficult as I would have thought. I stumbled upon a Chrome extension [has a FF one too]. BugMagnet, I see it as a great help for any kind of boundary tests your product or web app demands. The extension comes with default configuration including texts, numbers, emails, web sites everything one would need to test the App against. BugMagnet kind of makes screen life so easier and I would just say very handy for Dev when doing integration tests even before they put the code in.

Not just that I managed to create a configuration file for the frequently used values that are needed to feed into our product when uploading new documents etc. A simple Json file with several texts and combinations, sometimes even frequently used logins and passwords. You can also have a configuration file customized for your product like All Document References should be tested against the following elements “Number”, “Text” , “4K plus text” etc etc. All titles should be tested with “Numbers , Email Addresses” so on and so.

Here are the steps in installing the Chrome Extension:

Visit : https://bugmagnet.org/v3.html

Add the Chrome / FF Extension Once install read the guide

You are now ready to right click on any field and test….

And yes when you use it, dont forget to use the Elisabeth Hendrickson Test Heuristics Cheat Sheet   and also Thank Gojko Adzic

What I would like to do next is take the BugMagnet Config File , use the Cheat sheet above and compile it with all the boundary tests needed on each of our products. Then get the extension a part of a simple SMS roll out so every tester just gets it by default instead of having to install each time.

Now you can call me Lazy ;)

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Hold the snafu

Communication can never be easy, especially when you are working over phones, Skype and other such media tools and I don’t say its only verbal communication. A week ago my wife asked me over whatsapp

“On your way home, can you bring some tablets?” my reply “Yes” and we ended up in a late night fight when I asked her “what medicine? O that one?” No it was not a problem of commitment vs delivery it was a simple issue of communication. Going by the regular expressions as we follow in India, my answer was “Yes, I can” I never said “Yes I will”.

The more I work with the teams, the more I have realized that this is really a standard. The Yes has variable meanings here.

Yes = I understand
Yes = I know
Yes = I will do it
Yes = May be I can do it, I will try
Yes = Maybe I will try

The same rule applies to 2 mins… and no when I say the same rule applies, when I ask my wife how long it will take her to be ready to go out, that’s the answer I get. I have embarked a few 2 mins rules going by such experience.

2 mins = now
2 mins = 2 hours
2 mins = tomorrow
2 mins = never

The same rule applies to “Right”

Right = Correct
Right = Right Hand side
Right = Straight [Specially if you are down south in India]
Right = Go Ahead

Over years even “OK” has frightened me. Last time I asked a dev “That POC will be done this week? His answer “OK”. Only when I went to him to question about it, did I realize that he meant OK as in it is OK and not that he will do it.

Even “I will “is a threat at times, I will doesn’t guarantee the time, it just guarantees the intention only. Next when you work with remote teams make sure the expressions are handled and understood well.    

Or be ready for the snafu

   

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Mahabharat - The Epic Tale

I first read Mahabharata a few years ago (Not to mention I have seen the TV show that used to run on Doordarshan). The Epic story never stopped fascinating me. Each time I read, it intrigued me to look at a different perspective of life... My reading of Mahabharata was a Pandav driven perspective, until I was introduced to "Mrityunjaya" by Shivaji Sawant a point of view of Karna. The book enlightened and I had a feeling that Mahabharat is not just about Kaurav and Pandav's, it truly meant more. More than a myth, an epic story, a political saga, a display of passion and greed. Mrityunjaya made me think there was another hero in this story, Karna. Not that the Mahabharat projected him as a villain, but then who fights for the evil is also termed Evil.

Then came  I was introduced to Devdutt Patnaik's Jaya. Mahabharat with a different angle. Devdutt patnaik, kind of challenged the belief of Duryodhana as a villain, yet gave a lot of details that were never told in earlier books I read. Then I happened to fumble over "Palace of Illusions" by Chitra Banerjee an English book on Mahabharat from Draupadi's point of view. Whilst a lot of the content in this book appeared superficial, I was amazed how a perspective changed the villains, affiliations and allegiances between people. Ignore if someone tells you this book is shit, you still got to read it :). A year or so passed when I stumbled upon "Ajaya - The roll of dice" this was Duryodhan's point of view and what an amazing one. Yet again in the battle of good and evil, perspective can be so important. This also made my belief stronger that your behavior is controlled by where you see things from. Ajaya is one of the good books I read on Mahabharat. Months between came "Yuganta" a marathi book by Irawati Karve, this is a wonderful book that portrayed bheeshm, Kripacharya, Dronacharya and others in a very secular light. I enjoyed this book and yet again the battle between if Mahabharat was ever about Good vs Evil started. My stop on Bhyrappa's "Parva" was a new way to see Mahabharat without any magical elements, no curses, no divine elements. Although I read the marathi version of this translated by Uma Kulkarni, I am very sure it would not be any different in Kannada.

