In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Figure 1 : Aptitude \u2013 Experience Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Figure 1 : Aptitude \u2013 Experience Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
IT industry in India is a young industry. Percentage of younger people employed in this industry, is\u00a0 much higher compared to other industries. Average age of an IT project team is around 25 years. To keep the costs down this industry recruits fresh graduates, enables them through some training and uses them in project deliveries. However, this has inherent risks which if not managed well, will cause project failures; whereas, if managed well, they can take the projects to glorious heights. Fresh graduates come with high energy, strong desire to learn, lot of enthusiasm and willingness to work hard. However, they lack proficiency in the tasks to be executed. So, most organizations arrange a fresh graduates training program and expect them to start delivering after the training. However, it is necessary to recognize that depending on their background, knowledge and skills, different individuals need different treatments for their evolution. This fact is overlooked and as a result, organizations achieve suboptimal results. It also causes stress to trainee individuals, impacting them negatively. Here, we present an approach that can avoid these unpleasant consequences and help inexperienced individuals evolve naturally and be effective, in course of time. This approach is based on the model shown in Figure 1 \u2013 \u201cAptitude Experience Model\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 1 : Aptitude \u2013 Experience Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Mahesh, is a new person in the team that is already formed and has established some ways of working that have been used before and deliveries have happened. Irrespective of whether these ways are good or not, \u00a0whether they deliver good quality and customer satisfaction or not, whether they can be improved or not; team believes that they have a working model and they want to stick to it. They \u00a0resist the change. This is a classic case of change being pushed from outside. Obviously, the first thing that Mahesh has to do is to establish the need for change. He has to identify some issues that team has faced, what caused those issues and how those issues could be handled better by the changes that he proposes. He has to explain and make the team understand why certain paradigms that they are working with do not work and the need for adoption of new paradigms. Once this is achieved, team will accept his leadership and will follow him. Mahesh has to keep in\u00a0 mind that knowledge workers do not respect positions. They respect knowledge and value addition. For acceptance by the team, Mahesh has to come across as a person who adds value. This alone will help him create his place in the team. He should consciously avoid getting into command and control mode or escalation to management, which he could be tempted to, out of frustration. That would lead to his failure as scrum master. Rather, he should stick to fundamentals of change management and go about it systematically. He should keep the management informed of the problem and his approach to resolve it. But he has to deal with the problem himself and not seek their direct intervention.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW 178 \u2013 Scrum Master Acceptance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-178-scrum-master-acceptance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13690","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13684,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:09:37","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 20:39:37","post_content":"\n IT industry in India is a young industry. Percentage of younger people employed in this industry, is\u00a0 much higher compared to other industries. Average age of an IT project team is around 25 years. To keep the costs down this industry recruits fresh graduates, enables them through some training and uses them in project deliveries. However, this has inherent risks which if not managed well, will cause project failures; whereas, if managed well, they can take the projects to glorious heights. Fresh graduates come with high energy, strong desire to learn, lot of enthusiasm and willingness to work hard. However, they lack proficiency in the tasks to be executed. So, most organizations arrange a fresh graduates training program and expect them to start delivering after the training. However, it is necessary to recognize that depending on their background, knowledge and skills, different individuals need different treatments for their evolution. This fact is overlooked and as a result, organizations achieve suboptimal results. It also causes stress to trainee individuals, impacting them negatively. Here, we present an approach that can avoid these unpleasant consequences and help inexperienced individuals evolve naturally and be effective, in course of time. This approach is based on the model shown in Figure 1 \u2013 \u201cAptitude Experience Model\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 1 : Aptitude \u2013 Experience Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Suggested Solution :<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mahesh, is a new person in the team that is already formed and has established some ways of working that have been used before and deliveries have happened. Irrespective of whether these ways are good or not, \u00a0whether they deliver good quality and customer satisfaction or not, whether they can be improved or not; team believes that they have a working model and they want to stick to it. They \u00a0resist the change. This is a classic case of change being pushed from outside. Obviously, the first thing that Mahesh has to do is to establish the need for change. He has to identify some issues that team has faced, what caused those issues and how those issues could be handled better by the changes that he proposes. He has to explain and make the team understand why certain paradigms that they are working with do not work and the need for adoption of new paradigms. Once this is achieved, team will accept his leadership and will follow him. Mahesh has to keep in\u00a0 mind that knowledge workers do not respect positions. They respect knowledge and value addition. For acceptance by the team, Mahesh has to come across as a person who adds value. This alone will help him create his place in the team. He should consciously avoid getting into command and control mode or escalation to management, which he could be tempted to, out of frustration. That would lead to his failure as scrum master. Rather, he should stick to fundamentals of change management and go about it systematically. He should keep the management informed of the problem and his approach to resolve it. But he has to deal with the problem himself and not seek their direct intervention.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW 178 \u2013 Scrum Master Acceptance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-178-scrum-master-acceptance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13690","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13684,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:09:37","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 20:39:37","post_content":"\n IT industry in India is a young industry. Percentage of younger people employed in this industry, is\u00a0 much higher compared to other industries. Average age of an IT project team is around 25 years. To keep the costs down this industry recruits fresh graduates, enables them through some training and uses them in project deliveries. However, this has inherent risks which if not managed well, will cause project failures; whereas, if managed well, they can take the projects to glorious heights. Fresh graduates come with high energy, strong desire to learn, lot of enthusiasm and willingness to work hard. However, they lack proficiency in the tasks to be executed. So, most organizations arrange a fresh graduates training program and expect them to start delivering after the training. However, it is necessary to recognize that depending on their background, knowledge and skills, different individuals need different treatments for their evolution. This fact is overlooked and as a result, organizations achieve suboptimal results. It also causes stress to trainee individuals, impacting them negatively. Here, we present an approach that can avoid these unpleasant consequences and help inexperienced individuals evolve naturally and be effective, in course of time. This approach is based on the model shown in Figure 1 \u2013 \u201cAptitude Experience Model\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 1 : Aptitude \u2013 Experience Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMahesh\nis a new scrum master who has recently joined a scrum team. Team has\nexperienced team members who have delivered software successfully in the past. They\nare quite confident in the technology being used in the project. They follow\nscrum practices mechanically. Mahesh is trying to change this. However, many times\nteam members do not listen to what Mahesh says and ignore him. Sometimes, they\ncarry out Mahesh\u2019s suggestions reluctantly. Mahesh is finding it difficult to\nlead this team and feels that he is not able to influence them. How do you\nthink Mahesh could navigate this situation and succeed ?\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution :<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mahesh, is a new person in the team that is already formed and has established some ways of working that have been used before and deliveries have happened. Irrespective of whether these ways are good or not, \u00a0whether they deliver good quality and customer satisfaction or not, whether they can be improved or not; team believes that they have a working model and they want to stick to it. They \u00a0resist the change. This is a classic case of change being pushed from outside. Obviously, the first thing that Mahesh has to do is to establish the need for change. He has to identify some issues that team has faced, what caused those issues and how those issues could be handled better by the changes that he proposes. He has to explain and make the team understand why certain paradigms that they are working with do not work and the need for adoption of new paradigms. Once this is achieved, team will accept his leadership and will follow him. Mahesh has to keep in\u00a0 mind that knowledge workers do not respect positions. They respect knowledge and value addition. For acceptance by the team, Mahesh has to come across as a person who adds value. This alone will help him create his place in the team. He should consciously avoid getting into command and control mode or escalation to management, which he could be tempted to, out of frustration. That would lead to his failure as scrum master. Rather, he should stick to fundamentals of change management and go about it systematically. He should keep the management informed of the problem and his approach to resolve it. But he has to deal with the problem himself and not seek their direct intervention.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW 178 \u2013 Scrum Master Acceptance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-178-scrum-master-acceptance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13690","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13684,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:09:37","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 20:39:37","post_content":"\n IT industry in India is a young industry. Percentage of younger people employed in this industry, is\u00a0 much higher compared to other industries. Average age of an IT project team is around 25 years. To keep the costs down this industry recruits fresh graduates, enables them through some training and uses them in project deliveries. However, this has inherent risks which if not managed well, will cause project failures; whereas, if managed well, they can take the projects to glorious heights. Fresh graduates come with high energy, strong desire to learn, lot of enthusiasm and willingness to work hard. However, they lack proficiency in the tasks to be executed. So, most organizations arrange a fresh graduates training program and expect them to start delivering after the training. However, it is necessary to recognize that depending on their background, knowledge and skills, different individuals need different treatments for their evolution. This fact is overlooked and as a result, organizations achieve suboptimal results. It also causes stress to trainee individuals, impacting them negatively. Here, we present an approach that can avoid these unpleasant consequences and help inexperienced individuals evolve naturally and be effective, in course of time. This approach is based on the model shown in Figure 1 \u2013 \u201cAptitude Experience Model\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 1 : Aptitude \u2013 Experience Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Looking at the Kanban Board, team can get a good idea of how\nmany stories are in arrival queue, How many are waiting for prerequisites to be\naddressed, how many are ready to move to development, how many are in\ndevelopment, how many are waiting for user confirmation and how many are ready\nto move to production. Developer do not have to wait anywhere, cycle time is\nkept low and productivity high. <\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW #196 - Improving Productivity of the support and maintenance teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"challenge-of-the-week-chow-196-improving-productivity-of-the-support-and-maintenance-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=15083","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13690,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:31:55","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 21:01:55","post_content":"\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMahesh\nis a new scrum master who has recently joined a scrum team. Team has\nexperienced team members who have delivered software successfully in the past. They\nare quite confident in the technology being used in the project. They follow\nscrum practices mechanically. Mahesh is trying to change this. However, many times\nteam members do not listen to what Mahesh says and ignore him. Sometimes, they\ncarry out Mahesh\u2019s suggestions reluctantly. Mahesh is finding it difficult to\nlead this team and feels that he is not able to influence them. How do you\nthink Mahesh could navigate this situation and succeed ?\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution :<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mahesh, is a new person in the team that is already formed and has established some ways of working that have been used before and deliveries have happened. Irrespective of whether these ways are good or not, \u00a0whether they deliver good quality and customer satisfaction or not, whether they can be improved or not; team believes that they have a working model and they want to stick to it. They \u00a0resist the change. This is a classic case of change being pushed from outside. Obviously, the first thing that Mahesh has to do is to establish the need for change. He has to identify some issues that team has faced, what caused those issues and how those issues could be handled better by the changes that he proposes. He has to explain and make the team understand why certain paradigms that they are working with do not work and the need for adoption of new paradigms. Once this is achieved, team will accept his leadership and will follow him. Mahesh has to keep in\u00a0 mind that knowledge workers do not respect positions. They respect knowledge and value addition. For acceptance by the team, Mahesh has to come across as a person who adds value. This alone will help him create his place in the team. He should consciously avoid getting into command and control mode or escalation to management, which he could be tempted to, out of frustration. That would lead to his failure as scrum master. Rather, he should stick to fundamentals of change management and go about it systematically. He should keep the management informed of the problem and his approach to resolve it. But he has to deal with the problem himself and not seek their direct intervention.