Thursday, August 25, 2011
Why Agile came into being when life cycle processes like Waterfall, Iterative existed?
Whenever we have problem in delivery we often talk about requirement were not stated clearly. The client starts talking about lack of understanding at the development team. This process goes on and we have unhappy customer. One of the significant reasons for this gap is development mindset and the development methodology. Generally, before advent of Agile, Waterfall was predominantly followed in software product development. The development methodology believed in locking down the requirement and taking care of changes through change control. Locking down requirement appears simplistic at the outset, whereas it is difficult to achieve for the factors stated below.
•In the beginning we have less understanding about the project requirements There is a significant gap in the understanding level of expert and the person who records the requirements leading to gap and erroneous requirement gathering
•Requirement documents run in hundreds of pages. It is difficult to verify accurately
•The customer needs and environment is dynamic. They keep on continuously evolving
Basic belief of freezing requirement is erroneous. Particularly if one is developing the state of the art product, one has to bring in the best features; best technology and both of them keep on evolving. Change control as a means of bringing in changes leads to conflict of interest between the developer and the customer, thus the product suffers.
Contract & Requirement document is used for getting change control approved. The focus shifts from developing the best product to managing the scope and getting maximum for given contract. If I may ask how often you have seen the big four completing project in time? Answer will be rarely. At the same time we praise their capability of managing project. The whole focus shifts to project management and not the product development. In such situation one can never deliver a very good product.
We live in exponential world. Changes are happening continuously. If one wants to develop product in this situation, one has to learn to live with the evolving exponential world and its dynamics. Technology is changing continuously, Industry standards, which helps build software keeps on changing for better Customer has better understanding of needs as they progress on development. Waterfall asked to freeze requirements before we moved to design stage. The poor owner of product had no option and did something under stress. Some thinker realized that this is not good for the evolving environment and wanted to bring agility in the process. Agile was born. Agile may not be answer to all development problems but it matches with the dynamics of today’s world. It fits seamlessly with development needs.
I guess if you ask your kid to freeze his career aspirations and work on it relentlessly, I am afraid he will term it as a criminal action. They want to explore the options, understand it well before committing himself. Waterfall did not address that. It was cruel enough to ask for full commitment before confirming how the product is going to look like. Agile gives a pre-view, it provides flexibility, it gives option to change as you move.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Leading from the Front
Leadership can be defined as one's ability to get others to willingly follow. Some sit and debate whether leaders are made or born. These discussions/debates bring to light the traits of a great leader in front of people. But there cannot be a more powerful way of demonstrating the traits with a live example which was witnessed by a large number of people in the society.
Just about a month back the whole nation was going through a great Euphoria. Everyone wanted to bring the Cricket World Cup back home. There was a lot of excitement, a lot of debate and speculations. Each win for India was difficult. The final with Sri lanka will be remembered for a long time not only by cricket fans but by all. Before the final match two of the heroes in Indian team were Virendra Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar. People expected a lot from them. Sri Lankans played first and put a target of 270 for Indians. The early fall of wicket brought frustration for Indians and excitement for Sri Lankans
Sehwag 1 – 0
Tendulkar 2-31
Kohli 3 – 114
After Tendulkar returned to pavilion, Virat Kohli and Gambhir brought a ray of hope for all the Indians and the Indian team. We all know India has a depth in batting; however we have also witnessed India’s batting collapse while playing under pressure. After the fall of Kohli’s wicket, Yuvraj was the next batsman in line. But what happened will be remembered by all Management analysts for a long time. Dhoni showed up. Dhoni was in a bad form during this tournament. The game was exciting. Dhoini demonstrated confidence. He played with a lot of competence. His game was the best in this tournament. He took charge and led from the Front. This was an excellent example of a great Leader who maintains calmness under crisis, leads from the front, demonstrates confidence, inspires his teammates and plays intelligently. This was a great example for a management reader.
Five qualities of a great leader as described by Kouzes and Posner’s in the book “The Leadership Challenge” are:
Honesty
Forward- looking
Inspiring
Competent
Intelligent
Exhibiting these traits will inspire confidence in your leadership during crisis management. As a leader your skill at exhibiting these five leadership qualities is strongly correlated with people’s desire to follow you as their lead.
