Nix Talk

Agile Roles and Responsibilities - My Key Note from AGILE NYC Conf held on 11/17

2010-11-19T06:19:00.000-08:00

I attended the NYC Agile Conf yesterday where Dan Mezick was talking about BART (Boundary, Authority, Role, Task)

This Topic in iteslf is very obvious given the fact that every book on agile (or any process) would say that you need to follow all rules to the T to make it work.
And of course, why not, the great minds behind the Agile Manifesto must have put loads of thought to write these responsibilites for different roles in an Agile world.

So now coming to the big question "what were the key take aways if the topic of disucssion was known".
I would say the the one thing I would like to write about after this session is to take a pause and "RETROSPECT".Let me explain.
When we kick off a project in SCRUM and put a team in place, we jot down a certain set of rules for the team to follow. The team then agrees to follow many of these rules and

takes up the responsibilities at will. They also start adhering to it religiously in the beginning. All good so far.

However down the line, there will be several instances when somebody in the team would drop the ball in doing what it takes for the team, given the responsibility he / she has.

And given our human nature there is this somebody who will back fill for this person and take up those responsibilities.
To give you an example there was this team where a senior team member, who was the tech Lead had taken up the task of facilitating all team meetings as the SCRUM Master (being

from the senior leadership) was not able to do that due to lack of bandwidth. Now such kind of instances are very common with every team, as we evolve and adapt to situations

and that is what we call team rythm in scrum.

So is such a kind of Rythm good or bad. Ofcourse like I earlier said, to make a process work, you need to follow every rule to the T.
The Verdict - We need need to avoid this as much as possible and if it is already happening to a great extent then we must plan to take corrective actions. But many a times we

just let it go because the team is delivering expected results and we are hesitant to make any changes fearing that it will reduce velocity. But if we just give this phenomenon

a deeper thought then it would make sense to put things in place even at the cost of a reduced velocity for a few sprints as it is bound to give better results later.

Well apart from this there was in teresting quote that came up during discussion in this Session.
" SCRUM Master is the Team's Mother". This topic in itself is so interesting and vast that I will be writing a separate BLOG to express my thoughts.
Till then Adios

- Nikhil

JUGAAD

2010-09-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

I attended a seminar on Kanban ( A Japanese concept related to lean and just-in-time (JIT) production ) this week and was pretty much impressed by the Japanese way of Management. This made me think, if there are any business theorems that have originated in India . That is when LD told me about the "JUGAAD" theory that is currently brewing in business circles.
Wow !!! Interesting !!! That was my reaction when I first heard of it. I instantly mined the internet and I found an article published on Harvard Business Review

Below are the excerpts from the blog:
Frugal innovation is a hot topic today as post-downturn corporate America looks for ways to do more for less, while serving broader markets. This will require practicing the gutsy art of Jugaad. The Hindi term roughly translates as "overcoming harsh constraints by improvising an effective solution using limited resources". We call it the art of creative improvisation - within a framework of deep knowledge and experience.

Over the last five years, we have studied and interacted with scores of entrepreneurs in India and beyond who practice Jugaad to understand their mindset and innovation principles. We find that Jugaad-minded entrepreneurs turn adversity - such as widespread scarcity of natural and financial resources in India - into an opportunity to innovate and create more valuable products and services at less cost for more people.

Through our research, we have identified four operating principles or innovation rules:
Thrift not waste. This first rule - which promotes frugality - helps tackle scarcity of all forms of resources.
Inclusion, not exclusion. This second rule helps entrepreneurial organizations to put inclusiveness into practice - by tightly connecting with, and harnessing, the growing diversity that permeates their communities of customers, employees, and partners.
Bottom-up participation, not top-down command and control. This third rule drives collaboration. CEOs who tend to act as conductors must learn to facilitate collaborative improvisation just as players in jazz bands do.
Flexible thinking and action, not linear planning. This fourth rule facilitates flexibility in thinking and action. Jugaad-practicing firms are highly adaptable as they aren't wedded to any single business model and pursue multiple options at any time.