My next stop was "Yugandhar"  a book in marathi and from Krishna's perspective. I think this changes the flow in which we think about Mahabharat as you then start lining up events to justify or judge good and evil. A week or so ago I ended up with "Duryodhan" a book in marathi by Kaka Vidhate... Now this book is not just a fascinating tale, but also an epic narration by several characters (majorly Duryodhan), just adds fuel to the thought process on was Duryodhan really evil or Mahabharat was a dirty political saga.

My curiosity just doesn't end, reading so many articles and short stories on this Epic, I ended up creating my own wish list.. Books I still have to get my hands on, here are a few names...

Randaamoozham - They say this is a malyalam book having Mahabhart from Bheem's point of view.
Kapatneeti - A marathi book, that gives a detailed view of politics of the time.
Dhananjaya - Arjun's point of view
Radhey - Karna's point of view.
Yajnaseni - Draupadi's point of view
Jyeshtha - Yudhishtir's point of view
Karna's wife - Vrushali's point of view
Shakuni Shuvala - A baloch version talking about the Gandhar prince
The Winds of Hastinapur - A feminine look at Mahabharat
Kounteya - A Tamil book with a Point of view from Kunti

If you know more, do let me know. I would be glad to add up to this list. 

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Brainstorming is not Q&A, Don't make it one

Crowd sourcing ideas is an effective way to innovate, but do brainstorming really create the required effect? This has always been a question to me, the brainstorming sessions I am required to attend for the product feature work we do, at times just sound like Q&A sessions, they lack the luster, effectiveness and are always around the first idea that gets discussed on how a feature need to work.

Typically the product group would organize the session with the internal team, One of the tester (also sort of semi owner of the feature) would give a brief about the feature, a small discussion would then take place of how, where and who and that's when the shit hits the fan; questions start pouring in one after the other, all of these questions are really different scenarios and typically when no questions are left the brainstorming is concluded.  

Anchoring is what causes this damage and kills the objective behind the brainstorming itself. It always is a challenge in brainstorming sessions, something like the 1st idea that gets discussed is the one that kills the creative originality of any potential idea(s) that could turn in later. Once the first idea hits the floor, everything you discuss is around that idea.

A brainstorming can be made effective by:

1. Right People
Involve the right people, one that are spectators would not be of help and may just divert the focus of the group by asking questions just to prove that they are a part of the group discussion. People with appropriate knowledge in given area are needed to be given preference over those in the org charts. Senior Managers should be given a attendee hat in the first part of the session, to avoid the low hanging fruits getting picked first and diverting the focus.

2. Divide in groups
Brainstorming sessions are effective only if the group is divided and has different ideas on the table to discuss. Brainstorming can be more effective in a group divided with different base ideas, allegiances.

3. Cap the time
A time cap should be levied on the participants, so the brainstorming isn't hijacked. Ofcourse the moderator can allow participants on a case by case, but then the vocal participants can end up taking over the session and at times without having fruitful discussions.

4. No repeat, No Blocker
A lot of brainstorming sessions end up repeating the same ideas, topics, points by different attendees. This is a NO GO. Just moderate when that happens. Ideally a whiteboard can be handy so everyone can see what is covered and what is not. I attended a brainstorming on City Civic issues and the group actually put up a list of items they wanted to cover, allocating time to each point. Everyone was free to add to that list but the moderator was deciding the time. This gave a good start as several ideas started turning up when some items were discussed and by the end of first 3 ideas almost 20% of items made new to the list and some got dropped.

5. Conclude
Never forget to conclude the brainstorming. If no actions, no tasks , no objectives or goals are defined within the brainstorming session, likelihood is you have just wasted that time with no yield. List the actions and dont forget to follow up.