Let us go back to the World cup cricket match. Dhoni partnered with Gambhir and took the Indian team out of crisis. He lead from the front while demonstrating the traits of a great Leader. India was 223 for 4 when we lost Gambhir’s wicket. Gambhir played very well but unfortunately could not complete his century. Yuvraj joined Dhoni and once again we were victorious. This was a well deserved victory. The game had a lot of excitement, an exemplary performance by Dhoni. Besides his exemplary performance he demonstrated Exemplary Leadership qualities by Leading from the Front.
Leadership is all about helping others to realize their worth and make them perform at their best. It is also about leading from the front in crisis.
Just about a month back the whole nation was going through a great Euphoria. Everyone wanted to bring the Cricket World Cup back home. There was a lot of excitement, a lot of debate and speculations. Each win for India was difficult. The final with Sri lanka will be remembered for a long time not only by cricket fans but by all. Before the final match two of the heroes in Indian team were Virendra Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar. People expected a lot from them. Sri Lankans played first and put a target of 270 for Indians. The early fall of wicket brought frustration for Indians and excitement for Sri Lankans
Sehwag 1 – 0
Tendulkar 2-31
Kohli 3 – 114
After Tendulkar returned to pavilion, Virat Kohli and Gambhir brought a ray of hope for all the Indians and the Indian team. We all know India has a depth in batting; however we have also witnessed India’s batting collapse while playing under pressure. After the fall of Kohli’s wicket, Yuvraj was the next batsman in line. But what happened will be remembered by all Management analysts for a long time. Dhoni showed up. Dhoni was in a bad form during this tournament. The game was exciting. Dhoini demonstrated confidence. He played with a lot of competence. His game was the best in this tournament. He took charge and led from the Front. This was an excellent example of a great Leader who maintains calmness under crisis, leads from the front, demonstrates confidence, inspires his teammates and plays intelligently. This was a great example for a management reader.
Five qualities of a great leader as described by Kouzes and Posner’s in the book “The Leadership Challenge” are:
Honesty
Forward- looking
Inspiring
Competent
Intelligent
Exhibiting these traits will inspire confidence in your leadership during crisis management. As a leader your skill at exhibiting these five leadership qualities is strongly correlated with people’s desire to follow you as their lead.
Let us go back to the World cup cricket match. Dhoni partnered with Gambhir and took the Indian team out of crisis. He lead from the front while demonstrating the traits of a great Leader. India was 223 for 4 when we lost Gambhir’s wicket. Gambhir played very well but unfortunately could not complete his century. Yuvraj joined Dhoni and once again we were victorious. This was a well deserved victory. The game had a lot of excitement, an exemplary performance by Dhoni. Besides his exemplary performance he demonstrated Exemplary Leadership qualities by Leading from the Front.
Leadership is all about helping others to realize their worth and make them perform at their best. It is also about leading from the front in crisis.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
In the Wonderland of Management Culture
At the outset, I would like to wish all my readers a very Happy and Prosperous year 2011. Let the year bring a culture of Performance and Prosperity.
Very often we hear about Management Culture. You might have come across many types of companies. They could be family owned organization, publically owned and professionally managed by a specific National or a Multinational organization. There is a common thread of success across all of them. I have heard many debates in my life. I feel lucky to work with all of them. I’m sharing with you what I have heard in different companies.
Let us take a family managed Organization first. The spirit of Entrepreneurship was buzzing all over the organization. Innovative ideas, new thoughts, execution at lightning speed, urge to implement all techniques, were some of the talk of the town. The Management always tried bench marking itself with the best possible in the world. They thought of best practices and how to exceed the expectation of shareholders. In the process, at times, the human feeling did not get the due weight age. But the organization prospered. A good example could be creation of a mammoth umpire by Mr. L.N. Mittal. I don’t remember having heard even a single time the world “Culture.”
Let us take a professionally managed organization. The organization run on best practices, it had time tested systems, decisions were taken based on well debated process. It had a sound management system. People were heard and Manager decided. Again rarely I heard the world “Culture.” One of the best example in this category could be Tata Steel.