I kind of agree to all of the above but would give more weights to the last 3 principles. Here are my 2 cents on this theorem.
When I think of Jugaad the first thing that comes to my mind is "Socializing".When they use the term Jugaad in India, it refers to how better you use your Social contacts to get things moving at the time of a crisis situation. This refers to the second and third principles that if we can get all stake holders in a FIRM to collaborate, with a sense of ownership, given a situation, then there could be better ways you could think off to make the best of the situation. But in order to get this implemented, you need to identify a benefit for every participating stakeholder. This is what we say a "Win Win Situation" for all. and this can be achieved by "Flexible thinking and action". Getting all of this in place is very essential to get this model moving. And again "Jugaad" is an art that a person develops while handling adverse situations. It is the ability of an individual or a team or a company to come out smiling overcoming harsh constraints.

I am sure all of you will have more to add when they hear this term. Your thoughts / feedbacks / suggestions are welcome

MODENA

2010-09-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

Method for Open Dynamic ENgineering of Applications

Characteristics

MODENA differs from SCRUM primarily in the following ways:

no Storypoints, estimations and plannings are done in PDs
no Sprints, the items are permanently prioritized in queues
There are still estimation meetings, retrospectives, reviews and a product backlog. And there are queues.
There might be several competing queues. It's the TeamMasters job to merge the results of the queues into one MODENA queue. The development team will start with a bunch of items (transferring them from the product backlog to the MightBoard=MODENA white board[2]) and implement them.
If an item is finished (that means specified, implemented, tested and documented), the next item will be started. If a bunch of items is finished, a new bunch of items is transferred to the white board. Items which are not approved will stay on the board.
If at any time (in any test stage) a bug occurs, the current work is stopped and the bug must be fixed before continuing.

Consequences
Implementing the method should have the following consequences:

Instead of starting and stopping the development process and energy for every sprint, the queue mechanism allows a continuous and flexible prioritization of items.
The implementation of items can be requested without the need to wait for one sprint-cycle to end. 3 weeks before a new release, the process is stopped to allow the final testing and documentation.
Items must be approved by the item owners as soon as they are finished by the development team. MODENA is supposed to lead to an easier synchronisation between the teams. The queue mechanism allows a continuous and flexible prioritization of items.

This method seems to be better suited for the ongoing development of applications, that are delivered as releases. For smaller projects or projects with a definite end-date, Scrum still seems to be the method of choice. In any case, Scrum is an established development method, Modena is younger and has to prove itself within the field.

In our environment I suggest the Support team can try adopting this approach for CI activities.

Data Archiving Strategy

2009-05-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

Last week I was conducting a Brainstorming session with my team to identify continuous improvement opportunities.
In this meeting it was surprising to get to know that some of the Key Transactional Databases has never had a data archiving policy defined.

In my opinion data archiving strategy should be a part of preventive maintenance activity for any firm. Database archiving solves a number of seemingly unrelated issues like improving performance and availability of resources, managing data retention policies and preserving database as long as required.

some of the benefits I can quickly list down are

Technical Benefits

Improvement in database performance post-archiving
Reduction of database size
Reduction in time taken for backups and refreshes (and thus quick resolution of some tickets too...)
Cost reduction for storage

Benefits for the Business

Performance improvement of all applications
Fewer occurrences of issues related to data corruption
Single source of data and no data reconciliation errors
Lower maintenance cost for the applications

Database archiving is an ongoing, continuous process not the one that is done periodically as in DB clean up.
Archiving strategies require one to work in planning such as classifying data. The sooner an organisation gets started with such a process the better is the preventive maintenance.

COHESIVE INSPIRATION !!!!!!!!!!!

2009-04-18T15:18:00.000-07:00

"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed" - Napoleon Hill

And the drive we just completed at my work place only proves the saying above.

