Things I learnt about Project Management

1. Managing one’s wants is the most powerful skill a person can learn

2. Projects success is dependant on executor's attitude's and not just effort

3. Budget should be the last thing to think of

4. Planning is over hyped, under utilized

5. The only time quality comes into action is when you are not reviewed

6. Manager's like engineers who fix things quickly.

7. Between the release date and code freeze lot of bugs are raised, requirements changed.

8. Requirements are changed like clothes (everyday), schedules like attitudes (never)

9. Lines of code fewer the better

10. Those who complain the most, accomplish the least

11. Features have incomplete requirements even after they are delivered

12. Agile becomes an excuse to not follow processes

13. Code review should be scheduled like checking emails are

14. The guy who writes the worst piece of code, is the guy who is more concerned about quality

15. Scope, quality, time and budget never meet at one point.

Many Many more, coming into phases.. What's your learning's though?

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How to handle a Bad Appraisal?

There is a time each year when each one of us undergoes the very very critical thing in our professional lives... Performance Review and Appraisal. Believe me it is as much of a hell for the person under going it as it is for the person doing it. Performance review no matter how much ever clear definitions of Key Result Areas are, how much ever clear review a performer undergoes through... Performance review can be most depressing. Though the name is suggestive enough to be inspiring, in reality this is the most critical phase that see's low moral for a lot of employees.

I have undergone a few really bad performance reviews and undergone some of the best ones.. Here I wish to share the experience and things to do.. so for those who come under such situation can maybe get some help handling the situation...

1. Dont gather conclusions, gather facts

The immediate and worse issue of any bad appraisal is the fact that the employee draws immediate conclusions to them... X person was favoured. Y is a useless manager, Z things were not considered correctly and so on. Conclusions drawn in haste cause a mental trauma in the post bad appraisal period. In the influence of quick drawn conclusions the intention of appraisal is missed out and you forget to enjoy the real benefits you draw from the whole process.

2. Speak up, Open up and ask questions without been defensive

A lot of bad appraisals happen because the employees are not communicative enough. It is important that post bad appraisal a clear time is given to thought and the reaction to the appraisal is communicated to the Appraiser in the best possible way. If certain task done by you had issues try to ask for what and how. Getting defensive is the worst mistake a lot of people do.. causing a wrong impression in the mind of the appraiser. Stand back, take time, collect the details of the points that affect negatively and communicate more on those topics, rather defending on what best things you did.

3. Comparison is outdated

The misery of a bad appraisal is a conflict that arises between colleagues. A developer working in my team earlier would not care as much about his own appraisal as he would for the rest of the people in the Team. Resulted in his best appraisals also sounded like the worst of his own appraisal. Comparison of reviews and appraisals is a waste of energy and effort.

4. Mobs are destructive

A bad or good review when discussed in a mob turns ugly. This is such a topic that when it meets the group it turns like ammonia smelling from a rose. I once gave a real time example to a friend on how mob can be destructive in making, drawing and converting a good thing to a worst thing....

A friend of mine wanted to discuss with us when he wanted to marry a girl he liked.. he wanted his friends to suggest him if he was doing a right thing.. and he raised this when everyone met together and were drunk... To the likes and dislikes of each soul he got several questions.. a few of them made him take back his decision and in turn loose the love of his life. The questions and suggestions he got ranged from "Is she a virgin? How is it possible?" to "I think she dominates you" and "I think she is less beautiful than your ex"... whoa... how destructive can a mob get on sensitive topics? Well I would put this topic for future sometime on why...

5. Review, Reform and Analyse

A lot of bad performances result in bad decisions and steps too... The first thing to do after a bad appraisal is to review yourself, understand what went good and what went bad. Analyse and try to structure an action path. This should include those retrospectives that you missed in your offence.

6. Calculate Growth

Review and calculate the growth options for yourself. A lot of people turn to change or hop jobs thinking that their bad review or appraisal is a step towards there demise. Try to ask and identify what and how much you mean to the Team or the organization. Check for your growth options and evaluate if those options would make you happy for future.

7. Communicate

The disaster that causes the post bad review period is the communication. Sitting with a frown face, reacting with a negative mood, not co-operating or bitching around are the symptoms that show the true professional value or ethics you carry. Communicate in a effective and direct way with the appraiser with positive and strong annotations about your expectations and also about what you intend to do. This helps in building a strong relationship at the same time concluding the ethical values of a professional attitude.

8. Dig the reality than building the dream palaces

Unlike drawing conclusions the post bad review period forces anyone to build palaces of assumptions that can very well hurt the morale not only for self but for others. A reality check is necessary.. what , How , Why and When are the legitimate questions to ask for.

9. Never spread negativity

A lot of people are due to spread negativity about bosses, about organization, about people about appraisers and many more such thing... this is the most ugly thing to do and get known for doing it.. Causes the fact that your image gets built as a Bad influence... And this impression can cause more troubles than console anything else. Bitching about people, blaming others, cribbing and similar acts are symptoms of this.

10. Stand up, Back it up

The stand someone takes in times of disasters is a stand well appreciated. Stand up and support the backend system instead of blaming it. This is the right time when your influence is seen and your potential identified.

Well of course there are quite a few more to do things that can get you out of the bad review mood.. the important element is here to assert the reality and do a check of what is good and what is bad... For a bad appraisal may just be waiting on another turn you intend to take or another path you want to draw.... or maybe you would be on another side of the table .. reading or doing a Google search for such topics on how to handle the Teams... As Managers it is important that you are motivated and prepared to handle this...

