Kitne aadmi the ?
Sholay, 1975.
A crude translation in english would mean “How many people were there ?”.
Its not always about manpower and size of the team. In this particular bollywood blockbuster , just two good people with skill and determination were enough to handle hurdles and difficuties thrown at them compared to more than twenty. In todays slowing economy and competition its absolutely mandatory to maintain small but determined team rather than maintaining large team of unmotivated people. It’s a well known fact that team work plays an important role in success and failure of any project. You might hire the best of resources but if there is no team work the project is not going any where. If we take inspiration from this movie a team in present situtaion should :
Be small but with skilled and determined people.
Have good team work between members.
Have access to tools and resources.
Ye haath muje de de Thakur!!!
Sholay, 1975.
Another one from the same blockbuster movie which means . “Give me your hands” .Although its not necessary to have a Gabbar singh ( villian ) in a project. But we do have a virtual Gabbar singh in our work life. Yes, the competition , the peer pressure, the greed to get ahead and become a manager “could” be a virtual Gabbar. It’s a typical scenario in every software company a yough engineer joins a company, he becomes a team lead in few years and in some time he rises to become a manager, but all the while he forgets to update his technical skills, thinking that its enough to have good managerial skills rather than technical.But what he forgets is the software company is a technology company. Mangers are needed to manage people just because there is a tremedous growth and size of the team gets bigger and bigger. Although it’s a good idea to get some management skills but every one in a software company should be hands on.
Remember : A manager without technical skills is like Thakur without hands in the movie.
He has will , determination and good intentions but he is not capable of performing himself . His “hands” has been cut off by todays “virtual Gabbar singh”. All he can do is rely on his team to complete the project.
Mogambo khush hua .
Mr. India, 1987
Although we might not have Gabbar in our work lives but you will have to agree that we definetly have lots of Mogambos in our day to day lives. If you are software developer you have to consider your lead, your manager your QA and finally your client as Mogambo and try to extract this famous words from them which litrally means “I am Happy!!!”. Well, making them happy means producing good quality and timely work rather than developing PR skills or being friendly with them. Remember that in todays economy its the share holder who is The Greatest Mogambo. Your being friendly with client or manager might not increase the share value of the company but producing good quality work and completing the projects on time by meeting the deadline and keeping them bug free will definetly increase the share value.
Ek macchar aadmi to hizda bana deta hai.
Krantiveer , 1995
Yes, you gussed it right . These “macchars” are nothing but bugs in every software project. Bugs can come at any phase of the project and can have many causes, which inculde lack of requirements, lack of technical skills etc. Although its very diffucult to make any project bug free , it should be taken care that bugs don’t come at later stage of the project. We all software engineers know the importance of unit testing yet when it comes to actual task we espace by giving reasons like lack of time , lack or resources etc. We call consider oursleves to be too good programmer to need unit tests. We rely on QA and integration testers to catch bugs.
This figure is from “Applied Software Measurement”, by Capers Jones, McGraw-Hill 1991, for the time taken to prepare execute and fix defects.
Sholay, 1975.
A crude translation in english would mean “How many people were there ?”.
Its not always about manpower and size of the team. In this particular bollywood blockbuster , just two good people with skill and determination were enough to handle hurdles and difficuties thrown at them compared to more than twenty. In todays slowing economy and competition its absolutely mandatory to maintain small but determined team rather than maintaining large team of unmotivated people. It’s a well known fact that team work plays an important role in success and failure of any project. You might hire the best of resources but if there is no team work the project is not going any where. If we take inspiration from this movie a team in present situtaion should :
Be small but with skilled and determined people.
Have good team work between members.
Have access to tools and resources.
Ye haath muje de de Thakur!!!
Sholay, 1975.
Another one from the same blockbuster movie which means . “Give me your hands” .Although its not necessary to have a Gabbar singh ( villian ) in a project. But we do have a virtual Gabbar singh in our work life. Yes, the competition , the peer pressure, the greed to get ahead and become a manager “could” be a virtual Gabbar. It’s a typical scenario in every software company a yough engineer joins a company, he becomes a team lead in few years and in some time he rises to become a manager, but all the while he forgets to update his technical skills, thinking that its enough to have good managerial skills rather than technical.But what he forgets is the software company is a technology company. Mangers are needed to manage people just because there is a tremedous growth and size of the team gets bigger and bigger. Although it’s a good idea to get some management skills but every one in a software company should be hands on.
Remember : A manager without technical skills is like Thakur without hands in the movie.
He has will , determination and good intentions but he is not capable of performing himself . His “hands” has been cut off by todays “virtual Gabbar singh”. All he can do is rely on his team to complete the project.