I work with an IT consulting FIRM and lead a high performing team that excels in providing BI solutions to clients.
Work usually becomes really hectic for people working in a delivery model such that one does not have time to even catch up with personal activities on a given day. Also the rat race in the IT industry is such that it needs an IT professional to constantly upgrade his/her skill set.

So the question my team (like all other IT professionals) had is how do we achieve this and at the same time maintain the right Balance with Hectic Work Schedules?????

well the obvious and the simplest solution to this query is to keep reading and completing certifications as and when new technologies invade the market. And all this is expected to be done after work hours. BUt this is usually too taxing for an individual and it is seen that personal development always takes a back seat in the bargain. Not all individuals are motivated to invest extra hours for personal growth and at the end of the day some do it and some dont.

This leaves us with a bigger Question - How DO we Inspire all members in a team to constantly upgarde themselves such that the team as a single UNIT is pushed to the next level of Excellence?????

My answer to this would be "COHESIVE INSPIRATION" (as I call it).
Cohesive because the team bonds together to achieve a common Goal and every person in the team acts as an inspiration to every other person, in their march towards this goal to top the competency chart as an individual and together as a team.

The next Question we now need to answer is - How do we get this Mania kicking within the team ?????

To do this we started a small initiative within 2 teams where we asked every individual working on the same technology stack to enroll for a common exam on a chosen day. Surprisingly we had 19 individuals voluteering to pick on a certification of their interest (me inclusive). On grouping them we saw that there were atleast 6 individuals who had opted for a common exam and all on the same day. So this invariably created a "College Environment" after work hours. People started collaborating within sub groups to share their experiences and study together. All this made learning more fun like we did in school, THis is what I meant by "COHESIVE INSPIRATION" above where people gel together and motivate each other to achieve a common goal.

End result - On the given day all 19 members who had enrolled for their respective certifications came out with flying colors and this resulted in team (of course with individuals) upgrading to next level of competency.

This actully worked for my team. want to try it ?????

Leadership

2009-03-30T13:41:00.001-07:00

Just finished reading this book "The Journey of the Accidental Leader" – Steve Gladis.

Here, the author tries to share his leadership experiences in the Marine CORPS in 10 simple Lessons. He has adopted a narrative story line where he explains these principles as an experience in the life of his protagonist Sam, who is forced to lead his father's consultancy Firm after his untimely death.

Though most of the Lessons listed in this book are known to most of us (consciously/subconsciously), it will help us reflect if we are able to follow it in our daily routine. Hence I Thought of listing down those 10 lessons here in my Blog along with other highlights I could relate to in this book.

"Lesson number one in business: No one knows what they're doing until they try."

"Lesson number two: You get what you give. So give a little first." As in if you want to get respect, you have to give it. If you want to get information from people, give them information. It's all about opening the door first.
Lesson number three: Build trust (of the team for you) by character,
competence, caring, commitment, and consistency."
- Character - That boils down to honesty. If I can rely on what you say, that you do what you say you'll do, and if you don't, you'll make it right—then I say you've got character."
- Competence - You have to be good at the basic business you're leading so that people will listen to you and have confidence in what you say. That means you have to master your profession to be taken seriously
- Caring - needs to be central to anything you do when dealing with people. If people feel that you genuinely care about them and their families, there's nothing they wouldn't do for you
- Commitment and Consistency - These two together because they're both about integrity—living up to promises. Look—if you're inconsistent or refuse to commit to a plan of action, people see you as unreliable at best, and nuts at worst.
- Collaborte with Team. Be open to self feedback given by your team.

Lesson number
four: Change isn't easy, but if you do it right, everyone
wins. People resist change as they are comfortable with what they are doing

Lesson number five: You have to have a
vision to make it come true . The vision thing. If you can stop yourself every now and then and check all your basic assumptions, you may find you've been doing things a certain way—and those things could certainly stand a re-Vision. Also take team opinion for their vision.

