Uncommon "Common Sense"!

Scrum Video

2009-07-18T18:22:00.001+05:30

Nice way to introduce Scrum in 5 minutes...

Bob Martin on Software Craftsmanship

2009-05-06T01:18:00.000+05:30

Any Harvard MBA fans here? Read this...

2009-02-27T19:06:00.004+05:30

An interesting MBA bashing article...

MBA: the letters that spell financial ruin at Harvard

The author has done a good job of listing down all bad things about Harvard MBA and MBA in general -as if he has completely nailed the root cause of the current global economic crisis!

Since I am undergoing a business management program, it would not be justified for me to comment on this topic. However, I would be interested in knowing your views on this...

Agile disease or sour grapes?

2009-02-25T00:37:00.004+05:30

LD shared with me Jonathan Kohl’s blog post – The Agile Disease.

Jonathan’s argues that:

the good parts of agile are just common sense
agile is a fad-diet, religious-cult-inspired, money-making exercise it is for a group of consultants

To me, it seemed like he has more problems with agile consultants than the principles of agile software development itself. Also, his admission of being “an original signatory to the manifesto” makes me wonder if this is case of "sour grapes".

I must admit that this is not first time I have heard people arguing that agile principles are common sense. But, hey who said it’s a rocket science? And why it has to be complicated to be useful? Common sense really is not very common :-)

I liked Bob Martin’s comments:

Do some of us make money from the effort? Of course. I imagine even the author of this screed makes some money from his screeding (whether directly or indirectly). So what? Making money is an honorable activity."
"As for Agile being “Common Sense”, gosh _we_ thought so too! It turns out, however, that there are a lot of folks out there who have been taught and trained otherwise, and who need their common sense perception refactored."
"Sorry if I sound harsh, but I’m not feeling particularly charitable at the moment..."

What do you think about Agile, common sense and the arguments of Jonathan?

Tata Indicom gets a Second Life!

2009-01-30T01:52:00.003+05:30

I distinctively remember just when I had to prepare a presentation on 'Sustainable Assets Management (SAM) and I was learning about Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), a new broke out - "TCS makes it to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index". What a coincidence!

Well, history repeats itself... sometimes...

Now that I am about to complete my project on Second Life, another news broke out last week - "Tata Indicom gets a Second Life". Well, this makes Tata Teleservices Ltd the first Indian telecom company to establish it's presence in Second Life.

"the first telecom operator to have a presence in the virtual world with a mass media campaign; the first to offer a virtual talent hunt, which will invite participation from people all over the world; and the first to have its brand ambassadors, in their virtual avatars, engage with visitors from the Indian subcontinent in an interactive forum. "

As part of the initiative, Tata Indicom will create and own an 'island' in the virtual world of Second Life. Users can visit this island, participate in the talent hunt, get a deeper understanding of the company's products and offerings and enjoy the softer properties on the island, including games, songs and other interactive programs.

Lloyd Mathias, chief marketing officer, TTSL, says, "With the exciting Second Life initiative, we continue with our tradition of launching many industry firsts. The digital world is evolving at a fantastic pace – cutting across geographical and cultural barriers – and we firmly believe that the virtual world has a huge outreach potential for businesses. “As a company at the cutting edge of technology, TTSL always scouts for relevant and innovative technologies and opportunities. We feel our association with Second Life will redefine the concept of outreach and take digital interactivity to the next level, for it will allow Tata Indicom to engage with the growing digital audience in a manner that is relevant to them."

Second Life is an Internet enabled virtual world in which users can create their virtual identities to interact with the virtual identities of other users. Members of Second Life can participate in individual or group activities and create and trade items like virtual property and services. Members have to pay for the space they purchase on Second Life. Second Life is developed by the US based Linden Lab.

Now here are some interesting figures regarding the virtual world. According to Gartner Inc., by 2011, 80 per cent of active Internet users will interact with virtual worlds; by 2010, 20 per cent of global Tier I retailers will have a marketing presence in online games and virtual worlds. As far as Second Life is concerned, it has 15 million registered users and around 1.5 million active/unique users.