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW 178 \u2013 Scrum Master Acceptance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-178-scrum-master-acceptance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13690","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13684,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:09:37","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 20:39:37","post_content":"\n IT industry in India is a young industry. Percentage of younger people employed in this industry, is\u00a0 much higher compared to other industries. Average age of an IT project team is around 25 years. To keep the costs down this industry recruits fresh graduates, enables them through some training and uses them in project deliveries. However, this has inherent risks which if not managed well, will cause project failures; whereas, if managed well, they can take the projects to glorious heights. Fresh graduates come with high energy, strong desire to learn, lot of enthusiasm and willingness to work hard. However, they lack proficiency in the tasks to be executed. So, most organizations arrange a fresh graduates training program and expect them to start delivering after the training. However, it is necessary to recognize that depending on their background, knowledge and skills, different individuals need different treatments for their evolution. This fact is overlooked and as a result, organizations achieve suboptimal results. It also causes stress to trainee individuals, impacting them negatively. Here, we present an approach that can avoid these unpleasant consequences and help inexperienced individuals evolve naturally and be effective, in course of time. This approach is based on the model shown in Figure 1 \u2013 \u201cAptitude Experience Model\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 1 : Aptitude \u2013 Experience Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Looking at the Kanban Board, team can get a good idea of how\nmany stories are in arrival queue, How many are waiting for prerequisites to be\naddressed, how many are ready to move to development, how many are in\ndevelopment, how many are waiting for user confirmation and how many are ready\nto move to production. Developer do not have to wait anywhere, cycle time is\nkept low and productivity high. <\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW #196 - Improving Productivity of the support and maintenance teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"challenge-of-the-week-chow-196-improving-productivity-of-the-support-and-maintenance-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=15083","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13690,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:31:55","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 21:01:55","post_content":"\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMahesh\nis a new scrum master who has recently joined a scrum team. Team has\nexperienced team members who have delivered software successfully in the past. They\nare quite confident in the technology being used in the project. They follow\nscrum practices mechanically. Mahesh is trying to change this. However, many times\nteam members do not listen to what Mahesh says and ignore him. Sometimes, they\ncarry out Mahesh\u2019s suggestions reluctantly. Mahesh is finding it difficult to\nlead this team and feels that he is not able to influence them. How do you\nthink Mahesh could navigate this situation and succeed ?\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution :<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mahesh, is a new person in the team that is already formed and has established some ways of working that have been used before and deliveries have happened. Irrespective of whether these ways are good or not, \u00a0whether they deliver good quality and customer satisfaction or not, whether they can be improved or not; team believes that they have a working model and they want to stick to it. They \u00a0resist the change. This is a classic case of change being pushed from outside. Obviously, the first thing that Mahesh has to do is to establish the need for change. He has to identify some issues that team has faced, what caused those issues and how those issues could be handled better by the changes that he proposes. He has to explain and make the team understand why certain paradigms that they are working with do not work and the need for adoption of new paradigms. Once this is achieved, team will accept his leadership and will follow him. Mahesh has to keep in\u00a0 mind that knowledge workers do not respect positions. They respect knowledge and value addition. For acceptance by the team, Mahesh has to come across as a person who adds value. This alone will help him create his place in the team. He should consciously avoid getting into command and control mode or escalation to management, which he could be tempted to, out of frustration. That would lead to his failure as scrum master. Rather, he should stick to fundamentals of change management and go about it systematically. He should keep the management informed of the problem and his approach to resolve it. But he has to deal with the problem himself and not seek their direct intervention.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW 178 \u2013 Scrum Master Acceptance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-178-scrum-master-acceptance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13690","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13684,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:09:37","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 20:39:37","post_content":"\n IT industry in India is a young industry. Percentage of younger people employed in this industry, is\u00a0 much higher compared to other industries. Average age of an IT project team is around 25 years. To keep the costs down this industry recruits fresh graduates, enables them through some training and uses them in project deliveries. However, this has inherent risks which if not managed well, will cause project failures; whereas, if managed well, they can take the projects to glorious heights. Fresh graduates come with high energy, strong desire to learn, lot of enthusiasm and willingness to work hard. However, they lack proficiency in the tasks to be executed. So, most organizations arrange a fresh graduates training program and expect them to start delivering after the training. However, it is necessary to recognize that depending on their background, knowledge and skills, different individuals need different treatments for their evolution. This fact is overlooked and as a result, organizations achieve suboptimal results. It also causes stress to trainee individuals, impacting them negatively. Here, we present an approach that can avoid these unpleasant consequences and help inexperienced individuals evolve naturally and be effective, in course of time. This approach is based on the model shown in Figure 1 \u2013 \u201cAptitude Experience Model\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 1 : Aptitude \u2013 Experience Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Now let\u2019s examine how Kanban helps in this situation. Refer to the figure below. Tickets logged by the Users arrive as user Stories in Arrival State. From Arrival state they move to Prerequisites state where their prerequisites are identified and actions for addressing prerequisites are initiated. User Stories for which prerequisites have been addressed are marked as \u201cReady \u201c. User stories on which development is happening are in \u201cDevelopment\u201d State. As soon as development is completed on a user Story it moves to next state \u2013 \u201cUser Confirmation\u201d. The developer who is free now, can pull a \u201cReady\u201d User story from \u201cPrerequisites\u201d State into \u201cDevelopment\u201d state and start working on it. User stories that are confirmed by users move to delivered state from where they can be moved to production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking at the Kanban Board, team can get a good idea of how\nmany stories are in arrival queue, How many are waiting for prerequisites to be\naddressed, how many are ready to move to development, how many are in\ndevelopment, how many are waiting for user confirmation and how many are ready\nto move to production. Developer do not have to wait anywhere, cycle time is\nkept low and productivity high. <\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW #196 - Improving Productivity of the support and maintenance teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"challenge-of-the-week-chow-196-improving-productivity-of-the-support-and-maintenance-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=15083","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13690,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:31:55","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 21:01:55","post_content":"\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMahesh\nis a new scrum master who has recently joined a scrum team. Team has\nexperienced team members who have delivered software successfully in the past. They\nare quite confident in the technology being used in the project. They follow\nscrum practices mechanically. Mahesh is trying to change this. However, many times\nteam members do not listen to what Mahesh says and ignore him. Sometimes, they\ncarry out Mahesh\u2019s suggestions reluctantly. Mahesh is finding it difficult to\nlead this team and feels that he is not able to influence them. How do you\nthink Mahesh could navigate this situation and succeed ?\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution :<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mahesh, is a new person in the team that is already formed and has established some ways of working that have been used before and deliveries have happened. Irrespective of whether these ways are good or not, \u00a0whether they deliver good quality and customer satisfaction or not, whether they can be improved or not; team believes that they have a working model and they want to stick to it. They \u00a0resist the change. This is a classic case of change being pushed from outside. Obviously, the first thing that Mahesh has to do is to establish the need for change. He has to identify some issues that team has faced, what caused those issues and how those issues could be handled better by the changes that he proposes. He has to explain and make the team understand why certain paradigms that they are working with do not work and the need for adoption of new paradigms. Once this is achieved, team will accept his leadership and will follow him. Mahesh has to keep in\u00a0 mind that knowledge workers do not respect positions. They respect knowledge and value addition. For acceptance by the team, Mahesh has to come across as a person who adds value. This alone will help him create his place in the team. He should consciously avoid getting into command and control mode or escalation to management, which he could be tempted to, out of frustration. That would lead to his failure as scrum master. Rather, he should stick to fundamentals of change management and go about it systematically. He should keep the management informed of the problem and his approach to resolve it. But he has to deal with the problem himself and not seek their direct intervention.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW 178 \u2013 Scrum Master Acceptance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-178-scrum-master-acceptance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13690","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13684,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:09:37","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 20:39:37","post_content":"\n IT industry in India is a young industry. Percentage of younger people employed in this industry, is\u00a0 much higher compared to other industries. Average age of an IT project team is around 25 years. To keep the costs down this industry recruits fresh graduates, enables them through some training and uses them in project deliveries. However, this has inherent risks which if not managed well, will cause project failures; whereas, if managed well, they can take the projects to glorious heights. Fresh graduates come with high energy, strong desire to learn, lot of enthusiasm and willingness to work hard. However, they lack proficiency in the tasks to be executed. So, most organizations arrange a fresh graduates training program and expect them to start delivering after the training. However, it is necessary to recognize that depending on their background, knowledge and skills, different individuals need different treatments for their evolution. This fact is overlooked and as a result, organizations achieve suboptimal results. It also causes stress to trainee individuals, impacting them negatively. Here, we present an approach that can avoid these unpleasant consequences and help inexperienced individuals evolve naturally and be effective, in course of time. This approach is based on the model shown in Figure 1 \u2013 \u201cAptitude Experience Model\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 1 : Aptitude \u2013 Experience Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Each iteration is preceded by a Backlog Grooming session where\nUser Stories for upcoming iterations are examined, clarified and fully\nunderstood by the developers, making them ready for action by the developers. Manish\nand team could use the Backlog Grooming session to identify the prerequisites\n(approvals, clarifications etc.) required by User Stories and initiate actions for\nthose to be addressed. This way, by the time iteration starts, prerequisites\nwill get addressed and developers can then execute their actions without any\nwait. This will help reduce the cycle\ntime and improve the productivity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now let\u2019s examine how Kanban helps in this situation. Refer to the figure below. Tickets logged by the Users arrive as user Stories in Arrival State. From Arrival state they move to Prerequisites state where their prerequisites are identified and actions for addressing prerequisites are initiated. User Stories for which prerequisites have been addressed are marked as \u201cReady \u201c. User stories on which development is happening are in \u201cDevelopment\u201d State. As soon as development is completed on a user Story it moves to next state \u2013 \u201cUser Confirmation\u201d. The developer who is free now, can pull a \u201cReady\u201d User story from \u201cPrerequisites\u201d State into \u201cDevelopment\u201d state and start working on it. User stories that are confirmed by users move to delivered state from where they can be moved to production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking at the Kanban Board, team can get a good idea of how\nmany stories are in arrival queue, How many are waiting for prerequisites to be\naddressed, how many are ready to move to development, how many are in\ndevelopment, how many are waiting for user confirmation and how many are ready\nto move to production. Developer do not have to wait anywhere, cycle time is\nkept low and productivity high. <\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW #196 - Improving Productivity of the support and maintenance teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"challenge-of-the-week-chow-196-improving-productivity-of-the-support-and-maintenance-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=15083","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13690,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:31:55","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 21:01:55","post_content":"\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMahesh\nis a new scrum master who has recently joined a scrum team. Team has\nexperienced team members who have delivered software successfully in the past. They\nare quite confident in the technology being used in the project. They follow\nscrum practices mechanically. Mahesh is trying to change this. However, many times\nteam members do not listen to what Mahesh says and ignore him. Sometimes, they\ncarry out Mahesh\u2019s suggestions reluctantly. Mahesh is finding it difficult to\nlead this team and feels that he is not able to influence them. How do you\nthink Mahesh could navigate this situation and succeed ?