Lesson number six: If you want to
create a positive culture, show people by your actions
what you believe in, don't just tell them
- If ideas are bubbling up from people at every level, especially those charged with the responsibility for executing them—then the air is fresh. If people are not afraid to disagree—it's fresh. If people can try, fail, learn, and try again—then, the atmosphere is fresh
Lesson number seven: Leadership is all about
courage
- if you do want to lead, you have to step up…and call hard shots.

Lesson number eight: The long march begins with the
first bold step.

Lesson number nine: Change will
happen—embrace it while sticking to your core principles
Lesson number ten:
Leaders have a passion
for people.
- Leaders value every person (employee and
  customer alike) as an individual
- Leaders try to "fit" people into the right job, not
  fix them

Some Good Liners from this book:

Respect everyone for the special gift each brings to
the table.
- That's what they (the team) do if they don't feel appreciated, respected, and valued for what they bring to the table. And if they can't fight back because you're the boss, they vote with their feet.

People have got their issues. They are valuable and need to be respected. But respect doesn't mean a free pass.

Make the customer's Problem your problem
Give importance to start and end meetings on time. Don't let meetings wait for people.

Power of MOTIVATION

2009-01-17T02:17:00.000-08:00

A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them
fell into a deep pit. When the other frogs saw how deep the pit
was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead. The
two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit
with all their might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop,
that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs took
heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down
and died.

The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again,
the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He
jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the
other frogs said, "Did you not hear us?" The frog explained to
them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the
entire time.

This story teaches two lessons:

1. There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging
word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it
through the day.

2. A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes
to kill them.

Be careful of what you say. Speak life to those who cross your
path. The power of words... it is sometimes hard to understand
that an encouraging word can go such a long way. Anyone can speak
words that tend to rob another of the spirit to continue in
difficult times. Special is the individual who will take the time
to encourage another.

Satire: How to get bankrupt ?

2008-12-27T04:32:00.000-08:00

I haven't written this article myself, but came across it on net. Its an amazing must read.........

Funny but true:
Once there was a little island country. The land of this country was thetiny island itself. The total money in circulation was 2 dollars as therewere only two pieces of 1 dollar coins circulating around.
1) There were 3 citizens living on this island country. A owned the land.B and C each owned 1 dollar.
2) B decided to purchase the land from A for 1 dollar. So, now A and C own1 dollar each while B owned a piece of land that is worth 1 dollar.
* The net asset of the country now = 3 dollars.
3) Now C thought that since there is only one piece of land in the country,and land is non producible asset, its value must definitely go up. So, heborrowed 1 dollar from A, and together with his own 1 dollar, he bought theland from B for 2 dollars.
*A has a loan to C of 1 dollar, so his net asset is 1 dollar.* B sold his land and got 2 dollars, so his net asset is 2 dollars.* C owned the piece of land worth 2 dollars but with his 1 dollar debt toA, his net residual asset is 1 dollar.* Thus, the net asset of the country = 4 dollars.
4) A saw that the land he once owned has risen in value. He regrettedhaving sold it. Luckily, he has a 1 dollar loan to C. He then borrowed 2dollars from B and acquired the land back from C for 3 dollars. The paymentis by 2 dollars cash (which he borrowed) and cancellation of the 1 dollarloan to C. As a result, A now owned a piece of land that is worth 3dollars. But since he owed B 2 dollars, his net asset is 1 dollar.
* B loaned 2 dollars to A. So his net asset is 2 dollars.* C now has the 2 coins. His net asset is also 2 dollars.* The net asset of the country = 5 dollars. A bubble is building up.
(5) B saw that the value of land kept rising. He also wanted to own theland. So he bought the land from A for 4 dollars. The payment is byborrowing 2 dollars from C, and cancellation of his 2 dollars loan to A.
* As a result, A has got his debt cleared and he got the 2 coins. His netasset is 2 dollars.* B owned a piece of land that is worth 4 dollars, but since he has a debtof 2 dollars with C, his net Asset is 2 dollars.* C loaned 2 dollars to B, so his net asset is 2 dollars.
* The net asset of the country = 6 dollars; even though, the country hasonly one piece of land and 2 Dollars in circulation.
(6) Everybody has made money and everybody felt happy and prosperous.
(7) One day an evil wind blew, and an evil thought came to C's mind. "Hey,what if the land price stop going up, how could B repay my loan. There isonly 2 dollars in circulation, and, I think after all the land that B ownsis worth at most only 1 dollar, and no more."
(8) A also thought the same way.
(9) Nobody wanted to buy land anymore.
* So, in the end, A owns the 2 dollar coins, his net asset is 2 dollars.* B owed C 2 dollars and the land he owned which he thought worth 4 dollarsis now 1 dollar. So his net asset is only 1 dollar.* C has a loan of 2 dollars to B. But it is a bad debt. Although his netasset is still 2 dollars, his Heart is palpitating.* The net asset of the country = 3 dollars again.
(10) So, who has stolen the 3 dollars from the country ? Of course, beforethe bubble burst B thought his land was worth 4 dollars. Actually, rightbefore the collapse, the net asset of the country was 6 dollars on paper.B's net asset is still 2 dollars, his heart is palpitating.
(11) B had no choice but to declare bankruptcy. C as to relinquish his 2dollars bad debt to B, but in return he acquired the land which is worth 1dollar now.
* A owns the 2 coins, his net asset is 2 dollars.* B is bankrupt, his net asset is 0 dollar. ( he lost everything )* C got no choice but end up with a land worth only 1 dollar
* The net asset of the country = 3 dollars !!!?

