Let us just look at the issues over which the battle between the Government and us citizens is being fought. And then let’s decide where we want to stand, each one of us, on the issue of corruption.
The first question is: Do corruption and bribery hurt you? If they do, do you want a solution? If your answer is yes to both, do you think such a solution lies with an independent authority? Or do you think a corrupt Government can fight corruption on its own, and within its own ranks? If your answer is no to that, then we need to create an independent institution to fight corruption.Right? Well, that’s precisely what Anna is asking for. He is asking for a Lokpal that the Government cannot influence nor manipulate. This is the first battle.
The second battle is over four things. One: Should the Prime Minister comeunder the purview of the Lokpal? Almost everyone I know thinks he should. A honest Prime Minister wouldn’t care. A dishonest one must be supervised.Or else, we will have cases like Bofors that will never ever be resolved. Two:Should Members of Parliament come under the Lokpal? I have not met a single person till date who thinks that our MPs are so honest that they need not be supervised. My guess is if a referendum is ever taken, Anna will get a 100% yes to this question, given what people think of our politicians and the standards of probity in public life. The third question is even more obvious: Do all public servants need to come under the Lokpal? My guess is India’s answer will be yes, yes, yes. Every day, in every area of our life and work, we are constantly harassed, intimidated and extorted by corrupt Government officers. The poorer you are, the worse is the torture. So yes, every public servant, every Government officer must come under the Lokpal. Question four:Who should give permission to file an FIR against a corrupt judge? If the Lokpal can look into corruption charges against the PM, the MPs and Government servants, isn’t it only logical to expect it to do the same against judges?
The third and final battle is over an even simpler thing: The Citizen’s Charter. Should every Government office have such a Charter which will clearly state which officer will do what work and in how much time? And should anofficer who refuses to do his work in time or asks for a bribe to move a filebe punished? The Government says a charter is fine but Government servants must not be penalised if they don’t do their work! Anna believes that officers not doing their work in time amounts to corruption and must face the same treatment. Isn’t it rather obvious what India thinks about this?
Do we really need a referendum on these simple, basic issues? I seriously doubt it. Every Indian will endorse the idea of a Lokpal as Anna and his team have envisioned it, with the help of thousands of Indians who have contributed online to the process of drafting the bill.
Yes, there are genuine fears that we should not create yet another monster out there, who will make life more difficult for us than it already is. But even that has been addressed rather adroitly by Anna’s team. It is a complex process, true but it also ensures that the choice is wisely made. And what if there are charges against the Lokpal? Well, there’s a provision there too. You can go straight to the Supreme Court and seek justice out there.
So why are we arguing so much over this Bill? Why is the Government digging its heels in and refusing to listen to us citizens? Why must Anna go on a hunger strike all over again to press home the point that corruption must be fought back? I guess it’s a question of both ego and fear. No one likes to give up the power they have, and certainly not the Government. In fact, it’s always trying to interfere more and more in our lives, grab more and more authority, more and more space. And fear? Well, I guess we all know the answer to that. This is possibly the most corrupt Government we have ever had. It has good reason to be scared.
Best luck to every one fighting against corruptions & dirty politics.
IF YOU LIKE THIS POST, PLEASE FORWARD IT TO YOUR FRIENDS.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Project Management Improvments 2
This second blog on project management I would love to stress more on day-today project management process. Now let's understand this from ground level prospective starting from Dependencies among various project activities, costs and deliverables, as these are the most risky areas. They often give surprises and delay the deliverables if not identified and managed well in time(requirement gathering).
There is always a specific reason for an activities to happen at certain time. Either inputs needed to start the activities are not available earlier or because of various limitations we have scheduled the activity at specific time. We can categories dependencies in two types fixed and flexible. Fixed dependencies are dependencies that are imposed and cannot be changed, they need to be followed. For example review can only take place once document is prepared.
Flexible dependencies are discretionary and decided by person-in-charge e.g. Project Manager, keeping project objectives in view. They are as such not dependent but due to some common constraints, they become dependent. For example, if there are two tasks A & B, both involve same technology and you have only one person of that skill. You need to modify the schedule A & B in sequence accordingly.
Many times the work on the dependencies has to start way ahead of when it is required. For example, you need to setup a testing site and it takes two months to get the hardware. To get the hardware at right time, you need to order hardware at least 2 weeks in advance. If it is not in your control you need to follow up with concerned department to get hardware delivered at right time Managing dependencies is all about identifying & prioritizing them effectively and including them in the project schedule. Identifying right dependencies is not so simple. Some activities are so close to each other, segregating them could be challenging. On the other side, some activities will be so distant that finding a relationship between them become difficult. If we continue on the project without resolving them early, they will hit the project at some point of time and cause damage depending upon their intensity. Some time damage goes beyond repair but it will bring some kind of rework for sure. Activity diagrams or DSM (Decision Structure Matrix) are good tools to identify the dependencies in the project specially when things are complex.
Let's talk about tools, I personally like Microsoft Project & if we learn to read the MPP correctly / careful we can sort all very high impact / high impact issues easily.
MS Project or any other scheduling tool plays a critical role managing the dependencies. Using MS Project, you can assign dependencies among various activities and if you have estimated duration of the activities also, you can sketch the full network diagram and know total length (duration) of the project. Total duration of the project is decided by critical path. Critical Path is the longest path and the shortest duration, project can be completed. Beauty is that you need not to calculate critical path but MS Project does it for you. At any point of time, you can see what activities are on the critical path that to be managed closely. Because you have defined all dependencies in the schedule, MS Project will let you know the impact of any delay on any dependency at any point of time. You get to know about delays and challenges in meeting dependencies well in advance not at the eleventh hour.
