Rahul Desai’s Blog

Microsoft India MD joins HP - Software & Services-News-Indiatimes - Infotech

Interesting and something uncommon…

Microsoft shuts down another Live site- Software & Services-News-Indiatimes - Infotech

We all have had to deal with irate or confrontational people at one time or another, whether in our jobs, family life or personal relationships. The worst is when you are on the bearing side and you’re faced with having to take the brunt of someone’s anger when it was no fault of yours, you experience stress before, during and after the encounter. I experience this very regularly at work with colleagues, while dealing with government agencies, banks etc..

At work and while working on a project, normally this sort of behaviour would come from senior team members who are basically trying to get some personal, egoistic message across. The message would not have anything to do with whatever you are doing currently, it would normally be a shield being used to cover up failure on their efforts or them loosing importance within the team.

The best way to handle and manage such team members is, communicating in person and having clarity of thoughts. Remember the game of “Passing on the message” where you sit in a circle and whispered into the ear of the person sitting next to you? By the time you finished the circle, the original message is always garbled. Talking directly (and not through someone) is the key. Instead of encouraging such behaviour within the team (or individuals), it is always good, talking directly and clearly, clearing doubts in person (instead of exchanging a bunch of emails), and of course…moving on….unless you want to continue experiencing the stress…

Working with multi cultural team members and cosmopolitan work environments for all this years, I have experienced blockers many times over the years (I am sure everyone has). Grant Holliday has written a nice post on “BLOCKERS” and how to deal with them, here is the link.

The post is not only good in identifying a blocker and dealing with the blocker, it also identifies what you should try and avoid if you do not want to be called one.

Adding one more point to his list of definitions of a “can’t do-er” (aka blocker)…(Please do read the other 3 here before reading further):

Most blockers put themselves ahead of the whole team, the enterprise goals / targets. For most of the blockers “Me, myself comes first instead of us, ourselves”.

Do you ever wonder why some people have a better work ethic than others?  A good work ethic means being responsible, dependable, accountable and taking initiative.  High-quality work ethics vibrate through the organization.  And we all notice when it’s missing from a environment! As a project manager, it is good to lead by example, have some strong ethic in place and pass on the same to your team members.

Some good thoughts / suggestions (which I normally try to follow) to build a strong work ethic:

• Take ownership of your position.
• Do what you say you are going to do. 
• Be accountable for your performance. 
• Learn your job.
• Then consider taking on more responsibility within your department.
• Others count on you. 
• Be dependable.
• Show up and be on time. 
• Be conscious of your attendance.
• Keep personal business at work to a minimum.
• Do what it takes to make your manager successful.

Some suggestions for personal growth:

• Think strategic and long term.
• Avoid distractions that take your golden work time. 
• Stay focused.
• Stay current in your industry.
• Avoid burnout by pacing yourself over a period of time.

Reputations are formed over time.  You can start moving towards top from where you are today.

Facebook founder is world’s youngest billionaire-USA-World-The Times of India

Interesting story on India times…..link as below:

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2767152.cms 

While trying to provide estimate for a new requirement / project, it is always an enigma whether to overestimate the requirement and face the risk of not getting the project or underestimating the requirement to get the project.

My thoughts, don’t intentionally underestimate (to get the work). The outcome and the penalty for underestimation is more severe than the result / outcome for overestimation.

From project management view, the biggest outcomes of intentionally underestimating requirements are:

• Reduced effectiveness of project plans
• Reduced chance of on-time completion
• Losses involved in terms of cost
• Disturbed Client relations or lack of Client satisfaction
• Loss of overall goodwill

Time spent on proper estimating helps in:

• Recognizing a mismatch between the requirement / project’s business target and a requirement / project’s estimate
• Gives you chance to justify (to the client) the cost of the project (why is it on the higher / lower side?)
• Assessing valuable risk information that the project might not be successful
• Take corrective action early, when it can do some good

It also helps the over all project with:

• Improved status visibility
• Higher quality
• Increased credibility for the development / support team (and of course the company)
• Clarity on various risks involved (at various stage)

The ideal goal should be to address concerns about overestimation through proper planning and control, not by biasing your estimates (just to make the client happy initially) . Quiet a few project managers don’t like spending time on proper planning and estimate and most of them do not have a standard method to do so….

Quote of the day:
God is not dead but alive and well and working on a much less ambitious project. - Anonymous

I came across this Project tool, great value for clients and users who cannot afford to have Microsoft Project.

LiveProject is a FREE Project Viewer application for Microsoft project files. It enables you to view tasks, Gantt charts, resources, among other Microsoft Project information, without the need to install Microsoft Project. LiveProject has no expiration date, and no strings attached. Just download, run and start your work. Easy. Simple. Free.

LiveProject (Free MS Project Viewer from Kadonk)

They have also got the professional version at:

LiveProject Professional

Good Project management tools……

Posted under Project Management, Tools, Tips & Utilities