A few dedicated effort in preparations, organizing the topics, execution can help the brainstorming be fruitful. The goal needs to be concluding post all ideas are discussed. I have also liked Candour a tool to collect and collate ideas. Next time you are brainstorming, turn the Q&A to a real discussion. Share your ideas, just not be interested in questioning or challenging others.

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Know your tools

A colleague a few days ago passionately spoke to me on how we don't have access to new tools that are storming market and provide some amazing features. I could not disagree for the world of internet always fascinates me with its offerings. Our discussion had started around "what do we do to make our tests better"specially to have a stimulation to our customers usage patterns or infrastructure, New tools, processes, technologies would certainly help, but then when we have new things do we really exploit them to the best? Did we try the best out of the old ones? is switch to the new thing, just arbitrary?

Years ago, we were using Charles as a web proxy to find out what was happening with our web application on every request. We swiftly moved to fiddler (For many in our team don't remember why this transition happened or since when we started using Fiddler or even why Wireshark was not chosen over Fiddler). The answer then was our webapp testing needed 2 things

1. Decrypting the traffic
2. Ability to view the request and response headers and info in a seamless way

Both these features were not provided by Charles then, the Internet Developer tools on browsers were not complete and Charles was memory expensive. Fiddler on other hand was turning light. When it comes to Charles we still have a feature or 2 that we miss in fiddler and that is where knowing these tools is so important.

Throttling your bandwidth   is one feature we can use and use it effectively using this proxy to ensure we test in a closely stimulating environment. Our customers who are located in desert areas and using the tools, would be having a very unpredictable bandwidth and latency and Charles allows you to configure this. SO much that it can let you define the bandwidth and the latency in which you can test your product and tell how the performance is if not set a defining benchmark if it works.

A small feature from a tool can be so important in defining how your product can shape.. but then.... Do you know your tools? Well Enough?

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Scrum : Who is for what?

Scrum very clearly defines a simple rule for the attendees and the participants. No unwanted noise. When the scrum guide states "The Scrum Master enforces the rule that only Development Team members participate in the Daily Scrum. The Daily Scrum is not a status meeting, and is for the people transforming the Product Backlog items into an Increment." It really has a reason. Most scrums I just see it ends up becoming a Q&A session. Majority of times it is a status update meeting, for all those who want to know what is happening in the project, this sounds like the best time to know the details.

Scrum to be effective needs to be technical. Really.  Dev teams need to discuss line of code, architecture, blockers, dependencies. Things that managers don't understand. The scrum Master also need to be a bit careful on who to allow as a participant and who to allow as a attendee. For most times I have found myself getting into a scrum as an attendee only to be tempted to participate. This temptation, I surely see cannot be survived by many and they end up driving a scrum to an endless and slightly meaningless turn.

I always suggested our scrum teams to take some discussions offline, maybe as adhoc post scrum meetings, just so there is no time wasted for everyone in the room or even the development staff that has no need of listening to it. A scrum can really go long when there is no censor over the attendees and participants... I drew a small table suggesting how a scrum meeting longed with different attendees and participants...

Attendee / Participant	Impact	Additional Time
Product Owner	Questions, Clarifications, How to do, what to do kind of discussions sneak in.	10-25 mins
Leads / Managers	Questions like What are you working on, what is the status, when will it be delivered, etc. etc.	12-25 mins
Non Team members	Updates from other products, questions or discussions that have no team connections	5-10 mins

Your scrums are to progress the backlogs. Your scrums are to list and help remove impediments. Your scrums are to be on same page in regards to the tasks in hand. Your scrums are to make the hustle effective. Your scrum gives you ability to show what is stopping you and move further.

Scrums are not for Status updates, Scrums are not for non core members to get answers from core teams, Scrums are not for planning projects or discussing solutions.

If your scrum is short, it will be crisp.
If your scrum is objective, it will be fruitful
If your scrum is balanced, it will be result driven...


Start scrumming, not mobbing.

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What is non-negotiable?

This performs a bit slow, I left it there.
I think we can address it for future.
Well it has been like this forever, I know its trivial work, but I dont know if I should touch it.
I had found the issue, but thought it was too trivial to stop the release.
It was going to be too much work, so I did it this way.