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Team Engagement - 10 ways to get loved by your Team - 3/10 Inspire Them

Sachin Tendulkar the legendary cricketer was inspired by Kapil Dev the Indian cricket Team captain who won the 1983 world cup for India, this was when he was just learning to walk. Behind every legendary man/women there is a short inspiring story, this story plays a crucial role in the lives of these legends and thus make them legendary.

Your team always look at you with very high regards, yes they idealise you, they see you as their inspiration.. no matter what you do when you begin with your team, you begin as a inspirational part of their lives. However busy in the day to day routines you forget to inspire them in spite of being inspirational...Every Team member is like a hot iron rod if several other iron rods put pressure on it, it may not take the right shape, but when the hammer puts force it may(The hammer has to take care that it applies the right pressure and not force). And surely if the iron bar takes the right shape, it is going to love you for it....

Every member of your Team holds some exclusive quality within, if you can find that out and give way to it so the team member can do something of it, is he not going to love you for helping him expose and liberate his talent? There are different ways to inspire... Some people let others do what they want to others do things that can inspire else do it too. Everything and anything that you or your team does can inspire one or the other member of your team, you just have to use the right way to present it...

A few ways to inspire your teams:

I always think there is active inspiring and passive inspiring

Active inspiring

1. If you have found something very interesting or innovative on the web world

a. Speak about it in front of your teams

b. Tell them the benefits , usage and some good points of it

c. Show them how to use it, how you use it

d. Promote to get it used

e. Ask them ideas on how it can help the teams

2. If you know certain talents of your team members

a. Speak about those topics with them

b. Discuss pros and cons with them

c. Discuss legends, stories , success stories of people in the area of interest

d. Refer them to sites, people who you know in the same field

e. Share experiences

3. Creating a forum and debating on the topics of like

a. Create a forum where a lot of people can come together and discuss things. This will help your teams take a deeper dive into things

Inspiring Passively

1. Put a note or a symbol that can be seen.. Knowing some of the developers who were interested in blogging I made a point that I put my IM status message to my blog link, only later I realised that with every change in the status I had majority of them visiting the link. You don’t need to speak, if they are interested they will find a way to do it.

2. Create curiosity by not talking much about it.. sometimes less talking does more thinking.. speak once about it and let others to explore

3. Let them overhear – When the topics of discussion are interesting to others.. let them overhear.. they will go back and find details about it, would go and take it more further.

Yes.. Inspiring your team is something you would want to do.. Because if you can inspire them, you will find that they can do more then just getting inspired.. In turn to bring some good to them, they are going to love you.

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Do you know the GOD's and the DOG's of your Project?

OK Lets find them... Comment or reply to my Email... lets list the characteristics of the GOD's and the DOG's of your project.....

Beware both can be dangerous if not handled correctly... and one complements the others ;)

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How to Find the right Guy?

Hmmm... How to judge the right resource? when Rama on his blog asked this question I really wanted to blog the same day... unfortunately it took more than 2 months for me to find back the notepad scribble I wrote and bring it back as this Post. The other reason to bring this in is also a comment that appeared from Kari on the earlier blogpost Are your best guys in Action . So how to find the right guy for you is surely a question that Bill Gates or Steve Jobs must have asked themselves.. I am sure they must be having the closest answer and so can we. While I look to the interview process that is been followed manywhere to be the most vulnerable process where in maximum 5 meetings of around 20 hrs duration an organisation puts billions of bucks and pride at stake... Yeah by simply hiring the person who they have been interviewing for that period and role and looking at the Jargons and Jig saws he has used with his toungue and resume. Way Way Way Way... thats not all.... he/she is also been made responsible of parenting the Team and nurture or grow the organisational culture. So here are things that I feel should be done / taken into consideration while trying to find the right guy... believe me You will still not find the perfect match ;)


1. Never ever take an instant decission
Even if you like him/her as you would have liked Angeline Jolie in the wildest of your dream, just go back and think:
1. How many Guys did you interview for this position
2. What was the Best thing someone else had that he/she doesnt... Yes..dont find what Best he/she has because he/she really has it.. try to find what he/she doesnt have and someone had the best of it...
3. Do you know why you are present to interview him/her?
4. Do you or the panel has all skills required to judge the person's abilities?

I remember last when Atul (name changed) was hired to play a role as a System Administrator only within a week to realise that he was not the right choice first to play that role and second that he did not fit in the organisational culture. So what bought him into the organisation in first place? It was later realised that the guys who interviewed him were impressed by his Technical skills and effectiveness and made a quick offer.

2. Do they want to change?
Be it a Junior or a Senior see if they look for changing the ways thing work... meaning do they like bringing in a change? and if they adopt to changes easily... Someone who is not easily accepting change can be harmful in the short run and a demolisher in the long. Another thing to look for is Change doesnt mean Re-write... I remember asking a candidate about what he will do if he comes to know that the code/Architecture he is going to work on is blunderously written (Thanks to the Diminishing Quality) and answer was I will change everything , re-write the whole architecture again... well well well My friend if someone wants to change everything he is going to screw you, your budget and your vision.. someone who wants to move step by step with a slow and steady pace and bring the change is something you should look for.

3. Never find something that you miss in the Team
Till sometime back I was a tradional follower of
1. Retrospectives Find it
2. Action fix it
3. Retrospectives Find it
4. Action fix it

Till I realised that I am screwing my efforts in finding to fix them... Find a person that is similar to what your Team members are .... this can be used to improve more.

