Book Review: User Stories Applied

This book provides good guidance on user stories. Actually the first section, Getting Started, is the one that provides enough details for learning to write user stories. Second session is about estimation and planning for user stories. Third section provides supplementary information about user stories in chapters such as “what user stories are not”, “why user stories”, etc. Fourth part provides a complete example case study for learning user stories. Final section provides two appendices: one giving an overview of Extreme Programming and other one providing answers to chapter questions. Overall, this book is good read for those who are planning to use user stories as a technique for requirements gathering and analysis during agile software development.

Book Review: Enterprise Architecture Planning

Published almost two decades back, this book provides a prescriptive approach that can be used to create top two layers of John Zachman’s Enterprise Architecture (EA) Framework (as published in year 1987). It provides a ten-phase process, which is phase-wise described in ten chapters. Each of these ten chapters describes the phase by providing steps involved. For each step, the author has mentioned the purpose, deliverables & tasks and guidelines. He has also provided sample documents for business model, data architecture, application architecture and technology architecture, as appendixes. This is a good how-to book for EA and hence every EA professional should consider reading this book.

Book Review: Employees First, Customers Second

Written by CEO of HCL Technologies (HCLT), this book describes a new management philosophy for managing an enterprise in today’s world. The book has got five chapters out of which first four describe four phases of Employees First, Customers Second (EFCS) journey, illustrated with HCLT case. The last chapter answers some of the questions/concerns one would have about the EFCS concept. As its sub-title says, “turning conventional management upside down”, this book provides a contra view of business management, which would make you think if not get convinced. A must-read for every business manager.

Book Review: The TCS Story

Written by former CEO of TCS, this book describes history of TCS in very lucid manner. The author also discusses various initiatives taken by TCS to become top 10 by 2010. He also shares his thoughts about India's future. In certain sense, this book is also an autobiography of the author since he has shared important happenings of his life in this book. What I liked the most is appendix 1 in which his colleagues have shared what they think of the author. I strongly recommend this book to every IT professional.

Book Review: 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know

This is somewhat unique book since it presents collective wisdom from more than four dozen architects. Each "thing" is presented in exactly two pages. This book is also available online but still reading it in paper book format is really more effective. I would recommend this book to both aspiring and experienced software architects.

Keyboard shortcuts to use during PowerPoint slideshow

I find following keyboard shortcuts quite useful during slideshow of my PowerPoint slides. You may also find them useful.

You must be knowing following shortcuts as they are widely used.

• Advance to Next Slide - Mouse Click, Space bar, N, Right Arrow, Down Arrow, Page Down
• Return to Previous Slide - Backspace, P, Left Arrow, Up Arrow, Page Up
• End Show     ESC, CTRL+Break, Minus, END

But the following ones are not so much widely known:

• Go to Slide -   ENTER
• Black/Unblack Screen -    B or Period
• White/Unwhite Screen -    W or Comma
• Show/Hide Pointer  -   A or =
• Erase Screen Annotations   -  E
• Advance to Hidden Slide -    H

You may want to try out these shortcuts, which could help you remember those during your next presentation!

Book Review: say it with Presentations

I read this wonderful book by Gene Zelazny, Director of Visual Communications for McKinsey & Company, titled "say it with Presentations". I had read its earlier edition but the current edition is quite revised, providing a lot more content. The best part of this book is the checklist near the end of the book, which can be referred each time while designing a presentation to ensure a successful presentation.I strongly recommend this book to every one, who needs to make business presentations.

Book Review: Engaged Leadership

Written by Clint Swindall, "Engaged Leadership" is a management book offering a framework for leadership style. This framework supposedly addresses a concern that 54% of employees are disengaged at work, as found in a survey done by Gallup Organization. The framework is depicted as a triangle containing four puzzle pieces. Three peripheral pieces are directional, motivational and organizational while the center piece is character core. Author offers 12 challenges that leader has to encounter in three areas: directional, motivational and organizational. He mentions following four challenges in the directional leadership area:

1. Recruit support from the top 29 percent (these ones are engaged employees)
2. Prepare the organization for change
3. Let them know how they contribute
4. Constantly communicate progress

The challenges in motivational leadership are as follows:

1. Lead with positive motivation
2. Celebrate small successes
3. Encourage life balance for all employees
4. Create a fair work environment

The organizational leadership area contains following four challenges:

1. Identify and position the appropriate talent
2. Build a bridge between generations
3. Move towards real empowerment
4. Establish a strategy to maintain success

The book is divided into two sections: fable and how-to. I found this format very useful since fable provides a good context to learn the framework and the how-to part reinforces the learning.

As far as framework is concerned, it does not provide any breakthrough thoughts or ideas. Since it is based on author's experience as consultant, the framework does not have backing of any rigorous research. One may also say that it is an old wine in new bottle! Nevertheless, some organization would find this framework useful for their leadership development programs.