When you start hearing this, and many such things; You have to be warned that you are on the wrong side of the road. And if you dont realize it, this one should be a NON-NEGOTIABLE one as well. Quality is important, and most time overlooked. Walter Isaacson in his book "Steve Jobs" mentioned each time Jobs did not like something or found something was not up to the mark he called it "SHIT"

There are several things in a project / development lifecycle, that purely needs to be seen as NON-NEGOTIABLE, yet we choose others over them.

Time over Quality
Scope over completeness
Technology over Usability
A brainstorming session over documented specification
A hurriedly completed feature over a value emitting function

and each time we make this negotiation, we create a great deal of debt, Technical Debt that is hard to manage. A project team needs to decide what is negotiable and what is not. In a lifecycle we have and would always come across things that would need to be ignored, at times prioritized low, or be compromised. But these are situations that put your basic attitude towards development to test. The day you start negotiating quality, is the day you lose focus to success. Rest can still be achieved, still be raced to, still managed. Quality cannot be.

A typo on your login can be more embarrassing than having missed a button to cancel a process. Quality needs to be seen as oxygen to your product. When you start juggling the oxygen, you are prone to faint, if not seize to breathe.

Think over, next time you are in a compromising state, you negotiate and what?

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Its not Them, its US

 I usually put a negative rating, when a candidate uses "They" to refer to their existing companies. I have this issue even when the project teams across refer to each other as "They". It can be Dev is working on it, or QA is testing it but it never needs to be "They" are working on it or "They" have done it wrong. Its US, WE and if cant be that then a very fundamental question needs be asked.

Today I interviewed a girl for a QA position, I asked her what does your company do... and she started with "They" are into.... then each time I asked her a question about the team, product, project I hear this word "They". Towards the end of the interview I asked her a question "When you refer to your company as They is it because you are quitting or is it because you don't like them?" her answer matched her experience and hence there is no point in talking about it.

I always see this as an issue, if a team member starts referring to another team in 3rd person, or for themselves. In any case such reference just says you are connected enough. I also analyzed that the one who starts calling other team members as "They" sooner or later converts into a Loner, Anti-Team member.

Anti-Team attitude drags good from happening, it drags you into political war, it drags into un-productive conversations and debates. It yields US vs Them stream in your team, a high risk for a working team.

The "They" thing also occurs when someone does not want to be counted as a part of the team, at times to not be linked to a failure, embarrassment or has a feeling of superiority if not inferiority. Next time when one of your team member use "They" for another, stop them. Next time you interview a candidate who says "They" for their existing team / organization educate them.

For life is too large to accommodate your own as WE instead of THEY and it is too short to make it US vs THEM.



 

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Lets do it forever

I have to deliver a product that will change the way of the worlds, problem is I am taking forever to deliver it. You lose the value of what you are doing, if you don't do it in time. For a few times in last few months I experienced how most valuable thing become useless, just because it did not complete in time.

We need to understand Agile much better to be able to value time. Agile is not about delivering in sprints, about creating iterations, about talking Agile, about telling how we scrum...

Agile is about iterating every day, asking for feedback and improving every few hours, getting a minimum value delivered every day.

Let's Agile, Let's not do it forever. 

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Prioritize or Die

I was late for office, I had time given to a banker guy to meet me at work. I had to pick some stationary for my son, I had to go to the bank and deposit some money which I was carrying in cash, I had to make a call to a potential customer on the way, I had a report to send to my boss, I had a issue to be responded that affected a customer,

All of this was running in my mind when I was driving to work and every fraction a thought was triggering on why I did not read that " 7 habits of successful men". In any case I had things to do, I had important things to do. When I finished my day, I was left with 1 thing... the most important one. Priorities can be so much a killer, specially when you procrastinate or do not care about it most importantly if you don't prioritize.

Priority is usually a challenge, for most; this is just not natural. A husband and wife at the age of 45, staying in my neighborhood once told me that they lost both their parents and never had time to even sit and speak to them since it never made a priority in all the trips, travel, work and running a business.

Priorities are to be thought of carefully and executed with some level of commitment to avoid mess. Since my experience with messed up priorities I have always worked them out on a simple rating scheme.

Impact vs Effort : Higher the impact and Lower the effort makes it easy to decide the priority. A simple rule is to fit the items to be worked out in a simple chart



Every item goes into a simple table

Task                                 Impact Score                       Effort Score
Fix Issue with door            7                                            5
Shop clothes                       3                                           8
Pack Bags for Travel          8                                           4

The scores are then sorted by high impact and low effort and life can be easy to decide the priority. Most times since this information is never analysed before starting work, people tend to miss on priorities,

BTW there is no excuse to missing priorities for forgetting and procrastinating.

