Her eyes
bright with hope
Her smile
ooze perennial confidence
Her hair
shadows the moonlight
Her gaze
across the horizon
Her lips
silent in thoughts
She broke my heart...
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Get back to the basics
Sanjaya Malakar (he has bengali roots... I'm rooting for him still now)
Virginia Tech shootings
Citibank layoffs
Gov. Jon Corzine
India's early and disgraceful exit from World cup cricket (its called world cup because 16 countries play for the title, not like World Series played only in America)
Murder of Bob Woolmer by alleged betting racketeers
Not-so-smart confessions by Angelina Jolie, after all, she is a UN ambassador
Iran's (I is pronounced as in ink) uranium enrichment rhetoric
Warren Buffet's immoral support for Darfur genocide
Real estate melt down
We are surely living in very troubled times....so its a request to all my readers to get back to basics-----in your own little ways and do something good every day to make your life better...
Virginia Tech shootings
Citibank layoffs
Gov. Jon Corzine
India's early and disgraceful exit from World cup cricket (its called world cup because 16 countries play for the title, not like World Series played only in America)
Murder of Bob Woolmer by alleged betting racketeers
Not-so-smart confessions by Angelina Jolie, after all, she is a UN ambassador
Iran's (I is pronounced as in ink) uranium enrichment rhetoric
Warren Buffet's immoral support for Darfur genocide
Real estate melt down
We are surely living in very troubled times....so its a request to all my readers to get back to basics-----in your own little ways and do something good every day to make your life better...
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
300 Only!!!
Last weekend I had the chance of watching the latest blockbuster movie called 300. Its a story of how 300 smart and courageous Spartan fighters fought and died valiantly against the powerful, ruthless hordes of Persion army lead by Xerxes. They inspired 10000 more Spartans to fight.
The movie is outstanding for rivetting photography, art direction and music. And also for eyecatching 'spartan' physique (Gerard Butler looks awesome with his 6 packs and beard). The director took tremendous help of imagination and special effects in portraying and packaging a 5th century historical event to a saleable movie . I see a video game in the offing with the same name soon.
However to me the release of this movie at this time seems to be an irony..........USA is fighting a 5 year old war at Iraq and President Bush is asking more funds and solidiers to fight the 'evil'; this is so akin to the movie where the king goes to war with the best 300 soldiers and his wife is making a presentation at the state council for more forces and funds. She also kills the person who resist the proposal ( more like Bush vetoing any Congress sanctions!). What is however different between the movie and the present war is that the latter was almost unilaterally initiated and pursued by US while the movie depicts the war as an act of defense (and not offense), as an effort to preserve independance. Hope the people watching this movie doesn't get too motivated by the glorification of war/battle :-)
The movie is outstanding for rivetting photography, art direction and music. And also for eyecatching 'spartan' physique (Gerard Butler looks awesome with his 6 packs and beard). The director took tremendous help of imagination and special effects in portraying and packaging a 5th century historical event to a saleable movie . I see a video game in the offing with the same name soon.
However to me the release of this movie at this time seems to be an irony..........USA is fighting a 5 year old war at Iraq and President Bush is asking more funds and solidiers to fight the 'evil'; this is so akin to the movie where the king goes to war with the best 300 soldiers and his wife is making a presentation at the state council for more forces and funds. She also kills the person who resist the proposal ( more like Bush vetoing any Congress sanctions!). What is however different between the movie and the present war is that the latter was almost unilaterally initiated and pursued by US while the movie depicts the war as an act of defense (and not offense), as an effort to preserve independance. Hope the people watching this movie doesn't get too motivated by the glorification of war/battle :-)
Thursday, February 22, 2007
SDLC and PMLC
The recent spurt of Fortune employers scouting for IT Project Managers with PMP certification has taken me by surprise. I started wondering that why these employers would need PMPs to do Software Project Management when they can 'sustain' with SDLC experts or is it just another certification fad!!
Project management as a discipline can be used to handle situations in almost any domain - from building houses, to planning your holidays, and obviously developing software. So Project Management is valuable to focus as an established mechanism (a science??) for getting work done. It has processes (Rita Mulcahy) and should be used for continuous improvement of PM processes and for capturing knowledge to improve the performance of the Project Team. Concern of project management include project planning, risk assessment and management, issue management, schedule management, status assessment and reporting, calculating costs etc.
