Philosophy and Reality

Philisophy
Lets assume all you guys believe in God. I dont mean the super natural or a higher power but a God as in a God! You know, the kind Jim Carey was for 1 day in that movie... Yeah you get my drift now! Now that you are a believer, it follows that you also believe that "God" watches over the entire world and manages everything. Everything we know, everything we see, hear and pretty much everything that we dont even care for!

Reality
We know that a lot of things are absolutely broke in the world right? Darfur, University Shootings, Africa famine and Starvation, Crime against Women in India, Amount of Terrorist Organizations, Climate Change , War and Poverty! So we stay in a place where everything is bad and there is no good. True? False? I'll leave the answer to your interpretation but here is what i think.

It is obvious that a lot of things are going well too. For instance, we all grew up or was that supposed to be a given? The world has developed so much that information is accessible at the press of a finger? The world has become smaller, we're all traveling and seeing places we'd only read about. Even Doordarshan is improving. India has changed, we are a developing economy now and developing fast at that. We will host common wealth games soon, we'll have a Nano car even sooner.

I guess someone is doing a darn good job somewhere!

Bottomline(s)

• In the work we all do, there is more good than bad. So give yourself a pat on the back for doing what you are...you deserve it.
• We tend to focus on the bad and take the good as granted.
• If it works for God, it definitely works for us:)

Mind the Gap!

Hi! This post has been a long while coming but i changed jobs and so i took me a while to get it out of the blocks. I have taken up working for Sapient and have liked the agility here. For the other offshore players, that are big and not as agile, i believe the market is right for niche consulting companies to come in and bridge the widening gap between the company and the customer.

Here is what I am thinking on a high level.

• It can be a group of senior people (PMPs, Technology Managers) who can come together and offer Risk Management and Strategy Planning for Software Projects done from offshore. It will be a consulting company.
• The consulting company will offer services to the customers outside India.
• They should identify risks/mitigations at each level of the engagement/project. For first time outsourcers, there are things that they do not expect. So at the initiation stage, the consultants can play a key role in identifying and mitigating all the risks that are possible.
• One of the main issues in offshore/onsite engagements is the gap between the customer and the outsourcing vendor. I think that by acting as representatives of the customer, `this gap is reduced, be it in planning, objectives , communication or requirements.
• By being representatives of the customer, a neutral and fair view will be achieved. For example, informing the customer on a fixed frequency basis of all the planning and strategic issues and their possible mitigations. This will ensure that issues are caught early in the life cycle and a corrective action will benefit everyone.
• Expectations Management - The project balancer will be able to manage the expectations of the client by keeping the client informed of outsourcing +ves as well as -ves. In some cases, this will involve helping the client deciding on the offshoring strategy or even evaluating whether outsourcing will be a good option for specific projects or not.
• Setting the Right communication plan - Most offshore projects are troubled for this cause. We do believe that there are significant benefits of creating a strong communication network.
• Avoiding Latency - By being present here in India, they can lend agility to the process.

Here are some specific questions i would like to ask you

1. Firstly, how receptive are you to this ?
2. How much you think companies that are outsourcing already will be ready to pay for this service?
3. What are the challenges that you see for this to be successful?

Leave me a comment and we can have a chat about it.