The third category of company is a so called Multinational. The Multinational could be an Indian Multinational or a western managed Multinational. I have heard story of a very mediocre performing company in this category. This was one of the cases where I heard about the world “Culture” every now and then. Possibly the company had poverty of Management and performance and got satisfaction by using the world “Culture” all the time. A group of sycophant Managers aligned and echoed the “Culture” word synchronously. For them creating a niche for themselves at cost of anything was the sole goal. The result “ Non-Performance”. In MNC category we all have read and heard about GE and Jack Welcsh. I have not come across the world “ Culture” many time in Jack Welch book. The Performance under Jack Welch is a known fact now and being referred by management practitioner all over.
Based on the above examples, I think culture of the all organizations can be grouped in two categories namely a Performance Culture & a Non-Performance Culture. There is no classification on the basis of origin and management of the organization or any other factor. It is an amazing experience to be a part of performing organization. If you think you are a part of non-performance, sit down, introspect, and get into a performance focussed oganization. You will learn, enjoy and prosper. Performance brings prosperity and not the so called world “Culture”.
Very often we hear about Management Culture. You might have come across many types of companies. They could be family owned organization, publically owned and professionally managed by a specific National or a Multinational organization. There is a common thread of success across all of them. I have heard many debates in my life. I feel lucky to work with all of them. I’m sharing with you what I have heard in different companies.
Let us take a family managed Organization first. The spirit of Entrepreneurship was buzzing all over the organization. Innovative ideas, new thoughts, execution at lightning speed, urge to implement all techniques, were some of the talk of the town. The Management always tried bench marking itself with the best possible in the world. They thought of best practices and how to exceed the expectation of shareholders. In the process, at times, the human feeling did not get the due weight age. But the organization prospered. A good example could be creation of a mammoth umpire by Mr. L.N. Mittal. I don’t remember having heard even a single time the world “Culture.”
Let us take a professionally managed organization. The organization run on best practices, it had time tested systems, decisions were taken based on well debated process. It had a sound management system. People were heard and Manager decided. Again rarely I heard the world “Culture.” One of the best example in this category could be Tata Steel.
The third category of company is a so called Multinational. The Multinational could be an Indian Multinational or a western managed Multinational. I have heard story of a very mediocre performing company in this category. This was one of the cases where I heard about the world “Culture” every now and then. Possibly the company had poverty of Management and performance and got satisfaction by using the world “Culture” all the time. A group of sycophant Managers aligned and echoed the “Culture” word synchronously. For them creating a niche for themselves at cost of anything was the sole goal. The result “ Non-Performance”. In MNC category we all have read and heard about GE and Jack Welcsh. I have not come across the world “ Culture” many time in Jack Welch book. The Performance under Jack Welch is a known fact now and being referred by management practitioner all over.
Based on the above examples, I think culture of the all organizations can be grouped in two categories namely a Performance Culture & a Non-Performance Culture. There is no classification on the basis of origin and management of the organization or any other factor. It is an amazing experience to be a part of performing organization. If you think you are a part of non-performance, sit down, introspect, and get into a performance focussed oganization. You will learn, enjoy and prosper. Performance brings prosperity and not the so called world “Culture”.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Application Portfolio Analysis framework can help improve return on IT Assets
Globalization and the dilution of trade boundaries have forced industries to evaluate various options for cost-effective operations. Industries now face the challenge of channeling resources to meet organizational objectives in continuously changing environments. Information Technology plays a major role in such a dynamic business environment. However, with the advent of new technological tools and continuous advancement, the IT environment has become very complex.
Chief Information Officers (CIOs) regularly add new assets to their IT portfolio, making the portfolio more and more complex. In addition, they face the task of aligning business needs and IT assets. Cost consideration is becoming increasingly important. The challenge is to do more for less.
In such a dynamic situation, the Management of the IT Portfolio has become an increasingly important and crucial task. Increasing number of CIOs are now pursuing IT Portfolio Management as a tool to prioritize investment decisions, decide the location of various activities, evaluate the various assets with the value it delivers, and much more.