S


        

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Why am I not on that email?

A few days ago, someone from my team IM me, in despair wanting to have a chat. I agreed. We went to a meeting room, where he raised his disappointment on why he is not on the emails shared between one of the project teams. Since I myself was not on the email, I curiously asked about the email. Wanting to know what was in the email, that a person has to raise an alarm. The email was about an instruction from one engineer to another asking for certain changes in a feature he/she was working on.

I was forced to ask a question, Why do you need *that* email to be sent to you? The answer was enlightening "I should know what is happening". A mistake many new managers do. They want to know everything that is happening, even if they are not required to know. But I was not interested in knowing that.

I asked another question "What would you have done, had you got the email in first place?. The answer not surprisingly was "I wasn't required to respond on that email" I should just be "For Information" on it. The killer was the answer to next question, I asked "Say you did not get this email, what wrong would happen?" the reply surprised "Nothing, But then I am not responsible for anything goes wrong, not for that thing but any other task that relates to people or task involved in the email"

I guess this type of thing is clearly an Identity challenge, someone immediately starts thinking if he/she is not on an email, means his/her identity is in danger. It means that his or her identity or existence is questioned and the threat comes from the person, who missed you in the email. A potential conflict. It may start with "why" and may end with him/her. I responded very clearly by mentioning that lesser the emails, better I can work, lesser the meetings, productive I can be, The lesser I am needed, the better I can innovate.

If the email is not asking me any question, answering any of my question, informing or alarming me about any fact there is no point in me having the email.  Next time you get worried about why you are not in a meeting or email, please ask the questions above before you get into a position of vertigo.

S



 

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Mind your meeting

I was called in a meeting a few days ago, a meeting to discuss the release plan. I went into the meeting only to realize I was not required there, a few moments later I realized a bunch of people in that meeting were not required there either. I waited to listen, just of curiosity to find out the meeting was not required. I spent 12 minutes end to end for that meeting, I spoke exactly 25 words 20 of which were repetition of an email I had already sent for the release plan.

Meetings have been a biggest time killer for me, I have already started avoiding them as much as I can. A lot of these meetings that get the first priority rejections are the one's that come in form of an invite without any agenda.

Last week when I finished reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson I realized how important it is to not be in a meeting, when I started searching for a few articles around each of those elements that were covered in the book, I came across Gloria Lin's amazing response to a question on Apple's concept a very interesting tool DRI - Directly Responsible Individual in meetings. Someone who owns the task , agenda and drives the agenda item to an end.

But more importantly someone who makes the meeting meaningful. Off late I started observing what different people do in these meetings and found out..

1. A few pretend they are listening, but they are in back of mind thinking about how amazing sex they had last night.

2. A few don't just know why they are, but think maybe ahead something that relates to them would come up.

3. A few just hang in there, you know because "I was invited".

4. A few know they are not needed, but then they don't have anything else to do and this one is a big time filler in the time sheets.

5. A few have to speak as they don't want the one to have not contributed.

6. A few have a purpose but are diverted by use-less conversations, dragged to kill.

7. A few ...... who are needed, who value the meeting and who have objectives to take out of it.

The DRI should also ensure that no non-required entry is allowed. I like the tool. I hope and wish to use it. I look forward to lesser meetings and more productive use of my time.


S


  

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Ssshhhhhhh... What did he say?

Listening is an art and meeting room is the Gridiron where you can actually see the masters of this art. Any and every meeting has always got me new learning. As an active or passive participant a meeting can teach you a lot and not all of it would be from the content of the meetings. People, Environment, Attitudes and flow contribute a big chunk. While in the last few months we religiously started pulling scrums, requirement meetings, technical calls and other project discussions and each of them called for a a few meetings. For few of these meetings I just attended as passive participant and took time to observe and notice a few things. I tried but could not resist myself from putting this over....

How do you identify who is not listening or been attentive in the meeting?

I noticed a pattern, a pattern that speaks when people are not listening, understanding or don't care. Here are a few of them...

1. Eye Contact
Participants that are not making eye contact are most times not listening. Although this is not a hard and fast rule, I have noticed that non listeners are usually found looking in Zero or most times at objects. 