\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution :<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mahesh, is a new person in the team that is already formed and has established some ways of working that have been used before and deliveries have happened. Irrespective of whether these ways are good or not, \u00a0whether they deliver good quality and customer satisfaction or not, whether they can be improved or not; team believes that they have a working model and they want to stick to it. They \u00a0resist the change. This is a classic case of change being pushed from outside. Obviously, the first thing that Mahesh has to do is to establish the need for change. He has to identify some issues that team has faced, what caused those issues and how those issues could be handled better by the changes that he proposes. He has to explain and make the team understand why certain paradigms that they are working with do not work and the need for adoption of new paradigms. Once this is achieved, team will accept his leadership and will follow him. Mahesh has to keep in\u00a0 mind that knowledge workers do not respect positions. They respect knowledge and value addition. For acceptance by the team, Mahesh has to come across as a person who adds value. This alone will help him create his place in the team. He should consciously avoid getting into command and control mode or escalation to management, which he could be tempted to, out of frustration. That would lead to his failure as scrum master. Rather, he should stick to fundamentals of change management and go about it systematically. He should keep the management informed of the problem and his approach to resolve it. But he has to deal with the problem himself and not seek their direct intervention.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW 178 \u2013 Scrum Master Acceptance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-178-scrum-master-acceptance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13690","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13684,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:09:37","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 20:39:37","post_content":"\n IT industry in India is a young industry. Percentage of younger people employed in this industry, is\u00a0 much higher compared to other industries. Average age of an IT project team is around 25 years. To keep the costs down this industry recruits fresh graduates, enables them through some training and uses them in project deliveries. However, this has inherent risks which if not managed well, will cause project failures; whereas, if managed well, they can take the projects to glorious heights. Fresh graduates come with high energy, strong desire to learn, lot of enthusiasm and willingness to work hard. However, they lack proficiency in the tasks to be executed. So, most organizations arrange a fresh graduates training program and expect them to start delivering after the training. However, it is necessary to recognize that depending on their background, knowledge and skills, different individuals need different treatments for their evolution. This fact is overlooked and as a result, organizations achieve suboptimal results. It also causes stress to trainee individuals, impacting them negatively. Here, we present an approach that can avoid these unpleasant consequences and help inexperienced individuals evolve naturally and be effective, in course of time. This approach is based on the model shown in Figure 1 \u2013 \u201cAptitude Experience Model\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 1 : Aptitude \u2013 Experience Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
For support and maintenance teams, Kanban model is better\nsuited as it helps in managing continuous flow of work. Manish could explore\nthat option and consider use of Kanban Board to have a good view of tickets in\nvarious states and Work in Progress. However,\nlet\u2019s first examine what he could do in the current iteration based delivery\nmodel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Each iteration is preceded by a Backlog Grooming session where\nUser Stories for upcoming iterations are examined, clarified and fully\nunderstood by the developers, making them ready for action by the developers. Manish\nand team could use the Backlog Grooming session to identify the prerequisites\n(approvals, clarifications etc.) required by User Stories and initiate actions for\nthose to be addressed. This way, by the time iteration starts, prerequisites\nwill get addressed and developers can then execute their actions without any\nwait. This will help reduce the cycle\ntime and improve the productivity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now let\u2019s examine how Kanban helps in this situation. Refer to the figure below. Tickets logged by the Users arrive as user Stories in Arrival State. From Arrival state they move to Prerequisites state where their prerequisites are identified and actions for addressing prerequisites are initiated. User Stories for which prerequisites have been addressed are marked as \u201cReady \u201c. User stories on which development is happening are in \u201cDevelopment\u201d State. As soon as development is completed on a user Story it moves to next state \u2013 \u201cUser Confirmation\u201d. The developer who is free now, can pull a \u201cReady\u201d User story from \u201cPrerequisites\u201d State into \u201cDevelopment\u201d state and start working on it. User stories that are confirmed by users move to delivered state from where they can be moved to production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking at the Kanban Board, team can get a good idea of how\nmany stories are in arrival queue, How many are waiting for prerequisites to be\naddressed, how many are ready to move to development, how many are in\ndevelopment, how many are waiting for user confirmation and how many are ready\nto move to production. Developer do not have to wait anywhere, cycle time is\nkept low and productivity high. <\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW #196 - Improving Productivity of the support and maintenance teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"challenge-of-the-week-chow-196-improving-productivity-of-the-support-and-maintenance-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=15083","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13690,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:31:55","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 21:01:55","post_content":"\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMahesh\nis a new scrum master who has recently joined a scrum team. Team has\nexperienced team members who have delivered software successfully in the past. They\nare quite confident in the technology being used in the project. They follow\nscrum practices mechanically. Mahesh is trying to change this. However, many times\nteam members do not listen to what Mahesh says and ignore him. Sometimes, they\ncarry out Mahesh\u2019s suggestions reluctantly. Mahesh is finding it difficult to\nlead this team and feels that he is not able to influence them. How do you\nthink Mahesh could navigate this situation and succeed ?\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution :<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mahesh, is a new person in the team that is already formed and has established some ways of working that have been used before and deliveries have happened. Irrespective of whether these ways are good or not, \u00a0whether they deliver good quality and customer satisfaction or not, whether they can be improved or not; team believes that they have a working model and they want to stick to it. They \u00a0resist the change. This is a classic case of change being pushed from outside. Obviously, the first thing that Mahesh has to do is to establish the need for change. He has to identify some issues that team has faced, what caused those issues and how those issues could be handled better by the changes that he proposes. He has to explain and make the team understand why certain paradigms that they are working with do not work and the need for adoption of new paradigms. Once this is achieved, team will accept his leadership and will follow him. Mahesh has to keep in\u00a0 mind that knowledge workers do not respect positions. They respect knowledge and value addition. For acceptance by the team, Mahesh has to come across as a person who adds value. This alone will help him create his place in the team. He should consciously avoid getting into command and control mode or escalation to management, which he could be tempted to, out of frustration. That would lead to his failure as scrum master. Rather, he should stick to fundamentals of change management and go about it systematically. He should keep the management informed of the problem and his approach to resolve it. But he has to deal with the problem himself and not seek their direct intervention.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW 178 \u2013 Scrum Master Acceptance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-178-scrum-master-acceptance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13690","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13684,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:09:37","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 20:39:37","post_content":"\n IT industry in India is a young industry. Percentage of younger people employed in this industry, is\u00a0 much higher compared to other industries. Average age of an IT project team is around 25 years. To keep the costs down this industry recruits fresh graduates, enables them through some training and uses them in project deliveries. However, this has inherent risks which if not managed well, will cause project failures; whereas, if managed well, they can take the projects to glorious heights. Fresh graduates come with high energy, strong desire to learn, lot of enthusiasm and willingness to work hard. However, they lack proficiency in the tasks to be executed. So, most organizations arrange a fresh graduates training program and expect them to start delivering after the training. However, it is necessary to recognize that depending on their background, knowledge and skills, different individuals need different treatments for their evolution. This fact is overlooked and as a result, organizations achieve suboptimal results. It also causes stress to trainee individuals, impacting them negatively. Here, we present an approach that can avoid these unpleasant consequences and help inexperienced individuals evolve naturally and be effective, in course of time. This approach is based on the model shown in Figure 1 \u2013 \u201cAptitude Experience Model\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 1 : Aptitude \u2013 Experience Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Suggested Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For support and maintenance teams, Kanban model is better\nsuited as it helps in managing continuous flow of work. Manish could explore\nthat option and consider use of Kanban Board to have a good view of tickets in\nvarious states and Work in Progress. However,\nlet\u2019s first examine what he could do in the current iteration based delivery\nmodel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Each iteration is preceded by a Backlog Grooming session where\nUser Stories for upcoming iterations are examined, clarified and fully\nunderstood by the developers, making them ready for action by the developers. Manish\nand team could use the Backlog Grooming session to identify the prerequisites\n(approvals, clarifications etc.) required by User Stories and initiate actions for\nthose to be addressed. This way, by the time iteration starts, prerequisites\nwill get addressed and developers can then execute their actions without any\nwait. This will help reduce the cycle\ntime and improve the productivity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now let\u2019s examine how Kanban helps in this situation. Refer to the figure below. Tickets logged by the Users arrive as user Stories in Arrival State. From Arrival state they move to Prerequisites state where their prerequisites are identified and actions for addressing prerequisites are initiated. User Stories for which prerequisites have been addressed are marked as \u201cReady \u201c. User stories on which development is happening are in \u201cDevelopment\u201d State. As soon as development is completed on a user Story it moves to next state \u2013 \u201cUser Confirmation\u201d. The developer who is free now, can pull a \u201cReady\u201d User story from \u201cPrerequisites\u201d State into \u201cDevelopment\u201d state and start working on it. User stories that are confirmed by users move to delivered state from where they can be moved to production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking at the Kanban Board, team can get a good idea of how\nmany stories are in arrival queue, How many are waiting for prerequisites to be\naddressed, how many are ready to move to development, how many are in\ndevelopment, how many are waiting for user confirmation and how many are ready\nto move to production. Developer do not have to wait anywhere, cycle time is\nkept low and productivity high. <\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW #196 - Improving Productivity of the support and maintenance teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"challenge-of-the-week-chow-196-improving-productivity-of-the-support-and-maintenance-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=15083","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13690,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:31:55","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 21:01:55","post_content":"\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMahesh\nis a new scrum master who has recently joined a scrum team. Team has\nexperienced team members who have delivered software successfully in the past. They\nare quite confident in the technology being used in the project. They follow\nscrum practices mechanically. Mahesh is trying to change this. However, many times\nteam members do not listen to what Mahesh says and ignore him. Sometimes, they\ncarry out Mahesh\u2019s suggestions reluctantly. Mahesh is finding it difficult to\nlead this team and feels that he is not able to influence them. How do you\nthink Mahesh could navigate this situation and succeed ?\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution :<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mahesh, is a new person in the team that is already formed and has established some ways of working that have been used before and deliveries have happened. Irrespective of whether these ways are good or not, \u00a0whether they deliver good quality and customer satisfaction or not, whether they can be improved or not; team believes that they have a working model and they want to stick to it. They \u00a0resist the change. This is a classic case of change being pushed from outside. Obviously, the first thing that Mahesh has to do is to establish the need for change. He has to identify some issues that team has faced, what caused those issues and how those issues could be handled better by the changes that he proposes. He has to explain and make the team understand why certain paradigms that they are working with do not work and the need for adoption of new paradigms. Once this is achieved, team will accept his leadership and will follow him. Mahesh has to keep in\u00a0 mind that knowledge workers do not respect positions. They respect knowledge and value addition. For acceptance by the team, Mahesh has to come across as a person who adds value. This alone will help him create his place in the team. He should consciously avoid getting into command and control mode or escalation to management, which he could be tempted to, out of frustration. That would lead to his failure as scrum master. Rather, he should stick to fundamentals of change management and go about it systematically. He should keep the management informed of the problem and his approach to resolve it. But he has to deal with the problem himself and not seek their direct intervention.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW 178 \u2013 Scrum Master Acceptance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-178-scrum-master-acceptance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13690","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13684,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:09:37","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 20:39:37","post_content":"\n IT industry in India is a young industry. Percentage of younger people employed in this industry, is\u00a0 much higher compared to other industries. Average age of an IT project team is around 25 years. To keep the costs down this industry recruits fresh graduates, enables them through some training and uses them in project deliveries. However, this has inherent risks which if not managed well, will cause project failures; whereas, if managed well, they can take the projects to glorious heights. Fresh graduates come with high energy, strong desire to learn, lot of enthusiasm and willingness to work hard. However, they lack proficiency in the tasks to be executed. So, most organizations arrange a fresh graduates training program and expect them to start delivering after the training. However, it is necessary to recognize that depending on their background, knowledge and skills, different individuals need different treatments for their evolution. This fact is overlooked and as a result, organizations achieve suboptimal results. It also causes stress to trainee individuals, impacting them negatively. Here, we present an approach that can avoid these unpleasant consequences and help inexperienced individuals evolve naturally and be effective, in course of time. This approach is based on the model shown in Figure 1 \u2013 \u201cAptitude Experience Model\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 1 : Aptitude \u2013 Experience Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