Long live Second Life:-)

Ducks Quack, Eagles Fly

2009-01-21T19:37:00.005+05:30

I have read this more than a couple of times and found it so meaningful every time... Knowing that you may have already read this, I still thought of sharing it for the benefits of those who may have missed it...

***** Ducks Quack , Eagles Fly *****

No one can make you serve customers well.

That's because great service is a choice.

Harvey Mackay, tells a wonderful story about a cab driver that proved this point.

He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey.

He handed my friend a laminated card and said:
"I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement."

Taken aback, Harvey read the card.. It said:
Wally's Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, "Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf."

My friend said jokingly, "No, I'd prefer a soft drink."

Wally smiled and said, "No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice."

Almost stuttering, Harvey said, "I'll take a Diet Coke."

Handing him his drink, Wally said, "If you'd like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today."

As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card. "These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio."

And as if that weren't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.

"Tell me, Wally," my amazed friend asked the driver, "have you always served customers like this?"

Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. "No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day.

He had just written a book called You'll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, 'Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don't be a duck. Be an eagle.. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.'"

"That hit me right between the eyes," said Wally. "Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more."

"I take it that has paid off for you," Harvey said.

"It sure has," Wally replied. "My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action."

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. I've probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn't do any of what I was suggesting.

Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.

How about us???

More on High Performing Teams

2008-12-04T02:05:00.005+05:30

Last month Prasoon posted thoughts on high performing teams - what is a high performing team, what are their foundational qualities and behaviors.

Here are few more thoughts on what can we do to create high performing teams:

Focus on Team Composition:
- Ability: Generally, IT project team staffer / manager focus on this well
- Personality: Mostly ignored, but very critical to reach to high performing state. Right mix of Personality Types (Introvert vs. Extrovert, Sensing vs. Intuition, Thinking vs. Feeling, Judging vs. Perceiving) is required to complement each other.
- Size: With Scrum, we have increased focus on not exceeding the optimal size. What about the minimum team size? Can I say a 2 members team (even if both are generalists) is optimally sized?
- Diversity: Put all Java "gurus" on one project for 6 months and ask them to do pair programming. They may not literally fight, but will definitely get fed up and prefer to work individually!!! Diversity is key to gel the team and to establish trust and respect within the team
- Roles: Leaderless team is hot these days... But, lets not mistaken it with team without any roles and responsibilities. A high performing team should have at least one or more people playing each of the following roles:

Focus on sustaining and improving motivation level of teams. It's a well established fact that motivated team perform better.

Motivational Potential Score = [(SV+TI+TS)/3]*A*F
where,
SV= Skill Variety
TI= Task identity (is it ideal for me?)
TS= Task significance (does it make difference in organizational affairs)
A= Autonomy
F= Feedback

So, what should we be doing to increase motivation level of our teams? Thoughts?

Is 80-20 rule justified for investment in IT?

2008-12-02T01:17:00.002+05:30

The heat is on! With every day passing by, the financial tsunami is rapidly spreading across the globe. The key issues are:

Liquidity
High cost of capital
Unavailability of credit
Volatile forex markets
Very low levels of confidence in economy

While the Indian regulatory system seems to have minimized the impact on banking system, the impact on IT industry deserves detailed look.

Mr. Sudhakar Ram, CMD, Mastek Ltd and India Business Leader of the Year 2007 has written an insightful article in The Economic Times yesterday.

"Impact of the crisis on the Indian IT" - Mr. Sudhakar Ram

He highlights a very interesting point that "when we dig into the reasons for the crisis, while we can blame blind optimism and greed, at a more fundamental level it is a failure of systems... ...Better controls and risk management systems governing individual firms as well as the entire financial system would have helped to track the quantum of leverage and the risks associated with it — both from the perspective of board governance and regulatory oversight."

While every CIO is contemplating on what is the right amount to invest in IT during 2009, Mr. Ram has a perspective that I can't agree more.

"For too long, large institutions have been trying to get away with spending 80% of IT dollars just on maintenance — keeping the lights on — and only 20% on new initiatives.