2. Reaction
If they don't react to situations they are not listening. The funniest thing I observed was when a spontaneous joke is cracked you would notice the non listeners to burst into laughter or smile when everyone is done or midway. An absurd thing said in the meeting would also go unnoticed by the non listeners.

3. Body Language
Folded Hands, raised eyebrows, blank face and consistently moving / shaking legs also display that the focus is not meeting. People who are attentive or listening can be found either leaning forward to speak or listen.

4. Questions, Replies and endorsements
You would always notice non listeners raising or asking questions that are already answered. Easiest way to track them. If a person endorses everything it "can" mean he/she was not listening.

5. The Zero Effect
Participants that are standing with absolutely no emotions, words and actions are probably thinking of what they are wearing for their date in the evening. I have also noticed some of the non listeners to be drawing things.

6. Interjections
If they consistently use interjections like "Yeah" "Yes" "hmm" without any changing patterns.. they are probably not listening.

7. All the Gadgetry Goofs
Fiddling phones, Nails, keys are signs of no interest in discussions.

Do you see any disconnected meeting participants? What do you think they do?

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Things I miss.....

Things I miss....

1. A display of committed vs achieved.
2. A view to what is blocking.
3. An integration that happens on every logical point as opposed to complete story point.
4. An ambiguous requirement that you encountered mid way.
5. A design that evolves with audit.
6. A user story that is sliced enough to know what is achievable and when.
7. A glimpse to non-availability that is blocking.
8. A list of leftovers every 2 weeks
9. A list of leftover gulped every 2 weeks.
10. An impediment found early
11. A build that says all is right and ready to go.
12. Board that truly reveals the work in progress.
13. A retrospective that truly reveals the good, the bad and the ugly
14. A loud shout of "Yes I have done it"
15. A call to review small things that build up large blocks
16. A scrum where huddling is allowed
17. A demonstration that comes with high value feedback
18. A contribution of how best it can be done.
19. A list we call "Technical Debt"
20. A process that is looked to be improved and evolved.
21. An estimate that cuddles the requirement
22. A practice that cares for User experience more than technology
23. An attitude that says "Customers are not Gods"
24. A High Five
25. A WOW
26. A Great Idea
27. A "That's Kewl"
28. A "Why not?"
29. Clarity of what is to be achieved and why
30. A Goal, that's just not completing a story point
31. A pat for an orthodox approach
32. A non traditional success pattern


I miss "Agile...." I really do.....

From the old books... Curated a list of things that a agile developer would always miss. My part is here.. what is yours?

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DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

How well do you understand a requirement? More importantly How well do you understand a requirement when it is only documented? How well do you understand a requirement when no discussions have happened on it? Do you compare your initial understandings to the final outcome? Do you find a difference in what you thought and what is was meant to be?

Today I wish to touch base on a critical element that we experience in the day to day work. In one of the product development cycles we received a clarification from our team, on a feature request from one of our customer saying "I don't think it should delete the document". Now while I would want you to continue reading this, why don't you just take a pencil and scribble what does the statement mean and you can refer to it later. The developer chose to build the feature around the clarification and the outcome was deleting a document by said process was not possible. A few days later this came in as a bug from the same customer saying "There is a bug", iterations happened,  O Fish. Our iterations increased and we ended up throwing things at each other and who said what. A few moments into this we read through the statement again and realized we can fairly derive different meanings depending on which word we stress.

I don't think it should delete the document.
Meaning : Others do/may think that it should delete the document.

I dont think it should delete the document.
Meaning: It is not true that I think it should delete the document.

I don't think it should delete the document.
Meaning: I am not sure if it should delete the document.

I don't think it should delete the document.
Meaning: Maybe it should delete something else?

Go on and you would realize, what you thought about it, may or may not be same as you scribbled, depending on the word stressed. 

But then how would you understand which word is stressed, specially when it is written? What do you do to ensure you don't build a minaret instead of a hut?

Communication plays an important role and no "QUESTION" is not an answer to it, You may end up questioning every sentence killing the whole thing called "Intelligence". A few ways to sort this out:

1. Brainstorm : A group discussion would always help you understand the right meaning.

2. Read - UNREAD - RE-READ : Many don't know how to do this. But I am sure you have played "Find the Path" game that usually shows up in newspapers? Once you find the path, the next time doing the same is not very difficult. It means your brain gets used to making or building that pattern. Un-reading is wiping off the previous understanding and reading it from a fresh perspective.

