This will talk about 12 MS Excel Short Cut keys
Friday, December 9, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Freakonomics
Read “Freakonomics “ by Steven D. levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
As it says, it explores the hidden side of everything…
The chapters are named in very different ways like
• What do school teachers and sumo wrestlers are in common?
• How is the Ku Klux Klan like a group of Real-Estate agents?
• Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?
• What makes a perfect parent? How relevant are parents? Etc…
As the chapter names, the reading of the book was also a challenge in a way, it was demanding read and think about what you read. Not a leisure read at all.
Whts difference this book made to me?
I think it prompt me to ask more questions to myself.
Many of them may not lead to anything .But some of them will produce answers that are interesting, even surprising.
This is one book one must read if he prefers to improve the lateral thinking; well the vertical/diagonal any type of thinking rather…
As it says, it explores the hidden side of everything…
The chapters are named in very different ways like
• What do school teachers and sumo wrestlers are in common?
• How is the Ku Klux Klan like a group of Real-Estate agents?
• Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?
• What makes a perfect parent? How relevant are parents? Etc…
As the chapter names, the reading of the book was also a challenge in a way, it was demanding read and think about what you read. Not a leisure read at all.
Whts difference this book made to me?
I think it prompt me to ask more questions to myself.
Many of them may not lead to anything .But some of them will produce answers that are interesting, even surprising.
This is one book one must read if he prefers to improve the lateral thinking; well the vertical/diagonal any type of thinking rather…
Monday, February 21, 2011
A brutally honest letter from a CEO to his Employees
Happend to read a letter online (curtsey to Shriram) from Nokia CEO to its employees and which got my atention due to its shear truthfulness..
Hello there,
There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform's edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters.
As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a "burning platform," and he needed to make a choice.
He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times - his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a "burning platform" caused a radical change in his behaviour.
We too, are standing on a "burning platform," and we must decide how we are going to change our behaviour.
Over the past few months, I've shared with you what I've heard from our shareholders, operators, developers, suppliers and from you. Today, I'm going to share what I've learned and what I have come to believe.
I have learned that we are standing on a burning platform.
And, we have more than one explosion - we have multiple points of scorching heat that are fuelling a blazing fire around us.
For example, there is intense heat coming from our competitors, more rapidly than we ever expected. Apple disrupted the market by redefining the smartphone and attracting developers to a closed, but very powerful ecosystem.
In 2008, Apple's market share in the $300+ price range was 25 percent; by 2010 it escalated to 61 percent. They are enjoying a tremendous growth trajectory with a 78 percent earnings growth year over year in Q4 2010. Apple demonstrated that if designed well, consumers would buy a high-priced phone with a great experience and developers would build applications. They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range.
And then, there is Android. In about two years, Android created a platform that attracts application developers, service providers and hardware manufacturers. Android came in at the high-end, they are now winning the mid-range, and quickly they are going downstream to phones under €100. Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry's innovation to its core.
Let's not forget about the low-end price range. In 2008, MediaTek supplied complete reference designs for phone chipsets, which enabled manufacturers in the Shenzhen region of China to produce phones at an unbelievable pace. By some accounts, this ecosystem now produces more than one third of the phones sold globally - taking share from us in emerging markets.
While competitors poured flames on our market share, what happened at Nokia? We fell behind, we missed big trends, and we lost time. At that time, we thought we were making the right decisions; but, with the benefit of hindsight, we now find ourselves years behind.
The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don't have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.
We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market.
At the midrange, we have Symbian. It has proven to be non-competitive in leading markets like North America. Symbian is proving to be an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop to meet the continuously expanding consumer requirements, leading to slowness in product development and also creating a disadvantage when we seek to take advantage of new hardware platforms. As a result, if we continue like before, we will get further and further behind, while our competitors advance further and further ahead.
At the lower-end price range, Chinese OEMs are cranking out a device much faster than, as one Nokia employee said only partially in jest, "the time that it takes us to polish a PowerPoint presentation." They are fast, they are cheap, and they are challenging us.
And the truly perplexing aspect is that we're not even fighting with the right weapons. We are still too often trying to approach each price range on a device-to-device basis.
The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren't taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem.
This means we're going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem. This is one of the decisions we need to make. In the meantime, we've lost market share, we've lost mind share and we've lost time.
On Tuesday, Standard & Poor's informed that they will put our A long term and A-1 short term ratings on negative credit watch. This is a similar rating action to the one that Moody's took last week. Basically it means that during the next few weeks they will make an analysis of Nokia, and decide on a possible credit rating downgrade. Why are these credit agencies contemplating these changes? Because they are concerned about our competitiveness.
Consumer preference for Nokia declined worldwide. In the UK, our brand preference has slipped to 20 percent, which is 8 percent lower than last year. That means only 1 out of 5 people in the UK prefer Nokia to other brands. It's also down in the other markets, which are traditionally our strongholds: Russia, Germany,Indonesia, UAE, and on and on and on.
How did we get to this point? Why did we fall behind when the world around us evolved?
This is what I have been trying to understand. I believe at least some of it has been due to our attitude inside Nokia. We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven't been delivering innovation fast enough. We're not collaborating internally.
Nokia, our platform is burning.
We are working on a path forward -- a path to rebuild our market leadership. When we share the new strategy on February 11, it will be a huge effort to transform our company. But, I believe that together, we can face the challenges ahead of us. Together, we can choose to define our future.
The burning platform, upon which the man found himself, caused the man to shift his behaviour, and take a bold and brave step into an uncertain future. He was able to tell his story. Now, we have a great opportunity to do the same.
Stephen.
Hello there,
There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform's edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters.
As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a "burning platform," and he needed to make a choice.
He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times - his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a "burning platform" caused a radical change in his behaviour.
We too, are standing on a "burning platform," and we must decide how we are going to change our behaviour.
Over the past few months, I've shared with you what I've heard from our shareholders, operators, developers, suppliers and from you. Today, I'm going to share what I've learned and what I have come to believe.
I have learned that we are standing on a burning platform.
And, we have more than one explosion - we have multiple points of scorching heat that are fuelling a blazing fire around us.
For example, there is intense heat coming from our competitors, more rapidly than we ever expected. Apple disrupted the market by redefining the smartphone and attracting developers to a closed, but very powerful ecosystem.
In 2008, Apple's market share in the $300+ price range was 25 percent; by 2010 it escalated to 61 percent. They are enjoying a tremendous growth trajectory with a 78 percent earnings growth year over year in Q4 2010. Apple demonstrated that if designed well, consumers would buy a high-priced phone with a great experience and developers would build applications. They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range.
And then, there is Android. In about two years, Android created a platform that attracts application developers, service providers and hardware manufacturers. Android came in at the high-end, they are now winning the mid-range, and quickly they are going downstream to phones under €100. Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry's innovation to its core.
Let's not forget about the low-end price range. In 2008, MediaTek supplied complete reference designs for phone chipsets, which enabled manufacturers in the Shenzhen region of China to produce phones at an unbelievable pace. By some accounts, this ecosystem now produces more than one third of the phones sold globally - taking share from us in emerging markets.
While competitors poured flames on our market share, what happened at Nokia? We fell behind, we missed big trends, and we lost time. At that time, we thought we were making the right decisions; but, with the benefit of hindsight, we now find ourselves years behind.
The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don't have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.
We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market.
At the midrange, we have Symbian. It has proven to be non-competitive in leading markets like North America. Symbian is proving to be an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop to meet the continuously expanding consumer requirements, leading to slowness in product development and also creating a disadvantage when we seek to take advantage of new hardware platforms. As a result, if we continue like before, we will get further and further behind, while our competitors advance further and further ahead.
At the lower-end price range, Chinese OEMs are cranking out a device much faster than, as one Nokia employee said only partially in jest, "the time that it takes us to polish a PowerPoint presentation." They are fast, they are cheap, and they are challenging us.
And the truly perplexing aspect is that we're not even fighting with the right weapons. We are still too often trying to approach each price range on a device-to-device basis.
The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren't taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem.
This means we're going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem. This is one of the decisions we need to make. In the meantime, we've lost market share, we've lost mind share and we've lost time.
On Tuesday, Standard & Poor's informed that they will put our A long term and A-1 short term ratings on negative credit watch. This is a similar rating action to the one that Moody's took last week. Basically it means that during the next few weeks they will make an analysis of Nokia, and decide on a possible credit rating downgrade. Why are these credit agencies contemplating these changes? Because they are concerned about our competitiveness.
Consumer preference for Nokia declined worldwide. In the UK, our brand preference has slipped to 20 percent, which is 8 percent lower than last year. That means only 1 out of 5 people in the UK prefer Nokia to other brands. It's also down in the other markets, which are traditionally our strongholds: Russia, Germany,Indonesia, UAE, and on and on and on.
How did we get to this point? Why did we fall behind when the world around us evolved?
This is what I have been trying to understand. I believe at least some of it has been due to our attitude inside Nokia. We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven't been delivering innovation fast enough. We're not collaborating internally.
Nokia, our platform is burning.
We are working on a path forward -- a path to rebuild our market leadership. When we share the new strategy on February 11, it will be a huge effort to transform our company. But, I believe that together, we can face the challenges ahead of us. Together, we can choose to define our future.
The burning platform, upon which the man found himself, caused the man to shift his behaviour, and take a bold and brave step into an uncertain future. He was able to tell his story. Now, we have a great opportunity to do the same.
Stephen.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Lincoln's Letter to his Son's Teacher..
Lincoln's Letter to his Son's TeacherHe will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just, all men are not true.
But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero; that for every selfish Politician, there is a dedicated leader…
Teach him for every enemy there is a friend,Steer him away from envy, if you can, teach him the secret of quiet laughter.