What would be your advice to Manish?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For support and maintenance teams, Kanban model is better\nsuited as it helps in managing continuous flow of work. Manish could explore\nthat option and consider use of Kanban Board to have a good view of tickets in\nvarious states and Work in Progress. However,\nlet\u2019s first examine what he could do in the current iteration based delivery\nmodel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Each iteration is preceded by a Backlog Grooming session where\nUser Stories for upcoming iterations are examined, clarified and fully\nunderstood by the developers, making them ready for action by the developers. Manish\nand team could use the Backlog Grooming session to identify the prerequisites\n(approvals, clarifications etc.) required by User Stories and initiate actions for\nthose to be addressed. This way, by the time iteration starts, prerequisites\nwill get addressed and developers can then execute their actions without any\nwait. This will help reduce the cycle\ntime and improve the productivity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now let\u2019s examine how Kanban helps in this situation. Refer to the figure below. Tickets logged by the Users arrive as user Stories in Arrival State. From Arrival state they move to Prerequisites state where their prerequisites are identified and actions for addressing prerequisites are initiated. User Stories for which prerequisites have been addressed are marked as \u201cReady \u201c. User stories on which development is happening are in \u201cDevelopment\u201d State. As soon as development is completed on a user Story it moves to next state \u2013 \u201cUser Confirmation\u201d. The developer who is free now, can pull a \u201cReady\u201d User story from \u201cPrerequisites\u201d State into \u201cDevelopment\u201d state and start working on it. User stories that are confirmed by users move to delivered state from where they can be moved to production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking at the Kanban Board, team can get a good idea of how\nmany stories are in arrival queue, How many are waiting for prerequisites to be\naddressed, how many are ready to move to development, how many are in\ndevelopment, how many are waiting for user confirmation and how many are ready\nto move to production. Developer do not have to wait anywhere, cycle time is\nkept low and productivity high. <\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW #196 - Improving Productivity of the support and maintenance teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"challenge-of-the-week-chow-196-improving-productivity-of-the-support-and-maintenance-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=15083","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13690,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:31:55","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 21:01:55","post_content":"\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMahesh\nis a new scrum master who has recently joined a scrum team. Team has\nexperienced team members who have delivered software successfully in the past. They\nare quite confident in the technology being used in the project. They follow\nscrum practices mechanically. Mahesh is trying to change this. However, many times\nteam members do not listen to what Mahesh says and ignore him. Sometimes, they\ncarry out Mahesh\u2019s suggestions reluctantly. Mahesh is finding it difficult to\nlead this team and feels that he is not able to influence them. How do you\nthink Mahesh could navigate this situation and succeed ?\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution :<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mahesh, is a new person in the team that is already formed and has established some ways of working that have been used before and deliveries have happened. Irrespective of whether these ways are good or not, \u00a0whether they deliver good quality and customer satisfaction or not, whether they can be improved or not; team believes that they have a working model and they want to stick to it. They \u00a0resist the change. This is a classic case of change being pushed from outside. Obviously, the first thing that Mahesh has to do is to establish the need for change. He has to identify some issues that team has faced, what caused those issues and how those issues could be handled better by the changes that he proposes. He has to explain and make the team understand why certain paradigms that they are working with do not work and the need for adoption of new paradigms. Once this is achieved, team will accept his leadership and will follow him. Mahesh has to keep in\u00a0 mind that knowledge workers do not respect positions. They respect knowledge and value addition. For acceptance by the team, Mahesh has to come across as a person who adds value. This alone will help him create his place in the team. He should consciously avoid getting into command and control mode or escalation to management, which he could be tempted to, out of frustration. That would lead to his failure as scrum master. Rather, he should stick to fundamentals of change management and go about it systematically. He should keep the management informed of the problem and his approach to resolve it. But he has to deal with the problem himself and not seek their direct intervention.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW 178 \u2013 Scrum Master Acceptance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-178-scrum-master-acceptance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13690","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13684,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:09:37","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 20:39:37","post_content":"\n IT industry in India is a young industry. Percentage of younger people employed in this industry, is\u00a0 much higher compared to other industries. Average age of an IT project team is around 25 years. To keep the costs down this industry recruits fresh graduates, enables them through some training and uses them in project deliveries. However, this has inherent risks which if not managed well, will cause project failures; whereas, if managed well, they can take the projects to glorious heights. Fresh graduates come with high energy, strong desire to learn, lot of enthusiasm and willingness to work hard. However, they lack proficiency in the tasks to be executed. So, most organizations arrange a fresh graduates training program and expect them to start delivering after the training. However, it is necessary to recognize that depending on their background, knowledge and skills, different individuals need different treatments for their evolution. This fact is overlooked and as a result, organizations achieve suboptimal results. It also causes stress to trainee individuals, impacting them negatively. Here, we present an approach that can avoid these unpleasant consequences and help inexperienced individuals evolve naturally and be effective, in course of time. This approach is based on the model shown in Figure 1 \u2013 \u201cAptitude Experience Model\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 1 : Aptitude \u2013 Experience Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Manish has taken up the role of a Scrum Master in a new team\nwhich has recently adopted Agile. The team is responsible for support and\nmaintenance of a very important enterprise application and has adopted\niteration based delivery model. All the support and maintenance requests are\nraised through a ticketing tool and come to the team as tickets. They are\nrequired to deliver only high severity production defects with quick turnaround; however, such defects\nare very rare. In fact, the team has not seen such a ticket in last few months.\nOther support and maintenance tickets are prioritized, higher priority ones\nwhich can be delivered in a two week period, are clubbed together and delivered\nat the end of a two week iteration. Tickets are treated as User Stories in the\nagile delivery management tool. Manish finds that most of the user Stories, require\nsome approvals before team could start working on them. Also, sometimes, team\nrequires some clarifications or data from the user and waits for them before\nstarting work on the ticket. These factors add to the overall turnaround time\nof the tickets and at times wastes time of the team members who wait for\napprovals or clarifications etc. Sometimes this leads to User Stories not getting\ndelivered in the iteration. Manish wants to avoid this waste, improve the\ncycle time of user stories and overall productivity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What would be your advice to Manish?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For support and maintenance teams, Kanban model is better\nsuited as it helps in managing continuous flow of work. Manish could explore\nthat option and consider use of Kanban Board to have a good view of tickets in\nvarious states and Work in Progress. However,\nlet\u2019s first examine what he could do in the current iteration based delivery\nmodel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Each iteration is preceded by a Backlog Grooming session where\nUser Stories for upcoming iterations are examined, clarified and fully\nunderstood by the developers, making them ready for action by the developers. Manish\nand team could use the Backlog Grooming session to identify the prerequisites\n(approvals, clarifications etc.) required by User Stories and initiate actions for\nthose to be addressed. This way, by the time iteration starts, prerequisites\nwill get addressed and developers can then execute their actions without any\nwait. This will help reduce the cycle\ntime and improve the productivity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now let\u2019s examine how Kanban helps in this situation. Refer to the figure below. Tickets logged by the Users arrive as user Stories in Arrival State. From Arrival state they move to Prerequisites state where their prerequisites are identified and actions for addressing prerequisites are initiated. User Stories for which prerequisites have been addressed are marked as \u201cReady \u201c. User stories on which development is happening are in \u201cDevelopment\u201d State. As soon as development is completed on a user Story it moves to next state \u2013 \u201cUser Confirmation\u201d. The developer who is free now, can pull a \u201cReady\u201d User story from \u201cPrerequisites\u201d State into \u201cDevelopment\u201d state and start working on it. User stories that are confirmed by users move to delivered state from where they can be moved to production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking at the Kanban Board, team can get a good idea of how\nmany stories are in arrival queue, How many are waiting for prerequisites to be\naddressed, how many are ready to move to development, how many are in\ndevelopment, how many are waiting for user confirmation and how many are ready\nto move to production. Developer do not have to wait anywhere, cycle time is\nkept low and productivity high. <\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW #196 - Improving Productivity of the support and maintenance teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"challenge-of-the-week-chow-196-improving-productivity-of-the-support-and-maintenance-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=15083","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13690,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:31:55","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 21:01:55","post_content":"\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMahesh\nis a new scrum master who has recently joined a scrum team. Team has\nexperienced team members who have delivered software successfully in the past. They\nare quite confident in the technology being used in the project. They follow\nscrum practices mechanically. Mahesh is trying to change this. However, many times\nteam members do not listen to what Mahesh says and ignore him. Sometimes, they\ncarry out Mahesh\u2019s suggestions reluctantly. Mahesh is finding it difficult to\nlead this team and feels that he is not able to influence them. How do you\nthink Mahesh could navigate this situation and succeed ?\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution :<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mahesh, is a new person in the team that is already formed and has established some ways of working that have been used before and deliveries have happened. Irrespective of whether these ways are good or not, \u00a0whether they deliver good quality and customer satisfaction or not, whether they can be improved or not; team believes that they have a working model and they want to stick to it. They \u00a0resist the change. This is a classic case of change being pushed from outside. Obviously, the first thing that Mahesh has to do is to establish the need for change. He has to identify some issues that team has faced, what caused those issues and how those issues could be handled better by the changes that he proposes. He has to explain and make the team understand why certain paradigms that they are working with do not work and the need for adoption of new paradigms. Once this is achieved, team will accept his leadership and will follow him. Mahesh has to keep in\u00a0 mind that knowledge workers do not respect positions. They respect knowledge and value addition. For acceptance by the team, Mahesh has to come across as a person who adds value. This alone will help him create his place in the team. He should consciously avoid getting into command and control mode or escalation to management, which he could be tempted to, out of frustration. That would lead to his failure as scrum master. Rather, he should stick to fundamentals of change management and go about it systematically. He should keep the management informed of the problem and his approach to resolve it. But he has to deal with the problem himself and not seek their direct intervention.