This enables you to take preventive actions and optimize your schedule to manage the delays in turn completing the project on time. If you cannot prevent delays, you can adjust it by either crashing or fast tracking the project. Discretionary dependencies could be helpful in fast tracking by looking at the options of doing activities in parallel that were in sequence. Other option is of crashing by adding more resources in the project to reduce duration of a critical task. Remember, you can manage only if you get to know about delays well in advance and you have time to adjust the remaining schedule.
Manage project scope using MS Project, this is the most high priority item for any project manager. Defining and controlling project scope play a critical role in project success. Scope is on one side of the triple constraints triangle. Scope come first as time and cost both depend upon scope. If scope is not defined correctly, time and cost are bound to be wrong. If we look at the reasons for the project failure, poorly defined scope will top the list. Scope basically define what needs to be done on the project. Every things in the project is based on this information. The estimates, time line, cost, quality can be defined as good as the scope is.
Why is there a lack of clarity in the scope of the project? The first challenge is that the scope is defined in the beginning of the project when information about project is limited. Tendency of jumping on the execution quickly and not focusing on planning is the second major one. Not doing enough detailing of the scope lead to inappropriate requirement gathering. Not signing off defined scope with client and absence of a good change management system lead to scope creep. To overcome these challenges, it is important that project managers must give enough emphasis on planning and define the scope meticulously as a first step. To define precise scope, WBS is a vey simple commonly used tool. This WBS can be a simple excel / word document with a three - five level tree structure, we might need to invest only couple of hours to get it in knowledge with every stakeholder but the impact is huge as compaired to the investment. please read my blog for the WBS & you will get clear idea why, how etc.
WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) techniques is a method of decomposing projects deliverables into smaller more manageable pieces. Main project deliverable is decomposed into smaller deliverables, which are further subdivided into sub-deliverables. We continue doing this process until we reach to a stage where we find a deliverable/sub-deliverable big enough to be easily managed, estimated, planned and limited resources can be assigned. There is no ground rule for what is manageable, it depends upon size of the project and experience of project management team. WBS helps in defining the scope as detailed as possible. Only caution is that do not sub-divide to a level, it becomes a management overhead.
Graphically , MS Project supports defining the scope using WBS at a detailed level. In MS Project , you can define WBS to a depth comfortable to you. A new feature manually scheduled task in MS Project latest version allows to define WBS items even without complete information. You can also plan from top to bottom like the way you define WBS on paper. These features allow to define scope more realistically, without changing your practices and detailing in the beginning when you don’t have complete information.
Once you are through with the scope, it is necessary that it gets reviewed internally and externally and when stakeholders agree to the scope, you should baseline. A baseline scope is a scope that is signed off with your user/client. Baseline is important for a good change management system and tracking the changes later. If you have not baseline the scope, your change management system will merely be a showpiece and scope creep is unavoidable.
Now when a change (addition or deletion in the signed off scope) is requested, MS Project will help you to assess the impact on current plan and incorporate the change. When you add additional scope in the MS Project, it gives you a platform to understand the impact in terms of time, cost and resources. Ideally you need to add time as well as cost to the project for maintaining the balance. However if you cannot add time, you can work out how many additional resources you need to finish the project in same time and if this is feasible. On the other side if you do not have resources, you can calculate how much you need to extend the project. Projects are complex and if a project is of reasonable size, intuition and only experience do not work. You must have a tool (like MS Project) using which you can balance the various dimensions or be ready for a fire fighting at the time of delivery, delays, partial delivery, defects etc.
Balancing Triple Constraints using MS Project ,managing a project is complex as the various aspects of the project have to progress in synchronous manner for the successful completion.
A Project Manager has to integrate 8 aspects of any project i.e. synchronize scope, time, cost, resources, communication, quality, risk and procurement during the lifecycle from initiation to closure. Failing to do so means inappropriate communication, inefficient use of resources, scope creep, delay, cost overrun and what to say about quality of product and customer experience.
Out of these 8 areas 4 are the core of the project management scope, time, cost and resources. Cost and resources are tightly coupled as cost is used to procure resources only. Basically if a project manager is able to manager scope, time and cost in an integrated manner without compromising quality, the project is in control. Therefore balancing the triple constraints triangle is most important.
A scheduler come very handy in keeping the triangle in shape. All Enterprise Project Management (EPM). Tool come with a scheduler either it is Primavera, Clarity, HP’s PPM Center or Microsoft Project or any other. Microsoft has taken a modular approach by keeping Project Professional client separate from Project Server and client can be used without server integration. This is a great advantage as complete EPM is very expensive. This has made Microsoft Project as one of the most popular project scheduling tool.
In MS Project, you can define complete scope as Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), enter all your estimates for each WBS item, assign all your resources and manage dependencies among activities. This way you get control on the scope, timelines and complete cost. You can see when your people are unallocated or when they are over allocated and you can level them.
You get the real benefit when you track the project. If you add some scope, it helps you to workout additional time & cost required. If any activity get delayed, it will show you the impact on all dependent tasks & on end date and give you a platform to take corrective actions in terms of adding resources (cost) or reducing scope or using project float to finish in time. If you have a constraint on cost side, it will help to you tune time or scope to manage within budget. Basically it helps you to measure variance, identify cause of the variance, work out the right corrective actions and also track if corrective actions are really effective. It makes the communication effective and easy allowing you to customize views and generating visual reports to report the project status and impact on scope, time and cost.