Let him learn early that the bullies are the easiest to lick…
Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books…
But also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and the flowers on a green hillside.
In the school teach him it is far honourable to fail than to cheat…
Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him they are wrong…
Teach him to be gentle with gentle people, and tough with the tough.
Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone is getting on the band wagon…
Teach him to listen to all men… but teach him also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth, and take only the good that comes through.
Teach him if you can, how to laugh when he is sad…
Teach him there is no shame in tears, Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of too much sweetness…
Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidders but never to put a price-tag on his heart and soul.T
each him to close his ears o a howling mob and to stand and fight if he thinks he's right.
Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him, because only the test of fire makes fine steel.
Let him have the courage to be impatient…
let him have the patience to be brave.
Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will have sublime faith in mankind.
This is a big order, but see what you can do… He is such a fine little fellow, my son!
~ Abraham Lincoln
But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero; that for every selfish Politician, there is a dedicated leader…
Teach him for every enemy there is a friend,Steer him away from envy, if you can, teach him the secret of quiet laughter.
Let him learn early that the bullies are the easiest to lick…
Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books…
But also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and the flowers on a green hillside.
In the school teach him it is far honourable to fail than to cheat…
Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him they are wrong…
Teach him to be gentle with gentle people, and tough with the tough.
Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone is getting on the band wagon…
Teach him to listen to all men… but teach him also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth, and take only the good that comes through.
Teach him if you can, how to laugh when he is sad…
Teach him there is no shame in tears, Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of too much sweetness…
Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidders but never to put a price-tag on his heart and soul.T
each him to close his ears o a howling mob and to stand and fight if he thinks he's right.
Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him, because only the test of fire makes fine steel.
Let him have the courage to be impatient…
let him have the patience to be brave.
Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will have sublime faith in mankind.
This is a big order, but see what you can do… He is such a fine little fellow, my son!
~ Abraham Lincoln
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Economics is interesting ;sometimes difficult to understand...
Interesting article written by an Indian Economist
Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also, Japan exports far more than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over 100 billions. Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports. Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billion. Yet, the American economy is considered strong and trusted to get stronger. But where from do Americans get money to spend? They borrow from Japan , China and even India .
Virtually others save for the US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars. India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US securities. China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities. Japan 's stakes in US securities is in trillions. Result: The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. So, as the world saves for the US - Its The Americans who spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going, that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit $180 billion every quarter, which is $2 billion a day, to the US ! A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China , or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US. The same is the case with India . We have invested in US over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than $20 billion in India . Why the world is after US? The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. In fact they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US . So US imports more than what it exports year after year. The result: The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to feed on US consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the world provides the money. It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer will not buy, the shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper financier. Who is America 's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan of course. Yet it's Japan which is regarded as weak. Modern economists complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to spend, the Japanese government exerted itself, reduced the savings rates, even charged the savers. Even then the Japanese did not spend (habits don't change, even with taxes, do they?). Their traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2 trillions, about three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the strength of Japan , has become its pain. Hence, what is the lesson? That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just spend, but borrow and spend. Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist in the US , told Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, on imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This will put India on a growth curve. This is one of the reason for MNC's coming down to India , seeing the consumer spending.
'Saving is sin, and spending is virtue.'
But before you follow this Neo Economics, get some fools to save so that you can borrow from them and spend !!!
Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also, Japan exports far more than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over 100 billions. Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports. Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billion. Yet, the American economy is considered strong and trusted to get stronger. But where from do Americans get money to spend? They borrow from Japan , China and even India .
Virtually others save for the US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars. India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US securities. China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities. Japan 's stakes in US securities is in trillions. Result: The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. So, as the world saves for the US - Its The Americans who spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going, that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit $180 billion every quarter, which is $2 billion a day, to the US ! A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China , or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US. The same is the case with India . We have invested in US over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than $20 billion in India . Why the world is after US? The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. In fact they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US . So US imports more than what it exports year after year. The result: The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to feed on US consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the world provides the money. It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer will not buy, the shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper financier. Who is America 's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan of course. Yet it's Japan which is regarded as weak. Modern economists complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to spend, the Japanese government exerted itself, reduced the savings rates, even charged the savers. Even then the Japanese did not spend (habits don't change, even with taxes, do they?). Their traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2 trillions, about three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the strength of Japan , has become its pain. Hence, what is the lesson? That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just spend, but borrow and spend. Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist in the US , told Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, on imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This will put India on a growth curve. This is one of the reason for MNC's coming down to India , seeing the consumer spending.
'Saving is sin, and spending is virtue.'
But before you follow this Neo Economics, get some fools to save so that you can borrow from them and spend !!!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Quotes on Attitude
IF AN EGG IS BROKEN BY AN OUTSIDE FORCE..A LIFE ENDS. IF AN EGG BREAKS FROM WITHIN...... .LIFE BEGINS. GREAT THINGS ALWAYS BEGIN FROM WITHIN
WHEN YOU TRUST SOMEONE TRUST HIM COMPLETELY WITHOUT ANY DOUBT....... AT THE END YOU WOULD GET ONE OF THE TWO : EITHER A LESSON FOR YOUR LIFE OR A VERY GOOD PERSON
LIFE IS NOT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO ACT TRUE TO YOUR FACE ........ IT'S ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO REMAIN TRUE BEHIND YOUR BACK
SOLDIER : SIR WE ARE SURROUNDED FROM ALL SIDES BY ENEMIES , MAJOR : EXCELLENT ! WE CAN ATTACK IN ANY DIRECTION.
THE WORST IN LIFE IS "ATTACHMENT " IT HURTS WHEN YOU LOSE IT. THE BEST THING IN LIFE IS " LONELINESS " BECAUSE IT TEACHES YOU EVERYTHING AND, WHEN YOU LOSE IT, YOU GET EVERYTHING.
"You never conquer a mountain. You stand on the summit a few moments; then the wind blows your footprints away." -Arlene Blum
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Chinese proverb
“The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could become.” Ben Herbste
IF AN EGG IS BROKEN BY AN OUTSIDE FORCE..A LIFE ENDS. IF AN EGG BREAKS FROM WITHIN...... .LIFE BEGINS. GREAT THINGS ALWAYS BEGIN FROM WITHIN
WHEN YOU TRUST SOMEONE TRUST HIM COMPLETELY WITHOUT ANY DOUBT....... AT THE END YOU WOULD GET ONE OF THE TWO : EITHER A LESSON FOR YOUR LIFE OR A VERY GOOD PERSON
LIFE IS NOT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO ACT TRUE TO YOUR FACE ........ IT'S ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO REMAIN TRUE BEHIND YOUR BACK
SOLDIER : SIR WE ARE SURROUNDED FROM ALL SIDES BY ENEMIES , MAJOR : EXCELLENT ! WE CAN ATTACK IN ANY DIRECTION.
THE WORST IN LIFE IS "ATTACHMENT " IT HURTS WHEN YOU LOSE IT. THE BEST THING IN LIFE IS " LONELINESS " BECAUSE IT TEACHES YOU EVERYTHING AND, WHEN YOU LOSE IT, YOU GET EVERYTHING.
"You never conquer a mountain. You stand on the summit a few moments; then the wind blows your footprints away." -Arlene Blum
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Chinese proverb
“The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could become.” Ben Herbste
Some quotes
Quotes
“ The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential .. these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence “
– Eddie Robinson
“Life without purpose is a languid drifting thing, every day we ought to review our purpose, saying to ourselves, ‘This day let me make a sound beginning’ ”
- Thomas Kempis
“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome”
- Booker T Washington
“One objective should be to get it right, get it quick, get it out, and get it over. You see your problem won’t improve with age “
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
“ The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential .. these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence “
– Eddie Robinson
“Life without purpose is a languid drifting thing, every day we ought to review our purpose, saying to ourselves, ‘This day let me make a sound beginning’ ”
- Thomas Kempis
“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome”
- Booker T Washington
“One objective should be to get it right, get it quick, get it out, and get it over. You see your problem won’t improve with age “
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Vedic Maths
What does mathematics have to do with Hinduism? Well, just as the basic principles of Hinduism lie in the Vedas, so do the roots of mathematics. The Vedas, written around 1500-900 BCE, are ancient Indian texts containing a record of human experience and knowledge. Thousands of years ago, Vedic mathematicians authored various theses and dissertations on mathematics. It is now commonly believed and widely accepted that these treatises laid down the foundations of algebra, algorithm, square roots, cube roots, various methods of calculation, and the concept of zero.
'Vedic Mathematics' is the name given to the ancient system of mathematics, or, to be precise, a unique technique of calculations based on simple rules and principles, with which any mathematical problem - be it arithmetic, algebra, geometry or trigonometry - can be solved, hold your breath, orally!
Sutras: Natural Formulae
The system is based on 16 Vedic sutras or aphorisms, which are actually word-formulae describing natural ways of solving a whole range of mathematical problems. Some examples of sutras are "By one more than the one before", "All from 9 & the last from 10", and "Vertically & Crosswise". These 16 one-line formulae originally written in Sanskrit, which can be easily memorized, enables one to solve long mathematical problems quickly.
Why Sutras?
Sri Bharati Krishna Tirtha Maharaj, who is generally considered the doyen of this discipline, in his seminal book Vedic Mathematics, wrote about this special use of verses in the Vedic age: "In order to help the pupil memorize the material assimilated, they made it a general rule of practice to write even the most technical and abstruse textbooks in sutras or in verse (which is so much easier - even for the children - to memorize)... So from this standpoint, they used verse for lightening the burden and facilitating the work (by versifying scientific and even mathematical material in a readily assimilable form)!"
