Don't be simplistic, strive for simplicity !!!

"Don’t be so humble dear sir, after all you are not so great", and the class erupted with the laughter. These were the opening words of Mr. Dubey and it was very evident that he got a great self-deprecating humor. Minor, but it is my first learning I extracted from his hour long talk that don’t take yourself so seriously because nobody else does either.

It was his self confidence that he was calling herself senior bottle-washer instead of a senior manager that clearly demonstrated his mantra to be able to connect to individuals in his company.

As he goes ahead, he explains why VUCA, combined with a countervailing power is the new normal in today’s world and each professional has to find his/her way to deal with this new normal. He further pushed his perspective that Strategy and processes might be very important but Human beings are most.

Later on he moves to his experience with Mahindra and the RISE Framework that he is trying to implement there. RISE revolves around three core principles: Accepting No Limits, Alternate Thinking, and Driving Positive Change. These three things make firm progress towards its purpose.

HR Levers were another thing that was new for us. He explains why Communication & Internalization, Leadership, Capability Building, Recruitment, Rewards & Recognition, Performance Management System, Talent Management, and Learning & Development are bases of Human resource management and for a long inning, it is very important for a leader to cover these bases.

He explains that how he uses seven HR levers to define his organizations’ DNA. And why he picks first three of these levers before he focusses on last four. We agreed that Fear inhibits risk-taking and kills innovation, however, I opined that few times fear can also derive innovation, may be structured innovation. There have been leaders like Jack Welch & Steve Jobs who induced fear to push people to think differently.

He emphasized on the global mindset and why it is so important to have a global mindset when world is becoming boundary-less in terms of business. Further, he emphasized that as a leader we need to promote build a trust between people because most of the problems that we see in organizations are because of trust deficit.

He closed his talk by emphasizing that fact that one should strive towards simplicity, which is very different from being simplistic. As one get simplistic solutions without putting lot of efforts and without a global mindset, but to achieve simplicity in a solution, one has to work really hard in a focused manner.

Running continues.....

Sunday 4 May, -1 Degree Celsius feels like temperature with strong wind flowing around, ‘Mel Lastman Square’ was buzzing with enthusiastic runners. This was the venue from where thousands of people started another run of their life time. As one of the Half-marathon runners, I was running my first such run outside India and that is in totally opposite weather conditions.

At 8:30 AM, I started my run with a target to finish the run in 2 hours. The wonderful Trail of the World's longest street, Yonge Street, can be called one of the most favorable routes for Marathons. Elevations along the course were also favorable. Passing through main intersection of Sheppard Avenue, York Mills, Lawrence Avenue, and Eglington, we turned towards Bayview Avenue. Beautiful forests around the street led us to the King Street which had the 15 km milestone. Now I wanted to give little rest to my legs. I ran another kilometer before I went for little stretching of my body parts. After this I continued my run towards the finish line. I was running alongside 2 hours pace rabbit.

This was the time when a comparatively easier run had become difficult because of the strong winds. There was a moment when I felt that I would be blown away with the strong wind. Now I was finding it very difficult to breathe as well.

Nevertheless, I didn't want to lose focus from my 2 hours goal. Running besides major attractions of Toronto, I ultimately finished my maiden non-Indian run at the shores of Lake Ontario.

Finishing Marathon is one of the best feelings which I was having at the finish line.

PMP Preparation Guidelines

Many people have been requesting for the guidelines for PMP preparation. So posting this on the Knome to enable everybody's access to this. This was from my own and one of my PMP Circle Mates (Tanveer Shaikh's) preparation for PMP one year back.

During first 3 months of my preparations, my focus was more on learning concepts of various project management methodolologies, in last 15 days I gave many full length tests that helped me in gauging my preparation level over time.

Books Recommended : 

- PMBOK Official guide

- PMP Exam Prep - Rita Mulchy

Total Preparation Duration : 

3-4 months

You may use following few points as a guideline to prepare yourself.

1) If you start with PMBOK but you'll find it boring and difficult to understand.

2) If possible create a study circle of fellow PMP aspirants

3) Read PMP Rita Mulcahy.