4. Decissive
How quick he reacts and makes decissions... if he is a very quick decission maker then he definately suits..... Not your Team but been a Customer Support Executive who can handle Customer Grievences very fast.... throw 5 problems at him and see how he answers or reacts....
Once I asked a guy what he will do if his Girl friend leaves him today.. just to stress his decissive skills ... and he responded he will find a New one.... Wow what a power of decission making it is... but it doesnt suit everywhere.... Someone who takes time to understand the question and then respond taking time to come up with an honest and down to earth answer is something that you should look for.... If you dont understand what it means .. throw this problem at Savio and see how he responds...

5. Is he inquisitive enough
All through my career I have met only few people who I can count on fingers really are inquisitive enough in the interviews itself... people who are not inquisitive do not really have passion towards things that come to them... if they are inquisitive they will find out.... make sure they are practically inquisitive not behavorioul inquisitive.... practical ones will think about tangible growths... behavirioul can route your Team to a Emotional Turbulence.

6. Agreements
Throw disagreements towards their answers and see if they make their point of view... One thing you would not want I am sure in your Team is a Palace full of praising demoens.... one who Nod as you do.... and have a "Boss is always right" attitude. If you have read Times Of India on Tuesday 14th August you would understand why...

7. Do they ignite anything in you?
2 Years ago in an interview I met a gentlemen who ignited a thought that helps me until now... How he said it was funny and a bit controversial too... When Asked by the panel on what you would do to achieve success in any form.... His answer was :
Every thing that President Bush would do to achieve it and everything that "The Most Wanted" Man could not to make it happen... I took the positive combination of both parts of his answer leaving the aggression behind. Its very necessary that a person ignites something in you... if he cant then he is just one more in the row..

8. Do they wait for Authorities to take Responsibilities?
Lot of guys during the interviews talk about what they could not do with the reasons always associated with them.... which means that though they wanted to do things they did not do it due to lack of Authorities.... but remember though Reponsibilities come with authority necessarily doesnt mean authorities always.... Your responsibility towards society will not mean that you will get as many authorities as a Police Man do....try to find out someone who know how to take and follow on responsibilities without caring about authorities.

9. Can they Do what You Could?
Never find out a better replacement... just find out if he can do what you can...

10. Are they Role players or Rule Players?
Lot of guys are Rule players... meaning work as said ONLY.... see if they go beyond something... or have gone beyond...

Lastly.... try to Identify what they have in their mind in terms of 1 yr , 2 yr or a 5 yr plan.... If they are ambitious its good... if they are over ambitious it could be very crude....

While I really wnat to write more on this ... I think I will stop here to make you re-visit here to find out how else and what else you can do to judge the people.... remember most of the things you do here are what you should do.. rather than what you should expect from the person you are interviewing or judging....


Regards

Sameer Shaikh

http://pm-better-than-sex.blogspot.com

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The YIKIT How to

Referring to the earlier post on the YIKIT's and to a request from Faisal on how to compel the YIKIT attitude, here are a few ways to handle and manage the YIKIT attitude:

1. Never embarass them
This should be the last thing you would want to do.. The YIKIT's attitude is just to show that they know more than anyone else, these type of people cannot hide their embarassement and would want to run away from their existing jobs and Team to avoid any more of it. The YIKIT's can be best Team players and also can have lot of knowledge and experience.

2. Throw responsibilities at them
The easiest way to be more effective with a YIKIT is to throw responsibilities at him in such a way that his experiences and knowledge is polished. A YIKIT really may or may not know things but pretend to show it.... making him realise that he doesnt know it can harm so let him polish his skills by making him work in the area he pretends to work keeping in mind that YIKIT's need virtual micromanagement.

3. Turn a YIKIT to a TIKIT or a MIKIT
Step 2 can really turn a YIKIT to Though I Knew it or even Maybe I know it which can be very effective since it will make a YIKIT to go and explore the world. YIKIT's can harm a Team if the YIKIT attitude turns to TITS meaning Thats It ;)

4. Ask Questions that you know and dont know
A YIKIT like to answer everything or show that he is a encyclopedia no matter its a Jack knowledge... I mean Jack of All King of None kinda knowledge... Another way to turn a YIKIT back to normal is throw questions that you have deep knowledge in and where you dont have any knowledge without making him realise about your knowledge in the area.

5. Avoid making statements or giving answers to YIKIT's easily
This is to make sure that the YIKIT doesnt take words from your statements and then make over stories on own, avoid responding first to make the conversations and progress better.

Remember of all the things you need to understand that:
a. YIKIT's are knowledgable
b. YIKIT's are intelligent
c. They have good skills and imagination power
d. They never want to loose
e. They Know what to talk and what not to

I am sure for a success of any Team you need all of these qualities....so YIKIT's been in the Team is important the only thing to take care of is better management of YIKIT's and having a good control over them.

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Are your Best Guys in Action?

Lately reading the Technical Interview I took from Suresh and to my earlier post regarding the Diminishing Software Quality I am really really sad when I look at the way the software's are developed and manhandled afterwords... A simple question I ask to myself looking at the IT Industry boom in India is "Are the Best Guy's doing what they are Best at?" ... Surprised to listen? I myself feel NO.. The Best Programmer in a Technology within a Year wants to be Technical Lead, A Technical lead wants to be an Architect or Manager within a few months and a Manager wants to be a Delivery Head , Delivery Head to be the VP and the VP to be the CEO... Well No one really thinks beyond a CEO do they?