Dr L M Singhvi, the former High Commissioner of India in the UK, who is an avid endorser of the system says: "A single sutra would generally encompass a varied and wide range of particular applications and may be likened to a programmed chip of our computer age". Another Vedic maths enthusiast, Clive Middleton of vedicmaths.org feels, "These formulas describe the way the mind naturally works, and are therefore a great help in directing the student to the appropriate method of solution."
A Simple & Easy System
Practitioners of this striking method of mathematical problem-solving opine that Vedic maths is far more systematic, coherent and unified than the conventional system. It is a mental tool for calculation that encourages the development and use of intuition and innovation, while giving the student a lot of flexibility, fun and satisfaction. Therefore, it's direct and easy to implement in schools - a reason behind its enormous popularity among educationists and academicians.
A Simple & Easy System
Practitioners of this striking method of mathematical problem-solving opine that Vedic maths is far more systematic, coherent and unified than the conventional system. It is a mental tool for calculation that encourages the development and use of intuition and innovation, while giving the student a lot of flexibility, fun and satisfaction. Therefore, it's direct and easy to implement in schools - a reason behind its enormous popularity among educationists and academicians.
Originally from :Subhamony Das. Hinduism about.com
'Vedic Mathematics' is the name given to the ancient system of mathematics, or, to be precise, a unique technique of calculations based on simple rules and principles, with which any mathematical problem - be it arithmetic, algebra, geometry or trigonometry - can be solved, hold your breath, orally!
Sutras: Natural Formulae
The system is based on 16 Vedic sutras or aphorisms, which are actually word-formulae describing natural ways of solving a whole range of mathematical problems. Some examples of sutras are "By one more than the one before", "All from 9 & the last from 10", and "Vertically & Crosswise". These 16 one-line formulae originally written in Sanskrit, which can be easily memorized, enables one to solve long mathematical problems quickly.
Why Sutras?
Sri Bharati Krishna Tirtha Maharaj, who is generally considered the doyen of this discipline, in his seminal book Vedic Mathematics, wrote about this special use of verses in the Vedic age: "In order to help the pupil memorize the material assimilated, they made it a general rule of practice to write even the most technical and abstruse textbooks in sutras or in verse (which is so much easier - even for the children - to memorize)... So from this standpoint, they used verse for lightening the burden and facilitating the work (by versifying scientific and even mathematical material in a readily assimilable form)!"
Dr L M Singhvi, the former High Commissioner of India in the UK, who is an avid endorser of the system says: "A single sutra would generally encompass a varied and wide range of particular applications and may be likened to a programmed chip of our computer age". Another Vedic maths enthusiast, Clive Middleton of vedicmaths.org feels, "These formulas describe the way the mind naturally works, and are therefore a great help in directing the student to the appropriate method of solution."
A Simple & Easy System
Practitioners of this striking method of mathematical problem-solving opine that Vedic maths is far more systematic, coherent and unified than the conventional system. It is a mental tool for calculation that encourages the development and use of intuition and innovation, while giving the student a lot of flexibility, fun and satisfaction. Therefore, it's direct and easy to implement in schools - a reason behind its enormous popularity among educationists and academicians.
A Simple & Easy System
Practitioners of this striking method of mathematical problem-solving opine that Vedic maths is far more systematic, coherent and unified than the conventional system. It is a mental tool for calculation that encourages the development and use of intuition and innovation, while giving the student a lot of flexibility, fun and satisfaction. Therefore, it's direct and easy to implement in schools - a reason behind its enormous popularity among educationists and academicians.
Originally from :Subhamony Das. Hinduism about.com
Friday, March 12, 2010
Some nice quotes which I came across from the book of Jack Canfied. -part I
The book -"How to get from where you are to where you want to be"
1."The secret to my success is that I bit off more than I could chew and chewed as
fast I could"
- Paul Hogan Actor who porttrayed Crocodile Dundee.
2. "99% of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses"
-Geore Washington Carver(Chemist who discovered over 325 uses of the peanut)
3."Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything
in life has a purpose."
-Elisabeth Kubler Ross,M.D- Psychiatrist and the author of the classic on Death
and Dying
4. "Every negative event contains wihtin it the seed of an equal or greater benefit"
-Napolean Hill
5 "When life hands you a lemon squeeze it and make lemonade"
-W. Clement Stone, self made multimillionaire and former publisher of success
magazine.
6. " If you want to be happy , set a goal that commands your thoughts,liberates your
energy and inspires hopes"
-Andrew Carnegie
7. "Decide upon your major definite purpose in life and then organize all your
activities around it"
-Brian Tracy (one of America's leading authorities on the developement of human
potential and personal effectiveness)
8 "The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is
this: decide what you want"
-Ben Stein- Actor and Author
9 "The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss
it, but that it is too low and we reach it"
-Michelangelo
10. "Create your future from your future, not from your past"
-Werner Erhard- Foundre of EST training a nd the Landmark Forum
11. "Sooner or later , those who win are those who think they can"
-Richard Bach- author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
12. "You weren't an accident.You weren't mass produced.You aren't an assembly
product.You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted and lovingly
positioned on the Earth by the Master Craftsman.
-Max Lucado-Best selling author.
13. The phrase "I can't" is the most powerful force of negation in the human psuche
-Paul .R. Scheele- Chairman, Learning Strategies Corporation.
14. "If you are bored with life, if you dont get up every morning with a burning
desire to do things- you dont 've enough goals.
- Lou Holtz- The only coach in the NCAA history to ever lead six different
college teams to post season bowl games and a man who also won a national
championship and "coach of the year" honors.
15. "You want to set a goal that is big enough that in the process of achieving
it you become someone worth becoming."
- Jim Ron- Self made millionaire, success coach and philosopher
16. "The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
The secret of getting started in breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks
into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."
-Mark Twain
17. "Success leaves clues."
- Anthony Robbins- author of unlimited power.
1."The secret to my success is that I bit off more than I could chew and chewed as
fast I could"
- Paul Hogan Actor who porttrayed Crocodile Dundee.
2. "99% of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses"
-Geore Washington Carver(Chemist who discovered over 325 uses of the peanut)
3."Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything
in life has a purpose."
-Elisabeth Kubler Ross,M.D- Psychiatrist and the author of the classic on Death
and Dying
4. "Every negative event contains wihtin it the seed of an equal or greater benefit"
-Napolean Hill
5 "When life hands you a lemon squeeze it and make lemonade"
-W. Clement Stone, self made multimillionaire and former publisher of success
magazine.
6. " If you want to be happy , set a goal that commands your thoughts,liberates your
energy and inspires hopes"
-Andrew Carnegie
7. "Decide upon your major definite purpose in life and then organize all your
activities around it"
-Brian Tracy (one of America's leading authorities on the developement of human
potential and personal effectiveness)
8 "The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is
this: decide what you want"
-Ben Stein- Actor and Author
9 "The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss
it, but that it is too low and we reach it"
-Michelangelo
10. "Create your future from your future, not from your past"
-Werner Erhard- Foundre of EST training a nd the Landmark Forum
11. "Sooner or later , those who win are those who think they can"
-Richard Bach- author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
12. "You weren't an accident.You weren't mass produced.You aren't an assembly
product.You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted and lovingly
positioned on the Earth by the Master Craftsman.
-Max Lucado-Best selling author.
13. The phrase "I can't" is the most powerful force of negation in the human psuche
-Paul .R. Scheele- Chairman, Learning Strategies Corporation.
14. "If you are bored with life, if you dont get up every morning with a burning
desire to do things- you dont 've enough goals.
- Lou Holtz- The only coach in the NCAA history to ever lead six different
college teams to post season bowl games and a man who also won a national
championship and "coach of the year" honors.
15. "You want to set a goal that is big enough that in the process of achieving
it you become someone worth becoming."
- Jim Ron- Self made millionaire, success coach and philosopher
16. "The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
The secret of getting started in breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks
into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."
-Mark Twain
17. "Success leaves clues."
- Anthony Robbins- author of unlimited power.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Towards a Greener planet...
"Global warming, also known as the green house effect is a topic that has
received much attention in recent years; yet our climate change is not a recent
problem. It has been morphing over many years. What is increasing is the rate
of change; it is accelerating due to the growth of the human population. The
growth of our population has increased our use of fuel, land, and
manufacturing. All of these are increasing emissions into our atmosphere that
increases global warming."
My thoughts are on controlling consumption & thus reducing wastages of all kind in our daily lives.
We continue talking about global warming, environmental degradation, making a difference in the lives of poor; unknowingly, our actions contribute to the very cause we oppose. These wastages are in different spheres of our life such as use of Paper, Plastic bags, Vehicle use, Food & eating habits,Clothing and so on.
• When we visit mall/food retail chains, we are not allowed to carry handbag and at the end of
our purchase have to carry multiple plastic bags.
• All of us buy vegetables at roadside vendors or from malls and hardly carry any bags. The
result is we carry vegetables in plastic bags which are not biodegradable....the thin ones.
How paper impacts our day to day life? How many times a day we touch paper?
-- newspapers, toilet paper, labels, money, tissues, books, shopping bags, receipts, ATM receipts,
Cash memos, statements, printer and copier paper at home and work, magazines, food packaging.
Now let’s consider following facts w.r.t. world consumption pattern.
1. The average American consumes more than 700 pounds of paper a year, -- that's the world's
highest per capita figure.
2. China, India and the rest of Asia are the fastest growing per-capita users of paper, but they
still rank far behind Eastern Europe and Latin America (about 100 pounds per person per
year), Australia (about 300 pounds per person per year) and Western Europe (more than
400 pounds per person per year).
3. But don’t get mislaid by these per capita figures, always remember that China, India and
other Asian countries are densely populated than rest of the world. Hence our total
contribution to forest degradation would be equal to rest of the world.