4) Get a copy of RITA Process game (from the Rita Mulchy book) and practice with it every alternate day. It will ensure that you imbibed the PMBOK processes logically in yourself

5) Register for PMI Membership - it enables you to seek discount on PMP exam

6) Read PMBOK. Now, this book would not be that boring and would make much more sense

7) Register for PMP Exam - it takes couple of hours in gathering all the material that is required to fill the application form

8) Once Application form is approved, you may go and seek the exam appointment

9) Practice with following free online tests

- http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=350915&rl=1 (70 que) - Tough Nut ; Lengthy Questions

- http://www.preparepm.com/mock2.html (28 Qns)

- http://www.pmstudy.com/enroll.asp - (15 qns)

- http://www.techfaq360.com/pmp_4thedition.jsp (200 Qns) - Easy; Wrong Scoring; NOT SUGGESTED

- http://www.passpm.com (50 qns) - NOT SUGGESTED

- http://www.pmsuccess.biz/Free_Simulated_Test.asp (100 qns)    -    Seems precise to PMP

- http://www.pmzilla.com/pmzilla-free-pmp-tests - (25 qns)

- http://certchamp.com/pmp-sample-questions.jsp (200 Qns) - In the spreadsheet - Repeat of many questions done already - NOT SUGGESTED

- http://www.preparepm.com/mock1.html (70 Qns) - few good questions

- http://www.oliverlehmann.com/pmp-self-test/75-free-questions.htm - Few very detailed numericals

- http://edwelprograms.com/  - Few very tricky questions, few answers are wrong

- PMP Prep - PMP Exam   -Many questions were already done as part of RITA

- PMP Prep - SuperPMP Exam- questions were lengthy, scenario based. Few questions were repeat from other RITA tests

- http://www.ajithn.com/login.php (200 Qns) - Many wrong answers given on test.  - NOT SUGGESTED

- http://www.pmstudy.com/practicetestsindex.asp (200 qsn) - Seems Very close to PMP, found few answers arguably incorrect.

10) Revised through Rita Mulchy. - 3-4 days before actual exam

11) Revised through PMBOK - 2nd time. - 2 days before actual exam

Note : 

Currently PMP is based on PMBOK 4th edition. PMI is going to change the base of PMP exam to PMBOK 5th Edition from Aug 1, 2013. So ensure that you are following correct course material as per your target exam date.

Hope this information helps. Should any of you need more information, I am just a click away.

Run Mumbai Run.........

Did you ever feel like a Hero? I did. I did once again while running half marathon in Mumbai Marathon – 2013. People were cheering throughout the 21 kms path of the run, slogans of “Run Mumbai Run” were being enchanted from everywhere and runners were putting their best foot forward. Enthusiastic runners ranging from amateur athletes to professionals, from celebrities to common men/women, and from 17 years old to 60 years old, all were filled with the excitement of being part of one of the greatest races on the earth (others were Nairobi, Singapore and Hongkong Marathons).

Reached the Holding Area at 4:40 AM, we started the half marathon at 5:40 AM. First 72 minutes and 11 kms were relatively easy for me but after that things started going tough. I started having pain in my lower abdomen & calves and my throat started crying for liquid. With a little walking for 2-3 minutes I started again and took my first sip of liquid at 15 Km mark. My mind was split in two parts; one was asking me to take a little rest while another was not allowing me to stop. Playing among these two, I was moving towards the finish line.

As I completed 20 Kms, 130 mins had already passed. Every muscle and bone of my body was crying out loud for me to stop but a passion and desire to touch the finish line was not allowing me to do that. Reaching 100 m (remaining) mark, I just opened my arms and wanted to fly to the finishing line. Breath was going, calves were crying, and I was just sprinting like never before.

I touched the finish line; clock was showing 2:18 when I saw it before going beyond finish point. Once again I finished the race. Although, I couldn’t better my last year’s finish time of 2:14 hrs, I was happy with my performance.

Today I am committed more than ever before to break the 2 hr mark in next half marathon wherever I run.
Amen !!!

My first Public performance…......

Today was a wonderful day when I found myself overcoming a fear of performing in front of 100 people. It was "Annual General Meeting of PMI (Project Management Institute) Mumbai" and I was sought to nominate myself for the Guitar Performance after the regular stuff of the AGM. After lot of deliberation I confirmed my nomination just a day before and it was accepted.

