The Year of Self Development and NANO!

Finally Enlightened. This year is the year of self development and following your dreams.

I think its the nano that has inspired me. http://www.tatapeoplescar.com/tatamotors/

In the meantime, I am working on this concept centered around Risk Management of "Outsourced" Software Projects. Have a feeling I am on to something here.....NO It wont be as good as the NANO!

Team Management by a Cricket Captain!

In my first experience with management I always thought of how my mentors could give me a real life perspective on management. As i have gained territory, i have seen many a case study in management to learn from and appreciate. Some very interesting examples are - The multi-tasking so called "domestic" wife, The mumbai Dabbawalas, The very organized Eunuch community in India and ofcourse the big one - The captain of a Cricket Team! In this post I attempt to bring management to a common platform using a cricket captain.

Lets see if we can learn some important lessons from the captain!

1. A good team makes a good manager great! All Australian captains in last 15 years have benefited because they're team has backed them up. Compare the same to an Inzamam or Lara who tried to get the best out their teams and perhaps they did, but results eluded them due to quality.
2. A good manager finds the right balance in the team. The team composition is decided by looking at the pitch, conditions and form of the players. Same applies to projects, finding the right resources/skill set according to project requirement is an essential ingredient for success. One size never fits all.
3. The master Tactician- A good reason why Saurav Ganguly did so well against a visiting Australian side was that he got inside their flesh with minor irritants. Apparently, he made Steve Waugh wait for each and every toss in all the test matches. This ensured that he was calling the shots even before the match started. In the same vein, he also realized that the by being a part of the youngsters ensured that they felt wanted and valued. This enthused the youngsters and brought him great results. Similarly, managers need to use tact by seeing what will motivate their team members and what will trouble the project irritants.
4. The manager always needs a counsel! Waugh-GilChrist-Warne, Saurav-Sachin-Rahul. What is the reason you see such groups coming together very often in a game and discussing the situation and strategy? The final decision is up to the manager, but to build consensus and use the experience in the team to make the correct decision is tough. This is what differentiates between good and average captains.
5. Leadership - Leading from the front. Absorbing all the pressure rather than transferring it to the team. In this regard Imran Khan was an absolute role model for entire Pakistan team and his leadership inspired players to success beyond their abilities. Such is the leadership that managers should bring to the table - be a role model and be inspirational.
6. The manager needs to still keep performing on his own tasks! Saurav Ganguly exited the captaincy when he wasn't scoring runs, so did Sachin and recently Rahul. The essential aspect is that for the team to trust and believe in you, they need to see results and that applies to all managers and captains!
7. Praise your team for good results generously and openly. Be firm for poor results/actions, but indoors please! Please please please do not rant in public. Its too noisy and definitely demotivating. I dont like Ponting but he's a good example here.
8. The most skilled is NOT necessarily the best manager. Case in point - Sachin! The best player by far but doesn't have an envious record as captain.
9. Once everything is done and results are acheived, Take out your short and go crazy on the balcony at Lords:)

Strategic Partner Selection - A Rude Awakening!

Working in a startup has its own challenges. We pride ourselves on trying to create a solution that is not yet out there in the market. The great thrill is to see who crosses the finish line first, specially now with some competitors coming. Time to market being critical, we invited a company to help us build some of our components as our team was busy and here is what happened!

For the first time, I was on the customer side of the outsourcing relationship! We were thrown a bunch of people in a pre-sales pitch. The partner team was more interested in knowing how many people will they be able to make billable rather than knowing what work needed to be done. We had a day long meeting of sharing facts with them and deciding where they could bring value.

We wait for a week and they get in touch with us and propose that they should do everything for us (instead of our own technology team!). They disregard their positioning and their depth, but they propose that the partner will cure all the troubles with Scrum! I guess there are some folks who still think that Technology and Agile Management drives business/domain rather than otherwise! Needless to say, we disregarded their advice, but the following best practices emerged

1. Always do references check with an existing customer of the company. A call is a must if meeting them is not an option.
2. Choosing a partner must bring in domain knowledge of your own domain.In our case, this was health care!
3. Try and ensure that you can ensure that you meet your team on your projects. - A Hard Sell, but very very important.
4. PILOTS are the right and only way! Constraints of Time, Cost and Scope are ever present, but if you are the manager, ensure that you give the partner a project with low priority but above average difficulty to gauge the team.
5. For managers risk identification and mitigation is everything right? So do a map of strengths and weakness of the partner and once the relationship is established, do appropriate work allocation.