4. A few years back, my official usage of paper was higher than 500 A4 sheets per month for
sharing of information on products, costing, internal memos, proposals, customer letters
plus computer stationary used for MIS.
Paper today constitute a most important and primary reason for tree felling and reducing forest
area across the globe.
5. Forests store 50% of the world's terrestrial carbon. (In other words, they are important
"carbon sinks" that hold onto pollution that would otherwise lead to global warming.)
6. Two third of the world's forests have already been cleared or burned, and 80% of what's left
has been seriously degraded.
7. 42% of the industrial wood harvest is used to make paper.
8. The paper industry is the 4th largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
9. Paper accounts for 25% of landfill waste (and one third of municipal landfill waste)
10. Municipal landfills account for one third of human-related methane emissions (and methane
is 23-times more potent a greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide).
11. Printing and writing papers use the least amount of recycled content -- just 6%.
12. While the paper industry invests in new recycled newsprint and paper packaging plants in
the developing world, almost none of the new printing and writing paper mills use recycled
content.
Now after understanding how paper impacts global warming and reduced forest cover, which are
the areas where we can make a difference. Please consider some of the examples in our day to day
use and how associated wastages are the resultant.
Increase of consumption across Banks : Few years ago, we had bank provided pass books of
A5 size with 10-12 pages that used to last us for minimum of six months depending on our
transaction. Now with the onset of core banking/ATM, our consumption has increased by
three ways. We use ATM receipts, Statement of accounts on periodical basis and passbooks.
a. How ATM receipts are used – These are thermal printed and used for short term
proof.
b. Statements: These are used for tracking account activity movement over a period,
difficult to retain over longer duration.
c. Passbooks: they are sleek & can be retained for close to 10 years or more.
Why ATM receipts create more waste?
I. ATM receipts are of non - standard size and vary from bank to bank. Following instances
can help in understanding the problem.
i. Kotak Bank uses slip which is of 8 inches in length and matter is mostly written on
first few inches and almost 5 inches of space is blank and unused.
ii. IDBI uses a slip of almost 4 inches in length and with almost 1 inch of space which is
blank.
iii. Dena bank uses 4 in*3 in slip and there is ample space to save.
iv. Now if banks were to use ATM receipts of size of credit card receipts, will it make
any difference to users....I hope not, looking at the impact this activity would bring in
to saving of few kms of forest cover.
Statements – the need for stopping waste : why would anyone prefer statement to
passbook when they occupy large space and are available at the end of
month/quarter? They occupy large space in our files and are definitely not ready
reckoners like our passbooks are. I would request all of you to closely scrutinize
statements each of us receive from time to time and you will find that without
touching the whole lot of information, the statements can be made more sleek and
handy.
2. Cash Memo’s generated at retail chains such as reliance fresh, big bazaar, malls: Another
addition in our paper use output is obviously the long cash memos each of these retail chains,
malls bring to our life. These stores generate a lengthy cash memo whether we buy one item or
100 items. Compare that with the slick cash memo of earlier times or cash memo generated on
used paper (on another side of used paper) by most of the daily needs/kirana stores nearly five
year ago.
Please consider a case below.
Reliance fresh stores generate 1000 cash memo in my area on daily basis. Each of these receipts
is almost 9 to 12 inches long with fixed matter occupying 6 inch, blank space almost 2 inch and
variable space varying from 1 inch to 9 inch long. Now just think if one can make decrease in
fixed matter space usage by almost 10% that would result in savings of 1500 mtr. of paper at
one store per month.
Now assume that there are atleast 150 such stores opened by reliance on a nationwide basis,
that would be savings of 225 kms of paper. Further consider atleast 4 such chains working across
India that would be close to 1000 kms of paper saved each month. Imagine how this one single
action would result in savings for these retail stores whether Reliance fresh or Big Bazaar etc.
while taking us nearer to our main goal of minimizing wastage and stopping forest degradation.
How do we do this: The activity will not require too much field working, at the same time we
will be able to capitalize on our strength areas of nearness to internet. We will require a big
contribution of efforts by some of our members in arranging the audience with these corporate
houses.
We will create a website, do an campaign across corporate houses, tweet, create blogs, and
meet in person to CSR leaders across banks & retail chains to create an awareness and then let
the internal forces to these organizations help us get the job done.
What is in it for us:
• A better future for our next generation? Fresh air, Fresh water, Green earth.
• If done right, national level accolades from Ministry of Environment & Forests.
• Who knows, it might lead to global recognition by UN and other bodies tomorrow
Thing to Ponder:
Could we have saved the ballot papers we used during our first meeting to vote?
If the United States cut office paper use by just 10% it would prevent the emission of 1.6
million tons of greenhouse gases -- the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road. I hope
same hold true for India as well.
Compared to using forest wood, paper made with 100% recycled content uses 44% less
energy, produces 38% less greenhouse gas emissions, 41% less particulate emissions, 50%
less wastewater, 49% less solid waste and -- of course -- 100% less wood.
Courtesy to Anil, as he mentioned all these points to discuss in the ILN Mumbay meet.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Are You an Inventor or an Entrepreneur?
PS: This one I came across in the HBR. A nice read.
Being an entrepreneur has more to do with a state of mind than a state of employment. And when you think of being an entrepreneur, it doesn't just mean starting a company — I've started over half a dozen successful companies but have also brought my experience to established companies. Right now, I am the President of a public company I did not start — so I may in fact be an "entrepreneur gone bad."
One of the most consistent things I hear entrepreneurs say is, "I have this great idea." And the advice they often get is to write a business plan and make it their bible. Most entrepreneurs firmly believe there is nothing better than a solid plan couples with a great idea. But don't confuse being an entrepreneur with being an inventor. Great ideas are a dime a dozen. Action is what differentiates an entrepreneur from an inventor. If you want to focus on ideas, become an inventor — not an entrepreneur.
And as for plans, entrepreneurs probably spend more time on our business plans than just about anything else we do. But business plans are often useless, even counterproductive; the old adage that "planning is everything; plans are nothing" (credited to Eisenhower) couldn't be more true in entrepreneurship.
The important thing is the process of planning — but you also have to be willing to throw out that plan. The single biggest advantage you have as a start-up versus an established business is your ability to be nimble, to act, to change. If you're beholden to your ideas or to your business plan, you will fail.
Thomas Edison is a great example of someone who most people think of as an inventor because of the thousands of ideas he came up with. But when someone asked Edison about his ideas he replied that he didn't care about his ideas. The only ideas that were interesting to him were the ones that he could commercialize. "I am quite correctly described as more of a sponge than an inventor," he said. Yet most people in fact don't realize that the light bulb was not Edison's idea; he just commercialized it. Edison thought of himself as an entrepreneur.
History is littered with great ideas — they're irrelevant to entrepreneurs. You need to be nimble and you need to act. Sony is a classic example. Few people know that Sony was founded on the idea of offering rice cookers to the masses. They failed at that idea, but Sony is what it is today because the founders were willing to give up on their original ideas and plans.
Gillette is another classic example of a company that constantly reinvents itself. Every year they come up with new products that transform their own industry. We may end up with razors that take two hands to hold, but Gillette proves that innovation is about change and progress, not great ideas.
So don't be afraid to throw out your business plan, adapt and give up on your original idea...and let your company succeed.
Courtesy : Harward Business publishing:
http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=47118093&gid=40431&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs%2Eharvardbusiness%2Eorg%2Fcs%2F2009%2F06%2Fare_you_an_inventor_or_an_entrepreneur%2Ehtml&urlhash=EJVz&trk=news_discuss
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Are we a develop(ing / ed) or an underdeveloped one?
I had no plan to write anything this morning and the topic was not even in mind until I sat down for the breakfast with my Idli-Wada and The Newspaper in the canteen.
There were two photographs which drew my attention in the front page- of a newly born baby girl with her mother ( from West Bengal) and of the newly inaugurated Bandra-Worli Sea Link which has been dedicated to the nation yesterday.
News1:
The baby girl’s name is Asha and her mother gave birth to her in the veranda of an elementary school in Lalgarh, WestBegal Bengal- the Maoist bastion which the State is trying to bring under its control.
News2:
All the state and central political bigwigs are praising each other for the completion of the prestigious sea link- of course this is an engineering marvel which every Indian can be proud of - which may the land mark of Mumbai now onwards replacing the Gateway of India.
While the bridge was being inaugurated by cutting the red ribbon in western Mumbai, Asha was waiting there in the veranda of the school waiting for a midwife to come hand cut her umbilical cord.
Man, I ‘m not able to explain what I felt exactly after reading that two news snippets.
Where are we? Are we completely on the right track? Or what are we lacking as a State?
Why the State has to use armed force against its own people?
What can be done to see babies like Asha are getting a better welcome scene to this World?
There were two photographs which drew my attention in the front page- of a newly born baby girl with her mother ( from West Bengal) and of the newly inaugurated Bandra-Worli Sea Link which has been dedicated to the nation yesterday.
News1:
The baby girl’s name is Asha and her mother gave birth to her in the veranda of an elementary school in Lalgarh, WestBegal Bengal- the Maoist bastion which the State is trying to bring under its control.
News2:
All the state and central political bigwigs are praising each other for the completion of the prestigious sea link- of course this is an engineering marvel which every Indian can be proud of - which may the land mark of Mumbai now onwards replacing the Gateway of India.
While the bridge was being inaugurated by cutting the red ribbon in western Mumbai, Asha was waiting there in the veranda of the school waiting for a midwife to come hand cut her umbilical cord.
Man, I ‘m not able to explain what I felt exactly after reading that two news snippets.
Where are we? Are we completely on the right track? Or what are we lacking as a State?
Why the State has to use armed force against its own people?