SDLC is another specific discipline used only for the development of software. Concerns of SDLC involves requirements gathering, business modeling, systems architecture and design, development, integration, release, maintenance, etc.
The processes involved in SDLC definitely needs to be managed and data from these processes need to be collected for future improvement and client satisfaction.
The similarities are many in both of these methodologies; PM methodology recommends breaking down tasks into chunks of activities to be completed in definite or overlapping phases. SDLC prescribes the phases as Analysis, Design, Code and Test, Deploy . However its important to understand the differences;each of them has independant sets of metrics, and SDLC is much more specific than PMM. RUP, Agile and other software development methodologies has Project Management as a separate thread to address this unique overlap. RUP even also has no prescription for contract/vendor management.
At the end of day, it makes more sense to mix the PM and SDLC methodologies based on cumulative experiences, company culture and and come up with blended ( or chai latte) approaches (continuous improvement) that handles "who", "how", "when", "why" of "what" needs to be done in the context of IT Project Management. Also with most of the companies now agressively being involved in ourtsourcing and offshoring and multi-vendor contract development, software Project Management demands a new level of acuity and ingenuity than earlier. Again, SDLC supports only development of software systems, a project usually involves lot more than just developing software; customer interaction, business process reengineering, marketing a new product/service etc. Knowledge of generic PMLC helps to coordinate all these other activities.
So having a Project Management certification along with RUP or Six Sigma is not bad at all for your next career move!!
Project management as a discipline can be used to handle situations in almost any domain - from building houses, to planning your holidays, and obviously developing software. So Project Management is valuable to focus as an established mechanism (a science??) for getting work done. It has processes (Rita Mulcahy) and should be used for continuous improvement of PM processes and for capturing knowledge to improve the performance of the Project Team. Concern of project management include project planning, risk assessment and management, issue management, schedule management, status assessment and reporting, calculating costs etc.
SDLC is another specific discipline used only for the development of software. Concerns of SDLC involves requirements gathering, business modeling, systems architecture and design, development, integration, release, maintenance, etc.
The processes involved in SDLC definitely needs to be managed and data from these processes need to be collected for future improvement and client satisfaction.
The similarities are many in both of these methodologies; PM methodology recommends breaking down tasks into chunks of activities to be completed in definite or overlapping phases. SDLC prescribes the phases as Analysis, Design, Code and Test, Deploy . However its important to understand the differences;each of them has independant sets of metrics, and SDLC is much more specific than PMM. RUP, Agile and other software development methodologies has Project Management as a separate thread to address this unique overlap. RUP even also has no prescription for contract/vendor management.
At the end of day, it makes more sense to mix the PM and SDLC methodologies based on cumulative experiences, company culture and and come up with blended ( or chai latte) approaches (continuous improvement) that handles "who", "how", "when", "why" of "what" needs to be done in the context of IT Project Management. Also with most of the companies now agressively being involved in ourtsourcing and offshoring and multi-vendor contract development, software Project Management demands a new level of acuity and ingenuity than earlier. Again, SDLC supports only development of software systems, a project usually involves lot more than just developing software; customer interaction, business process reengineering, marketing a new product/service etc. Knowledge of generic PMLC helps to coordinate all these other activities.
So having a Project Management certification along with RUP or Six Sigma is not bad at all for your next career move!!
Monday, January 08, 2007
One more trip to India
I successfully returned to US last week from one more annual trip to India.
As usual, I amassed tons of invaluable experiences during this visit.....not only because I took a 'american gori' with me to 'amar kolkata' but also due the airlines I chose to travel with.
To start with, Air India delayed us by 30 hours and made us poorer by 500 dollars even before we could see the sunrays glimmering on wasteland-grass blades around the Kolkata airport. Air India and Indian Airlines made sure that the dollars saved by buying relatively cheap Air India tickets (during prime holiday season) ultimately got spend in purchasing alternate tickets..some kind of poetic justice...ehh.