In fact, in a recent Information Week article, Rob Preston says that IT’s Number One priority is to release money for new projects. He says: "If you think you can lay low under the corporate radar or continue to argue that the 80-20 rule is an immutable law of IT physics, then you're due for a wake-up call."

It really boils down to what goals we set for ourselves - 'tide over the tsunami' or 'prepare to emerge as a leader'. What are your thoughts on "right" investment in IT?

Mumbai Update

2008-11-27T23:17:00.003+05:30

It's been more than 24 hours since the Mumbai came under an unprecedented terrorist attack, the rescue operations are far from over. The visuals on TV are disturbing and situation is very very tensed out here.

I wish and pray that all your friends and families are safe. Fortunately, my friends, colleagues and relatives are safe here. Hope the situation becomes normal very soon.

It's holiday time in US. I wish all of you a very happy thanksgiving!

Situational Leadership

2008-11-26T13:18:00.005+05:30

So often I find organization "culture" influencing the leadership style so much that just to align to the "culture" or style of the boss, people miss out on the common sense of leadership styles. I firmly believe that you need to have different strokes for different folks.

Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard have done a phenomenal job of explaining this through 'Situational Leadership". Effectiveness of a leadership style - Directing, Coaching, Supporting or Delegating- depends on development level of the follower. Hersey and Blanchard use four development levels to explain the concept.

* D1 -“Enthusiastic Beginner”: Low Competence, High Commitment
* D2 - “Disillusioned Learner”: Some Competence, Low Commitment
* D3 - “Reluctant Contributor”: Moderate to High Competence, Variable Commitment
* D4 - “Peak Performer”: High Competence, High Commitment

Suggested leadership styles for each levels are:
* Directing for Enthusiastic Beginner
* Coaching for Disillusioned Learner
* Supporting for Reluctant Contributor
* Delegating for Peak Performer

There is a lot of literature available on this topic, but there is, unfortunately, a very few people / organizations practicing them:-(

So, which leadership style works for you?

“Gully Cricket” Strategy

2008-11-13T08:13:00.005+05:30

I have played Gully cricket a lot. It's a ball game played on street with whatever equipment you get and using any rules that you feel like.

Here is an observation of a gully cricket game and field setting strategy of a team (use the diagram if you are unfamiliar with the game):

When a batsman hits the ball over the top of bowler’s head, the captain immediately ensures that long on and long off fielders are in place to catch it next time
The next ball flies 2 meters right to the wicket-keeper and the captain immediately sets two fielders in sleep cordon
The batsman now pushes for a single run in "mid-off" area and the captain decides to bring "long off" fielder closer to stop the runs on next ball
Guess what, the next ball is hit over the head of "mid-off" fielder!
The fielders oblige to the captain, because the captain owns the bat and ball. Once he leaves, there is no cricket for that day:-)

[source: http://www.abcofcricket.com]

Well, there is a lot of common sense learning in this example that may sound very stupid, but not very unreal.

Do we observe somewhat similar behaviors at work?

Knee jerk reactions and stop-gap solutions to day-to-day problems
Temptation to solve all the problems and solve them NOW
Kick-off a new initiative without thinking through the aspects of sustainability, measurement and accountability
Not questioning the boss, because he/she is THE BOSS (he/she does my evaluation and decides my career progression)
Fighting battles hard and loosing wars

A common sense solution would be to answer following questions for any new initiatives / solutions that we implement:

Is the problem really "the problem"? (Don’t take problem on face value. Identify root cause. Try to spot a pattern / trend)
Do the stakeholders (project team, sponsors, customer service,...) affected by the problem acknowledge the problem and seek a solution? (Or we are giving them solution just because we have the solution, time and money. What are the pain-points that we are trying to address?)
Do we need to solve it now? (How does it align to our vision? Would it create more distraction for the team than benefit them? Is there a pressing need to solve it now? Don’t you think constrains bring more creativity?)
How do we sustain the solution? (If solution is to do monthly assessment of project, how do you put it in the workflow of project life-cycle to ensure that it gets done every month in right spirit? Who will own it?)
How do we communicate the solution and its benefit?
How would we measure success of the solution?
How would we collect feedback and make improvements in the solution?

Does it make sense? How do you solve such problems?