What can be done to see babies like Asha are getting a better welcome scene to this World?
Monday, June 29, 2009
one exam and me
The preparation of Project Management Professional exam conducted by PMI gave me a lot of insights than the credential itself as a PMI certified project manager.
Even though I attended the formal training required to sit for the exam before quite some time ago I decided to give the exam recently- precisely in the last weeks of June -2009.
I planned for the 23 of the month ,June-09 but due to some urgency in the office it had to be shifted to 25 of the month.
Learning and Preparation for an exam like PMP which grills you to the core of your understanding are Poles apart. This is my first learning.
I tried to apply the trick which all of us used in our college days .Have a general understanding of the subjects and solve as many previous exam papers and simulated tests available in the market to make you pass. The very second day of practice I realized that this is not going to go anywhere. The guys who are setting the question papers as really brilliant and knows how to differentiate between original and dup.
So I chalked out a new plan.
Specifically go to each knowledge area (of 9) and then step in to each process in that which together makes the 5 process groups of the PMBoK guide.
Even though I read PMBoK earlier now its entirely different game altogether.
Studied all the processes, the 44 of them and I was confident I can reproduce any of them in any order.
Then comes the real challenge; learn the Inputs for each process and the tool and techniques which are used upon each and the out put they are producing out of them. Just by-hearting them will not help rather it was almost impossible to do. For that my approach was logical linking of each of them in a process to recollect them whenever required. This was not completely successful, but you may say near about 85 % of the input, tools& technique and the outputs I was able to recollect. The rest 15 % I took a risk- for which I didn’t have a mitigation plan but decided to respond to it when it occurs.
Once I was comfortable with the learning I wanted to go for a test again- the instinct to be comfortable with yourself once you get a passing score. I went for one and score 63% and I passed. That was a good moral boost even though it was not at all a commendable score in a practice exam. Some of my colleague said that one has to score 90% + and then only go for a real test. Still, that passing score gave me a good pat on the back.
Then I’ve checked al the questions to which I answered wrong and understand the gap in my knowledge with the PMI standards. Again brushed up the points and took some more tests. In all the tests my scores were improving, not remarkably but gradually. Okay, so far so good.
Then I started listening to a pod cast in which the host was PMP and detailing out the each processes and its tools and techniques and the outputs and the “Gyan” around that. It was so good, that it allowed me to do a total review of al the points I learned. Since I find it easy to remember things which I listen this thing was a quite advantage.
In doing all these things my time ran out and tomorrow is the exam.
The evening before exam I went for a jog and tried not to think about the exam and the ‘things’ I‘ve to remember. Came back home had some food watched the Hollywood movie “Bourne Identity” – I don’t know how many times I‘ve seen that movie; Guys Bourne is remarkable …. Then I went through the formulae and some finance problems just to refresh them. Wanted to go early to bed, but I hit the bed by 12: 45 am.
Had a good sleep and got up on the exam day.
My exam was scheduled for the afternoon session and just sat to recollect some points which I noted in the pad to refer. Alas, nothing was coming clearly in the mind. I started doubting what should be the result, rather was sure it will not be good.
Then what I did was just took a nap for 15- 20 minutes to calm me down. That was good decision and after waking up I was not much worried about the formulae or the exam questions. Had brunch and kept all the documents to carry to the exam. By the time mother called from home just wish me good luck. With that I was ready.
It was about rain here so I decided not to take my bike and took a rickshaw to the prometric center which is 15 minutes away. Usually the roads are clear during that hour of the day but I was stuck up in traffic, which made me thinking about the Risk Management of the PMBoK J
So I reached the exam center 20 minutes before the exam where the situation was quite different. There were almost 7-9 people there to give various online test, most of them for PMP. The atmosphere at the waiting area was filled with tension. I had to wait for 15 minutes before starting the verification and body scanning to ensure that you are going inside only with things of primary importance; not even a hanky was allowed. Thank God, I was not having a running nose.
I went in and did my signing of the doc and was taken to the lat seat, all other seats were occupied.
I decided in my mind that I will take 3 breaks and planned accordingly. I sat down @ the cubicle number 8.
The instructor asked me to verify the details shown in the screen; done. Then he asked me go through the steps how to take the exam and all other details. It’s a 15 minutes exercise which I completed in 5 minutes and used the remaining time to make my brain dump- all the processes , formulae etc for future reference and it turned out to a fantastic thing during the exam. I dint have to remember, just to look into it and answer some of the direct questions.
I completed first 50 questions in 1 hour 10 minutes, next in 50 minutes, next in 50 minutes and last 50 in 50 minutes. Got 20 minutes for reviewing .I marked 30 questions for review and just reviewed 10. Couldn’t do a proper review of the remaining 20 ones. So decided not make mistakes in a hurry review and call it as the end of the exam. Sat back and see what happened around and no body was there I was alone in the room. Clicked to end the exam and then a screen cam to evaluate the test center I was not feeling anything good or bad about the center at that point of time, so simply selected the best answer.
I waited for 10 – 20 seconds waiting to see the results of my entire effort of couple of man months. The there came the Congratulation message which literally took me to a zero gravity situation.
That feeling was awesome which I experienced quite some time back.
Came out of the room and got my result sheet along with a congrats from the lady sitting there. She signed and put a seal on the certificate and hand it over to me.
Now I realized that I couldn’t implement the plan of the breaks which I made, even for a biological one.
Took my belongings from the locker and submitted the key back and came out.
I felt quite comfortable and called mother just to share the good news.
I shared the news with my good friends in the office and send Congratss and demanded a party , I did not disagree.
That’s it and I took a ric and went home and saw the Bourne Supremacy.
Even though I attended the formal training required to sit for the exam before quite some time ago I decided to give the exam recently- precisely in the last weeks of June -2009.
I planned for the 23 of the month ,June-09 but due to some urgency in the office it had to be shifted to 25 of the month.
Learning and Preparation for an exam like PMP which grills you to the core of your understanding are Poles apart. This is my first learning.
I tried to apply the trick which all of us used in our college days .Have a general understanding of the subjects and solve as many previous exam papers and simulated tests available in the market to make you pass. The very second day of practice I realized that this is not going to go anywhere. The guys who are setting the question papers as really brilliant and knows how to differentiate between original and dup.
So I chalked out a new plan.
Specifically go to each knowledge area (of 9) and then step in to each process in that which together makes the 5 process groups of the PMBoK guide.
Even though I read PMBoK earlier now its entirely different game altogether.
Studied all the processes, the 44 of them and I was confident I can reproduce any of them in any order.
Then comes the real challenge; learn the Inputs for each process and the tool and techniques which are used upon each and the out put they are producing out of them. Just by-hearting them will not help rather it was almost impossible to do. For that my approach was logical linking of each of them in a process to recollect them whenever required. This was not completely successful, but you may say near about 85 % of the input, tools& technique and the outputs I was able to recollect. The rest 15 % I took a risk- for which I didn’t have a mitigation plan but decided to respond to it when it occurs.
Once I was comfortable with the learning I wanted to go for a test again- the instinct to be comfortable with yourself once you get a passing score. I went for one and score 63% and I passed. That was a good moral boost even though it was not at all a commendable score in a practice exam. Some of my colleague said that one has to score 90% + and then only go for a real test. Still, that passing score gave me a good pat on the back.
Then I’ve checked al the questions to which I answered wrong and understand the gap in my knowledge with the PMI standards. Again brushed up the points and took some more tests. In all the tests my scores were improving, not remarkably but gradually. Okay, so far so good.
Then I started listening to a pod cast in which the host was PMP and detailing out the each processes and its tools and techniques and the outputs and the “Gyan” around that. It was so good, that it allowed me to do a total review of al the points I learned. Since I find it easy to remember things which I listen this thing was a quite advantage.
In doing all these things my time ran out and tomorrow is the exam.
The evening before exam I went for a jog and tried not to think about the exam and the ‘things’ I‘ve to remember. Came back home had some food watched the Hollywood movie “Bourne Identity” – I don’t know how many times I‘ve seen that movie; Guys Bourne is remarkable …. Then I went through the formulae and some finance problems just to refresh them. Wanted to go early to bed, but I hit the bed by 12: 45 am.
Had a good sleep and got up on the exam day.
My exam was scheduled for the afternoon session and just sat to recollect some points which I noted in the pad to refer. Alas, nothing was coming clearly in the mind. I started doubting what should be the result, rather was sure it will not be good.
Then what I did was just took a nap for 15- 20 minutes to calm me down. That was good decision and after waking up I was not much worried about the formulae or the exam questions. Had brunch and kept all the documents to carry to the exam. By the time mother called from home just wish me good luck. With that I was ready.
It was about rain here so I decided not to take my bike and took a rickshaw to the prometric center which is 15 minutes away. Usually the roads are clear during that hour of the day but I was stuck up in traffic, which made me thinking about the Risk Management of the PMBoK J
So I reached the exam center 20 minutes before the exam where the situation was quite different. There were almost 7-9 people there to give various online test, most of them for PMP. The atmosphere at the waiting area was filled with tension. I had to wait for 15 minutes before starting the verification and body scanning to ensure that you are going inside only with things of primary importance; not even a hanky was allowed. Thank God, I was not having a running nose.
I went in and did my signing of the doc and was taken to the lat seat, all other seats were occupied.
I decided in my mind that I will take 3 breaks and planned accordingly. I sat down @ the cubicle number 8.
The instructor asked me to verify the details shown in the screen; done. Then he asked me go through the steps how to take the exam and all other details. It’s a 15 minutes exercise which I completed in 5 minutes and used the remaining time to make my brain dump- all the processes , formulae etc for future reference and it turned out to a fantastic thing during the exam. I dint have to remember, just to look into it and answer some of the direct questions.