As MS Project cost you some bucks and many people may not able to effort it. There are various open source alternatives available like Open Project, Gantt Project, Dot Project and many others. They all normally do basic stuff like scoping, timeline and costing quite good however when it comes to manage various situations, optimization, resource leveling & reporting, MS Project is leap ahead.
Last but not the least, the ROI of this investment
I was just looking at the statistics published in latest PMI (Project Management Institute) periodical PM Network. India is planning a budget of Rs.46.4 trillion (Rs.464 crores) for infrastructure projects in from 2013 to 2017. This is based on the survey, PMI & KPMG jointly conducted recently.
Based on our past performance where 82% project missed their deadlines and a marred with major cost overrun, the question arises what the ROI will be of Rs.464 Crores, India is budgeting for next (12th) five-year plan.
Also infrastructure project which are sponsored by Government Of India (or states) are marred with corruption and only a portion actually get used.
Additionally poor project management practices lead to poor planning, poor risk management and less to say about tracking the project. Global Head, Major Project Advisory Services, KPMG, Geno Armstrong said while releasing the survey that the industry is marred by poor project management practices leading to cost overruns, time delays and resource shortages in most of the on-going projects.
Take one or two examples of recent projects, Bandra-Worli see link was budgeted for Rs.300 crores and scheduled to deliver in 2004 while it costed Rs.1600 crores and delivered in 2009. For completing infrastructure for common wealth games scheduled in Oct 2010, budget was doubled last year after reviewers raised a RED flag.
If we really need a better ROI out of planned budget for 12th five-year plan, government must invest in building project management competency and bring transparency in the system.
This can be done by formal trainings in project management for project managers and project management teams, establishment of project management office (PMO), publishing progress report every quarter to the public and Independent reviewers (like in case of CWG games).
Project management training and PMO will tighten the project management while progress report publishing and independent reviewers will bring transparency in the system.
The Financial Express on Thursday, Mar 11, 2010 quoted, Time and cost overruns have delayed 850 infrastructure projects out of a 1,035 during the period between 1992 and 2009 resulting in cost overrun to the tune of over Rs 40,000 crore, says a joint study by KPMG & PMI.
Global Head, Major Project Advisory Services, KPMG, Geno Armstrong said while releasing the survey that the industry is marred by poor project management practices leading to cost overruns, time delays and resource shortages in most of the on-going projects.
On a similar note, In its last survey of Global IT Project Management Survey, KPMG highlighted some important points about project failure, disconnect between business and project value delivery, involvement and commitment of senior management
49% of participants experience at least 1 project failure in last 1 year
Benefits are poorly defined or measure. 59% of organizations either have no or only an informal process of tracking business benefits
86% claim that they lost up to 25% of their targeted benefit however KPMG consultants infer that it may be much higher.
Only 13% track their benefit until they are realized while 31% indicate that tracking ends in an adhoc manner
As pr survey, three main reasons for failure identified by organizations are
Unclear/Change of scope requirements
Poor project management processes
Lack of executive sponsorship and management buy-in
Going further into survey findings, there is an interesting point about organizations that achieve a lower failure rate:
Have a PMO that actively manage all projects
Report to board for all major projects
Have a very formal benefit tracking process
Have formally qualified project managers
Always perform a rigorous risk analysis
Let’s look into what KPMG report recommends: Integrated governance framework which facilitates decision making today continuous oversight and monitoring the success of the project tomorrow.
Establish an enterprise wide prioritization process
Alignment of all initiatives with business strategy
Clearly define leakage of benefits
Invest in people to develop their capabilities
These surveys clearly conclude that achieving business results by the executing successful project is still a challenge for most of the companies in software development area. These reports are focused on IT & Infrastructure sector but scenario in other industries is not very different.
Proper definition of project management process and project management discipline can bring more predictability to the outcome of project and help tracking the business benefits and realize them by improving probability projects success.
There is always a specific reason for an activities to happen at certain time. Either inputs needed to start the activities are not available earlier or because of various limitations we have scheduled the activity at specific time. We can categories dependencies in two types fixed and flexible. Fixed dependencies are dependencies that are imposed and cannot be changed, they need to be followed. For example review can only take place once document is prepared.
Flexible dependencies are discretionary and decided by person-in-charge e.g. Project Manager, keeping project objectives in view. They are as such not dependent but due to some common constraints, they become dependent. For example, if there are two tasks A & B, both involve same technology and you have only one person of that skill. You need to modify the schedule A & B in sequence accordingly.
Many times the work on the dependencies has to start way ahead of when it is required. For example, you need to setup a testing site and it takes two months to get the hardware. To get the hardware at right time, you need to order hardware at least 2 weeks in advance. If it is not in your control you need to follow up with concerned department to get hardware delivered at right time Managing dependencies is all about identifying & prioritizing them effectively and including them in the project schedule. Identifying right dependencies is not so simple. Some activities are so close to each other, segregating them could be challenging. On the other side, some activities will be so distant that finding a relationship between them become difficult. If we continue on the project without resolving them early, they will hit the project at some point of time and cause damage depending upon their intensity. Some time damage goes beyond repair but it will bring some kind of rework for sure. Activity diagrams or DSM (Decision Structure Matrix) are good tools to identify the dependencies in the project specially when things are complex.