Mogambo khush hua .
Mr. India, 1987
Although we might not have Gabbar in our work lives but you will have to agree that we definetly have lots of Mogambos in our day to day lives. If you are software developer you have to consider your lead, your manager your QA and finally your client as Mogambo and try to extract this famous words from them which litrally means “I am Happy!!!”. Well, making them happy means producing good quality and timely work rather than developing PR skills or being friendly with them. Remember that in todays economy its the share holder who is The Greatest Mogambo. Your being friendly with client or manager might not increase the share value of the company but producing good quality work and completing the projects on time by meeting the deadline and keeping them bug free will definetly increase the share value.
Ek macchar aadmi to hizda bana deta hai.
Krantiveer , 1995
Yes, you gussed it right . These “macchars” are nothing but bugs in every software project. Bugs can come at any phase of the project and can have many causes, which inculde lack of requirements, lack of technical skills etc. Although its very diffucult to make any project bug free , it should be taken care that bugs don’t come at later stage of the project. We all software engineers know the importance of unit testing yet when it comes to actual task we espace by giving reasons like lack of time , lack or resources etc. We call consider oursleves to be too good programmer to need unit tests. We rely on QA and integration testers to catch bugs.
This figure is from “Applied Software Measurement”, by Capers Jones, McGraw-Hill 1991, for the time taken to prepare execute and fix defects.
If cost of fixing a bug found in unit testing is Y then its cost in integration could be 4 multiplied Y , and in production it could be “12 x Y”. So you could end up paying 12 times more tomorrow if you try to save on unit testing today.
As you can see the cost and time taken in unit testing is far less than cost and time taken to fix a bug a later stages of the project. Remember that a bug in production might waste your entire effort of design and development .
Chota risk aur bada fayada yaane “mauka” !!!!
Maharathi, 2009
This is a dialog from not so well known movie but it makes lots of sense in today competitive software market. The protagonist in the movie says :
A little risk and little benefit is what we call business, whereas
A major risk and a major benefit is what we call lottery but
A little risk and a major benefit is what we call “Oppurtunity”!!!!!
Taking risk is necessary in every phase of life, but in a typical software project there are numerous time where one might have to take risk. Its always a tradeoff between the risk we are going to take and benefit we are going to get out of it. Refactoring the code is one such risk. Refactoring is a very good practice and you will find tons and tons of articles on net in support of it, however a very carefull cost-benefit analysis should be done before taking up any such work. Risk analysis is also very important aspect of software development life cycle. We must ensure that we don’t let go of any Oppurtunity at the same time we don’t take any unnecessary risk which are not going to yield equivalent benefit.
Sardar meine aapka namak khaya hai sardar!!!
Sholay, 1975.
Change is the most powerfull law of nature. You need to keep moving to achieve growth and success. Once we get good oppurtunity we move on to a different organization. I still remember one of the famous Indian enterprenur once said. “Don’t love your company, Love your work”. Although this might be true we still need to have respect and loyality towards the organization we are working in. We have to maintain decipline and not take undue advantages of the facilities provided by the company. Few of my friends used to stay in company till 8.30PM in night everyday. I used to appreciate their dedication till I found out the reason for their late schedule. The reason was , hold your breath, the company used to provide free dinner and free cab dropoff after 8.30PM. Another friend of mine used to work for a company which used to provide telecommute option to all of its employees. Well for starters telecommute means “work for home”. This is really a good option since it saves a lot of travelling time. We can utilize all the time we waste on roads in a good way. This option definetly improves the work-life balance. My friend used to take this option “work from home” every 3 days a week. But only change was “work” was missing from his schedule when he used to be home. This is a balant cheating, its like robbing your organization , their client and other loyal employeers of valuable time and money. Remember , work from home means you have to treat your home as work place and bheave in exactly the same way as you were in office, period.
Another way of robbing time could be spending a lot of time in company cafetia or recreation area of your company. Please remember that these areas are provided so that you can take a break from your work. But some people make this other way round. They start working when they take break from these places.
Mere paas maan hai..
Deevar, 1975
After working loyally and faithfully for almost 3 years in the same company and always proving myself again and again I was amazed when a new person with almost same level of experience as me was named technical architect instead of me. I the only qualification he seemed to have was “onsite experience” of around 2 years. The fact that he was laid off in this “onsite” country due to economic slowdown dint bother any one. It’s a well known fact now that India is one of the best producers of engineers in the world.