I completed first 50 questions in 1 hour 10 minutes, next in 50 minutes, next in 50 minutes and last 50 in 50 minutes. Got 20 minutes for reviewing .I marked 30 questions for review and just reviewed 10. Couldn’t do a proper review of the remaining 20 ones. So decided not make mistakes in a hurry review and call it as the end of the exam. Sat back and see what happened around and no body was there I was alone in the room. Clicked to end the exam and then a screen cam to evaluate the test center I was not feeling anything good or bad about the center at that point of time, so simply selected the best answer.
I waited for 10 – 20 seconds waiting to see the results of my entire effort of couple of man months. The there came the Congratulation message which literally took me to a zero gravity situation.
That feeling was awesome which I experienced quite some time back.
Came out of the room and got my result sheet along with a congrats from the lady sitting there. She signed and put a seal on the certificate and hand it over to me.
Now I realized that I couldn’t implement the plan of the breaks which I made, even for a biological one.
Took my belongings from the locker and submitted the key back and came out.
I felt quite comfortable and called mother just to share the good news.
I shared the news with my good friends in the office and send Congratss and demanded a party , I did not disagree.
That’s it and I took a ric and went home and saw the Bourne Supremacy.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Water: a rare commodity
While I was going back home from office yesterday by 3 30 am (yes you read correct, 3 am) I witnessed a long queue of people to collect water along the way.
There can be two reason’s for this, either the water distributions system is not good (in a way it’s not unto certain standards, but considering the mass it serves, its serving the bare minimum purpose) or there is not enough good quality water available to distribute among the citizens.
I think later is the serious and current problem. Even though India is having a vast geography available across which good amount of rain available, as a people or a system we have not explored all the various possibilities (natural and scientific) to harvest it and use it for the demanding situations.
Read somewhere sometime back that most of the future wars will be fought for water- the rare commodity. This is certainly avoidable and it’s high time to have a vision and mission towards it.
And as a responsible citizen of the Nation every one of should see to it that we are using only that much water which is required.
There can be two reason’s for this, either the water distributions system is not good (in a way it’s not unto certain standards, but considering the mass it serves, its serving the bare minimum purpose) or there is not enough good quality water available to distribute among the citizens.
I think later is the serious and current problem. Even though India is having a vast geography available across which good amount of rain available, as a people or a system we have not explored all the various possibilities (natural and scientific) to harvest it and use it for the demanding situations.
Read somewhere sometime back that most of the future wars will be fought for water- the rare commodity. This is certainly avoidable and it’s high time to have a vision and mission towards it.
And as a responsible citizen of the Nation every one of should see to it that we are using only that much water which is required.
Friday, April 3, 2009
The importance of clarity in communication in time...
The heading look like something very trivial but it holds the key to success of any endeavor be it career, relationship anything..
During any communication we - the presenter / sender think that the listener / receiver understood completely what we said in the same context. I can tell you that in 9 out of 10 cases this may not be the situation.
Main problem is that sender and receiver are two different person /entity and completely at two different frames of mind.
Some times you may be very good at identifying the signal / clues which will make you think that the other person also will be good at it and understand what you meant.
Recently I experienced this where the receiver not understood what I meant, but I assumed the other way. And later all the hell broken and receiver consider the sender as a liar or something of less esteem.
So the bottom line, “state the bloody obvious” and ensure that it is understood by the receiver properly by asking for feedback or play it back.
Remember this should be done exactly in time. NO procrastination… that makes the combination of the 3 parameters (clarity, communication and time of communication) deadly.
This will help you to avoid unnecessary mental chaos in your life and you can spend time in something positive.
During any communication we - the presenter / sender think that the listener / receiver understood completely what we said in the same context. I can tell you that in 9 out of 10 cases this may not be the situation.
Main problem is that sender and receiver are two different person /entity and completely at two different frames of mind.
Some times you may be very good at identifying the signal / clues which will make you think that the other person also will be good at it and understand what you meant.
Recently I experienced this where the receiver not understood what I meant, but I assumed the other way. And later all the hell broken and receiver consider the sender as a liar or something of less esteem.
So the bottom line, “state the bloody obvious” and ensure that it is understood by the receiver properly by asking for feedback or play it back.
Remember this should be done exactly in time. NO procrastination… that makes the combination of the 3 parameters (clarity, communication and time of communication) deadly.
This will help you to avoid unnecessary mental chaos in your life and you can spend time in something positive.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
It’s not about the bike --- my journey back to life
It’s not about the bike --- my journey back to life:
Even though last couple of weeks I had a quite hectic work schedule got a chance to read one nice book named as the heading of this chapter.
One of my good friends Malcolm suggested and was kind enough to borrow me his copy of the book. Thanks Malcolm.
The book describes the professional and personal life of Lance Armstrong - I think the most famous cyclist alive- and its ups and downs.
Even though he was a reasonably successful cyclist before the cancer trauma strikes his life, it came out in such a way that he eventually become an Icon cyclist rather icon of will power.
Story goes like this. Lance, son of a single mother and since they were not financially strong, he had to put additional effort to be in par with his friends.
H e used cycle to go to school for a pretty good distance on a daily basis and there comes a cycle race, participated and realized that he is good at it.
Nothing dramatic or unusual.
Years passed and he grew biologically and as cyclist.
One fine day fate knocks at his door and tells him that the first half of the movie is over the rather nail biting second half is about to starts...
At first he didn’t understand indication even though he had a pain at his groin region..
suddenly he starts coughing blood, and he tried to wash it away ,to make him believe that its not serious... .But as we all know that, you just cannot wash the bad times away like that.
Eventually doctor-friend came, identified the gravity of the situation, moved to the hospital for further diagnosis and it turned out to be the testicular
Cancer at its worst- stage III affected the lungs and the brain.
Chemo started and all other medicines came together.
Bike was kept at the garage, unsure about its future as well as its rider's.
Chemo was able to kill the cancer growth, only with the help of Lance's powerful will to live.
One of his testicles had to go since it was so badly affected by the cancer.
He had a recovery period of 1 year where he tried to ride the bike and initially the body was not allowing but give up.
But his will was not ready to give up. so the body had to perform and eventually it started regaining the status of the good old days...
Lance started preparing for some races and where he could not just keep up with the competitors and he broke and decides to quit the cycling.
started golfing as new passion as we all does to duck down from the real failure and made a courageous statement that 'I'm retired from cycling'
but his friend knew actually it is not the truth... so they manipulated him in such a way that realize the world that the cancer survivor can win major race
and retire. so he started practicing and in a fine day there comes again Mr.: Fate and said , now see the other twist in the story, as usual he didn’t
understand and he just made a record breaking climb of a hilly region during the practice which ignited his confidence tremendously and he starts
enjoying the cycling again.
there onwards it was a real hard practice where his mind , body and then the bike started practicing together as a single entity and history starts
following.
He won the 1999 Tour de France ... and for next 5 consecutive years...
Lesson learned:
Will power and tenacious effort will make great things , irrespective of the number of balls you have.
It was such a wonderful read …..
Even though last couple of weeks I had a quite hectic work schedule got a chance to read one nice book named as the heading of this chapter.
One of my good friends Malcolm suggested and was kind enough to borrow me his copy of the book. Thanks Malcolm.
The book describes the professional and personal life of Lance Armstrong - I think the most famous cyclist alive- and its ups and downs.
Even though he was a reasonably successful cyclist before the cancer trauma strikes his life, it came out in such a way that he eventually become an Icon cyclist rather icon of will power.
Story goes like this. Lance, son of a single mother and since they were not financially strong, he had to put additional effort to be in par with his friends.
H e used cycle to go to school for a pretty good distance on a daily basis and there comes a cycle race, participated and realized that he is good at it.
Nothing dramatic or unusual.
Years passed and he grew biologically and as cyclist.
One fine day fate knocks at his door and tells him that the first half of the movie is over the rather nail biting second half is about to starts...
At first he didn’t understand indication even though he had a pain at his groin region..
suddenly he starts coughing blood, and he tried to wash it away ,to make him believe that its not serious... .But as we all know that, you just cannot wash the bad times away like that.
Eventually doctor-friend came, identified the gravity of the situation, moved to the hospital for further diagnosis and it turned out to be the testicular
Cancer at its worst- stage III affected the lungs and the brain.
Chemo started and all other medicines came together.
Bike was kept at the garage, unsure about its future as well as its rider's.
Chemo was able to kill the cancer growth, only with the help of Lance's powerful will to live.
One of his testicles had to go since it was so badly affected by the cancer.
He had a recovery period of 1 year where he tried to ride the bike and initially the body was not allowing but give up.
But his will was not ready to give up. so the body had to perform and eventually it started regaining the status of the good old days...
Lance started preparing for some races and where he could not just keep up with the competitors and he broke and decides to quit the cycling.
started golfing as new passion as we all does to duck down from the real failure and made a courageous statement that 'I'm retired from cycling'
but his friend knew actually it is not the truth... so they manipulated him in such a way that realize the world that the cancer survivor can win major race
and retire. so he started practicing and in a fine day there comes again Mr.: Fate and said , now see the other twist in the story, as usual he didn’t
understand and he just made a record breaking climb of a hilly region during the practice which ignited his confidence tremendously and he starts
enjoying the cycling again.
there onwards it was a real hard practice where his mind , body and then the bike started practicing together as a single entity and history starts
following.
He won the 1999 Tour de France ... and for next 5 consecutive years...
Lesson learned:
Will power and tenacious effort will make great things , irrespective of the number of balls you have.
It was such a wonderful read …..