On our way back Air India and United Airlines goofed up a checked in luggage at the Chicago airport and still there is no trace of it (heard from the mouth of a coughing call center agent based in New Delhi that the black luggage made it to other distant airports in the US during this time).
No more Air India I think in the days to come.
The american gori coupled me garnered more stares from passersby in Kolkata, Delhi and Agra than the number of girls I have stared at during my entire college life. Just think of it. When will our colonial hangover ultimately disappear??? And to top it all, most tourist sites in India make unprecedented discrimination based on skin colors....white people pay $15 and get to wear their shoes with a shoe-cover inside the Taj while brown skinned masses like I have to walk barefoot!! Who says color doesn't matter?
As usual, I amassed tons of invaluable experiences during this visit.....not only because I took a 'american gori' with me to 'amar kolkata' but also due the airlines I chose to travel with.
To start with, Air India delayed us by 30 hours and made us poorer by 500 dollars even before we could see the sunrays glimmering on wasteland-grass blades around the Kolkata airport. Air India and Indian Airlines made sure that the dollars saved by buying relatively cheap Air India tickets (during prime holiday season) ultimately got spend in purchasing alternate tickets..some kind of poetic justice...ehh.
On our way back Air India and United Airlines goofed up a checked in luggage at the Chicago airport and still there is no trace of it (heard from the mouth of a coughing call center agent based in New Delhi that the black luggage made it to other distant airports in the US during this time).
No more Air India I think in the days to come.
The american gori coupled me garnered more stares from passersby in Kolkata, Delhi and Agra than the number of girls I have stared at during my entire college life. Just think of it. When will our colonial hangover ultimately disappear??? And to top it all, most tourist sites in India make unprecedented discrimination based on skin colors....white people pay $15 and get to wear their shoes with a shoe-cover inside the Taj while brown skinned masses like I have to walk barefoot!! Who says color doesn't matter?
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Bite the Apple
I'm now in Big Apple.
The move from Houston, TX to NY happened very fast over the last few weeks. Obviously the reasons of the move can be summed up in one single quintessential word: professional-->I joined a new company hence a new assignment and hence a new location (the fact of the matter is presently I have 2 offices, the office of my employer and the office of my client)----the true portrait of a H1b holding consultant.
Life here at NY/NJ is much more hectic, chaotic, demanding than what I have experienced in my last few years in USA; the initial weeks went by just to absorb the turnaround and fit into the mould of this randomness.
Hope I will be able to keep this blog more updated now that I'm a bit more settled.
The move from Houston, TX to NY happened very fast over the last few weeks. Obviously the reasons of the move can be summed up in one single quintessential word: professional-->I joined a new company hence a new assignment and hence a new location (the fact of the matter is presently I have 2 offices, the office of my employer and the office of my client)----the true portrait of a H1b holding consultant.
Life here at NY/NJ is much more hectic, chaotic, demanding than what I have experienced in my last few years in USA; the initial weeks went by just to absorb the turnaround and fit into the mould of this randomness.
Hope I will be able to keep this blog more updated now that I'm a bit more settled.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Group 'Smart'
Groupsmart--I believe sooner or later this new phrase is going to be included in the dictionaries available. And believe me its way different from being streetsmart or booksmart. As per research, the average IQ of any professional group doesnt matter much as long there is a smart person in the group with a high IQ. The effectiveness of a group can be foretold if you know the IQ of the smartest person in the room.
Wow. Thats mind boggling. Does that mean having a smart kid amongst a bunch of not-so-smarts will make the entire group perform well??? May be Yes. Apparently, the answer depends on the difference in the degree of 'sharpness' between the smart one and the 'others' in a group or team. Too much of difference in smartness between the team members may actually result in ruining of the team spirit and hence the expected results due to internal rivalries, lack of appreciation and motivation (e.g. smartness not getting recognized).
So smartness in a group is antithesis to social skills in a group. As per the research again, it helps if every one in a group has some degree of social skills rather than one person being the eager-beaver as he/she might not be the smartest person in the group to take over the activities of the team. Makes sense!