Looking aback I really feel that a team member who is best at coding is pushed to designing (The management Sales BUZZ WORD "GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES" sucks here), A Web Designer been asked to be a Animator because the company has got the project and they want to show him his growth prospects, A Technical lead who never thought outside beyond technology is asked to do People Management and poorly enough an illeterate (I really am talking here about everyone who are not business blooded) is asked to run an organisation.

After you have a read of this can you go,check and let me know if you think:
1. The Best Guys are doing what they used to do best and with evolving and surprising results?

2. All who are a part of your Team are there just because they are best at what they are doing?

3. Growth for them is designed in such a way that it is directly proportionate to the Aspiration and the exposure to achieve the aspiration?

4. People are not pushed to do things just to keep them within or make them run for a Mirage?

5. You are doing something you are Best at?

6. You are doing something for a long time and yet you want to do because everytime you do the same you think you have learnt more?

Huh? So many dammn questions and the answer is just one... "Diminishing Quality" So what to do about this? Lets make our Growth Planners added with a spice of an entity that tells us what we are best at, Let our employers know what we can do best for them, Let our resumes show what best we can bring to the given organisation and finally Let us take a Pledge that we will CARE ABOUT THE SOFTWARE WE DEVELOP Not for the sake of it but for a reason that can help the Software development Industry achieve the goals for what it was intended to have started...


Regards
Sameer Shaikh

P.S. Please do not take a Pledge just becuase you want to seen, Mean it.

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YUCK:- Me Know Everything????

While I was listing down some qualities of the Leader's and Managers I realised I forgot to talk about the Commodity Managers when Listing down the Commodity Leaders. One of the problems with the commodity leaders or both commodity leaders or Managers is that they pretend to know everything...

I remember while playing Card Poker games with my friends "BLUFFING" was the only way to get out and win... meaning You either pretend that you know what your contender has in his hands or you pretend that you ahve the best cards in hands... both of which at times are not true... while this technique is commonly used in games you will find the commodity players (Leaders, Managers and Mentors) posses this quality often in the professional life to pretend they are the Best.

How to Identify A YIKIT animal (Ouch I forgot to explain YIKIT is Yes I Know It )?

1. Try to quarrell on items / decissions to see how defensive they get..
2. Tell them about a thing that you know and see if they talk about it ... YIKIT's never go the way anyone has already gone...
3. YIKIT's Always begin with "YES.. I Know" , "Yes I have done it" blah blah...
4. Watch the Next Action after your talks/ emails... The next action YIKIT's will do is go and find out the answers... though they leave it half way
5. YIKIT's are always under complex... so they prefer pretending... the moment someone wants to show superiority .... he/she is the YIKIT.
6. YIKIT;s drive the topics away when they see someone knowing more... this is how it is done... "But I think...." , "Well I Guess..." , "May be I am wrong ....." and lot more...


Why to Identify a YIKIT ?
Its important to know the YIKIT's animals in a Team so that the knowledge can be shared in the right way... Lot of reasons why any type of Projects fail is they are run by YIKIT Leaders or Management. YIKIT can deny the sharing and training required for someone.. just becuase they pretend they know it...

Why Not to be a YIKIT?
Just think of myself smiling at you within my mind just because you are pretending you know something that you really dont know.... Lot of experienced guys are YIKIT Hunters... they dont need more than a stare in your eye to know if you are a YIKIT or Not... and honestly YOU DONT GET ANY BUSINESS FROM THEM IF YOU PROVE YOURSELF TO BE A YIKIT.. AND YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHY.

Remove the YIKIT Attitude if you have any and see what difference it makes for you....

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So whats the Problem?

With reference to my earlier post on Are we creating a Bug? and the strong opinion I carry about Negative Management (I am putting it sweet here so that you dont feel I am calling MIS-MANAGEMENT) In both the stories I find the biggest similarity... A WRONG APPROACH. So who decides the right approach? How to take a right approach? How to avoid creating a Bug? Or Natwar (Our Automation King) language Animator V/s Animation approach.

So the 2 things that tell me what went wrong in the earlier 2 stories are:
1. The right resource was not found..
2. The right action was never right..

think the right action is never instant... there maybe arguments on this but thats a personal opinion.... I have always seen hasty decision ending up into major crisis. secondly when I say the right Action is never right, I always mean that the Right Action has scope to be improved. For instance creating competition is must within an organisation and is the right action, however competition that can lead to insurgency can screw the business.

So we stand on How to be more effective?
How to take the right steps?

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Software Outsourcing and the Diminishing Quality

It had been almost 8 yrs now in the Industry and experience is counting... more and more....Yesterday for some reason we had a discussion on the diminishing quality of software with outsourcing.. specially when the world is slowly moving from India/China towards Ukraine and other nations and remembering my last week Meeting with Twain Harris CEO,ATC LLC on the software quality they got out of the projects from the Chinese Software development Ally... One thing we can smell coming to us in future is surely LESS WORK.

Why the Quality is going down is a bigger question which I would leave the experts to answer while I really focus on writing some aspects I feel is killing the trust in outsourcing...

1. Transparency :- I remember when I was tied up with a front runner in the Hospitality sector while been with TechShepherds Software Solutions in 2004 I realised that when the Customer offered the firm to be the Development Partner for their Major Integration projects, It was lack of transparency that caused several of one problems which finally resulted in a breakdown of relationship. The way demands are rising today it is expected that a Software portal is developed in weeks time and goes running in production within coughing periods... Now it is easier to do that.. but not necessarily in the correct way... I was talking to a developer working on a KEY collaboration tool and unfortunately my first feel was he did not understand why he was building the software... How will this help the Company that is looking to make this collaboration tool be one of the front runners in today's collaboration Market? secondly I realised that the Company wanting to build the product and the Team that was developing the product met only once a few weeks to KNOW whats the Status.