Saturday, February 21, 2009
The Art of Woo-ing
“The Art of Woo”
Wooing is one of the most important skills in a manager's repertoire. Research would seem to support this claim as people with strong social skills have been shown to command higher fees and salaries than equally talented but less socially adept colleagues. And they are no doubt more pleasant to be around. Winning others over is an art. It is the ability to sell “your ideas to people within the context of ongoing, important relationships.” They maintain, “If you want to be a player in your organization, a successful partner with your customers or suppliers, a leader in your community, or even a good parent, you need to woo people to your point of view by putting your ideas across in convincing, relationship-friendly ways.” To that end, they remind us that the idea in persuasion is not to defeat the other person but to win them over. The place to begin is in understanding your own persuasion style. They have identified five types—The Driver, The Promoter, The commander, The Chess Player and The Advocate—and have included a Persuasion Style Assessment to get you started. Whatever your preferred style tends to be, the idea is to strike a balance between what the authors identify as the "self-oriented" perspective-where focus is on the persuader's credibility and point of view-and the "other-oriented" perspective, which focuses on the audience's needs, perceptions and feelings. They have created a systematic strategy or Woo Process, to aid you in skillfully getting your point across. In brief they are:
Step 1: Survey Your Situation, that is Forge and polish your idea, Map the decision process you face by understanding the social networks within the organization, Assess your persuasion styles, and Confirm your own level of passion for the proposal.
Step 2: Confront the Five Barriers, including Negative relationships, Poor credibility, Communication mismatches, Contrary belief systems, and Conflicting Interests. Then transform these five barriers into assets.
Step 3: Make Your Pitch by Presenting solid evidence and arguments and Using devices to give your idea a personal touch.
Step 4: Secure Your Commitments by dealing with politics at both The individual level and Within the organization. They note that authority plays a background role in most interactions and while it can be useful in some situations, it should not be relied upon especially where there are multiple stakeholders. They say, “The formal roles people occupy are the starting positions for a complex dance of organizational influence.” They also note that actually, the higher up you go in an organization, the less authority comes into play and the more important relationship and persuasion skills become.
So , Happy wooing guys!!!!! :)
-tail piece:
If there is any secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as your own.
—Henry Ford
Wooing is one of the most important skills in a manager's repertoire. Research would seem to support this claim as people with strong social skills have been shown to command higher fees and salaries than equally talented but less socially adept colleagues. And they are no doubt more pleasant to be around. Winning others over is an art. It is the ability to sell “your ideas to people within the context of ongoing, important relationships.” They maintain, “If you want to be a player in your organization, a successful partner with your customers or suppliers, a leader in your community, or even a good parent, you need to woo people to your point of view by putting your ideas across in convincing, relationship-friendly ways.” To that end, they remind us that the idea in persuasion is not to defeat the other person but to win them over. The place to begin is in understanding your own persuasion style. They have identified five types—The Driver, The Promoter, The commander, The Chess Player and The Advocate—and have included a Persuasion Style Assessment to get you started. Whatever your preferred style tends to be, the idea is to strike a balance between what the authors identify as the "self-oriented" perspective-where focus is on the persuader's credibility and point of view-and the "other-oriented" perspective, which focuses on the audience's needs, perceptions and feelings. They have created a systematic strategy or Woo Process, to aid you in skillfully getting your point across. In brief they are:
Step 1: Survey Your Situation, that is Forge and polish your idea, Map the decision process you face by understanding the social networks within the organization, Assess your persuasion styles, and Confirm your own level of passion for the proposal.
Step 2: Confront the Five Barriers, including Negative relationships, Poor credibility, Communication mismatches, Contrary belief systems, and Conflicting Interests. Then transform these five barriers into assets.
Step 3: Make Your Pitch by Presenting solid evidence and arguments and Using devices to give your idea a personal touch.
Step 4: Secure Your Commitments by dealing with politics at both The individual level and Within the organization. They note that authority plays a background role in most interactions and while it can be useful in some situations, it should not be relied upon especially where there are multiple stakeholders. They say, “The formal roles people occupy are the starting positions for a complex dance of organizational influence.” They also note that actually, the higher up you go in an organization, the less authority comes into play and the more important relationship and persuasion skills become.
So , Happy wooing guys!!!!! :)
-tail piece:
If there is any secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as your own.
—Henry Ford
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Failed System..
Last wednesday evening while i was surfing net, came across a neews in 'rediff' as there are some gunshots in and around 'Fort' - nearby area of Mumbai's Gateway ofIndia. As gunshots are part of the Mumbai news circle it was nothting to catch my interest then...
I called up one of my friend to clarfy ( as I don't have a televisison set at my premises currently) and he also conveyed that it was regular 'gun-wun' stuff of amchi Mumbai...
--I went to bed thinking that how to handle tomorrow's meetings and the 'deadlines' wihtout knowing that some of my countrymen are really fighting with their deadline..
Thursday ...
Curious to know abt yesterday's gunfights in Colaba area, went through some web pages and got a shock.By the time daily also has come... telling that we already lost some of the very best Officers during the firing and aroud 80-90 people also lost their lives @ CST railway station shootout.
This is serious.
Some of the best men of Mumbai police both seniors and juniors in the cadre are dead...
Its difficult to narrate the incident and the feeling but such incidents are not acceptable ...
I called up one of my friend to clarfy ( as I don't have a televisison set at my premises currently) and he also conveyed that it was regular 'gun-wun' stuff of amchi Mumbai...
--I went to bed thinking that how to handle tomorrow's meetings and the 'deadlines' wihtout knowing that some of my countrymen are really fighting with their deadline..
Thursday ...
Curious to know abt yesterday's gunfights in Colaba area, went through some web pages and got a shock.By the time daily also has come... telling that we already lost some of the very best Officers during the firing and aroud 80-90 people also lost their lives @ CST railway station shootout.
This is serious.
Some of the best men of Mumbai police both seniors and juniors in the cadre are dead...
Its difficult to narrate the incident and the feeling but such incidents are not acceptable ...
Friday, December 7, 2007
How Hard Could It Be?: Five Easy Ways to Fail
source : Joel Spolsky
A huge number of technology projects go wrong. This is news to no one. Whether you run a software company with a number of ongoing development efforts or you have a nontech company that hires consultants here and there to provide systems integration, chances are you've bumped up against this problem. Delays, blown budgets, and outright failures are so common in the software world, in fact, that it's hardly newsworthy when a project is years late and millions over budget.
In 2003, for example, I flew out to Los Angeles for one of those conferences that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) occasionally puts on for software developers. At the event, Microsoft made a lot of exciting announcements about some of the revolutionary new features coming out soon in the next version of Windows. Looking back at my notes, I see that one of the important new features was something called WinFS. I'll spare you the boring details, but basically WinFS proposed to combine the file system features of your operating system (storing files and folders on a hard drive) with database features (where you store individual data records for easy search and retrieval) into one big unholy file-and-database mishmash.
This was quite an ambitious undertaking. WinFS was in technical terms approximately the equivalent of rearranging the nation's transportation system to accommodate flying cars. Yes, it would put airlines out of business, and yes, every garage would need to be widened a bit to accommodate cars with wings, but hey, we oughta be able to deliver this in a year or so. Two years, tops.
Three years passed. A manager at Microsoft named Quentin Clark announced on his blog that WinFS simply could not be delivered on time, and that it was holding up the launch of Microsoft's latest operating system. So it was going to be delayed and shipped, maybe, as a feature in a future database--meaning that it was not going to combine the database and the file system, which was the only thing that made it interesting. So how can you tell when one of your technology projects is destined to be another WinFS? Here's my five-step guide to ensure software failure:
Mistake No. 1: Start with a mediocre team of developers.Designing software is hard, and unfortunately, a lot of the people who call themselves programmers can't really do it. But even though a bad team of developers tends to be the No. 1 cause of software project failures, you'd never know it from reading official postmortems. In all fields, from software to logistics to customer service, people are too nice to talk about their co-workers' lack of competence. You'll never hear anyone say "the team was just not smart enough or talented enough to pull this off." Why hurt their feelings? The simple fact is that if the people on a given project team aren't very good at what they do, they're going to come into work every day and yet--behold!--the software won't get created. And don't worry too much about HR standing in your way of hiring a bunch of duds. In most cases, I assure you they will do nothing to prevent you from hiring untalented people.
Mistake No. 2: Set weekly milestones.Say you're remodeling your kitchen. That guy you hired to do the work has done a lot of kitchens before, and can estimate the cost of the job without having detailed blueprints. But software developers are building things that they've never built before. If they had, they'd just sell you another copy of the CD-ROM. So rough estimates are impossible. They need to draw up detailed plans before they start writing code. Whether you're the customer or the developers' manager, your job is to make sure they come up with that blueprint. When you ask developers for one, however, many of them will respond by creating a schedule that breaks pieces of the process into weeks. This may seem perfectly reasonable, but it's not. If you let a software team submit a schedule with big chunky estimates of time (by big I mean more than two days of work), you can be almost certain that they're not considering every detail that needs to be implemented, and those details will add up to a huge delay.
Mistake No. 3: Negotiate the deadline.What's worse than accepting a schedule that breaks down a software project by the week? Demanding that a team commit to completing its work much sooner than forecast. In my experience, most developers are optimists and will take your cue and engage in split-the-difference bargaining. You'll have a nice, agreed-upon schedule that you'll never stick to.
Think of it in these terms: Mama walruses deliver their calves at the end of a 15- to 16-month pregnancy. You might ask the mother to commit to 15 months and she might say, "No problem!" Or you might say, "Fifteen months? Are you crazy? We need this in eight months!" Of course, haggling like this can't possibly make things happen any faster, and even if you get the walrus to agree to an eight-month timetable, I'll let you in on a little secret: It'll never happen. You can have a schedule that says 11 months, but you'll still ship in 15 months, because that is how long it takes to make a baby walrus. Sixteen, sometimes.