Let's talk about tools, I personally like Microsoft Project & if we learn to read the MPP correctly / careful we can sort all very high impact / high impact issues easily.
MS Project or any other scheduling tool plays a critical role managing the dependencies. Using MS Project, you can assign dependencies among various activities and if you have estimated duration of the activities also, you can sketch the full network diagram and know total length (duration) of the project. Total duration of the project is decided by critical path. Critical Path is the longest path and the shortest duration, project can be completed. Beauty is that you need not to calculate critical path but MS Project does it for you. At any point of time, you can see what activities are on the critical path that to be managed closely. Because you have defined all dependencies in the schedule, MS Project will let you know the impact of any delay on any dependency at any point of time. You get to know about delays and challenges in meeting dependencies well in advance not at the eleventh hour.
This enables you to take preventive actions and optimize your schedule to manage the delays in turn completing the project on time. If you cannot prevent delays, you can adjust it by either crashing or fast tracking the project. Discretionary dependencies could be helpful in fast tracking by looking at the options of doing activities in parallel that were in sequence. Other option is of crashing by adding more resources in the project to reduce duration of a critical task. Remember, you can manage only if you get to know about delays well in advance and you have time to adjust the remaining schedule.
Manage project scope using MS Project, this is the most high priority item for any project manager. Defining and controlling project scope play a critical role in project success. Scope is on one side of the triple constraints triangle. Scope come first as time and cost both depend upon scope. If scope is not defined correctly, time and cost are bound to be wrong. If we look at the reasons for the project failure, poorly defined scope will top the list. Scope basically define what needs to be done on the project. Every things in the project is based on this information. The estimates, time line, cost, quality can be defined as good as the scope is.
Why is there a lack of clarity in the scope of the project? The first challenge is that the scope is defined in the beginning of the project when information about project is limited. Tendency of jumping on the execution quickly and not focusing on planning is the second major one. Not doing enough detailing of the scope lead to inappropriate requirement gathering. Not signing off defined scope with client and absence of a good change management system lead to scope creep. To overcome these challenges, it is important that project managers must give enough emphasis on planning and define the scope meticulously as a first step. To define precise scope, WBS is a vey simple commonly used tool. This WBS can be a simple excel / word document with a three - five level tree structure, we might need to invest only couple of hours to get it in knowledge with every stakeholder but the impact is huge as compaired to the investment. please read my blog for the WBS & you will get clear idea why, how etc.
WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) techniques is a method of decomposing projects deliverables into smaller more manageable pieces. Main project deliverable is decomposed into smaller deliverables, which are further subdivided into sub-deliverables. We continue doing this process until we reach to a stage where we find a deliverable/sub-deliverable big enough to be easily managed, estimated, planned and limited resources can be assigned. There is no ground rule for what is manageable, it depends upon size of the project and experience of project management team. WBS helps in defining the scope as detailed as possible. Only caution is that do not sub-divide to a level, it becomes a management overhead.
Graphically , MS Project supports defining the scope using WBS at a detailed level. In MS Project , you can define WBS to a depth comfortable to you. A new feature manually scheduled task in MS Project latest version allows to define WBS items even without complete information. You can also plan from top to bottom like the way you define WBS on paper. These features allow to define scope more realistically, without changing your practices and detailing in the beginning when you don’t have complete information.
Once you are through with the scope, it is necessary that it gets reviewed internally and externally and when stakeholders agree to the scope, you should baseline. A baseline scope is a scope that is signed off with your user/client. Baseline is important for a good change management system and tracking the changes later. If you have not baseline the scope, your change management system will merely be a showpiece and scope creep is unavoidable.
Now when a change (addition or deletion in the signed off scope) is requested, MS Project will help you to assess the impact on current plan and incorporate the change. When you add additional scope in the MS Project, it gives you a platform to understand the impact in terms of time, cost and resources. Ideally you need to add time as well as cost to the project for maintaining the balance. However if you cannot add time, you can work out how many additional resources you need to finish the project in same time and if this is feasible. On the other side if you do not have resources, you can calculate how much you need to extend the project. Projects are complex and if a project is of reasonable size, intuition and only experience do not work. You must have a tool (like MS Project) using which you can balance the various dimensions or be ready for a fire fighting at the time of delivery, delays, partial delivery, defects etc.
Balancing Triple Constraints using MS Project ,managing a project is complex as the various aspects of the project have to progress in synchronous manner for the successful completion.
A Project Manager has to integrate 8 aspects of any project i.e. synchronize scope, time, cost, resources, communication, quality, risk and procurement during the lifecycle from initiation to closure. Failing to do so means inappropriate communication, inefficient use of resources, scope creep, delay, cost overrun and what to say about quality of product and customer experience.
Out of these 8 areas 4 are the core of the project management scope, time, cost and resources. Cost and resources are tightly coupled as cost is used to procure resources only. Basically if a project manager is able to manager scope, time and cost in an integrated manner without compromising quality, the project is in control. Therefore balancing the triple constraints triangle is most important.
A scheduler come very handy in keeping the triangle in shape. All Enterprise Project Management (EPM). Tool come with a scheduler either it is Primavera, Clarity, HP’s PPM Center or Microsoft Project or any other. Microsoft has taken a modular approach by keeping Project Professional client separate from Project Server and client can be used without server integration. This is a great advantage as complete EPM is very expensive. This has made Microsoft Project as one of the most popular project scheduling tool.