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW 178 \u2013 Scrum Master Acceptance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-178-scrum-master-acceptance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:28","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13690","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13684,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-01-07 02:09:37","post_date_gmt":"2020-01-06 20:39:37","post_content":"\n IT industry in India is a young industry. Percentage of younger people employed in this industry, is\u00a0 much higher compared to other industries. Average age of an IT project team is around 25 years. To keep the costs down this industry recruits fresh graduates, enables them through some training and uses them in project deliveries. However, this has inherent risks which if not managed well, will cause project failures; whereas, if managed well, they can take the projects to glorious heights. Fresh graduates come with high energy, strong desire to learn, lot of enthusiasm and willingness to work hard. However, they lack proficiency in the tasks to be executed. So, most organizations arrange a fresh graduates training program and expect them to start delivering after the training. However, it is necessary to recognize that depending on their background, knowledge and skills, different individuals need different treatments for their evolution. This fact is overlooked and as a result, organizations achieve suboptimal results. It also causes stress to trainee individuals, impacting them negatively. Here, we present an approach that can avoid these unpleasant consequences and help inexperienced individuals evolve naturally and be effective, in course of time. This approach is based on the model shown in Figure 1 \u2013 \u201cAptitude Experience Model\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 1 : Aptitude \u2013 Experience Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this model team members could be placed in one of the four quadrants depending on their Aptitude (x-axis) and Experience (y-axis). Aptitude is the capability to perform certain tasks. This aptitude would be rated as high when the individuals have gone through some good training, have performed these tasks on trial assignments, have familiarity with pitfalls in the execution and can perform the tasks with relative ease. It would be rated as low when individuals have not gone through sufficient training and do not have good hands-on experience with the tasks to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes people get into tasks which they do not know about and have lot to learn before they perform that task. Fresh graduates with degree in core engineering (electrical, mechanical etc.), getting into an IT company to become software engineers fall in this category. Although they may have good academic background and may be very talented, they score low on Aptitude Axis as they have to learn a lot, to perform as software engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people study software development as part of their academic curriculum, are familiar with sound software engineering practices, have gained good experience through delivery of useful software and enter IT industry with good abilities as programmers. These people score high on Aptitude Axis. However, to ensure right placement, we recommend use of an aptitude test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience Axis refers to the useful experience of an individual in performing the desired tasks. Here, what matters is whether the individual has gained desirable experience that makes him productive. We recommend use of a suitable test for objective rating of individual's Experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n1 is low Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Here team members need to undertake significant\nlearning effort to be productive. They need to be guided and usually have to\nwork hard to deliver acceptable performance. They can be expected to make\nmistakes and hence their work needs to be reviewed carefully. Team lead should\nexpect lower productivity from the members in this quadrant. He should assign\nmentors who can spend more time with these team members and they need to be actively\nhelped and guided. Good guidance and training act as motivators to the team\nmembers in Quadrant 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmembers in quadrant 1 gain experience, their mistakes will decrease, quality of\ntheir work will increase and need to monitor them will go down. At this stage, they\nwill begin the transition to Quadrant 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant\n2 is low aptitude, high experience quadrant. In this quadrant, productivity of\nthe members is at acceptable level. They can be given more responsibility and\neventually be assigned to higher roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quadrant 3 is high Aptitude, low experience quadrant. Team members in this quadrant have requisite background and some useful experience. These individuals are fast learners. They not only learn fast but also start delivering faster, making fewer mistakes. Their productivity could be at acceptable level and their mentors need to be intelligent people who could understand and address their intellectual needs. Team members in this quadrant usually get frustrated when they are made to undergo the training that is meant for Quadrant 1 team members as they they already know those things. For them such a training is waste of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh graduates start either in quadrant 1 or in quadrant 3. There is no possibility of transition between these two quadrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the members in quadrant 3 gain experience, their knowledge and productivity increases and they transition to quadrant 4. For a team leader, members of quadrant 4 are most desirable. They are the best, a team can get. They deliver high quality and grow fast. They are reliable, deliver with higher productivity and can contribute to creativity and innovativeness. They contribute handsomely to making the team, self organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nmembers in Quadrant 2 work closely with members of quadrant 4, their thinking and way of working\nalso evolves and they transition to quadrant 4 in course of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organization\nshould make a conscious effort to retain the quadrant 4 team members. In the absence\nof such efforts, they may just leave,\ntaking away their expertise and experience. Therefore, they need to be given\nproper roles and responsibilities, they should be intellectually challenged and\navenues for faster growth should be made available to them. Their contributions\nshould be recognized and they should be rewarded well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion - Team leaders need to understand which quadrant their team members belong to and provide appropriate inputs and mentoring to chart out their path to Quadrant 4. Building a capable team needs time and patience and specific actions customized for an individual. In short, the team leader needs to adopt the role of a coach; understand where his team members stand and actively help them to evolve. If team leader does not have the necessary skill, time and experience for this important task, they should take help of a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade <\/p>\n","post_title":"Fresh Graduates to Professionals","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"fresh-graduates-to-professionals","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:26:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13684","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13171,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:57:06","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:27:06","post_content":"\n Ajit is a scrum master with some experience in leading an agile team. He has been assigned to a new team and he finds the team in the middle of their first sprint planning meeting. The product owner (PO) is relatively new to his role and has gone through the required training. He has prepared the backlog and prioritized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PO briefs the team that goal of the sprint would be to deliver a key feature that customers are waiting for. Team reviews the user stories for this feature, does the estimation and concludes that all of them cannot be completed in one sprint and some of them will need to be deferred to the next sprint. The PO is willing to push all the stories not related to the desired feature to the next sprint but insists that all the stories for that feature be completed in current sprint. He says that it is necessary to deliver this feature right in this sprint as competition has already introduced it in their products and unless we deliver this feature quickly, we might lose some customers and business. Ajit tries to convince the PO that team will deliver higher priority User Stories in the current sprint and remaining stories will be delivered in the next sprint. However, PO still urges the team to find out the way to deliver all the user stories of the desired feature. He is of the opinion that if required, team should work extra hours and on holidays to achieve this goal. How do you think Ajit should handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Solution:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agility means adapting quickly to the changes in the environment. So, agile teams are expected to deliver faster. However, very often, we come across situations where we have a big list of things that need to be delivered and of course, we may not be able to deliver everything that has been asked, in a short time. In a situation like this, agile advises that we prioritize and things that have higher priority be delivered first. We should use Pareto Principle here and find the 20% of the functionality that deliver 80% of the benefits that user gets. Our PO needs to be skilled in use of Pareto principle and should be properly trained for the same.\u00a0 Also the team has to bear in mind that whatever they deliver has to be directly usable by the user. So, they can not compromise the quality of delivery. Usually, while attempting to deliver bigger scope than what they can reasonably manage, teams tend to compromise on testing and some other activities that ensure good quality. This defeats the purpose of the delivery and should be firmly avoided. There is no point in delivering something that the users are not able to use. So, the development team should have a realistic target agreed with the users and ensure its delivery with quality. Further, we should never plan for working extra hours and on holidays. Agile teams generate a good momentum and sustain that momentum in ongoing manner. Working additional hours and on weekends disrupt their momentum and prevents working at a constant pace. In the long run it demotivates the team and may even cause burn out of team members. Therefore, except for exceptional situation that calls for exceptional response, working outside normal working hours and normal working days is to be avoided by the agile team. Ajit has to communicate this effectively to the PO. I would advise him to do this in a personal, face to face meeting with PO and get him in sync with agile ways of execution. The PO has to understand that what he is asking for is neither good for the organization; nor good for the team. If required, Ajit may take help of his Agile Coach or Agile sponsor to influence the PO. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Chow #158 - Demand vs Capacity","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow-158-demand-vs-capacity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":13168,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2019-07-22 22:42:04","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-22 17:12:04","post_content":"\n I did B.E. in Electrical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai\nUniversity. As electrical engineers we studied electrical motors, generators,\ntransformers, electrical power generation and distribution etc, etc. . . However, I did not like any of the electrical\nengineering subjects. I liked to study electronics. When I got introduced to\nDigital electronics and computers, I loved them. Computers fascinated me \u00ad\u00ad\u00adand my heart\nlonged to study computers in depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last year of engineerin\u00ad\u00adg, companies started\nvisiting our college for campus recruitment. All these companies offered a job\nin electrical engineering. I was not interested in those jobs and was thinking\non pursuing higher studies in computer science. However, there was uncertainty\nin getting admission to a course of my choice. So, I decided to secure a job as\nfallback option. I decided to apply for the jobs that were available. I had\ngood academic record. All the companies conducted written test first and based\non performance in written test, candidates were shortlisted for interviews. I did\nvery well in written tests and was always shortlisted for interview. However,\nafter interview I did not get selected. My friends with not so great academic\nperformance also got job offers but I didn\u2019t. Our training and placement\nofficer was particularly surprised at this and even conducted a personal\nsession for me on how to handle interviews. Even then, the same pattern of\ngetting rejected in interviews continued. Towards end of recruitment sessions,\none software company came to our college and I appeared for their selection\nprocess. As usual I did well in written test and got shortlisted for interview.\nI appeared for interview and this time I was the first one to be selected and I\ngot an offer that was 50% higher than average offer received by my classmates.\nMy classmates showered me with congratulations and I also felt proud. Subsequently, I did not join this company\nalso as I got admission to M. Tech. (Computers Science) course in IIT Bombay\nand decided to pursue my interest and studies in computers. After completion of\nM. Tech. degree I was selected by TCS in the first interview that I faced and\nthereafter I have not failed in any interview. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked back on these events, I wondered why despite\nexcellent academic record, excellent performance in written tests and correct\nanswers to technical questions in interviews, I always got rejected in\ninterviews by electrical companies. I could not figure it out but I think my\ndislike for electrical engineering job somehow surfaced in those interviews and\nreflected in my body language and that led to rejections. These rejections impacted me as I had\nsincerely tried to get the job. I got frustrated and became angry with myself.\nFor the first time in my life, my confidence was shaken. However all of that\nvanished when I got an offer from the software company. In hindsight, I think these\nrejections were a blessing in disguise. They helped me understand my strengths\nand passions better and made me more determined to prove myself and eventually\nI succeeded. They taught me an important lesson \u2013 failures are possible in\nspite of careful preparation if your heart is not into that activity. Being\npassionate about the outcome is one of the key ingredients of success. So,\nfailures are not necessarily bad! They have their own place of importance in\nour lives. They may close one avenue for us but at the same time they open up\nnew options that lead us in directions not easily comprehended before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the present age, marked by Volatility, Uncertainty,\nComplexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) one may not be fully prepared to face the\nchallenges and chances of failure are high. Here, we advise agile approaches.\nGet started, try something. If it fails, fine! Learn from the failure and\ncorrect your course and march on towards success!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have worked for a product company that was an ambitious\nstart up. Company had fast growth and frankly, we were a bit overwhelmed by the\nspeed of growth. However, we were determined to make the company successful and\ndo whatever it takes for it. One of our delivery managers, was given the\nresponsibility of making an important delivery to a strategically important\ncustomer. Looking at too many things on his plate, he committed a delivery date\nthat was 11 months away, little short of one year. He then got busy with his\nother deliveries. After about 8 months,\nsomeone remembered this customer and it was discovered that work on this\nimportant delivery had not started and it was just not possible to meet the\ndate promised to the customer. When this was discovered, there was panic in the\nair. This manager was a very competent technical person and was very honest,\nsincere and hardworking. He was well respected in the company. Obviously, he\nwas dismayed and considered himself personally responsible for getting the\ncompany into the problem. When CEO called him, he expected to be fired. He\nprepared a resignation letter, put that in the pocket and went for the meeting.\nIn the meeting, he took complete responsibility for what had happened. He\nexplained that while he was busy and could not have started this important\ndelivery as he did not have people to work on it, he should have highlighted\nthat in time and failure to do so has landed company in the difficulty. Given\nthat situation he felt that he does not deserve this responsible position and offered\nto quit. The CEO smiled and said, \u201cWe have already lost something here. If you\nquit, we would lose some important lessons that this situation has taught us. I\ndo not want to lose them. Get back to the drawing board. Let me know what could\nbe the earliest date for this delivery and what you need to make it happen.\nAlso propose some changes that we should implement to prevent recurrence of\nthis kind of situations. We have failed as a team here and we need to work as a\nteam to recover from it \u2013 all of us; me included!\u201d Everybody in the company was\nrelieved at this decision and we committed ourselves to recover from the\nsituation. That was a great lesson for all of us in dealing with a failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same product company, we had to deal with many new technologies. Technical team was empowered to make suggestions which they thought were useful for the product. Sometimes these experiments did not work and some precious effort and money was lost. However. the CEO never discouraged them. He used to say, \u201cIt is ok to fail when we are doing something first time. But we should learn from the failures and improve.\u201d This approach took the fear of failure away from the team. This assurance of safety, fostered creativity in the environment. It enhanced the feeling of trust in the team and made them more responsible in their behavior. To summarize, never be afraid of failures. Failures are not necessarily bad! Use them to discover new avenues, new opportunities that can use your inherent strengths and create new definition of success. When we experiment we do take risks and may face failures. However, learning from failures will help us succeed eventually. Always keep in mind that failures are integral part of success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Dealing with failures","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"dealing-with-failures","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:28:57","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=13168","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};