3. Communicate : Remember the stages of communication. CONFIRM is one of them.

4. Ask : Just DON'T ASK. Also share what you think.

5. Don't stick to it : Once clarified, get used to the new perspective. IF YOU STICK to what you think is RIGHT. You are going to dig a grave for yourself and others.

Now while I wont keep barging about this, I would let you stress each word in the sentence that you see in the picture linked to the post and comment with the meanings. Enjoy UNDERSTANDING.

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Are you serious?

There is a very fine line between easy going and laid-back. A lot of times it is not very difficult to jump from one side to other. Laid-back attitude can really spoil a lot of things nevertheless the results that can have long lasting impacts. Over the last few days we had several situations where the most easy going team members switched to the other side and with ease, most without realising that it is happening. The biggest problem of been laid-back is that you never know you are. In my long career as a development manager I ended up with several Ninja developers who happen to switch side failing to realise they did. Result was clear buggy code, technical debts, backlogs and dirty future. The laid-back attitude really kills the sincerity and potentially kills the winning attitude. I have been at times switch the side myself, specially when the teams get along well, work is smooth paced, people help each other etc. That is when you can start NOT BEEN SERIOUS.

Well its not very difficult to find out if you really are serious about your work or not, a few questions and that's it...While I don't want to discuss the why part in this post, I would certainly talk about the How part here as it is an important step in identifying if you are travelling the laid-back attitude or worthy one.

Do you ask right questions?
In meetings, discussions or otherwise? When I say right questions, I mean questions that are sensible, right and effective enough to fetch an important, valuable answer? If you don't, I can tell you that you are seriously not serious. A person who doesn't ask questions moreover right questions often bring the risk of understanding it all or none. If you never have any questions, it also means that you don't care.

Do you finish what you started?
If you do not finish what you started or things you are a part of, its time you think about the attitude. Unfinished tasks usually pile up to change the runaway attitude. It also puts a question on your ability to be a finisher.

Are you curious?
If you ain't, it speaks a lot. Curious minds want to know more, discover and then bring the improvement. If you are not getting enough curious, it also means you are loosing the weight of discoveries, Innovations are killed and you live a routine.  

Do you remember things? Do you take notes?
The most laid-back people will always be found in meetings unprepared, without notepads and more importantly without mental presence.

Are you confident?
Your confidence will always reveal your knowledge about what you do. If you are not confident, it also means you are not serious with it. Confidence is key and the consequence of low confidence is often failure.

Is that your best?
A question one should ask all the time. Is the output you just delivered the best you can do? If not its time to get more serious.

Do you convince?
If you cant articulate it, speaks you cant handle it. Its critical to be able to speak about what you so, explain others , debate, question and query.

Well if you are not able to get some positive answers from the questions above, then I guess you need some serious thinking My Friend. Go figure out if you are on what side and what can help you get corrected. If you are not serious about BEEN SERIOUS, then you read a wrong thing anyways.

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Look Beyond Clouds....

I have seen Russell Crowe starrer Gladiator n times, and while I write this I am just about watching it for another time, same passion, same thrill. Just the very same wrath and power. While astonishingly Maximus inspires you, the contributions and work of Juba and Hagen cannot be forgotten. But do you think Juba and Hagen would be of any help had they not known who the Spaniard was and what he wished to do? Ofcourse not, it took looking beyond clouds for the 2 to let Maximus achieve his ultimate vengeance.

Looking beyond cloud is interesting,  but not so easy, I wouldn't mix it here calling it as "Looking at the Big Picture" cause it's just not that. Looking beyond the cloud is understanding on WHY than WHAT. And if the clarity exists I am sure the vision would be a mere effort to Reality. Leaders put through their vision and executors of those vision items need to have this ability of looking beyond the clouds. Do they? What are these clouds that block them from understanding the WHY?