Although I was not very sure whether I should play Hotel California (My favorite English Song) OR Dooba-Dooba (Hindi number by Silk Route), I followed the basics of entertainment and decided to go with Hindi number as audience (mostly middle aged Indian Managers) could relate to it better.

I practiced song couple of times to ensure, my fingers were moving fine, my voice was playing along the fingers and most importantly I remember the lyrics of the song that I was going to play.

It all went great, I dedicated the song to my fiancee and audience’s response was awesome. People were humming the romantic number with me and my guitar was sounding better than ever before.

Later during the dinner, I was well received by the fellow members when they praised the performance very much. It was a great platform to get known among people who are 10-20 years senior to me in the Industry and I am glad that I grabbed the opportunity.

I just loved all the attention. And yes, it was also a rehearsal for the performance I’ll have on my wedding-eve for my guests and most importantly for love of life.

Project Management Conclave - 2012

It was a lovely Saturday Morning and I was very much excited to attend this conclave organized my PMI Mumbai for the practicing and aspiring Project Managers. TCS sponsored couple of its project managers for this event.

PM Conclave 2012, in Hyatt Regency, started with a bang when one of the most admired industry leaders and father of software industry in India, Mr. F. C. Kohli delivered his Key Note Speech. One would never imagine how a short-heighted, ordinary looking man pioneered the Indian IT when he took the helm of TCE (Tata Consulting Engineers; now known as TCS). He spoke about how he brought Burrough Computers in India and his team did the reverse engineering to make first indigenous computer in India. I got the chance to ask him first audience question about how he switched his career from a well-settled TISCO job to a new venture of computing.

Later, in the day, case studies from Aeronautics, Solar Power and other fields highlighted the importance of Project Management at micro level while keeping macro picture alive.

The focus of the conference was Agile Methodologies in and beyond IT Project Management. There were few very good speakers who spoke about how their own industries are trying to use Agile for business sustainability and how Agile is not only about Scrum but a mind-set. One may or may not know about specific methodologies of Agile Project Management but one would always be able to appreciate its core values of delivering to the business in most effective and efficient manner.

Second day ended with a panel discussion when I found myself little misplaced I could not agree with opinion of few of the panelist on importance of ethics in business. I couldn't resist myself from catching a point of a panelist, and asking him question on that. Later, in a private conversation, I found it very ironical (as he was a professor of ethics in a elite business school in Mumbai) when he tried to portray ethical misdoings of a well-known Indian company as valid practices for market survival.

Nevertheless, it was a good experience to be a part of Project Management Conclave and anyway you don't get chance to feast in a five star hotel everyday :-)

Another failure .. It seems is raat kee subeh nahin...

In last two years I had many accomplishments but things that I wanted most could not be fructified.

Once again today, I feel like I have let all those people down who wished me for my success in my endeavours.

The failure I had today hurt even more because this was one of those efforts where I had put my life and everything I could have. I had not felt so confident of my efforts as much I felt on Nov 3rd after getting my interview with ISB was over, I had done my best and it was rarest of the occasions when I was so satisfied with my performance.

Last 3 months, there was hardly an hour when I was not thinking about the outcome of those efforts. I was debating with myself all the way putting points what could cause me not getting success vis-a-vis why I should get an affirmative answer from the school. However, every time I end up convincing myself towards latter because I had given my best.

Nonetheless, there was another aspect which was other side of the debate that I also had competition with others and today seeing myself in the wait-list make me think  that I lost to others. In the end, I could not overpower others. 

Now what, I do not have any move left against so many unknown fighters who are preparing to fight against me with all of their arms.

So now it's not only about the outcome but also how soon that comes.

And the Champions Trophy goes to ….....

VMS (Victoria Memorial School for Blind)

It was a great show by all the schools but our kids left everybody behind.

Participating first time in TCS Maitree Inter-school-meet of 8 schools, our students from VMS emerged as the champions. Event started from General Quiz (for which I & Riddhi had mentored the students). We got the initial setback when we’re told that, because of some confusion, organizers had put a Visual round in the quiz. We had no option but to live with that. Despite of this, VMS whiz-kids (Rahul, Hemant, Vishal, Shamsher, Chandrakant) led the way till the Visual round, which was obviously not that scoring for them as the earlier rounds.  But after that they again got into flow and all, especially Hemant, were outstanding. Hemant even surprisingly gave the answer to a question related to 'Refractive Index' which I had explained to him one week ago.

