Relentless Effort leads to Success

We all understand what the word “Success” means. But at the same time defining success precisely is impossible. Does the success lies in the eyes of the world: winning an Olympic gold medal; running a large organization; making things happen; making a lot of money; creating a big name for self; receiving the noble prize? Or is it personal success: the person who towards the end of life feels that it has been a happy, fulfilled, and enjoyable life? Whatever may be the definition one thing comes up clearly that success means different things to different people. It is important to sketch a mental map of success and put efforts relentlessly towards that. Sometimes you may get it, sometimes you may not. Don’t be discouraged simply because you could not taste the fruits of success in line with your own definition.

This reminds me of some key learning from the book titled “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell. The author describes four factors affecting the success.















Out of the four factors mentioned by the author we can control only one “Effort”. Therefore, keep concentrating on the effort and don’t worry much about other factors. Many times, despite of the best effort you may not succeed. We all know the legend Amitabh Bachan who was rejected for voice test by All India Radio. There are numerous examples like that. Amitabh did not lose his hope. He kept his effort on. And we all know the end result. Success followed him.
Sometimes, you may partially select a better opportunity- hoping your judgment is right. Even a mediocre performer in a fast growing company does much better than an excellent performer stuck in a mediocre company. This may be kept in mind while short listing opportunities.
The bottom line is concentrate on “Effort” intelligently. Success will follow you.

Setting Up Holistic Metrics System for a Software Company

Since then, Metrics based management has come a long way. Many companies have adopted Metrics for reporting their performance. I have noticed a very interesting scenario. Metrics is collected, and presented with beautiful charts, and trends are shown but the project still limps. Many buzz words like “Defect Prevention” are a part of regular quality discussion in the companies. I have noticed that the Metrics program, very often, are not connected with a set of parameters which can be used to meet customer expectations. I have seen that many times a schedule variance is computed in product release scenario with zero deviation. Whenever product releases are planned, the release date is announced. If the release progress is not in line with the release date, the scope is adjusted to meet the release date. In such a situation, going with the traditional definition of schedule variance is elusive. What is required here is a Metric which points out the problem and leads towards the possible solution. In software companies, you can find many such instances where the buzz words keep floating without any real benefit to the organization.

A set of Metrics is put in place and the same is collected and tracked for all similar projects. There is no customization to suit the requirements of customers, employees and shareholders.

This paper attempts to identify the specific needs of these stakeholders and suggest a framework for developing Metrics to suit specific needs of various stakeholders. In the process, the organization will have holistic dashboard representing health of the project from different perspectives.

Read the full article at http://www.codeproject.com/KB/mentor/HMetricsSystem.aspx.