In MS Project, you can define complete scope as Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), enter all your estimates for each WBS item, assign all your resources and manage dependencies among activities. This way you get control on the scope, timelines and complete cost. You can see when your people are unallocated or when they are over allocated and you can level them.
You get the real benefit when you track the project. If you add some scope, it helps you to workout additional time & cost required. If any activity get delayed, it will show you the impact on all dependent tasks & on end date and give you a platform to take corrective actions in terms of adding resources (cost) or reducing scope or using project float to finish in time. If you have a constraint on cost side, it will help to you tune time or scope to manage within budget. Basically it helps you to measure variance, identify cause of the variance, work out the right corrective actions and also track if corrective actions are really effective. It makes the communication effective and easy allowing you to customize views and generating visual reports to report the project status and impact on scope, time and cost.
As MS Project cost you some bucks and many people may not able to effort it. There are various open source alternatives available like Open Project, Gantt Project, Dot Project and many others. They all normally do basic stuff like scoping, timeline and costing quite good however when it comes to manage various situations, optimization, resource leveling & reporting, MS Project is leap ahead.
Last but not the least, the ROI of this investment
I was just looking at the statistics published in latest PMI (Project Management Institute) periodical PM Network. India is planning a budget of Rs.46.4 trillion (Rs.464 crores) for infrastructure projects in from 2013 to 2017. This is based on the survey, PMI & KPMG jointly conducted recently.
Based on our past performance where 82% project missed their deadlines and a marred with major cost overrun, the question arises what the ROI will be of Rs.464 Crores, India is budgeting for next (12th) five-year plan.
Also infrastructure project which are sponsored by Government Of India (or states) are marred with corruption and only a portion actually get used.
Additionally poor project management practices lead to poor planning, poor risk management and less to say about tracking the project. Global Head, Major Project Advisory Services, KPMG, Geno Armstrong said while releasing the survey that the industry is marred by poor project management practices leading to cost overruns, time delays and resource shortages in most of the on-going projects.
Take one or two examples of recent projects, Bandra-Worli see link was budgeted for Rs.300 crores and scheduled to deliver in 2004 while it costed Rs.1600 crores and delivered in 2009. For completing infrastructure for common wealth games scheduled in Oct 2010, budget was doubled last year after reviewers raised a RED flag.
If we really need a better ROI out of planned budget for 12th five-year plan, government must invest in building project management competency and bring transparency in the system.
This can be done by formal trainings in project management for project managers and project management teams, establishment of project management office (PMO), publishing progress report every quarter to the public and Independent reviewers (like in case of CWG games).
Project management training and PMO will tighten the project management while progress report publishing and independent reviewers will bring transparency in the system.
The Financial Express on Thursday, Mar 11, 2010 quoted, Time and cost overruns have delayed 850 infrastructure projects out of a 1,035 during the period between 1992 and 2009 resulting in cost overrun to the tune of over Rs 40,000 crore, says a joint study by KPMG & PMI.
Global Head, Major Project Advisory Services, KPMG, Geno Armstrong said while releasing the survey that the industry is marred by poor project management practices leading to cost overruns, time delays and resource shortages in most of the on-going projects.
On a similar note, In its last survey of Global IT Project Management Survey, KPMG highlighted some important points about project failure, disconnect between business and project value delivery, involvement and commitment of senior management
49% of participants experience at least 1 project failure in last 1 year
Benefits are poorly defined or measure. 59% of organizations either have no or only an informal process of tracking business benefits
86% claim that they lost up to 25% of their targeted benefit however KPMG consultants infer that it may be much higher.
Only 13% track their benefit until they are realized while 31% indicate that tracking ends in an adhoc manner
As pr survey, three main reasons for failure identified by organizations are
Unclear/Change of scope requirements
Poor project management processes
Lack of executive sponsorship and management buy-in
Going further into survey findings, there is an interesting point about organizations that achieve a lower failure rate:
Have a PMO that actively manage all projects
Report to board for all major projects
Have a very formal benefit tracking process
Have formally qualified project managers
Always perform a rigorous risk analysis
Let’s look into what KPMG report recommends: Integrated governance framework which facilitates decision making today continuous oversight and monitoring the success of the project tomorrow.
Establish an enterprise wide prioritization process
Alignment of all initiatives with business strategy
Clearly define leakage of benefits
Invest in people to develop their capabilities
These surveys clearly conclude that achieving business results by the executing successful project is still a challenge for most of the companies in software development area. These reports are focused on IT & Infrastructure sector but scenario in other industries is not very different.
Proper definition of project management process and project management discipline can bring more predictability to the outcome of project and help tracking the business benefits and realize them by improving probability projects success.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Cloud Computing for professional world
Overview: I am currently engaged in software product design and development, leveraging the open source and cloud computing platforms.
This is a period of economic recession, almost in every part of the world. IT service businesses are also affected adversely. To the surprise of several industry analysts, we are now witnessing the phenomenal emergence of the cloud computing technologies- a new paradigm shift in the way internet applications are developed and deployed. IDC analysts predict USD 42B worth business by 2012 and Gartner reports some kind of world-wide adoption of this technology by 2016. Intel Corporation predicts 25% of its server platforms are likely to be deployed by its clients for some sort of cloud deployment in 2009. Very strong business results have been reported in this line of technology by almost all industry leaders in 2008 and 2009. Almost every significant players in the IT industry has product as well as service offers to make in cloud computing market. To drive the point home, salesforce.com, a strong SAAS presence in the industry has become a billion dollar company despite the worldwide economic down trend. We also have business news on an increasing number of large size services contracts in cloud computing arena.