Dear readers, at this stage, I would like to ask you to look back at your life and list out the things that you wanted to do but have not done. Ask yourself a question, \u201cwhy did those things not happen?\u201d. You will realize the truth \u2013 Project without a deadline does not complete! <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to narrate a personal experience to further emphasize this. As it happens with most people, some of my classmates decided to arrange a reunion of our schoolmates. They met a few times and discussed the topic. I was invited to take part in one such discussion. We revived good old memories of our school days and agreed that we must rediscover that friendship and bonding. We also realized that finding our schoolmates after 30 years of no contact will be a difficult task. But we decided to go about it anyway. Then I said, \u201cIf you are serious about it, let\u2019s set a date for this reunion and get started\u201d. My friends were unwilling to set a date as things looked very uncertain then. But I insisted on the date and we set a date that was six weeks later. We set a target to get at least 60% of the 130 batchmates to attend the reunion. A weekly review meeting also was fixed. When we met after a week, there was significant progress. All of us had contacted 2-3 more classmates and got them invited to our review meeting. I and one more friend visited the school and got the addresses of our batchmates from the school register. We distributed the list among ourselves and decided to either visit those addresses or send letters there. As we could see the progress, we got better idea of how we could go about contacting people and arranging the reunion. We also realized that it would be better to budget more time. I agreed to postpone the date but insisted that the revised date be final and we must go all out to meet it. We revised our date to two weeks later. We even went ahead and booked the venue for that date. Now there was no looking back. We went all out in our efforts and as more people got contacted the initiative got further momentum and it all culminated in a memorable reunion with 92 (70.8%) of our schoolmates and 12 teachers attending the event! Looking back, I told my friends that this would not have happened if I had not insisted on the date in my first meeting with them! They had spent few months just discussing the idea but by setting the deadline, we could make the reunion happen in just two months! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear readers, at this stage, I would like to ask you to look back at your life and list out the things that you wanted to do but have not done. Ask yourself a question, \u201cwhy did those things not happen?\u201d. You will realize the truth \u2013 Project without a deadline does not complete! <\/p>\n\n\n\n In our life \u2013 professional as well as personal, there are some activities which are important and urgent which grab our attention and we have no option but to spend our time on them. However, in the process, at times, we neglect the activities that are important but not urgent. Training, acquiring new skills, spending time with the family, meditation are some examples of important but non urgent activities. It is very important to set a date and time for them, otherwise we would lose something significant in the long run. Their neglect could mean missing out on some high value life experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to narrate a personal experience to further emphasize this. As it happens with most people, some of my classmates decided to arrange a reunion of our schoolmates. They met a few times and discussed the topic. I was invited to take part in one such discussion. We revived good old memories of our school days and agreed that we must rediscover that friendship and bonding. We also realized that finding our schoolmates after 30 years of no contact will be a difficult task. But we decided to go about it anyway. Then I said, \u201cIf you are serious about it, let\u2019s set a date for this reunion and get started\u201d. My friends were unwilling to set a date as things looked very uncertain then. But I insisted on the date and we set a date that was six weeks later. We set a target to get at least 60% of the 130 batchmates to attend the reunion. A weekly review meeting also was fixed. When we met after a week, there was significant progress. All of us had contacted 2-3 more classmates and got them invited to our review meeting. I and one more friend visited the school and got the addresses of our batchmates from the school register. We distributed the list among ourselves and decided to either visit those addresses or send letters there. As we could see the progress, we got better idea of how we could go about contacting people and arranging the reunion. We also realized that it would be better to budget more time. I agreed to postpone the date but insisted that the revised date be final and we must go all out to meet it. We revised our date to two weeks later. We even went ahead and booked the venue for that date. Now there was no looking back. We went all out in our efforts and as more people got contacted the initiative got further momentum and it all culminated in a memorable reunion with 92 (70.8%) of our schoolmates and 12 teachers attending the event! Looking back, I told my friends that this would not have happened if I had not insisted on the date in my first meeting with them! They had spent few months just discussing the idea but by setting the deadline, we could make the reunion happen in just two months! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear readers, at this stage, I would like to ask you to look back at your life and list out the things that you wanted to do but have not done. Ask yourself a question, \u201cwhy did those things not happen?\u201d. You will realize the truth \u2013 Project without a deadline does not complete! <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we accept a deadline, we make a commitment. That\ncommitment galvanizes us and imparts us the energy and enthusiasm, necessary\nfor achievement of the goal! There could be unexpected hurdles on the path but if\nwe are charged with the energy and enthusiasm, we will find the ways to overcome\nthem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In our life \u2013 professional as well as personal, there are some activities which are important and urgent which grab our attention and we have no option but to spend our time on them. However, in the process, at times, we neglect the activities that are important but not urgent. Training, acquiring new skills, spending time with the family, meditation are some examples of important but non urgent activities. It is very important to set a date and time for them, otherwise we would lose something significant in the long run. Their neglect could mean missing out on some high value life experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to narrate a personal experience to further emphasize this. As it happens with most people, some of my classmates decided to arrange a reunion of our schoolmates. They met a few times and discussed the topic. I was invited to take part in one such discussion. We revived good old memories of our school days and agreed that we must rediscover that friendship and bonding. We also realized that finding our schoolmates after 30 years of no contact will be a difficult task. But we decided to go about it anyway. Then I said, \u201cIf you are serious about it, let\u2019s set a date for this reunion and get started\u201d. My friends were unwilling to set a date as things looked very uncertain then. But I insisted on the date and we set a date that was six weeks later. We set a target to get at least 60% of the 130 batchmates to attend the reunion. A weekly review meeting also was fixed. When we met after a week, there was significant progress. All of us had contacted 2-3 more classmates and got them invited to our review meeting. I and one more friend visited the school and got the addresses of our batchmates from the school register. We distributed the list among ourselves and decided to either visit those addresses or send letters there. As we could see the progress, we got better idea of how we could go about contacting people and arranging the reunion. We also realized that it would be better to budget more time. I agreed to postpone the date but insisted that the revised date be final and we must go all out to meet it. We revised our date to two weeks later. We even went ahead and booked the venue for that date. Now there was no looking back. We went all out in our efforts and as more people got contacted the initiative got further momentum and it all culminated in a memorable reunion with 92 (70.8%) of our schoolmates and 12 teachers attending the event! Looking back, I told my friends that this would not have happened if I had not insisted on the date in my first meeting with them! They had spent few months just discussing the idea but by setting the deadline, we could make the reunion happen in just two months! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear readers, at this stage, I would like to ask you to look back at your life and list out the things that you wanted to do but have not done. Ask yourself a question, \u201cwhy did those things not happen?\u201d. You will realize the truth \u2013 Project without a deadline does not complete! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Goal setting is an important exercise in an organization at all levels. HR demands that the Goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timebound)! Here it is well recognized that unless the goals are time-bound i.e. unless there is a deadline, the goal has no meaning! Without a date, it just becomes a wish or desire and not a goal! <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we accept a deadline, we make a commitment. That\ncommitment galvanizes us and imparts us the energy and enthusiasm, necessary\nfor achievement of the goal! There could be unexpected hurdles on the path but if\nwe are charged with the energy and enthusiasm, we will find the ways to overcome\nthem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In our life \u2013 professional as well as personal, there are some activities which are important and urgent which grab our attention and we have no option but to spend our time on them. However, in the process, at times, we neglect the activities that are important but not urgent. Training, acquiring new skills, spending time with the family, meditation are some examples of important but non urgent activities. It is very important to set a date and time for them, otherwise we would lose something significant in the long run. Their neglect could mean missing out on some high value life experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to narrate a personal experience to further emphasize this. As it happens with most people, some of my classmates decided to arrange a reunion of our schoolmates. They met a few times and discussed the topic. I was invited to take part in one such discussion. We revived good old memories of our school days and agreed that we must rediscover that friendship and bonding. We also realized that finding our schoolmates after 30 years of no contact will be a difficult task. But we decided to go about it anyway. Then I said, \u201cIf you are serious about it, let\u2019s set a date for this reunion and get started\u201d. My friends were unwilling to set a date as things looked very uncertain then. But I insisted on the date and we set a date that was six weeks later. We set a target to get at least 60% of the 130 batchmates to attend the reunion. A weekly review meeting also was fixed. When we met after a week, there was significant progress. All of us had contacted 2-3 more classmates and got them invited to our review meeting. I and one more friend visited the school and got the addresses of our batchmates from the school register. We distributed the list among ourselves and decided to either visit those addresses or send letters there. As we could see the progress, we got better idea of how we could go about contacting people and arranging the reunion. We also realized that it would be better to budget more time. I agreed to postpone the date but insisted that the revised date be final and we must go all out to meet it. We revised our date to two weeks later. We even went ahead and booked the venue for that date. Now there was no looking back. We went all out in our efforts and as more people got contacted the initiative got further momentum and it all culminated in a memorable reunion with 92 (70.8%) of our schoolmates and 12 teachers attending the event! Looking back, I told my friends that this would not have happened if I had not insisted on the date in my first meeting with them! They had spent few months just discussing the idea but by setting the deadline, we could make the reunion happen in just two months! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear readers, at this stage, I would like to ask you to look back at your life and list out the things that you wanted to do but have not done. Ask yourself a question, \u201cwhy did those things not happen?\u201d. You will realize the truth \u2013 Project without a deadline does not complete! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Deadlines have psychological impact. They motivate the\nindividuals to act! Deadlines drive us to define scope, resources, time and\ncost required, based on which a plan can be prepared, tracked and delivered! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Goal setting is an important exercise in an organization at all levels. HR demands that the Goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timebound)! Here it is well recognized that unless the goals are time-bound i.e. unless there is a deadline, the goal has no meaning! Without a date, it just becomes a wish or desire and not a goal! <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we accept a deadline, we make a commitment. That\ncommitment galvanizes us and imparts us the energy and enthusiasm, necessary\nfor achievement of the goal! There could be unexpected hurdles on the path but if\nwe are charged with the energy and enthusiasm, we will find the ways to overcome\nthem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In our life \u2013 professional as well as personal, there are some activities which are important and urgent which grab our attention and we have no option but to spend our time on them. However, in the process, at times, we neglect the activities that are important but not urgent. Training, acquiring new skills, spending time with the family, meditation are some examples of important but non urgent activities. It is very important to set a date and time for them, otherwise we would lose something significant in the long run. Their neglect could mean missing out on some high value life experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to narrate a personal experience to further emphasize this. As it happens with most people, some of my classmates decided to arrange a reunion of our schoolmates. They met a few times and discussed the topic. I was invited to take part in one such discussion. We revived good old memories of our school days and agreed that we must rediscover that friendship and bonding. We also realized that finding our schoolmates after 30 years of no contact will be a difficult task. But we decided to go about it anyway. Then I said, \u201cIf you are serious about it, let\u2019s set a date for this reunion and get started\u201d. My friends were unwilling to set a date as things looked very uncertain then. But I insisted on the date and we set a date that was six weeks later. We set a target to get at least 60% of the 130 batchmates to attend the reunion. A weekly review meeting also was fixed. When we met after a week, there was significant progress. All of us had contacted 2-3 more classmates and got them invited to our review meeting. I and one more friend visited the school and got the addresses of our batchmates from the school register. We distributed the list among ourselves and decided to either visit those addresses or send letters there. As we could see the progress, we got better idea of how we could go about contacting people and arranging the reunion. We also realized that it would be better to budget more time. I agreed to postpone the date but insisted that the revised date be final and we must go all out to meet it. We revised our date to two weeks later. We even went ahead and booked the venue for that date. Now there was no looking back. We went all out in our efforts and as more people got contacted the initiative got further momentum and it all culminated in a memorable reunion with 92 (70.8%) of our schoolmates and 12 teachers attending the event! Looking back, I told my friends that this would not have happened if I had not insisted on the date in my first meeting with them! They had spent few months just discussing the idea but by setting the deadline, we could make the reunion happen in just two months! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear readers, at this stage, I would like to ask you to look back at your life and list out the things that you wanted to do but have not done. Ask yourself a question, \u201cwhy did those things not happen?\u201d. You will realize the truth \u2013 Project without a deadline does not complete! <\/p>\n\n\n\n What made the difference? Simple act of setting a target date \u2013 the deadline! If that were not set, the company would have lost many more months and would have lost the early mover advantage! That is the difference a deadline can make! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Deadlines have psychological impact. They motivate the\nindividuals to act! Deadlines drive us to define scope, resources, time and\ncost required, based on which a plan can be prepared, tracked and delivered! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Goal setting is an important exercise in an organization at all levels. HR demands that the Goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timebound)! Here it is well recognized that unless the goals are time-bound i.e. unless there is a deadline, the goal has no meaning! Without a date, it just becomes a wish or desire and not a goal! <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we accept a deadline, we make a commitment. That\ncommitment galvanizes us and imparts us the energy and enthusiasm, necessary\nfor achievement of the goal! There could be unexpected hurdles on the path but if\nwe are charged with the energy and enthusiasm, we will find the ways to overcome\nthem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In our life \u2013 professional as well as personal, there are some activities which are important and urgent which grab our attention and we have no option but to spend our time on them. However, in the process, at times, we neglect the activities that are important but not urgent. Training, acquiring new skills, spending time with the family, meditation are some examples of important but non urgent activities. It is very important to set a date and time for them, otherwise we would lose something significant in the long run. Their neglect could mean missing out on some high value life experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to narrate a personal experience to further emphasize this. As it happens with most people, some of my classmates decided to arrange a reunion of our schoolmates. They met a few times and discussed the topic. I was invited to take part in one such discussion. We revived good old memories of our school days and agreed that we must rediscover that friendship and bonding. We also realized that finding our schoolmates after 30 years of no contact will be a difficult task. But we decided to go about it anyway. Then I said, \u201cIf you are serious about it, let\u2019s set a date for this reunion and get started\u201d. My friends were unwilling to set a date as things looked very uncertain then. But I insisted on the date and we set a date that was six weeks later. We set a target to get at least 60% of the 130 batchmates to attend the reunion. A weekly review meeting also was fixed. When we met after a week, there was significant progress. All of us had contacted 2-3 more classmates and got them invited to our review meeting. I and one more friend visited the school and got the addresses of our batchmates from the school register. We distributed the list among ourselves and decided to either visit those addresses or send letters there. As we could see the progress, we got better idea of how we could go about contacting people and arranging the reunion. We also realized that it would be better to budget more time. I agreed to postpone the date but insisted that the revised date be final and we must go all out to meet it. We revised our date to two weeks later. We even went ahead and booked the venue for that date. Now there was no looking back. We went all out in our efforts and as more people got contacted the initiative got further momentum and it all culminated in a memorable reunion with 92 (70.8%) of our schoolmates and 12 teachers attending the event! Looking back, I told my friends that this would not have happened if I had not insisted on the date in my first meeting with them! They had spent few months just discussing the idea but by setting the deadline, we could make the reunion happen in just two months! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear readers, at this stage, I would like to ask you to look back at your life and list out the things that you wanted to do but have not done. Ask yourself a question, \u201cwhy did those things not happen?\u201d. You will realize the truth \u2013 Project without a deadline does not complete! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let me illustrate this with an example. In a fast growing startup company, engaged in the development of a software product, the product manager discovered a new feature that could add significant value to their product. He presented it to the CEO and the engineering manager. Engineering manager explained that he had other features in work and along with them engineering team was also busy in supporting customers with customer specific enhancements. So, the CEO and product manager agreed to assign lower priority to this new feature but emphasized that the new feature is very important. In his next review, CEO wanted to check the progress on the new feature and he discovered that it was not even touched by the engineering team. \u201cWe did not have time for it\u201d was the simple explanation. The company had limited resources and engineering manager could not think of taking up a lower priority development and in the process, the new feature that could deliver significant competitive advantage to the company was lying neglected. Around this time, they also learnt that a competitor was thinking on a similar feature. Now everybody felt the urgency to deliver the new feature and they set a target that first usable version of the new feature should be delivered in three months\u2019 time. The engineering team made the adjustments to their resource utilization and started working on it and managed to deliver the first version as required! <\/p>\n\n\n\n What made the difference? Simple act of setting a target date \u2013 the deadline! If that were not set, the company would have lost many more months and would have lost the early mover advantage! That is the difference a deadline can make! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Deadlines have psychological impact. They motivate the\nindividuals to act! Deadlines drive us to define scope, resources, time and\ncost required, based on which a plan can be prepared, tracked and delivered! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Goal setting is an important exercise in an organization at all levels. HR demands that the Goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timebound)! Here it is well recognized that unless the goals are time-bound i.e. unless there is a deadline, the goal has no meaning! Without a date, it just becomes a wish or desire and not a goal! <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we accept a deadline, we make a commitment. That\ncommitment galvanizes us and imparts us the energy and enthusiasm, necessary\nfor achievement of the goal! There could be unexpected hurdles on the path but if\nwe are charged with the energy and enthusiasm, we will find the ways to overcome\nthem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In our life \u2013 professional as well as personal, there are some activities which are important and urgent which grab our attention and we have no option but to spend our time on them. However, in the process, at times, we neglect the activities that are important but not urgent. Training, acquiring new skills, spending time with the family, meditation are some examples of important but non urgent activities. It is very important to set a date and time for them, otherwise we would lose something significant in the long run. Their neglect could mean missing out on some high value life experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to narrate a personal experience to further emphasize this. As it happens with most people, some of my classmates decided to arrange a reunion of our schoolmates. They met a few times and discussed the topic. I was invited to take part in one such discussion. We revived good old memories of our school days and agreed that we must rediscover that friendship and bonding. We also realized that finding our schoolmates after 30 years of no contact will be a difficult task. But we decided to go about it anyway. Then I said, \u201cIf you are serious about it, let\u2019s set a date for this reunion and get started\u201d. My friends were unwilling to set a date as things looked very uncertain then. But I insisted on the date and we set a date that was six weeks later. We set a target to get at least 60% of the 130 batchmates to attend the reunion. A weekly review meeting also was fixed. When we met after a week, there was significant progress. All of us had contacted 2-3 more classmates and got them invited to our review meeting. I and one more friend visited the school and got the addresses of our batchmates from the school register. We distributed the list among ourselves and decided to either visit those addresses or send letters there. As we could see the progress, we got better idea of how we could go about contacting people and arranging the reunion. We also realized that it would be better to budget more time. I agreed to postpone the date but insisted that the revised date be final and we must go all out to meet it. We revised our date to two weeks later. We even went ahead and booked the venue for that date. Now there was no looking back. We went all out in our efforts and as more people got contacted the initiative got further momentum and it all culminated in a memorable reunion with 92 (70.8%) of our schoolmates and 12 teachers attending the event! Looking back, I told my friends that this would not have happened if I had not insisted on the date in my first meeting with them! They had spent few months just discussing the idea but by setting the deadline, we could make the reunion happen in just two months! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear readers, at this stage, I would like to ask you to look back at your life and list out the things that you wanted to do but have not done. Ask yourself a question, \u201cwhy did those things not happen?\u201d. You will realize the truth \u2013 Project without a deadline does not complete! <\/p>\n\n\n\n At one stage of my career, I was leading a CoE (Centre of Excellence) for Project Management. I was good at Project Management, I had used it for delivering my projects successfully and experienced its importance. Now I was entrusted with helping others acquire that knowledge and skill! While teaching \u201cProject Management\u201d, I discovered a fundamental law about projects which applies to all projects irrespective of their nature and size; irrespective of the way the they are managed \u2013 Agile Project Management <\/a>or PMP Project Management! And the law states \u2013 \u201cProject without a deadline does not complete\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let me illustrate this with an example. In a fast growing startup company, engaged in the development of a software product, the product manager discovered a new feature that could add significant value to their product. He presented it to the CEO and the engineering manager. Engineering manager explained that he had other features in work and along with them engineering team was also busy in supporting customers with customer specific enhancements. So, the CEO and product manager agreed to assign lower priority to this new feature but emphasized that the new feature is very important. In his next review, CEO wanted to check the progress on the new feature and he discovered that it was not even touched by the engineering team. \u201cWe did not have time for it\u201d was the simple explanation. The company had limited resources and engineering manager could not think of taking up a lower priority development and in the process, the new feature that could deliver significant competitive advantage to the company was lying neglected. Around this time, they also learnt that a competitor was thinking on a similar feature. Now everybody felt the urgency to deliver the new feature and they set a target that first usable version of the new feature should be delivered in three months\u2019 time. The engineering team made the adjustments to their resource utilization and started working on it and managed to deliver the first version as required! <\/p>\n\n\n\n What made the difference? Simple act of setting a target date \u2013 the deadline! If that were not set, the company would have lost many more months and would have lost the early mover advantage! That is the difference a deadline can make! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Deadlines have psychological impact. They motivate the\nindividuals to act! Deadlines drive us to define scope, resources, time and\ncost required, based on which a plan can be prepared, tracked and delivered! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Goal setting is an important exercise in an organization at all levels. HR demands that the Goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timebound)! Here it is well recognized that unless the goals are time-bound i.e. unless there is a deadline, the goal has no meaning! Without a date, it just becomes a wish or desire and not a goal! <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we accept a deadline, we make a commitment. That\ncommitment galvanizes us and imparts us the energy and enthusiasm, necessary\nfor achievement of the goal! There could be unexpected hurdles on the path but if\nwe are charged with the energy and enthusiasm, we will find the ways to overcome\nthem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In our life \u2013 professional as well as personal, there are some activities which are important and urgent which grab our attention and we have no option but to spend our time on them. However, in the process, at times, we neglect the activities that are important but not urgent. Training, acquiring new skills, spending time with the family, meditation are some examples of important but non urgent activities. It is very important to set a date and time for them, otherwise we would lose something significant in the long run. Their neglect could mean missing out on some high value life experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to narrate a personal experience to further emphasize this. As it happens with most people, some of my classmates decided to arrange a reunion of our schoolmates. They met a few times and discussed the topic. I was invited to take part in one such discussion. We revived good old memories of our school days and agreed that we must rediscover that friendship and bonding. We also realized that finding our schoolmates after 30 years of no contact will be a difficult task. But we decided to go about it anyway. Then I said, \u201cIf you are serious about it, let\u2019s set a date for this reunion and get started\u201d. My friends were unwilling to set a date as things looked very uncertain then. But I insisted on the date and we set a date that was six weeks later. We set a target to get at least 60% of the 130 batchmates to attend the reunion. A weekly review meeting also was fixed. When we met after a week, there was significant progress. All of us had contacted 2-3 more classmates and got them invited to our review meeting. I and one more friend visited the school and got the addresses of our batchmates from the school register. We distributed the list among ourselves and decided to either visit those addresses or send letters there. As we could see the progress, we got better idea of how we could go about contacting people and arranging the reunion. We also realized that it would be better to budget more time. I agreed to postpone the date but insisted that the revised date be final and we must go all out to meet it. We revised our date to two weeks later. We even went ahead and booked the venue for that date. Now there was no looking back. We went all out in our efforts and as more people got contacted the initiative got further momentum and it all culminated in a memorable reunion with 92 (70.8%) of our schoolmates and 12 teachers attending the event! Looking back, I told my friends that this would not have happened if I had not insisted on the date in my first meeting with them! They had spent few months just discussing the idea but by setting the deadline, we could make the reunion happen in just two months! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear readers, at this stage, I would like to ask you to look back at your life and list out the things that you wanted to do but have not done. Ask yourself a question, \u201cwhy did those things not happen?\u201d. You will realize the truth \u2013 Project without a deadline does not complete! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Making Deadlines Effective","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"making-deadlines-effective","to_ping":"","pinged":"\nhttps:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blog\/project-without-a-deadline-does-not-complete\/","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:25:21","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:25:21","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=15484","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":15098,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-06-29 20:56:05","post_date_gmt":"2020-06-29 15:26:05","post_content":"\n At one stage of my career, I was leading a CoE (Centre of Excellence) for Project Management. I was good at Project Management, I had used it for delivering my projects successfully and experienced its importance. Now I was entrusted with helping others acquire that knowledge and skill! While teaching \u201cProject Management\u201d, I discovered a fundamental law about projects which applies to all projects irrespective of their nature and size; irrespective of the way the they are managed \u2013 Agile Project Management <\/a>or PMP Project Management! And the law states \u2013 \u201cProject without a deadline does not complete\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let me illustrate this with an example. In a fast growing startup company, engaged in the development of a software product, the product manager discovered a new feature that could add significant value to their product. He presented it to the CEO and the engineering manager. Engineering manager explained that he had other features in work and along with them engineering team was also busy in supporting customers with customer specific enhancements. So, the CEO and product manager agreed to assign lower priority to this new feature but emphasized that the new feature is very important. In his next review, CEO wanted to check the progress on the new feature and he discovered that it was not even touched by the engineering team. \u201cWe did not have time for it\u201d was the simple explanation. The company had limited resources and engineering manager could not think of taking up a lower priority development and in the process, the new feature that could deliver significant competitive advantage to the company was lying neglected. Around this time, they also learnt that a competitor was thinking on a similar feature. Now everybody felt the urgency to deliver the new feature and they set a target that first usable version of the new feature should be delivered in three months\u2019 time. The engineering team made the adjustments to their resource utilization and started working on it and managed to deliver the first version as required! <\/p>\n\n\n\n What made the difference? Simple act of setting a target date \u2013 the deadline! If that were not set, the company would have lost many more months and would have lost the early mover advantage! That is the difference a deadline can make! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Deadlines have psychological impact. They motivate the\nindividuals to act! Deadlines drive us to define scope, resources, time and\ncost required, based on which a plan can be prepared, tracked and delivered! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Goal setting is an important exercise in an organization at all levels. HR demands that the Goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timebound)! Here it is well recognized that unless the goals are time-bound i.e. unless there is a deadline, the goal has no meaning! Without a date, it just becomes a wish or desire and not a goal! <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we accept a deadline, we make a commitment. That\ncommitment galvanizes us and imparts us the energy and enthusiasm, necessary\nfor achievement of the goal! There could be unexpected hurdles on the path but if\nwe are charged with the energy and enthusiasm, we will find the ways to overcome\nthem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In our life \u2013 professional as well as personal, there are some activities which are important and urgent which grab our attention and we have no option but to spend our time on them. However, in the process, at times, we neglect the activities that are important but not urgent. Training, acquiring new skills, spending time with the family, meditation are some examples of important but non urgent activities. It is very important to set a date and time for them, otherwise we would lose something significant in the long run. Their neglect could mean missing out on some high value life experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to narrate a personal experience to further emphasize this. As it happens with most people, some of my classmates decided to arrange a reunion of our schoolmates. They met a few times and discussed the topic. I was invited to take part in one such discussion. We revived good old memories of our school days and agreed that we must rediscover that friendship and bonding. We also realized that finding our schoolmates after 30 years of no contact will be a difficult task. But we decided to go about it anyway. Then I said, \u201cIf you are serious about it, let\u2019s set a date for this reunion and get started\u201d. My friends were unwilling to set a date as things looked very uncertain then. But I insisted on the date and we set a date that was six weeks later. We set a target to get at least 60% of the 130 batchmates to attend the reunion. A weekly review meeting also was fixed. When we met after a week, there was significant progress. All of us had contacted 2-3 more classmates and got them invited to our review meeting. I and one more friend visited the school and got the addresses of our batchmates from the school register. We distributed the list among ourselves and decided to either visit those addresses or send letters there. As we could see the progress, we got better idea of how we could go about contacting people and arranging the reunion. We also realized that it would be better to budget more time. I agreed to postpone the date but insisted that the revised date be final and we must go all out to meet it. We revised our date to two weeks later. We even went ahead and booked the venue for that date. Now there was no looking back. We went all out in our efforts and as more people got contacted the initiative got further momentum and it all culminated in a memorable reunion with 92 (70.8%) of our schoolmates and 12 teachers attending the event! Looking back, I told my friends that this would not have happened if I had not insisted on the date in my first meeting with them! They had spent few months just discussing the idea but by setting the deadline, we could make the reunion happen in just two months! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear readers, at this stage, I would like to ask you to look back at your life and list out the things that you wanted to do but have not done. Ask yourself a question, \u201cwhy did those things not happen?\u201d. You will realize the truth \u2013 Project without a deadline does not complete! <\/p>\n\n\n\n So far, our discussion has been around deadlines for projects. We will extend it to the program and portfolio levels in the next blog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Milind Rumade<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Making Deadlines Effective","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"making-deadlines-effective","to_ping":"","pinged":"\nhttps:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blog\/project-without-a-deadline-does-not-complete\/","post_modified":"2024-01-25 13:25:21","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 13:25:21","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=15484","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":15098,"post_author":"18","post_date":"2020-06-29 20:56:05","post_date_gmt":"2020-06-29 15:26:05","post_content":"\n At one stage of my career, I was leading a CoE (Centre of Excellence) for Project Management. I was good at Project Management, I had used it for delivering my projects successfully and experienced its importance. Now I was entrusted with helping others acquire that knowledge and skill! While teaching \u201cProject Management\u201d, I discovered a fundamental law about projects which applies to all projects irrespective of their nature and size; irrespective of the way the they are managed \u2013 Agile Project Management <\/a>or PMP Project Management! And the law states \u2013 \u201cProject without a deadline does not complete\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let me illustrate this with an example. In a fast growing startup company, engaged in the development of a software product, the product manager discovered a new feature that could add significant value to their product. He presented it to the CEO and the engineering manager. Engineering manager explained that he had other features in work and along with them engineering team was also busy in supporting customers with customer specific enhancements. So, the CEO and product manager agreed to assign lower priority to this new feature but emphasized that the new feature is very important. In his next review, CEO wanted to check the progress on the new feature and he discovered that it was not even touched by the engineering team. \u201cWe did not have time for it\u201d was the simple explanation. The company had limited resources and engineering manager could not think of taking up a lower priority development and in the process, the new feature that could deliver significant competitive advantage to the company was lying neglected. Around this time, they also learnt that a competitor was thinking on a similar feature. Now everybody felt the urgency to deliver the new feature and they set a target that first usable version of the new feature should be delivered in three months\u2019 time. The engineering team made the adjustments to their resource utilization and started working on it and managed to deliver the first version as required! <\/p>\n\n\n\n What made the difference? Simple act of setting a target date \u2013 the deadline! If that were not set, the company would have lost many more months and would have lost the early mover advantage! That is the difference a deadline can make! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Deadlines have psychological impact. They motivate the\nindividuals to act! Deadlines drive us to define scope, resources, time and\ncost required, based on which a plan can be prepared, tracked and delivered! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Goal setting is an important exercise in an organization at all levels. HR demands that the Goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timebound)! Here it is well recognized that unless the goals are time-bound i.e. unless there is a deadline, the goal has no meaning! Without a date, it just becomes a wish or desire and not a goal! <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we accept a deadline, we make a commitment. That\ncommitment galvanizes us and imparts us the energy and enthusiasm, necessary\nfor achievement of the goal! There could be unexpected hurdles on the path but if\nwe are charged with the energy and enthusiasm, we will find the ways to overcome\nthem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In our life \u2013 professional as well as personal, there are some activities which are important and urgent which grab our attention and we have no option but to spend our time on them. However, in the process, at times, we neglect the activities that are important but not urgent. Training, acquiring new skills, spending time with the family, meditation are some examples of important but non urgent activities. It is very important to set a date and time for them, otherwise we would lose something significant in the long run. Their neglect could mean missing out on some high value life experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to narrate a personal experience to further emphasize this. As it happens with most people, some of my classmates decided to arrange a reunion of our schoolmates. They met a few times and discussed the topic. I was invited to take part in one such discussion. We revived good old memories of our school days and agreed that we must rediscover that friendship and bonding. We also realized that finding our schoolmates after 30 years of no contact will be a difficult task. But we decided to go about it anyway. Then I said, \u201cIf you are serious about it, let\u2019s set a date for this reunion and get started\u201d. My friends were unwilling to set a date as things looked very uncertain then. But I insisted on the date and we set a date that was six weeks later. We set a target to get at least 60% of the 130 batchmates to attend the reunion. A weekly review meeting also was fixed. When we met after a week, there was significant progress. All of us had contacted 2-3 more classmates and got them invited to our review meeting. I and one more friend visited the school and got the addresses of our batchmates from the school register. We distributed the list among ourselves and decided to either visit those addresses or send letters there. As we could see the progress, we got better idea of how we could go about contacting people and arranging the reunion. We also realized that it would be better to budget more time. I agreed to postpone the date but insisted that the revised date be final and we must go all out to meet it. We revised our date to two weeks later. We even went ahead and booked the venue for that date. Now there was no looking back. We went all out in our efforts and as more people got contacted the initiative got further momentum and it all culminated in a memorable reunion with 92 (70.8%) of our schoolmates and 12 teachers attending the event! Looking back, I told my friends that this would not have happened if I had not insisted on the date in my first meeting with them! They had spent few months just discussing the idea but by setting the deadline, we could make the reunion happen in just two months! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear readers, at this stage, I would like to ask you to look back at your life and list out the things that you wanted to do but have not done. Ask yourself a question, \u201cwhy did those things not happen?\u201d. You will realize the truth \u2013 Project without a deadline does not complete! <\/p>\n\n\n\n To summarize, for deadlines to be effective, they need to be owned by the teams, and rather than forcing the deadlines, leaders need to work with the teams to make them own the deadlines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So far, our discussion has been around deadlines for projects. We will extend it to the program and portfolio levels in the next blog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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