This was for sure a killer since there was no transparency in both the sides... each side should have made things more visible.. be it development efforts, needs, objectives or time lines and finances.... Lack of this transparency is the root cause of a NO TRUST zone. No wonder the Company will surely choose to go away with this development partner sooner or later...

2. Honesty: When I asked Mike (Twain H. as he is popularly known) why he wants to shut out the Chinese Operations his answer was it is not working due to finances and a NOT FIT Team.. honestly I think No one outsourcing is so honest to take that call... How Many Managers have you seen that say that "The Development Team we chose was wrong?" Or " The Team we work with is not of the required Quality?" well I guess none... No one here Outsourcing company or company taking the deal commits on this. Another Big issue to the broken trust is the Effective Team in Action and the way Service Industry is charging... Since there is lack of transparency in the development effort the Customer firm never knows what type of Team and who they are working with? as a result a Development resource of very High Grade is presented to the Customer company while a development resource coming out of college really is working over it... Faking the Orgasms sometimes are better I guess not this...

While it is important to enroute the Knowledge of the Business Model in the development Team who will work on your Business critical product it is also important that enough Transparency is created within....

Though I feel that it wont be enough to write everything here.... I will split up my experiences on the outsourcing problems as a Project Manager in the later blogs...

Regards
Sameer Shaikh
http://sameer-shaikh.blogspot.com

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Of Objective , Goals and Value

This Project will change your career path
This opportunity cannot be missed out
This will change your life
This will be remembered by You as a revolution in your life...

Well Well well many more buzzwords and Jargon's. Honestly I feel that this is how the current Manager Trend has been selling its products and I am left no away from it.... though I am rarely frequent in making such promises or Hives I feel that this is something that has been always been used as a lethal Weapon to motivate the performers(Under Or Over).

While I am still in process to think how We should be presenting the Objectives and Goals for the Project, release or Team... I got a setback when I think is it really Selling or Marketing your Offerings to the Software Development Team?

So I am sure you have a question whats the setback.... So here it is...

1. Value:- I personally think that things are not cared about if they don't have a Value... for example I remember we talking about motivation in my previous posts, We talking about Empowering in the earlier posts, We talking about creating a High performance Team.. all of this is possible only if there is a Value attached to what we do... To Motivate it needs to be Knowledge , Monetary Benefits or lot of other things, To Empower we need to enhance and train, To create a High performance Team the Team needs to know what, How , When and where and so many other things.... All of these things happen only if a Value is associated with what you want to do.... So the question arises Why a Value needs to be associated?

I remember I been a part of the cricket Team that used to play cricket tournaments on tennis ball... while been a part of it I realised that we as a Team were not much interested in winning when there was no prize money or bet on the game... Of course it was a Value attached.
I remember a Team Member calling on me to say that I don't want to be a part of a particular project Team since he/she thinks that he/she cannot learn things or evolve in the given project... of course there is a value associated with what anyone wants to do.... So many other examples and reasons of how Important a value is for anything you do....

So the question arises why is this a setback to me and my thinking now?
Well I realise that sometimes we don't create a value but we just try to market and hype it or sell what we don't really have or want someone to buy something that we cannot sell.... something that shouldn't be done or that doesn't last for long... No wonder faulty promises and organisational exit times appraisals and counter offers don't last long...

A product doesn't sell if the customer doesn't see the value
A Developer doesn't want to be a part of the product that doesn't adds value to him
A Leader finds a pathway if he thinks there are roadblocks ahead.. and so many other things....

It is at most important to Create a Value for something you want to do....

2. Share It? : Its not enough to create a value to sell it, You need a Team to create it.. A Team that is going to be a part of it altogether... for example.... I am sure if the prize money we used to win/loose on the cricket games was not shared the interest would have lowered down... disappointments would have been caused easily and failure was the next door. Creating a value is as must as creating it with the Team that will be a part of achieving it... the Objectives and Goals of a project can only be achieved by a Project Team if the Team creates the Objectives and Values for it... and are not defined by someone else...

So the question arises why is this a setback to me and my thinking now?
Well I feel the needs, Goals and Objectives should be defined by a Team who will be part of the runners to achieve it.... When Talking to the SWAT Team today I realised that their are several Objectives that are not even thought about and Yes this is the time to get them in and work towards them... what a Team it will be where everyone knows what they have to work on and for. So the setback is the vision has to be shared, the goals have to be worked upon and priorities need to be re-defined....


3. Celebrate : In my earlier posts about celebrate the smallest success I mentioned that inventing something , developing something or finishing some tasks is just not the whole thing... It is important that we celebrate each of those... A Value can be predominant only if it is celebrated and appreciated everytime... Every effort towards the value acquisition should be appreciated and celebrated only then the goals are achieved...


Do we celebrate what we achieve?
Do we know what we achieve?

More on and over... let me rethink How to best sell myself and how best to Empower the Team to let do the above 3 key elements....

Regards
Sameer Shaikh
http://sameer-shaikh.blogspot.com

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Rewards : Do they Motivate?