Why Google App Engine platform?
The Google App Engine™ platform is uniquely positioned among the cloud computing offers, we believe. This is a comprehensive platform on which programmers can develop cloud applications with ease and deploy them on the Google Infrastructure™. For small entrepreneurs, developing applications on Google App Engine™ platform is practically free, until their application becomes a huge success on the cyber space. If the application really grows beyond its free quota, say, on the storage, the CPU cycles or on the bandwidth requirements, the entrepreneur can continue to run the application by paying for the incremental consumption of web resources on a pay-as-you-go basis.
What is there in it for Software Developers?
As developers, how do we re-skill fast enough to take advantage of this technology innovation and help our own organizations and clients? We believe an early hand-holding for experienced programmers and web enthusiasts would be advantageous for developing web applications on the Google App Engine™ platform and using it to create a general awareness about the cloud computing technologies. We have set the objective of this one day promotional workshop to meet this requirement of software houses and other developer communities
Cloud computing simultaneously a concept, a technology and sourcing strategy. As such, it constitutes a
business strategy. We maintain that the adoption of technology and technology delivery models is driven by several variables – which can be weighted by technology buyers according to their relative importance.
First and foremost is corporate culture. Closed conservative cultures will attack change – just because that’s what closed, conservative cultures do (though significant cost savings can get the attention of even the Flat Earth Society). Senior leadership is also an opportunity – or constraint.
Some technology executives are open to pilots, while some are not. The financial state of the company will also drive technology adoption: companies losing money are skeptical of everything. Companies making lots of money are risk-takers – at least relative to the cultures. Before assessing the potential of cloud computing some attention should be paid to the context in which the assessment is likely to occur.
On one level, Cloud Computing represents an integrated sourcing concept. On another level, it’s a strategic framework. On still another, it’s a delivery roadmap. What makes sense for CXOs and the business partners they serve?
Cloud Computing represents an opportunity to simultaneously re-think core competency, sourcing strategies, technology funding and operational versus strategic technology and each ones’ readiness for accessing the cloud – all in the context of more and more (old and new) cloud providers.
This is a period of economic recession, almost in every part of the world. IT service businesses are also affected adversely. To the surprise of several industry analysts, we are now witnessing the phenomenal emergence of the cloud computing technologies- a new paradigm shift in the way internet applications are developed and deployed. IDC analysts predict USD 42B worth business by 2012 and Gartner reports some kind of world-wide adoption of this technology by 2016. Intel Corporation predicts 25% of its server platforms are likely to be deployed by its clients for some sort of cloud deployment in 2009. Very strong business results have been reported in this line of technology by almost all industry leaders in 2008 and 2009. Almost every significant players in the IT industry has product as well as service offers to make in cloud computing market. To drive the point home, salesforce.com, a strong SAAS presence in the industry has become a billion dollar company despite the worldwide economic down trend. We also have business news on an increasing number of large size services contracts in cloud computing arena.
Why Google App Engine platform?
The Google App Engine™ platform is uniquely positioned among the cloud computing offers, we believe. This is a comprehensive platform on which programmers can develop cloud applications with ease and deploy them on the Google Infrastructure™. For small entrepreneurs, developing applications on Google App Engine™ platform is practically free, until their application becomes a huge success on the cyber space. If the application really grows beyond its free quota, say, on the storage, the CPU cycles or on the bandwidth requirements, the entrepreneur can continue to run the application by paying for the incremental consumption of web resources on a pay-as-you-go basis.
What is there in it for Software Developers?
As developers, how do we re-skill fast enough to take advantage of this technology innovation and help our own organizations and clients? We believe an early hand-holding for experienced programmers and web enthusiasts would be advantageous for developing web applications on the Google App Engine™ platform and using it to create a general awareness about the cloud computing technologies. We have set the objective of this one day promotional workshop to meet this requirement of software houses and other developer communities
Cloud computing simultaneously a concept, a technology and sourcing strategy. As such, it constitutes a
business strategy. We maintain that the adoption of technology and technology delivery models is driven by several variables – which can be weighted by technology buyers according to their relative importance.
First and foremost is corporate culture. Closed conservative cultures will attack change – just because that’s what closed, conservative cultures do (though significant cost savings can get the attention of even the Flat Earth Society). Senior leadership is also an opportunity – or constraint.
Some technology executives are open to pilots, while some are not. The financial state of the company will also drive technology adoption: companies losing money are skeptical of everything. Companies making lots of money are risk-takers – at least relative to the cultures. Before assessing the potential of cloud computing some attention should be paid to the context in which the assessment is likely to occur.
On one level, Cloud Computing represents an integrated sourcing concept. On another level, it’s a strategic framework. On still another, it’s a delivery roadmap. What makes sense for CXOs and the business partners they serve?
Cloud Computing represents an opportunity to simultaneously re-think core competency, sourcing strategies, technology funding and operational versus strategic technology and each ones’ readiness for accessing the cloud – all in the context of more and more (old and new) cloud providers.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Cloud Computing for lay man
Let’s ponder on Cloud Computing try to understand if it for everyone etc.
Start with a definition from Wikipedia, Cloud Computing a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure ‘in the cloud’ that supports them. The concept include infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and software as a service as well as Web 2.0 and other recent technology trends which have the common theme of dependence on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the users. Examples of software service vendors include Salesforce.com and Google Apps which provide common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers of the providers.