Mistake No. 4: Divide tasks equitably.Here's a great way to torpedo any project. Make a list of all the work people have to do, and then reassign things to different people to balance the project. If Mary has too much work, give some of her tasks to John. This sounds completely sensible, so you won't be challenged.
But I promise you, in the long run it's sure to cause problems. That's because when one developer steps in to replace another, it's reasonable to assume that the new one will work at about one-tenth the speed. John's going to have to spend untold hours figuring out all the things that Mary already knows about her area of code. And John can't fix Mary's bugs as fast as Mary can because Mary knows where all the hidden traps are.
Mistake No. 5: Work till midnight.Let's say a project should take six months at 40 hours a week to complete. If you told everybody to work 60 hours a week, you could finish the development in four months flat. The software team might even embrace this challenge because it will make them look like heroes ("How great is that Walrus team? They're here every weekend!"). This should work, right? Guess again. There's a whole body of literature establishing that working more hours doesn't produce software any faster. Edward Yourdon, the software entrepreneur and author, dubbed this kind of project the "death march."
Software development takes immense intellectual effort. Even the best programmers can rarely sustain that level of effort for more than a few hours a day. Beyond that, they need to rest their brains a bit, which is why they always seem to be surfing the Internet or playing games when you barge in on them.
Compelling them to spend even more hours sitting in front of a computer won't really translate into more output--or if it does, it will be the wrong kind of output. When their brains are completely fried, software developers are almost certainly going to do more damage than good, writing unusable code and introducing bugs galore. And if you do ban the Internet and multiplayer games to force them to keep writing code past their natural bedtimes, well, they'll probably start quitting on you. Running a death march is not the only way to make a project late and a budget buster. But it is a surefire way to do so.
If these are all the ways you can go wrong, how can you ensure that a project actually goes right? First, you have to hire superstars. At Fog Creek, we tend to review about 400 candidates for every full-time hire, because the best developers can be 10 times as productive as the merely excellent developers.
Second, demand fine-grained time estimates from the developers. Yes, it's difficult for developers to predict how long it will take to build a new application. That's why they need to create a reliable blueprint before every project.
Once you have that schedule in hand, don't try to push up the deadline. If the project can't be completed in what you consider to be a reasonable amount of time, the answer is not to negotiate a better-sounding schedule. The answer is to get more resources, move back your ship date, or remove features.
As a project gets going, you'll at times be tempted to reassign work. But reassign it with care. It takes a long time for new developers to get up to speed on someone else's code. I think it's good to rotate developers through different jobs so that you don't have any irreplaceable individuals, but I do this cautiously and build an extra three weeks into the schedule for the incoming developer who's learning the new code, and an extra week for the outgoing developer who is teaching the code to the new person.
Finally, encourage your staff to work a sane 40 hours per week. Seriously. Except for occasional, very short bursts of activity to meet a deadline, we at Fog Creek work eight-hour days. In the technology world, it's better to view a big project as a marathon, and not a sprint.
A huge number of technology projects go wrong. This is news to no one. Whether you run a software company with a number of ongoing development efforts or you have a nontech company that hires consultants here and there to provide systems integration, chances are you've bumped up against this problem. Delays, blown budgets, and outright failures are so common in the software world, in fact, that it's hardly newsworthy when a project is years late and millions over budget.
In 2003, for example, I flew out to Los Angeles for one of those conferences that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) occasionally puts on for software developers. At the event, Microsoft made a lot of exciting announcements about some of the revolutionary new features coming out soon in the next version of Windows. Looking back at my notes, I see that one of the important new features was something called WinFS. I'll spare you the boring details, but basically WinFS proposed to combine the file system features of your operating system (storing files and folders on a hard drive) with database features (where you store individual data records for easy search and retrieval) into one big unholy file-and-database mishmash.
This was quite an ambitious undertaking. WinFS was in technical terms approximately the equivalent of rearranging the nation's transportation system to accommodate flying cars. Yes, it would put airlines out of business, and yes, every garage would need to be widened a bit to accommodate cars with wings, but hey, we oughta be able to deliver this in a year or so. Two years, tops.
Three years passed. A manager at Microsoft named Quentin Clark announced on his blog that WinFS simply could not be delivered on time, and that it was holding up the launch of Microsoft's latest operating system. So it was going to be delayed and shipped, maybe, as a feature in a future database--meaning that it was not going to combine the database and the file system, which was the only thing that made it interesting. So how can you tell when one of your technology projects is destined to be another WinFS? Here's my five-step guide to ensure software failure:
Mistake No. 1: Start with a mediocre team of developers.Designing software is hard, and unfortunately, a lot of the people who call themselves programmers can't really do it. But even though a bad team of developers tends to be the No. 1 cause of software project failures, you'd never know it from reading official postmortems. In all fields, from software to logistics to customer service, people are too nice to talk about their co-workers' lack of competence. You'll never hear anyone say "the team was just not smart enough or talented enough to pull this off." Why hurt their feelings? The simple fact is that if the people on a given project team aren't very good at what they do, they're going to come into work every day and yet--behold!--the software won't get created. And don't worry too much about HR standing in your way of hiring a bunch of duds. In most cases, I assure you they will do nothing to prevent you from hiring untalented people.
Mistake No. 2: Set weekly milestones.Say you're remodeling your kitchen. That guy you hired to do the work has done a lot of kitchens before, and can estimate the cost of the job without having detailed blueprints. But software developers are building things that they've never built before. If they had, they'd just sell you another copy of the CD-ROM. So rough estimates are impossible. They need to draw up detailed plans before they start writing code. Whether you're the customer or the developers' manager, your job is to make sure they come up with that blueprint. When you ask developers for one, however, many of them will respond by creating a schedule that breaks pieces of the process into weeks. This may seem perfectly reasonable, but it's not. If you let a software team submit a schedule with big chunky estimates of time (by big I mean more than two days of work), you can be almost certain that they're not considering every detail that needs to be implemented, and those details will add up to a huge delay.
Mistake No. 3: Negotiate the deadline.What's worse than accepting a schedule that breaks down a software project by the week? Demanding that a team commit to completing its work much sooner than forecast. In my experience, most developers are optimists and will take your cue and engage in split-the-difference bargaining. You'll have a nice, agreed-upon schedule that you'll never stick to.
Think of it in these terms: Mama walruses deliver their calves at the end of a 15- to 16-month pregnancy. You might ask the mother to commit to 15 months and she might say, "No problem!" Or you might say, "Fifteen months? Are you crazy? We need this in eight months!" Of course, haggling like this can't possibly make things happen any faster, and even if you get the walrus to agree to an eight-month timetable, I'll let you in on a little secret: It'll never happen. You can have a schedule that says 11 months, but you'll still ship in 15 months, because that is how long it takes to make a baby walrus. Sixteen, sometimes.
Mistake No. 4: Divide tasks equitably.Here's a great way to torpedo any project. Make a list of all the work people have to do, and then reassign things to different people to balance the project. If Mary has too much work, give some of her tasks to John. This sounds completely sensible, so you won't be challenged.
But I promise you, in the long run it's sure to cause problems. That's because when one developer steps in to replace another, it's reasonable to assume that the new one will work at about one-tenth the speed. John's going to have to spend untold hours figuring out all the things that Mary already knows about her area of code. And John can't fix Mary's bugs as fast as Mary can because Mary knows where all the hidden traps are.
Mistake No. 5: Work till midnight.Let's say a project should take six months at 40 hours a week to complete. If you told everybody to work 60 hours a week, you could finish the development in four months flat. The software team might even embrace this challenge because it will make them look like heroes ("How great is that Walrus team? They're here every weekend!"). This should work, right? Guess again. There's a whole body of literature establishing that working more hours doesn't produce software any faster. Edward Yourdon, the software entrepreneur and author, dubbed this kind of project the "death march."
Software development takes immense intellectual effort. Even the best programmers can rarely sustain that level of effort for more than a few hours a day. Beyond that, they need to rest their brains a bit, which is why they always seem to be surfing the Internet or playing games when you barge in on them.
Compelling them to spend even more hours sitting in front of a computer won't really translate into more output--or if it does, it will be the wrong kind of output. When their brains are completely fried, software developers are almost certainly going to do more damage than good, writing unusable code and introducing bugs galore. And if you do ban the Internet and multiplayer games to force them to keep writing code past their natural bedtimes, well, they'll probably start quitting on you. Running a death march is not the only way to make a project late and a budget buster. But it is a surefire way to do so.
If these are all the ways you can go wrong, how can you ensure that a project actually goes right? First, you have to hire superstars. At Fog Creek, we tend to review about 400 candidates for every full-time hire, because the best developers can be 10 times as productive as the merely excellent developers.
Second, demand fine-grained time estimates from the developers. Yes, it's difficult for developers to predict how long it will take to build a new application. That's why they need to create a reliable blueprint before every project.
Once you have that schedule in hand, don't try to push up the deadline. If the project can't be completed in what you consider to be a reasonable amount of time, the answer is not to negotiate a better-sounding schedule. The answer is to get more resources, move back your ship date, or remove features.
As a project gets going, you'll at times be tempted to reassign work. But reassign it with care. It takes a long time for new developers to get up to speed on someone else's code. I think it's good to rotate developers through different jobs so that you don't have any irreplaceable individuals, but I do this cautiously and build an extra three weeks into the schedule for the incoming developer who's learning the new code, and an extra week for the outgoing developer who is teaching the code to the new person.
Finally, encourage your staff to work a sane 40 hours per week. Seriously. Except for occasional, very short bursts of activity to meet a deadline, we at Fog Creek work eight-hour days. In the technology world, it's better to view a big project as a marathon, and not a sprint.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