"I am been awarded as the Employee of the Year" - Ramesh
"Oh wow.. I am sure that will bring a lot of big money to you in the coming Appraisal" - Inner Ramesh
"I guess so.. but so far nothing seems to be working" - Ramesh
"Is it.. maybe then you should look for a change?" - Inner Ramesh
"Yeah I am feeling the same..." - Ramesh

OK so before you stop reading this post let me explain This was the conversation I heard on my split way to a IT Restaurant(its always full of IT professionals) today. The reason I call Ramesh and Inner Ramesh is because Its the same guy having the conversation and How I know ?? So the lines between are been edited where I was conversing.. Yeah try and read betwene lines now ;)

OK so do you really think awards motivate you? Long back I heard from a developer that we are not been awarded.. He really meant that his work was not fully appreciated... It really took time for me to understand on what he means by Appreciation.. mainly because it wasnt clear on what does appreciation mean for him... I felt the following things mean appreciation to him:
1. Monetory benefit
2. More Quality work
3. Public Appreciation
4. Hike in role
5. More responsibilities
6. More involvement

Later when the same guy was awarded with different awards.. his expectations changed.. he expected that the rewards he had been getting are going to earn him a big big appraisal, finally when the D-Day came in it was not to his satisfaction. I realised what is wrong here and I can really tell to some extent how Awards can De Motivate you:

1. Award = Money = P.A Growth = P.M Hike = Immediate change in the Salary, that is the general understanding of the average developer I feel here. You dont get a new Pay Slip with this award you get De-Motivated.

2. Award if its a temporary monetory benefit: I remember in my previous organisation I heard Maruf getting rewarded with a 20K for been the employee of the quarter.. it just took a few days to take that off from his mind and he was back to the routine again.. meaning the pressure is back and it hurts, "So what a Big Deal if they re-payed me for my hard work and anyways its Taxable". De-Motivating?

3. Award if its more Quality work : I realised that when handling the experienced Team... more quality work is considered to be as more responsibility but not more pay raise... eventually Award converts to be a De-Motivator.

4. Public Appreciation: It can motivate a few not all... specially people like Albert not sure if he is updating his profile. I remember when he was awarded in front of the 200+ crowd including employess and families, it just took a day for him to call the award a Bull Shit, Reason? that's my Duty. The second level of people want to get recognized in public If they dont get that every time they get disappointed and of course De-Motivated

5. Hike in Role : An Award drive you to think that with this award you ar bound to be the new Lead, manager, CTO, CEO or what not... wondering with the awards one receive in a lifetime in an IT company he should become the PM of the Universe ;) considering one role change with every award;)

6. More Responsibilities : These people resemble the one above, they might or might not love the work but they want more responsibilities. If more responisbilities come in its good or the Award was just a raddish.

7. More involvement in everything ;) You cant give me? I am upset.

Well this is not all... I really see more than these reaosns where Awards can De-Motivate.. eventually I feel that the Awards are seen very closely tied up with Monetory Benefits... Be it temporary or long term... I think it needs an innovation in awarding the Team individuals..

Next way to move forward - > What should an Ideal award be Like ;)

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Cartoons are the Best way to convey

I thought I would start my own series to present what I want to say in the 50 line blog posts

this is first in the series

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Values and Goodwill

"30-40% of the Reason why I joined the Company was because of Vipin" said Savio..
"And why is that?" : Me
"He told me about about the people and organisation and the values of the people working here... and it wasnt difficult to make a decission, specially when you know that a Security Guard who is on Contracted work is so happy the Employess must really be Happy too... and the organisation really has something in it.. " says Savio...

I am sure when the values are clear and the principles been set, the Goodwill and Success is just the next automated step... I am Glad that I am getting to work with a Team who has a great Value and leaderistic principles...

Regards
Sameer Shaikh

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Principles and Practice

Yesterday I heard the Lift Man in the office premices talking to one of the collegues on how to operate a lift.... whoa one lesson a day, and I know some operations already ofcourse with some access keys ;)

So the point here is how we confuse or differentiate in the 2 so very easy and often used terms called "Practice" and "Principles". Too often we don't understand what they mean and quite oftenly we derive them as we want... Now why the Hell is this topic in the PM Blog?? of so here is the reason why... 3 things I always feel are very important part of the Agile Teams... 1. Practice 2. Principles and 3. Values.Lot of you might or might not agree, but honestly I have heard wrong meanings so many times... I thought I would really clarify what it means: ...

Practice :- Something that we follow as routines, tasks that are repeated again and again and again ...

Principles :- Something I would say a set of ethical actions or laws defined ... obviously the dictionary.com would mean it as a Leader .... but the context we are using it doesnt really fit that to be described as a leader ;)

OK... so coming back how does the marriage between them works? So a practice is really something that is being carried on the basis of a defined principle... dont understand? To make sure you get the work done complete and in time you define a set of rules that needs to be carried away (that's principle !!!! Now you know?) and to achieve this goal of completing things on time you make sure you practice the principles that are laid down...

Now why I thought of writing this? Today I was trying to ask Savio about using the DB Units or Cactus with our application (they are extended from the JUnits and something we are trying to move towards to achieve the test Driven Development) and he made a statement that really triggered the feeling that there is something missing... I am copying the chat as it is
"Savio says : If we are thinking seriously of get the unit-tests working, then we need to first move the unit-tests to use a DB and to get rid of the mocks..."

It might not make right sense to you if you read it as it is .. the meaning has a deeper breadth.... To me it means that if you want to Practice the Unit Tests correctly .. you need to define the principles correctly .... Wow... what a success this is... The Fact that such a tricky thing is understood in such a clear word... what he said later is below:

"Savio says Only after that should we think of moving up stream and getting extensions like dbUnit and Cactus into the picture..."

Now it probably makes it clearer.

So the Rule of POLY BOLY says that Practice the principles and make sure that the principles are evaluated... only then Practices can produce something that can effect positive values...