Virtues of CHILD

While reading "If God was a banker" book by Ravi Subramanian, I came across this acronym, CHILD which stands for

• Commitment
• Honesty
• Integrity
• Leadership
• Dedication

I would agree with the author that one should have virtues of CHILD!

Book Review: The Coalition of Competitors

Written by a former president of NASSCOM, this book provides a sort of "official biography" of NASSCOM. Additionally, this book tells the story of Indian software industry, which is represented by NASSCOM.

First chapter of this book provides a quick overview of initial days of both Indian IT industry and NASSCOM. Second chapter covers Indian IT industry in 1990s before Y2K and dotcom boom. In chapter three, the author has discussed how Indian IT industry responded to three major events: Y2K, dotcom and 9/11. Chapter four tells BPO story as it got unfolded during first decade of 21st century. It also discusses other emerging services viz., Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO), Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM) and Engineering Services (ES). This chapter also touches upon how domestic market in general and Indian Government in specific, is opening up to use IT and how that present opportunities to Indian IT companies.

The author has devoted fifth chapter to describe the constraints faced by Indian IT industry. These constraints include crumbling infrastructure, shortage of suitable human resources, domestic political backlash and regulatory speed-breakers. Sixth chapter covers the role played by Indian Government in shaping Indian IT industry. It specifically elaborates industry-friendly Government policies/initiatives such as STPI and tax incentives. Seventh chapter then focuses on multiple roles played by NASSCOM over a period of time. Besides mentioning NASSCOM's contribution in the areas of industry brand building, providing unifying vision, lobbying etc., this chapter describes NASSCOM's structure and governance model. In eighth chapter, aptly titled as "crystal-ball gazing", the author has provided his outlook and vision for both Indian IT industry and NASSCOM. In final chapter, the author has elaborated how the mantra of "Compete, but Cooperate" as exemplified by NASSCOM, can be applied in wider context.

I found this book quite informative and would recommend it to every Indian IT professional.

Book Review: The Long Revolution

The Long Revolution book written by Dinesh Sharma provides highly readable and informative account of the birth and growth of India’s IT industry. With around 500 pages, this book is a really a long book but would make you glue to it till its final chapter. I must thank the author because the book helped me learn history of the industry in which I have been working for last 15 years.

Talk on Cloud Computing

I recently gave a talk on "Demystifying Cloud Computing" in state level seminar at RMD Sinhgad School of Computer Studies, Pune. It was an introductory talk and I preferred not to use PowerPoint slides for this talk. Instead I used following notes in the form of Q&A while delivering the talk:

1. What is traditional computing model? - Buy, deploy and manage hardware, system software and applications.
2. What is cloud computing model? - One or more of hardware, system software and applications are used on rent.
3. What is meant by IaaS, PaaS and SaaS? - Infrastructure as a service, Platform as a Service and Software as a Service
4. What are advantages of cloud computing? - Pay-as-you-use, Reliability, Opex over capex, Scalability
5. What are disadvantages of cloud computing? - Compliance hurdles, Openness challenged, Not flexible, Security issues
6. Which are enabling technologies? - Ultra-thin clients, Virtualization, Web services
7. What are deployment options? - Public, Community, Private and Hybrid
8. Who are leading vendors? - Amazon (IaaS), Microsoft (PaaS), Google (PaaS, SaaS) and salesforce.com (SaaS)

Book Review: Our Iceberg Is Melting

"Our iceberg is melting" is a fable, authored by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber. It illustrates eight step process of organizational change management, as given in John Kotter's "Leading Change" book. The book takes less than two hours to read and helps us to learn this process effectively. Beyond this process, this fable also emphasizes role of thinking and feeling for change management. I would recommend this book to everyone interested in the topic of organizational change management.

Book Review: Inside Apple

In this book, the author has attempted to reveal operating model of Apple under the leadership of Late Steve Jobs. He has also commented on possible future scenarios for the company. Quite readable, this book continues to hold reader’s attention till its end. A good book to read for Apple fans and others.

Attitude matters!

In a recently attended training, the trainer (Mr. Viswanathan V) used following logic to make a point that attitude matters!

If we count 1 for letter 'a', 2 for letter 'b' up to 26 for letter 'z' then we find following scores:

skills = 19 + 11 + 9 + 12 + 12 + 19 = 82
hard work = 8 + 1 + 18 + 4 + 23 + 15 + 18 + 11 = 98
knowledge = 11 + 14 + 15 + 23 + 12 + 5 + 4 + 7 + 5 = 96
attitude = 1 + 20 + 20 + 9 + 20 + 21 + 4 + 5 = 100

It's interesting, isn't it?