It was followed by several other events such as skit (we were third), Ad-mad show (we got second), ‘Best out of waste’, Elocution (we got first in junior category) and many more. But the real show was ‘Solo Singing’. We were confident of putting a great show. And boys exceeded all the expectations. With the help of kids on the instruments (Ratan, Pawan and others), ‘Ashish’, ‘Amit’, ‘Akash’ and ‘Sumit’ put audience on the roll dancing across the auditorium. And no doubt we finished at the top of the podium. Following this, ‘Group Singing’ was no less great and students repeated the performance.

We were confident that our kids will perform great but finishing at the top was not expected. Our Visually disabled Kids proved that when god makes a mistake and doesn’t give you what you need most, it compensates by giving you those abilities which makes you special in all other aspects. 

Although, I had to leave the venue before the closing ceremony, but getting SMS from Priyanka and Sreenish (fellow volunteers) and than a call from Vishal (VMS kid) made me visualize this : 
"At the end of the event, all of us (Team VMS) had tears in our eyes; we were overwhelmed by the joy and happiness given to us by those kids.  Once again, we are proud of being part of this great initiative."

Are our premier institutes producing good citizens?

Recently I was having a casual discussion with one of my close friends. During the discussion she mentioned a story of one of her female colleagues who had just got married. Generally, I don’t show much interest in family gossips but this was much more than a simple story of a husband and wife. It was an example of the irony this modern India has and that is education from premier institutes doesn’t ensure that the person would have good values and courage to stand against wrong things in our society.

This lady, let’s call her Radhika, has been very fun loving, happy go-lucky lady through-out her life and always believed to live her up to the fullest, currently working with the largest IT Company of Asia.

Like most of the parents in India, parents of Radhika, from a middle class family in a backward state of the India, had dreamt of marrying their daughter to an IIT+IIM (Indian Institute of Technology + Indian Institute of Management) graduate. They left no stone unturned and ultimately found the right family; at least they thought so, for their daughter. Like any other obedient girl, Radhika also agrees to parents wish and soon gets married to the chosen IIT+IIM grad.

Like any other bride, Radhika also had few dreams after marriage. She might have also wished for a loving husband, who would respect her, her feelings and her work. As in India, marriages don’t happen between a groom and a bride but happens between their families, she might have also expected that her new family would accept her with open arms and give her the respect that she deserves.

But here, expectations don’t meet the reality. Today, her husband, lost in his arrogance of being from IIT+IIM, doesn’t even respect that his wife has an individual identity, that she works, and that she might also have some aspirations. No doubt that she earns much lesser than what her husband earns, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t deserve the appropriate respect. Her husband and in-laws, who earlier wanted a well-educated and working girl, don’t want her to work anymore. In fact, they make fun of her work and salary.

As much I could visualize, Radhika has been trying a lot to keep herself happy and get adapted to this new culture but all has been in vain till now. Despite being a well educated, working girl, she hears taunts and what not from her mother-in-law and sister-in-law (an IIM grad herself).

Hearing this story, when I start feeling suffocated, I can’t even imagine how this lady is handling the situation. Indians have been very proud of our premier institutions but are we doing anything to impart right values in the kids that graduate from those schools. At least this story doesn’t talk positive about that. We need to think what kind of education we are providing to next generations not only in IIT, IIM or other schools but also in our families.

Are we producing future leaders, risk takers and people who respect each and every individual regardless of their social status?

Life for me is.......

You don't need to see to sing.......

This guy (Amit Jadhav, Victoria Memorial School for Blinds) is so passionate about singing. I love his voice and pitch modulation. Even other one (Akash) is equally good singer.

How to build a competent offshore team?

A typical project life cycle:

Inception   ->   Team Building   ->   Manpower Deployment   ->   Execution   ->   Deliveries of Products / Features

So we start a project, select few candidates who could build a team and competencies and then come to location distribution. My focus of this blog post is this third part and how this should be handled to continuous team building and smooth deliveries.