Regards
Sameer Shaikh
http://sameer-shaikh.blogspot.com

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I work so hard... what is he doing?

A few months ago I faced this question, but in a different form… the question was "What is he doing in the office?" I wasn't really very serious at that time about this since it came in very casually…. While moving ahead a similar question came across in the Chat across Table (CAT meet) with one of the development resources… this time the question was more towards partial resentment… "What is (are) he/they/she doing?"

OK so this is what I think when someone really asks this question to a Manager or the BB… now that I assume that this question comes out of one or more person from a Team… I believe that these questions really affect the Team the moment they get raised…

These are first of the few things I really think why these questions are raised:

1. Is he paid for chatting, reading newspapers and bossing around?
A member not having enough visibility on what others within his team are doing has this question in mind quite often… The best way to avoid this is to let everyone know in a Scrum what each one is up to for that day/week.

2. I have so much of work and he sits Idle?
Most of the time the question comes because of different duties or responsibilities each one is handling… Most of the time people confuse between duties and responsibilities… I really had to mention that "Do you know what your CEO does? And the answer was NO, so the issue here is that the moment you feel you are working hard; you see others not working so hard… Law of nature really….

3. The beginning of the problem is the End of the Day?
So most of the developers tend to stay late at least that's the culture out here in India… many of them are bachelors who prefer not to go on their hostels where they don't have Yahoo, Internet and of course work… So while you work late and late you feel you are the only one in the office who work… no matter you really work till then or just funk around.

4. The taste of the Poison can only be tested when you Taste it?
Many of the aspirants feel that what their superior does or knows is less than what he or she knows and does… common misconception that leads to a Team trauma at the same time raises this question too often in the mind… The major issue here is the poison of success (I am on my way to write this soon) doesnt let them think sensibly...


5. I am always left alone….
Now this is a problem with a genre that has some einsteinius genes… well I really mean that they like to be alone… in their own world, dreaming about the figures and the code they are writing…, most of the times these hysterical genes don't allow them to think anything up until 10 in the night and when they wake up they realize that the whole day is gone doing nothing but programming and it's already next day morning ;). The cause hits the case and the question gets a base…
Now that I have written a bunch of why's I think it will be relevant to put on How to avoid these things…. After all We are here to Grow a Team not Build it;)

Regards
Sameer
http://sameer-shaikh.blogspot.com

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Time to call it Ufffffffffffffffffffff.

The whole of last 2 weeks was like sailing in the boat of problems which was fired by waves of issues, one after the other none of them new. I had to hold this blog for 2 weeks, and now I have to amend it just so that I can put it on a right time, Guess this is the right time….

So coming back to when to call an Ufffff (you call it "stop it" or "Enough" or anything else). I realized that sometimes certain mistakes are repeated, one, two, three and many more time... by the same people differently or by different people in the similar fashion... be it Software development or any other damm piece of profession, to be honest people repeating the mistakes… are not a problem ... it's the management who is the problem here....

How?
OK so here it comes…. Last few months (since I am here with my current employement) (We) had been talking about the Quality in the programming, and in spite of calls and discussions every 2 weeks for the last 1 year I somehow feel that the team makes the same mistakes and gets ignorant about the quality… nothing new... I am sure if you are into a Software Manager you must be facing the same issue…
"Dammit why the hell they dont understand" that's what Prince told me when I was at bolt's office...

Long back I heard a story from Henry Cobb about a Donkey who used to carry some scrap everyday and used to spill part’s of it on the way to the Masters house. The Master did drive the donkey off the path, made barriers to the load so that it doesn’t spill ... But it changed for a day and then the same old story… He had no other choice than whipping, but things never changed for years and years… The moral Henry wanted to give was that if you do the same thing again and again you get into a habit... what I derived from it was the Master never went and analyzed why this happen …simply because he too had a Project Manager’s brain…

The Donkey tells me that certain mistakes remain rectified only till the influence is there … which doesn't means that till the developer thinks that his code is being reviewed he will not make mistake with the quality… it means that till the fire to build the quality code is present in the developer the code produced is quality … the moment this fire gets ceased… I mean urge towards quality consciousness is off the mistake comes into action…

Same thing happened to the cricket … when we started playing cricket for the first time in the organization there were a bunch of guys… the moment there were matchsticks that don't produce flames cricket was off… Thanks to Natwar and Saket that this is being enlightened again….

So the whole point here is that repeated mistakes will come all the way along... all the Management has to do is to think of avoiding the scenarios...

I am sure you have the next How??? ok so I am not coaching you here until you pay me a few grands or promise to subscribe the blog ;) just kidding....here are things that can be done to avoid / tackle repeated mistakes...

1. Make sure that the Objective is in front of the Eyes all the time...
2. Make sure that it is being talked and followed up so that the feeling of the objective been alive is there.
3. Embarrass the odd ones out and publicize it so that everyone understands that mistakes might go un-noticed but repeated mistakes will lead to embarrassment. (This really came up when I was talking to Kari about this in one of the Demo where we were silent spectators...)
4. Cut the root not the branches… meaning cut the causes of the Build breaking not the developer's doing the builds…

Well these are not all…. I am sure all through next few months I am going to face bigger issues than these that will cause bigger than Ass pains… But I am preparing myself for it.... A New Lesson to a repeated problem...

Do you have another How ????