Its Day Break after a looooooooooooooong Dark Night........

2008-11-30T03:17:00.000-08:00

I would like to open this note by expressing my deepest condolences to all lives lost in the Mumbai Terror attack and also wound want to salute all the forces who were instrumental in getting the situation under control.

29th November 2008 marked the end of another BLACK DAY in India's history. It was a very long day that started on the night of 26th November. YES..... Mumbai was held at ransom for a whole 59 hours. It hurts to say that India has always borne the brunt of terror strikes time and again. Thousands of innocents have been killed and hundreds maimed and devastated in terror strikes in India in the last six years. But no terror attack of this magnitude has ever been witnessed. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/India_a_major_terror_target/articleshow/3761676.cms).

As we know every issue does open up a can of worms, this one did too. There were several unanswered questions that every Indian has always had but they are now being more vocal about it.

Why does India always prove to be a Soft target for the terroists?
Is an average Indian Citizen Secure in their country ?
Why is there a security lapse ?
Why do the Governing bodies not take any strict measures against terror?
Why does our legal system suck and have several loopholes?
And many more......

It is upto us to take account of all these questions and ensure that we fill in these gaps (whatever it takes to do so) before the incident is long forgotten and we find ourselves facing another such incident. Every citizen is responsible to do his bit and the Govt. of course. It is time we accept our shortcomings and work together to cover them up rather than reluctantly saying "Its not my JOB".

The Media here is doing a wonderful job in expressing Public regret. India needs a radical change and I only hope that this incident acts a silver lineing in bringing about this change.
Nothing can compensate the lives lost in this carnage but I only hope that these sacrifices are accounted for and the miscreants are brought to book by our govt. before the entire world to see. We should also take this opportunity to join hands with all nations in the fight against terrorism and put an end to it such that everbody can live in peace and harmony again........

Bare Necessities for Success in Production Support

2008-11-22T11:19:00.000-08:00

After coming back to India of late, I have developed this interest to play Table Tennis at the recreation room of my work facility. I always land playing a game against the pros, at the end of which I end up loosing. On pondering over my loss, I concluded that these pros were playing “Table Tennis” while I was just trying to keep the ball back on the table, but without any strategy.

I would like to draw an analogy of this reference with Production Support Management for software applications.

Just as any player would concentrate on the game with a strategy behind his moves, we need to check if our support teams are simply solving issues as they get them (like I play table tennis) or are they really servicing the customer with a strategy to ensure that they do not get this issue again.