At the inception of the project, we get people who soon become the back-bone of the team and who ensure the critical deliveries of products and features happen on time. Soon as business demands, few people are dispatched to client locations (in IT we call it Onsite). This is the first step of “Manpower Deployment”. Over the time, people at client location get more exposure to real world business and become SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) and also those whom client trusts most. So far so good.

Now the real problem starts. As the project grows, team grows; new people join at remote delivery centers (we call it Offshore). Now these people are new, neither they have ever interacted with this client nor they have got actual exposure to the client systems. Dependency on On-site team increases and soon offshore team becomes a step child of project management team. Management wants to make offshore team equally capable of producing results as the onsite team is but they forget one critical aspect of human behavior. They forget that offshore team has never got the feeling of actual business and they couldn’t care less about that.

In this situation what should be the first step of Management. I strongly opine that it should be the knowledge transfer. They should ensure free flow of knowledge across the shores. Please note, this should not only be limited to phone calls but it should also include in-person visits.

The best way of this is the temporary rotation of people who work at client site and asking them to work at offshore for 3-6 months before they could go back. This is very important to ensure that the culture and sincerity of client location comes to offshore and shared with the team. This also ensures that teams across the shores understand the problem (technical, operational, managerial or personal) faced at these locations and bridge the trust deficit.

So if you are also struggling to build a multi-location team, you need to ensure two-way flow of people and knowledge. Failing to do so, you are only ensuring failure of the project in near to long term.

Ran.... and still runnning....

So finally the day has arrived... practice has concluded and I am going to run my first half-marathon. Mumbai Marathon 2012 came with a big challenge and I took it by enrolling myself in the 21K version. I have been practicing twice in a week for last couple of months and ran 10K in any single session. As much I was targeting to finish the race, I wanted to finish withing 2 hrs 30 minutes. In the practice session I have been taking 70-80 minutes for 10K. So I wanted to give my best and much better than I had been giving in the practice session.

At the same time so many things are going in personal life that have also aggravated my breathing problem. For last one month, every day I have been feel so vulnerable personally that its only Mumbai Marathon that is the passion nowadays. There has been an emotional roller-coster ride in last one month and every morning I wake up, it has been only the time I am running and working out could make me feel little strong.

On the D-day, I wake up at 4 AM, get ready, pick up my running gear, Redcross Cap and TCS T-shirt with SRCC logo, and go to Railway station to board a train to the Marathon Holding Area. As I reach at Ticket Counter, I feel overwhelmed when Ticket Issuer doesn't take money and wishes me best for my run. It was a lovely feeling. As I get down train and moving towards the Holding area, I see few of the TV Actors (Raghu &; Rajiv from MTV Roadies) taking tea-sips. I walk and see the spirit of runners everywhere. Everybody seems to be so excited as I am and doing the stretching.

At 5:40, run starts and I start the journey of my life. Today I want to achieve something I have never done and I want to complete the race respectfully. Cold breezes from the sea start touching our body as we reach the 'Bandra-Worli Sea Link', such a lovely experience. When does anybody get opportunity to run here on this link? I have completed 10 K now, feet are tired, but brains are excited. As I reach 15 K, an uphill comes, I want to have a sip of water but I don't want to break the momentum as long as possible. Somehow uphill passes and I am on flat road. Now, feet are about to give up, brains are still excited, eyes are burning, body is sweating and I am at 19K. Now I have utmost need of rejuvenating myself, so instead of water, I pick up a 'Red bull' drink on the way. A refreshing area with cold moist breezes comes on the way and passing through it is so rejuvenating.

Till this time, I have no energy left; I might fall anytime if I lose control on my brains even for a minute. I set a target that I would continue till 20K mark and probably will walk for few seconds before finish line. As, now I reach there, I don't want to stop I want to finish without even stopping anywhere in complete run. But this doesn't work, my show-laces have loosened up and I have to stop to tie them at least. Ultimately I stop at 21K Mark, ties the laces, walks for a minute, before my desire to touch the finish line at the earliest makes me running. I sprint now. Applauds at the side-ways are over-whelming and wonderful. I am not able to breath, but I feel like a start as I reach the finish line.

Now when I am at home, my body is crying out loud for sleep, but I can't. My caves are swollen, my things are paining, my fingers and toes are burnt, but a feeling of accomplishing this has been able to overpower everything.