Takeaways from Training Program on "Giving and Receiving Feedback"

A couple of weeks back, I attended one-day in-house training program on "giving and receiving feedback". Mr. Viswanathan V delivered this program extremely well. Following are my key takeaways:

• Make feedback specific (e.g. "When you , it's a problem because . What I would like you to do in future is )
• Take responsibility while giving feedback; let it be YOUR feedback, based on YOUR information/observation.
• Give balanced feedback. Positive feedback boosts morale while negative feedback improves performance.
• Avoid delay. 
• Make your expectations clear to your subordinates in the beginning so that you can refer to those expectations while giving your feedback.
• Link your feedback to company goals and suggest actions that can contribute to those goals.
• If the person receiving feedback, cries then give him/her time and space to express and then proceed gradually. If her/she gets angry then show empathy and partial acknowledgement before proceeding further.
• If the person receiving feedback disagrees with the facts in the feedback then provide examples/evidence. On other hand, if he/she questions whether there is any problem itself then specify the consequences of his/her behavior.
• While receiving feedback, adhere to following rules:
• Try to control your defensiveness.
• Listen to understand.
• Try to suspend judgement.
• Summarize and reflect what you hear.
• Ask questions to clarify.
• Ask for examples and stories that illustrate the feedback.
• Never hurt their ego.
• Not every feedback is correct.
• Be approachable.
• Check with others to determine reliability of feedback.
• If you get no feedback, then actively seek feedback from everyone you interact (boss, peers, juniors, clients, etc.).
• If you get feedback in public then ask for feedback in private.
• If you get rambling feedback then summarize and/or ask pointed questions.
• If you get vague feedback then ask probing questions.

Thanks to Mr. Viswanathan, for sharing his wisdom during this training program. Also the films shown were quite informative. I have been recommending this program to my company colleagues since giving/receiving feedback is very much integral part of our work.

How to write an effective abstract

There is more than enough advice on how to write effective abstract. After all, abstract is the one which brings readers' attention to your paper or article. I follow the advice given by Kent Beck in his OOPSLA talk, "How to Get a Paper Accepted at OOPSLA". Let me produce it here almost verbatim:

"The abstract is your four sentence summary of the conclusions of your paper. ... I try to have four sentences in my abstract. The first states the problem. The second states why the problem is a problem. The third is my startling sentence. The fourth states the implication of my startling sentence."

The startling statement should communicate the key message of the paper that would catch interest of target readers. Kent Beck further advises that one should resist the temptation to argue for the conclusion in the abstract. That way the reader has more incentive to carefully read the rest of the paper to validate the startling statement

Using this advice, I recently wrote following abstract for my upcoming article on "Managing Information and Email Overload":

If you feel overloaded with lots of emails in your inbox and availability of Too Much Information(TMI), then be assured that you are not alone! Thanks to widespread use of computers and internet, the information load is going to only increase in future and would result in reduced productivity and delay in decision making.In this article, you will find 3F formula for managing information and email overload. With this formula, you can not only increase your productivity and decision-making ability but can also improve your work-life balance.

Book Review: Offshore

Written by two Infosys executives, this book provides almost complete details about Indian IT services industry to an outsider. I being an industry practitioner for last 15 years also found quite few new information nuggets in this book. Besides being informative, the book makes arguments on various issues with support from good amount of quantitative and qualitative data. In all, this book is a good read for all who are concerned with IT services industry in one way or other.

Essential Seven Skills for an Information Worker

I define Information Worker as a person using computer for accomplishing his/her work. Hence it is imperative for an information worker to know how to use computer. Here is my list of skills that an information worker must have to use computer effectively and efficiently.

1. Communicating using email and instant messaging
2. Using word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software
3. Finding trustworthy information on internet
4. Tracking todos/calendar
5. Organizing digital documents and multimedia files
6. Having information security awareness
7. Managing information overload

Your comments please!

Book Review: Bit Literacy

For some books, sub-title describes the contents better than the title. This book is one of them. The sub-title of this book is "Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload". Indeed, this book describes quite a few useful tools and techniques for enhancing productivity of an information worker. Particularly, the technique for managing email overload is quite useful and I have started practicing it. If you wish to know this technique then please read this article.

Article Summary: Recovering from information overload

In this article, authors argue that multitasking is not a solution for addressing information overload. They have cited various studies to make a point that always-on, multitasking work environments are killing productivity, dampening creativity, and making us unhappy. Their advice to executives is simple: use some combination of focusing, filtering, and forgetting to tackle information overload.

Title: Recovering from information overload
Authors: Derek Dean and Caroline Webb
Source: January 2011 issue of McKinsey Quarterly (available at https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Recovering_from_information_overload_2735)

Book Review: Upworldly Mobile by Ranjini Manian

In less than 200 pages, Ranjini Manian has provided useful tips and insights to an Indian professional working in global business environment. Using anecdotes, she has shared her wisdom throughout the book. I would recommend this book to every Indian who aspires to convert himself/herself into a global Indian.