Then why do we need a group?? Why cannot a genuis get it done all?? Well because the nature and volume of the work involved to complete any decent project (creating a picket fence or making a military anti-missile system) requires a variety of skillsets and not just a smart brain. However those teams will definitely have more chances to success that has atleast one very smart person. It is the person with the highest IQ who helps the group succeed.
Can we safely conclude thus that though individual brilliance (the substance of writers like Ayn Rand) is not dead, yet it pays to blend in smartness with social skills so that balanced teams can complete projects in less time with less defects??!!
Wow. Thats mind boggling. Does that mean having a smart kid amongst a bunch of not-so-smarts will make the entire group perform well??? May be Yes. Apparently, the answer depends on the difference in the degree of 'sharpness' between the smart one and the 'others' in a group or team. Too much of difference in smartness between the team members may actually result in ruining of the team spirit and hence the expected results due to internal rivalries, lack of appreciation and motivation (e.g. smartness not getting recognized).
So smartness in a group is antithesis to social skills in a group. As per the research again, it helps if every one in a group has some degree of social skills rather than one person being the eager-beaver as he/she might not be the smartest person in the group to take over the activities of the team. Makes sense!
Then why do we need a group?? Why cannot a genuis get it done all?? Well because the nature and volume of the work involved to complete any decent project (creating a picket fence or making a military anti-missile system) requires a variety of skillsets and not just a smart brain. However those teams will definitely have more chances to success that has atleast one very smart person. It is the person with the highest IQ who helps the group succeed.
Can we safely conclude thus that though individual brilliance (the substance of writers like Ayn Rand) is not dead, yet it pays to blend in smartness with social skills so that balanced teams can complete projects in less time with less defects??!!
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Questions To Ask Before You Decide
Ask yourself all these before you are ready to pack up and go....
- Are you unhappy with your current job, or are you seriously concerned for your (company's) future?? This is keeping in mind that you have successfully aligned your future with that of the present company.
- Have you hit the 'plateau' in the company and the next 'hill' is faraway? (You have evolved so fast that you need new gene pool for getting mutated or you will be a fossil gene soon)
- Are you looking forward to Monday? Or it makes you sick to be underutilized or go un-noticed??
- Is your current resume attracting more attention from recruiters for more meaningful role and position? ?
- Is the work culture at your company making you feel 'happy' or 'crappy'? ?
- Are you getting what you deserve or you are overpaid?? (In either case, change may be necessary for justifying your poor soul)
- Are you ready to give the old job a chance ? (Give 1 more try)
inspired by an email from my friend Kripal
Monday, September 11, 2006
AMEX sucks
AMEX SUCKS big time.
After 3 years of continuous use of AMEX, I was really amazed at the way they handled a 'change of address and phonenumber' issue; by putting all my credit cards to hold on financial review. Apparently they got ticked of as I was purchasing too many airline tickets including one to go to India....I didn't understand the issue as all the cards was paid up-to-date and the travel was mainly professional.I did what I could do. I paid off the debts and cancelled both the cards....thats my way of saying NO to the nuisance that's AMEX.
After 3 years of continuous use of AMEX, I was really amazed at the way they handled a 'change of address and phonenumber' issue; by putting all my credit cards to hold on financial review. Apparently they got ticked of as I was purchasing too many airline tickets including one to go to India....I didn't understand the issue as all the cards was paid up-to-date and the travel was mainly professional.I did what I could do. I paid off the debts and cancelled both the cards....thats my way of saying NO to the nuisance that's AMEX.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Lets Vote!!
What's better or What's bitter??
Working in a good company under a bad boss or Working in a bad company with a good boss.
This has been a question which I think have plagued all professionals at one point or the other during their tenure at any particular gig.
GE's Jack Welch think its always prudent to work for a good company with a bad boss as the company by virtue of being good will weed out the bad boss....well is it always true in the corporate world??
Waiting for the replies.....
Working in a good company under a bad boss or Working in a bad company with a good boss.
This has been a question which I think have plagued all professionals at one point or the other during their tenure at any particular gig.
GE's Jack Welch think its always prudent to work for a good company with a bad boss as the company by virtue of being good will weed out the bad boss....well is it always true in the corporate world??
Waiting for the replies.....
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