The majority of cloud computing infrastructure consists of services delivered through data centers and built on servers with different levels of virtualization technologies. These services are accessible from anywhere that has access to the internet & required authority. The cloud appears as a single point of access for all the computing needs of given consumers or groups. Commercial offerings need to meet the quality of service requirements of customers and typically offer service level agreements. Open standards are critical to the growth of cloud computing and open source software has provided the foundation for many cloud computing implementations as the fees are affordable in terms of licensing etc for end users.
In Cloud Computing customers generally do not own the infrastructure, they merely access or rent, so that they can avoid capital expenditure and consume resources as a service, paying for only what they use. Many cloud-computing offerings have adopted the utility computing model, which is analogous to how traditional utilities like electricity are consumed, while others are billed on a subscription basis. We just have two models 1) utility computing 2) billed on a subscription model.
Sharing computing power among multiple tenants can improve utilization rates, as servers are not left idle, which can reduce costs significantly while increasing the speed of application development. Also it can include many advantages as time zone utilization etc to spared the costs over the globe.
“Cloud computing users can avoid initial investments on hardware, software and services, rather paying a provider only for what they use. Consumption is billed on a utility (e.g. resources consumed, like electricity) or subscription (e.g. time based, like a newspaper) basis with little or no upfront cost. Other benefits of this time sharing style approach are low barriers to entry, shared infrastructure and costs, low management overhead and immediate access to a broad range of applications. Users can generally terminate the contract at any time (thereby avoiding return on investment risk and uncertainty) and the services are often covered by service level agreements with financial penalties. This is for a generic user now in next write up I will put up Cloud computing for business delegates in a bit techy tone. Do share your view with me.
Start with a definition from Wikipedia, Cloud Computing a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure ‘in the cloud’ that supports them. The concept include infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and software as a service as well as Web 2.0 and other recent technology trends which have the common theme of dependence on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the users. Examples of software service vendors include Salesforce.com and Google Apps which provide common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers of the providers.
The majority of cloud computing infrastructure consists of services delivered through data centers and built on servers with different levels of virtualization technologies. These services are accessible from anywhere that has access to the internet & required authority. The cloud appears as a single point of access for all the computing needs of given consumers or groups. Commercial offerings need to meet the quality of service requirements of customers and typically offer service level agreements. Open standards are critical to the growth of cloud computing and open source software has provided the foundation for many cloud computing implementations as the fees are affordable in terms of licensing etc for end users.
In Cloud Computing customers generally do not own the infrastructure, they merely access or rent, so that they can avoid capital expenditure and consume resources as a service, paying for only what they use. Many cloud-computing offerings have adopted the utility computing model, which is analogous to how traditional utilities like electricity are consumed, while others are billed on a subscription basis. We just have two models 1) utility computing 2) billed on a subscription model.
Sharing computing power among multiple tenants can improve utilization rates, as servers are not left idle, which can reduce costs significantly while increasing the speed of application development. Also it can include many advantages as time zone utilization etc to spared the costs over the globe.
“Cloud computing users can avoid initial investments on hardware, software and services, rather paying a provider only for what they use. Consumption is billed on a utility (e.g. resources consumed, like electricity) or subscription (e.g. time based, like a newspaper) basis with little or no upfront cost. Other benefits of this time sharing style approach are low barriers to entry, shared infrastructure and costs, low management overhead and immediate access to a broad range of applications. Users can generally terminate the contract at any time (thereby avoiding return on investment risk and uncertainty) and the services are often covered by service level agreements with financial penalties. This is for a generic user now in next write up I will put up Cloud computing for business delegates in a bit techy tone. Do share your view with me.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Thoughts in low tides
What if the kindest insult we can raise is to frustrate assertions and prejudices at every turn, whether by a friendly joke to the well-meaning or by curt shock of logic to the arrogant. What if the best we can do is to pour ice on the warm waters of conformity? What if the best we can do is to proclaim, by example, that life is not blunt, unformed material to be flattened and beaten into shape and bent to human will. Life is a sharp, subtle, sophisticated thing that requires the hands of an artist, hands that know when to push and when to yield to the material. Do you have that bold, faithful touch? Do you employ that art?
A book is perhaps the most direct way to reach minds like the one at work that time. A book is sought out, willingly and actively participated in and can be discarded at any time. I know now that many have had experiences similar to what is described here and many have responded differently and been compelled to file it in some cultural niche or claim some prize. To do so would be to turn away at the defining moment or to bargain awareness for a more distinguished illusion. It is interesting and compelling to find comparisons but it is a hesitant mind that finds only fragments of familiarity. Anyone might find niches for the metaphors, but there are none to file away what they describe, that indefinable sense that, like a wild flower, only lives in you and fades as soon as you try to give it to another.
For me, it will never belong to any religious, philosophical or cultural tradition – it was fundamentally a relinquishing of such things, and in time realizing that was not a loss. As I wrote then, stay broken, wholeness is a mask. Yet nothing is wanting in that which you do not s
eek to complete, perfect or make use of. For anyone like me, that realization never comes until you have tried so hard, plumbed so deep, been shaken so utterly, that the keenness of your seeking mind destroys all that you identified with. Better to find – if there are any – gentler, safer ways to that repose. By it, lostless, ungained, insperate....