Each asset in the portfolio is evaluated against parameters like cost of procurement, cost of managing, and indeed the cost of replacing the same. “Total cost of ownership” is seen in conjunction with the value delivered by the asset. Optimal Management of the assets leads to minimal TCO.
A study by Gartner states that, “Approximately 30 percent of the total cost of ownership during the life of an application is for its maintenance and management.” One can achieve a significant degree of cost reduction by maneuvering the costs associated with maintenance and management.
Portfolio Management is the process of managing assets and investments in order to achieve desired organizational goals. The portfolio is a combination of assets that are expected to provide certain returns. It has risks associated with it. Portfolio Management includes selecting a set of assets congruent with the set goal, managing the economic lifecycle of those assets, dynamically divesting and investing in different assets to optimize gains. In the IT context, the portfolio includes application software, hardware, infrastructure, resources, processes, and so on. While financial Portfolio Management has been in practice for many years, IT Portfolio Management is relatively new and gaining ground. An integrated framework that helps in investment, divestment, modifications, and movement of application assets has become a necessity to align business and IT goals of an enterprise.
There are applications to help manage IT portfolio for a CIO. I think it may be prudent to get into the habit of understanding IT Portfolio as a concept before investing in expensive Software. A heuristic method for managing IT Application Portfolio is very helpful and cost effective. It is easy to implement. The framework has been implemented at several places and has given enormous benefits to the clients. The detailed methodology is available at http://www.codeproject.com/info/search.aspx?artkw=bishram.
Chief Information Officers (CIOs) regularly add new assets to their IT portfolio, making the portfolio more and more complex. In addition, they face the task of aligning business needs and IT assets. Cost consideration is becoming increasingly important. The challenge is to do more for less.
In such a dynamic situation, the Management of the IT Portfolio has become an increasingly important and crucial task. Increasing number of CIOs are now pursuing IT Portfolio Management as a tool to prioritize investment decisions, decide the location of various activities, evaluate the various assets with the value it delivers, and much more.
Each asset in the portfolio is evaluated against parameters like cost of procurement, cost of managing, and indeed the cost of replacing the same. “Total cost of ownership” is seen in conjunction with the value delivered by the asset. Optimal Management of the assets leads to minimal TCO.
A study by Gartner states that, “Approximately 30 percent of the total cost of ownership during the life of an application is for its maintenance and management.” One can achieve a significant degree of cost reduction by maneuvering the costs associated with maintenance and management.
Portfolio Management is the process of managing assets and investments in order to achieve desired organizational goals. The portfolio is a combination of assets that are expected to provide certain returns. It has risks associated with it. Portfolio Management includes selecting a set of assets congruent with the set goal, managing the economic lifecycle of those assets, dynamically divesting and investing in different assets to optimize gains. In the IT context, the portfolio includes application software, hardware, infrastructure, resources, processes, and so on. While financial Portfolio Management has been in practice for many years, IT Portfolio Management is relatively new and gaining ground. An integrated framework that helps in investment, divestment, modifications, and movement of application assets has become a necessity to align business and IT goals of an enterprise.
There are applications to help manage IT portfolio for a CIO. I think it may be prudent to get into the habit of understanding IT Portfolio as a concept before investing in expensive Software. A heuristic method for managing IT Application Portfolio is very helpful and cost effective. It is easy to implement. The framework has been implemented at several places and has given enormous benefits to the clients. The detailed methodology is available at http://www.codeproject.com/info/search.aspx?artkw=bishram.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Confronting the Brutal Reality: foundation for a sustained success
The famous book by Jim Collins- Good to Great was a synopsis of research on the traits of successful leaders and flourishing companies. The book turned out to be the #1 best seller, Since the findings were simple yet powerful in driving success. One of the traits was “Confront Brutal reality”. I consider this as a very powerful milestone for a journey towards success. Very often in our life, we tend to evade the truth. We rarely report the fact to seniors in the “as is” form. I believe there are many reasons that compel us to adopt such behavior.
A few of these reasons are:
1. Managers do not want to hear unpleasant truth. They like good news. As a result, the organization develops a tradition of sugar coating the “brutal reality“ before reporting it to the higher authorities. I wish this would make it really sweet.