When I talk of a strategy to succeed in Production Support the five key ingredients that I can think of are:

Fixing Issues at the Root.
Proper Communication Channel (within teams)
Support Artifacts
Infrastructure & Monitoring
Customer Satisfaction.

I am keeping “Customer satisfaction” at the bottom of my list because if we are able to force a compliance on the first four attributes then that would in turn ensure Customer Satisfaction as the end product.

1) Fixing Issues at the Root.

‘Every ticket that is hurled at the Production support team to look at, arises due to a cause behind the same’

Allow me to explain this with an example:

There was an instance when a monthly report execution failed, as there were multiple hung processes on the server executing these reports. The instinct to provide an immediate addressal to this issue would tell me to simply kill the hung processes and get going with the reports. However in doing so, I would miss the ‘big picture’ in understanding the activities on the server that led to hung processes.

Having given the above example I would like to highlight that it is equally important to understand the root cause behind any request and fix it at the origin (on priority). Doing this would avoid the resurgence of similar issues in future and would simultaneously improve the health of the application.

However to do so it is required to have proper development procedures in place, to take on the fixes arising due to root cause identification. This defined process in any organization needs to be flexible enough to absorb such adhoc development requests, as prioritizing these fixes can get chaotic at times. (May be I would comment more on this subject in my following Blog).

2) Communication

The support structure of an organization depends whether the software growth in that firm has been organic or inorganic. An inorganic growth will only add to multiple layers being identified in support with multiple teams supporting various modules of an application. However it would be ideal to flatten this structure. Multiple layers of hierarchy in support would only add to complications. This would lead to tickets bouncing back and forth between various support teams and in turn agonizing the end user.

I would say it is rather impossible to have a completely flat support structure in any organization. Given this fact, communication plays a major role for success stories in support. Below listed are a few pointers we need to consider wrt communication.

Communication between internal support teams to be complete and crisp.
All support TMs should have a list of who’s who in different support teams.
All teams should have the latest updates regarding scope of work of different support teams
List of SMEs pertaining to the application.
User should always be in loop in case of multiple teams handling an issue. Also the user should have a single point of contact in such cases.

3) Support Artifacts

What are the basic artifacts that a support team will need to run the daily show? This depends on the application complexity and the technologies involved. The right proportion of technical and functional documentation required should be a call of the support team. But what every support team could document is a FAQ Document or a learning document that would encrypt the procedure to resolve frequently occurring tickets of similar nature.

Apart from these, a support team should always have the list of Upstream and Downstream application wrt the system they support. The list of users tagged to the applications would prove to be an added bonus.

The support teams need to ensure that all documentation consumed by the team are stored at a central location accessible to other teams as well.

4) Infrastructure & Monitoring

Application monitoring by all means has to be proactive rather than reactive. This would help the support team to jump to issues and fix them even before the users get to know of them. A novel idea that I heard in one of the discussions was to have a dependency GRID for software products. A dependency grid illustrates which servers host which databases, and then which databases are used by which applications, and finally the names, numbers, and email groups of the business users that are affected by that server/database failure. If any of the components in the defined Grid fails then all corresponding impacted components turn RED. This will enable your team to proactively manage your customers expectations. There are tools available in the market that offer this kind of feature.

Apart from this infrastructure management plays a crucial role in the support structure of an organization. It would be advisable to have a dedicated team focus on the health (performance included) and maintenance of servers.

And as stated earlier, Customer Satisfaction which would be the to the success of any production support team can be achieved by effective blending of the 4 key attributes discussed earlier.

So, think about it…is your Software Production Support team playing table tennis as champions do (with strategy), or are they just trying to keep the ball back on the table?

Who am I?

2008-11-21T13:23:00.000-08:00

I am a software professional working with a leading IT Consulting Firm.

Having spent many years in the IT industry I have developed an aptitude to pick up challenges as they come along ones stride and master the same as I move along.

Of late, I have developed this habit of reading and responding to blogs. I find it a medium one to dump their thoughts and expressions on a web page. So here I am, introducing myself to the blogging community......