Just as my intuition leveled me to collect such thoughts please feel free to advice you view on thises. Don't be sad god always give a way out∙
A book is perhaps the most direct way to reach minds like the one at work that time. A book is sought out, willingly and actively participated in and can be discarded at any time. I know now that many have had experiences similar to what is described here and many have responded differently and been compelled to file it in some cultural niche or claim some prize. To do so would be to turn away at the defining moment or to bargain awareness for a more distinguished illusion. It is interesting and compelling to find comparisons but it is a hesitant mind that finds only fragments of familiarity. Anyone might find niches for the metaphors, but there are none to file away what they describe, that indefinable sense that, like a wild flower, only lives in you and fades as soon as you try to give it to another.
For me, it will never belong to any religious, philosophical or cultural tradition – it was fundamentally a relinquishing of such things, and in time realizing that was not a loss. As I wrote then, stay broken, wholeness is a mask. Yet nothing is wanting in that which you do not s
eek to complete, perfect or make use of. For anyone like me, that realization never comes until you have tried so hard, plumbed so deep, been shaken so utterly, that the keenness of your seeking mind destroys all that you identified with. Better to find – if there are any – gentler, safer ways to that repose. By it, lostless, ungained, insperate....Just as my intuition leveled me to collect such thoughts please feel free to advice you view on thises. Don't be sad god always give a way out∙
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Leadership how / what ? need suggestions
Leadership can be defined as one's ability to get others to willingly follow. Every organization needs leaders at every level. Leaders can be found and nurtured.
I believe we must develop leadership qualities accross our suroundings to achieve the success we seek. As part of my job is to coach people to greater self-awareness, purpose, personal strengths, various technologies and a sense of well-being that often translates into greater compensation, job satisfaction and practical use of skills and abilities. The goal of our leadership tips is to help everyone to pay attention to intentions and get to where you want to be as final result.
I ahev always believed that Leadership development is self-development. Learning how to not micromanage, not be overly concrete, not fail to explicitly state expectations and other unproductive inter-personal behavior only happens through the increased self-awareness gained in a personal coaching or mentoring relationship. So effective leadership can happen on the dance floor of conversation. Leadership is an interactive conversation that pulls people toward becoming comfortable with the language of personal responsibility and commitment.
Leadership is not just for people at the top. Everyone can learn to lead by discovering the power that lies within each one of us to make a difference and practicing the law of reciprocity. Also A leader with vision has a clear, vivid picture of where to go, as well as a firm grasp on what success looks like and how to achieve it. But it’s not enough to have a vision; leaders must also share it and act upon it.
A good leader must have the discipline to work toward his or her vision single-mindedly, as well as to direct his or her actions and those of the team toward the goal. Action is the mark of a leader. A leader does not suffer “analysis paralysis” but is always doing something in pursuit of the vision, inspiring others to do the same.
Integrity is the integration of outward actions and inner values. A person of integrity is the same on the outside and on the inside. Such an individual can be trusted because he or she never veers from inner values, even when it might be expeditious to do so. A leader must have the trust of followers and therefore must display integrity.
Please share your thoughts at RavindraPande@gmail.com
I believe we must develop leadership qualities accross our suroundings to achieve the success we seek. As part of my job is to coach people to greater self-awareness, purpose, personal strengths, various technologies and a sense of well-being that often translates into greater compensation, job satisfaction and practical use of skills and abilities. The goal of our leadership tips is to help everyone to pay attention to intentions and get to where you want to be as final result.
I ahev always believed that Leadership development is self-development. Learning how to not micromanage, not be overly concrete, not fail to explicitly state expectations and other unproductive inter-personal behavior only happens through the increased self-awareness gained in a personal coaching or mentoring relationship. So effective leadership can happen on the dance floor of conversation. Leadership is an interactive conversation that pulls people toward becoming comfortable with the language of personal responsibility and commitment.
Leadership is not just for people at the top. Everyone can learn to lead by discovering the power that lies within each one of us to make a difference and practicing the law of reciprocity. Also A leader with vision has a clear, vivid picture of where to go, as well as a firm grasp on what success looks like and how to achieve it. But it’s not enough to have a vision; leaders must also share it and act upon it.
A good leader must have the discipline to work toward his or her vision single-mindedly, as well as to direct his or her actions and those of the team toward the goal. Action is the mark of a leader. A leader does not suffer “analysis paralysis” but is always doing something in pursuit of the vision, inspiring others to do the same.
Integrity is the integration of outward actions and inner values. A person of integrity is the same on the outside and on the inside. Such an individual can be trusted because he or she never veers from inner values, even when it might be expeditious to do so. A leader must have the trust of followers and therefore must display integrity.
Please share your thoughts at RavindraPande@gmail.com
Friday, July 2, 2010
Joke IT & Business process take this lightely
A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces altitude and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts: "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"
The man below says: "Yes, you're in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field."
"You must work in Information Technology" says the balloonist.
"I do" replies the man. "How did you know?"
"Well" says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but it's of no use to anyone."
The man below says "You must work in business."
"I do" replies the balloonist, "but how did you know?"
"Well", says the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going, but you expect me to be able to help. You're in the same position you were before we met, but now it's my fault."
The man below says: "Yes, you're in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field."
"You must work in Information Technology" says the balloonist.
"I do" replies the man. "How did you know?"
"Well" says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but it's of no use to anyone."
The man below says "You must work in business."
"I do" replies the balloonist, "but how did you know?"
"Well", says the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going, but you expect me to be able to help. You're in the same position you were before we met, but now it's my fault."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)