2. The reporting manager hopes that he would be able to correct the “brutal reality” in a short time, and the lapse will be short lived. Seniors may not be aware of the fact. Unfortunately, very rarely it remains that way. Those of us coming from industrial unit background or sales background (FMCG, Telecom Service Providers, etc.) know very well that in order to show the numbers against monthly target, particularly when there is a shortfall, month closing is often dragged to 1st or 2nd of the following month. The cycle continues, and 2nd becomes 3rd, 3rd becomes 4th and so on so forth. But to no avail.
3. People have reluctance to confront the reality and resolve the issue. They keep procrastinating solving the issue. They forget that delaying a problem is not same as resolving an issue. Sometimes, capability to resolve a problem is also a concern.
Many a times, there could be other reasons too. I think the causes listed above are the most common ones in many companies.
I would like to emphasize that most of the companies are in the “Trap of not confronting the brutal reality”. If you look at the study by Jim Collins, only 11 companies out of 1435 good companies were classified as great companies in the study. This means, just less than one percent of the companies are great. Few of the companies from 11 slipped downwards subsequently. Nothing is perpetual. Change is inevitable. The Great companies will slide to good or bad depending on the prevailing leadership. If less than 1 % companies are really great, not all of us may get a chance to work in such an environment in our life time. My recommendation is to believe in this universal principle. If the environment does not allow it, try doing it in different form. Do not circumvent. It does not help.
I recommend internalizing the Principle of “Confront Brutal Reality”. You are fortunate if your leadership also believes in the principle, if not, try out different manifestations. Do not leave the concept.
Always remember, delaying a problem is not solving the problem. Confronting, leads you to look for solutions. It creates a better culture. It creates simple working environment which is based on truth. There are many more advantages.
The learning is: Confront the brutal Reality. Even though you have to pay the price in the short run, you will reap long term benefits. I believe “Confronting the Brutal Reality is like putting a strong foundation for a soaring structure. It is a must for sustained success.
A few of these reasons are:
1. Managers do not want to hear unpleasant truth. They like good news. As a result, the organization develops a tradition of sugar coating the “brutal reality“ before reporting it to the higher authorities. I wish this would make it really sweet.
2. The reporting manager hopes that he would be able to correct the “brutal reality” in a short time, and the lapse will be short lived. Seniors may not be aware of the fact. Unfortunately, very rarely it remains that way. Those of us coming from industrial unit background or sales background (FMCG, Telecom Service Providers, etc.) know very well that in order to show the numbers against monthly target, particularly when there is a shortfall, month closing is often dragged to 1st or 2nd of the following month. The cycle continues, and 2nd becomes 3rd, 3rd becomes 4th and so on so forth. But to no avail.
3. People have reluctance to confront the reality and resolve the issue. They keep procrastinating solving the issue. They forget that delaying a problem is not same as resolving an issue. Sometimes, capability to resolve a problem is also a concern.
Many a times, there could be other reasons too. I think the causes listed above are the most common ones in many companies.
I would like to emphasize that most of the companies are in the “Trap of not confronting the brutal reality”. If you look at the study by Jim Collins, only 11 companies out of 1435 good companies were classified as great companies in the study. This means, just less than one percent of the companies are great. Few of the companies from 11 slipped downwards subsequently. Nothing is perpetual. Change is inevitable. The Great companies will slide to good or bad depending on the prevailing leadership. If less than 1 % companies are really great, not all of us may get a chance to work in such an environment in our life time. My recommendation is to believe in this universal principle. If the environment does not allow it, try doing it in different form. Do not circumvent. It does not help.
I recommend internalizing the Principle of “Confront Brutal Reality”. You are fortunate if your leadership also believes in the principle, if not, try out different manifestations. Do not leave the concept.
Always remember, delaying a problem is not solving the problem. Confronting, leads you to look for solutions. It creates a better culture. It creates simple working environment which is based on truth. There are many more advantages.
The learning is: Confront the brutal Reality. Even though you have to pay the price in the short run, you will reap long term benefits. I believe “Confronting the Brutal Reality is like putting a strong foundation for a soaring structure. It is a must for sustained success.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)