I am preparing a board to list down the Mistakes that we(The Team) makes everyday (at least the ones we catch) and try to work on them, of course there should be the Mistake (wo) Man of the week so that their is a celebrity status to the legends. The plan is to have a Story board of mistakes on a common area so that every one sees it… and the Actions taken on them ... nothing more can get your celebrity ranks high in the company...

Next week I will try to post how this board will look like ….

Regards
Sameer Shaikh
http://sameer-shaikh.blogspot.com

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Monday Morning.... Yuck?????

I recently landed up on this community on Orkut "Monday Sucks" and it was fortunate that there was no surprise… the community is full of Monday Haters… darn… Students, managers, Developers, Executives and a whole bunch of people saying why they hate Mondays…



Well it doesn't really take a community to tell you how much you hate Monday as you see lot of calls being made everyday when it comes to a discussion on a Monday … I don't know all or most reasons exactly why people hate, but I surely got a few things worth mentioning that can make your colleague not hate Monday:

Let your Week not begin with Monday: That is one reason our Sprint starts on Friday…I understand the most boring phase of a WORK LIFECYCLE is the beginning phase (Doesn't apply to you if you are a PP), and that's what every one of us think, Monday is the kickoff of work…

Avoid Meetings on Monday: Most of the Update Meetings happen on Monday, the first fear that comes to an employees mind is … "Damn… I got to update my Boss... and Hell I am not prepared…!" Or "Wish there was no party on the Friday night I would have finished some of my work on the weekend", actually lot more. No Meetings and Updates on Monday morning help release some pressure from the employees ;)

The Beginning of the Day should be 1 in the noon? I will get some stares from Kari (My Boss: D) for this… but I believe lot of guys are up until late even on Sunday nights… Be it a Family Function or a Dinner, or some auspicious occasion or a Bday party… starting late will kick off the thoughts of "Mom don't wake me up this early"

Light as a Feather, Smooth as Sush's cheeks: Mondays should be shorter and sweeter and the day should really begin with some sweet faces around…. It sounded funny to Mark (My previous employer) when I asked him to keep Interviews for BPO section on the Monday afternoon hours…

Well this is not all lot more you can do to get your Monday work as a Saturday… Just that you need to get out of the High School ;)

Regards
Sameer Shaikh

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Success is in ????????????

The more of a Manager we be the more we loose on the leadership front… this I have noticed over a period of time while Project Managing…. While I think about all this I realize that this really has nothing to do with Manager or being a leader but rather with everyone be it a developer or QA or Manager… I think success is a radish that everyone really wants to achieve and for that they do anything and everything… I thought I would put up some points that can tell you where we fail in defining success:

Success is in:

1. Empowering the team to handle their tasks but not driving them to solutions….
2. Involving the Team into decision making and not defining what they have to do to achieve a solution…
3. Meeting as a Team to discuss problems and solutions not just taking it away…
4. Responding to queries and exploring solutions rather than waiting for them
5. Being Yourself rather than pretending to be someone else
6. Sharing the experience with everyone and not keeping things within fearing that everyone will be what you are….
7. Listening to what others want to say rather than pretending to know you know everything
8. Telling what you know and exploring the options within but not defining it to be the ultimate solution
9. Reflecting rather than being Opaque… so that other's can have a space to expand
10. Prompting rather than commanding so that everyone gets help wherever required… and still can balance themselves
11. Suggesting rather than dictating so that you learn what is in store with others
12. Connecting rather than isolating…. Like …How good it will be to involve the Developer while we discuss the requirement changes with the BA
13. Digging it rather than wrapping it with some make ups…. Like do you think that there is more of a problem in the solution?
14. Encouraging rather than hiding the credits… Like… This is something that was a problem since long… I am sure this solution will be liked by everyone
15. Focusing rather than deviating…. Like we discuss about all the issues in the company when doing a personal appraisal…
16. Being specific than generalizing like "Saket missed the bug which is causing the broken application" … rather than saying "QA missed the bug or dev did a faulty code to screw the app on a whole" (Sorry Saket that was just an example)
17. Marshalling rather than getting driven …. Like Agreed that this is a problem but for now our objective is to resolve XXX problem… lets come back to this when we have resolved it.
18. Challenging than accepting everything like "do you think that's the ultimate solution?"
19. Reading it to the bottom not just the heading

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Information………………

Every morning for years, at about 11:30, the City MIC telephone operator in a small town received a call from a man asking the exact time. One day the operator summed up nerve enough to ask him why the regularity.
"I'm foreman of the local sawmill," he explained. "Every day I have to blow the whistle at noon so I call you to get the exact time."
The operator giggled, "That's really funny," she said. "All this time we've been setting our clock by your whistle.

The moral of the story is that sometimes we rely so much on a set of information that we really forget to testify the originality and reliability of it. You agree or you don’t I see it as a SIN in Project Management. If you want to be a Good Manager you need to make sure that what you have is correct and testified, if not you have to take the pain to do it before actions are performed on it. The added pain you take will also help you be a curious, inquisitive Manager who wants to learn more than pretending to know or giving Bookish answers…

There was a question raised in the SEO caferatti that happened 3 weeks ago at the KP Barista where SEO Manager of BigBytes raised a question saying “I am subscribed to several forums and websites and a part of Global SEO community, yet reading and implementing all the changes is not getting me to a highly trafficked website”. The answer was clear the information he was subscribed to was either not true/ bookish/ not relevant for what he was doing / not a solution and still he ended up spending 3 engineers work on a strategy which was uncertified…. Good Managers take a added step before provoking the team to move in the given direction so that they don’t end up in the debt of Fatal mistakes on irrelevant information.

Where do you think you stand while you use the information process in your team?

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