Well the answer is NOT black and white. Very recently one of our customers found a bug in our system, reported it, we escalated it and managed to work over a fix. A developer was asked to fix the issue. The issue was found, fixed and released, the process however revealed the looking beyond cloud efficiency. A lesson we ought to take and submerge in our teams. At the same time it is important that the symptoms are verified and figured out before they damage. The course of fix revealed we knew the bug existed bug never asked ourselves if it would cause a problem to the user or not, We knew what caused it but never cared to detail on how it would impact, After it was raised we knew how to fix it, but we took time to resolve it as we never wanted to put that as a FIRST PRIORITY. So many failures in just one line of action. Fairly easy to guess now what these clouds are...

The cloud comes in various forms...

Laziness : The biggest blocker. If one just doesn't want to know why, he would never make an attempt to know WHY.
Fear : Most times the fear of having to do it or failures block one from wanting to look beyond.
Inability : Ability to understand and prioritise can be easy cause.
Visibility : If you don't know about it, you will never look for it.

Of course many more... Writing it down may give you a list you would want to miss.. Do you see beyond the clouds? The clouds of routine, vagueness, mediocrity, lousiness and at times inability? Do you know if they exists? Do you know what is beyond those clouds? Do you wish to know what is beyond those clouds?

If the answer is YES. Start asking questions to yourself and then to others.. look for answers and not just questions...

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Communicate, but wait first connect

Been on stage ever wondering, why those lads in the audience are busy yawning? Ever walked to a ticket counter and noticed why the lady behind the counter never looks you right into your eyes? Ever tried to figure out why calculating a TV TRP is such a difficult task? or ever wondered why the RJ on your favourite radio channel never blabbers what you want her to? Well they all miss one critical part of communication.... The CONNECT part.

The connect in the communication makes the communication effective and vital, eventually managers, leaders who fail to bring the connect part in the work they do, always tend to fail in the overall results. A few months ago I attended a live music programme and a seminar on some typically financial topic. I always thought speeches and seminars are boring while music is great.. My assumption changed when I had the speaker of this boring topic make a few connects with the audience, he asked questions, he cracked jokes, he made gestures and he involved the audience and dragged them deep into the topic. On the other hand the singer and the band playing the greatest hits ever never ever got the audience involved. That's the importance of connect in the communication.

Its the same thing with articles and blogs... if they don't connect, they loose the touch, the hope and the feedback, eventually making the communication connectionless.  The video below explains how connect plays a key role in communication... Be it the safety measures video before you fly or the most hostile speech you hear...

Remember to connect when you communicate... 

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Communication : Talking, Listening or more?

"The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished" - George Bernard Shaw 
A few days ago we happened to do our Project kick off, an event where we discuss what we would achieve in the quarter, for the product in a given release cycle with details of who does what and when. Wanting to keep the mood of the kick off light we wanted to have some cake cut at the end of the kick off meeting and celebrate the beginning of the release; I happened to pass on few quids to the office boy and asked him to get us a cake, when the kick off meeting was over and we opened the box it was a small cake that probably wont be enough for our team, so what was this?

Also a few weeks ago, my wife called me while I was on my way home and asked me to get a "Few cold drinks" mentioning my kids friends are in. Thinking that the troop was at home for a puppy party or something I ended up taking a few gallons of soft drinks, only to reach home and realise they were 2 of them. What do you call this????

Well its the disconnect. The ability to speak is not the same as the ability to communicate. Speaking is different than constructing a message, building it, conveying it, gathering the feedback, processing it and returning it back in a way it is understood. Most times the part involving feedback and further is lost and hence a disconnect happens breaking the communication and causing pains and disasters big or small.

Communication is not about you blabbering, it is conveying processed information
Communication is not about words exchanged, it is about processing the words to result an outcome
Communication is not about you listening or you telling, Communication is always about connecting

Next time when you communicate..... make sure

1. You construct a message that would be easy to understand and can be easily conveyed
2. You take that message and use an appropriate channel to pass it on
3. You wait for the feedback once you convey the message.
4. You take the feedback and process it to understand if your message is rightly understood and if not you re-convey.
5. You take the resultant feedback and build the next message in a language and mode it is understood...

None of the above is new to us, eventually we in the rush always tend to forget the completeness of the communication and that results in delays and waste of efforts you never looked for.

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Apologies for keeping this dull

If you were a reader of the blog and have been noticing dull periods on this blog.. I would start with an apology... Its been a really busy year for me and inspite of having tons of drafts documented I had absolutely no time reviewing them.

I have just found a better time to spend on this blog and a better way to do it... so I am hoping to bring some life to this blog soon.

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