Alghough engineers from IITS and MBAS from IIMS have been been hired by best of multinationals since beginning even less known engineering colleges and universities are not far behind.
http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/jul/05eng.htm
Today india and indians have achieved a lot in software industry. More than 20 Indian software companies have achieved the prestigious SEI-CMM level. India also has the highest number of ISO-9000 software organizations. In the U.S alone, more than 80% have ranked India as their first choice, when outsourcing software and IT services. The U.S has also recognized India as an outsourcing superpower. Although I agree that above statements is bound to open “can of worms” and some readers would disagree with me saying that India is chose not because of quality but because of cost. But we all agree that Indian engineers have proved themselves time and again but still the indian management has a mind set of treating “foreign returned” engineers differently compared to local experienced.“Good quality engineer” is product of education, work experience, and opportunities to grow. Engineers in same Corporation should be paid equaly in different countries, period. There are mind set shift necessary when you hire talent. But this will take time till then if your onsite colleague tells you that today he has a flat, a car, and a TV and asks you what do you have . Just tell him .. Mere paas maan hai.. which means I have mother and mother land.
Chota risk aur bada fayada yaane “mauka” !!!!
Maharathi, 2009
This is a dialog from not so well known movie but it makes lots of sense in today competitive software market. The protagonist in the movie says :
A little risk and little benefit is what we call business, whereas
A major risk and a major benefit is what we call lottery but
A little risk and a major benefit is what we call “Oppurtunity”!!!!!
Taking risk is necessary in every phase of life, but in a typical software project there are numerous time where one might have to take risk. Its always a tradeoff between the risk we are going to take and benefit we are going to get out of it. Refactoring the code is one such risk. Refactoring is a very good practice and you will find tons and tons of articles on net in support of it, however a very carefull cost-benefit analysis should be done before taking up any such work. Risk analysis is also very important aspect of software development life cycle. We must ensure that we don’t let go of any Oppurtunity at the same time we don’t take any unnecessary risk which are not going to yield equivalent benefit.
Sardar meine aapka namak khaya hai sardar!!!
Sholay, 1975.
Change is the most powerfull law of nature. You need to keep moving to achieve growth and success. Once we get good oppurtunity we move on to a different organization. I still remember one of the famous Indian enterprenur once said. “Don’t love your company, Love your work”. Although this might be true we still need to have respect and loyality towards the organization we are working in. We have to maintain decipline and not take undue advantages of the facilities provided by the company. Few of my friends used to stay in company till 8.30PM in night everyday. I used to appreciate their dedication till I found out the reason for their late schedule. The reason was , hold your breath, the company used to provide free dinner and free cab dropoff after 8.30PM. Another friend of mine used to work for a company which used to provide telecommute option to all of its employees. Well for starters telecommute means “work for home”. This is really a good option since it saves a lot of travelling time. We can utilize all the time we waste on roads in a good way. This option definetly improves the work-life balance. My friend used to take this option “work from home” every 3 days a week. But only change was “work” was missing from his schedule when he used to be home. This is a balant cheating, its like robbing your organization , their client and other loyal employeers of valuable time and money. Remember , work from home means you have to treat your home as work place and bheave in exactly the same way as you were in office, period.
Another way of robbing time could be spending a lot of time in company cafetia or recreation area of your company. Please remember that these areas are provided so that you can take a break from your work. But some people make this other way round. They start working when they take break from these places.
Mere paas maan hai..
Deevar, 1975
After working loyally and faithfully for almost 3 years in the same company and always proving myself again and again I was amazed when a new person with almost same level of experience as me was named technical architect instead of me. I the only qualification he seemed to have was “onsite experience” of around 2 years. The fact that he was laid off in this “onsite” country due to economic slowdown dint bother any one. It’s a well known fact now that India is one of the best producers of engineers in the world.
Alghough engineers from IITS and MBAS from IIMS have been been hired by best of multinationals since beginning even less known engineering colleges and universities are not far behind.
http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/jul/05eng.htm
Today india and indians have achieved a lot in software industry. More than 20 Indian software companies have achieved the prestigious SEI-CMM level. India also has the highest number of ISO-9000 software organizations. In the U.S alone, more than 80% have ranked India as their first choice, when outsourcing software and IT services. The U.S has also recognized India as an outsourcing superpower. Although I agree that above statements is bound to open “can of worms” and some readers would disagree with me saying that India is chose not because of quality but because of cost. But we all agree that Indian engineers have proved themselves time and again but still the indian management has a mind set of treating “foreign returned” engineers differently compared to local experienced.“Good quality engineer” is product of education, work experience, and opportunities to grow. Engineers in same Corporation should be paid equaly in different countries, period. There are mind set shift necessary when you hire talent. But this will take time till then if your onsite colleague tells you that today he has a flat, a car, and a TV and asks you what do you have . Just tell him .. Mere paas maan hai.. which means I have mother and mother land.
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