I have spent the last decade and beyond developing, testing and overseeing the release of multiple versions of many software products on multiple technology stacks and seeing it succeed though its planned shelf life and lifecycle. This also came with an inherent self assurance that the next version of the software would be better than the current one and would solve all our (clients) problems. In those days, heroes were tagged to different releases. I even have a certificate at home from one of my past employer proclaiming me as one of the stars of the v2005 and v2006 releases! A close friend recently and quite suddenly asked me which version of facebook was i using. This question of his left me stumped but moments later sounded a wee bit rhetorical - did facebook ever had versioning?
I soon realized that it was not just facebook, most products from Google did not have versioning. The old order seemed to have changed suddenly. Developing and selling software through versioning with the accompanying hype and timed big bang releases is actually disappearing fast. Its being replaced by a method where the software actually resides on the internet or the cloud and is continuously updated as a result of which the user has the latest and greatest version or simply the current version! Unlike the older model of spending years adding new features to the products and then spending whatever dollars to advertise market and convince existing customers to upgrade or new ones to purchase. If you added up the maintenance hours and the costs associated with "supporting" older products all the while cramming newer features out of fear of losing out on features - isn't this software bloat? I also think this is a 'vicious' reinforcing loop that one gets into while the software becomes more complex and expensive to build over time and more complex to use. And are my users using more and newer features of the complex software i delivered? Probably not, a good ERP user needs to use about 20% of the features the best of the breed ERP vendor offers today!! ( you may question the 20% - but from my experience, i am convinced that it is pretty close). And, how many times have we seen anything ‘frozen’? But the time a new version of the product was ready for a release, many of the features would have been outdated while many more would be missing since the customer and his needs also evolved during the product development cycle.
I recently was introduced to a different revenue model in product software wherein the company wasn't charging a one time license fee but a monthly subscription or a rental fee. The best part of this model was subscribers also have the rights to the future enhancements. I am sure the revenue model and the transparency it brings drives these companies to constantly innovate. This would not only keep the maintenance revenues flowing, but also ensure better software quality. Product development finally seems to be heading the Agile/Rapid App development (RAD) model versus the traditional waterfall model. The new model would not only give the time to understand customer needs but also lets you build small incremental features and also,ofcourse- discard things that don't work. And who drives it - Product development is no longer marketing led development but engineering led.
Does this make life easier? at least you don't probably don't have to estimate for features ahead of time and sometimes these features may not even make it to the version. Just let the folks develop smaller pieces of code and publish it on the internet or cloud for your real users to ratify, They are your real 'user' group and who isn't happy without any productivity loss?
So is RAD effective? For one, it reduces the development time and reusability of components help to speed up development. All functions are modularized so it is easy to work with. The only expectation for large enterprise level products would be extreme commitment by the end customer and developer to complete the product in a fixed and an abbreviated time range.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
The good break diary …
31st August 2010
For the past few weeks, it has been a very emotional time for me as I bid farewell to my dear colleagues and friends of the past 7+ years at manhattan Associates. I woke up today to realize i didn't have to be at the bus stop in time for the office cab. I also signed up for an Ayurvedic detoxification plan to flush away all the toxic remnants of the loving farewell lunches and dinners from the past weeks. The Panchakarma therapy lasted 10 days at the comfort environs of Parampara Ayurvedic center at Sadashivanagar under the watchful eye of Ranjini, my wife and a physician herself. During the next 10 days, there is nothing much to look forward to, other than a regimented life with the work life being uncharacteristically calm.
1st September
Almost midweek and after a long time, Wednesday looks calms and I am already missing the numerous meetings scheduled for Wednesday. The idleness bout already seems to have taken over me and my idle mind is now meandering and throwing posers- do i really need to do something around the house in order to keep myself busy? Cleaning, organizing stuff, run errands for the family, revisit my investment portfolio. Thinking of investments, I call up Nagaraj BG and BLN Swamy, my trusted friends and advisors in the moneyed world. Life would have been much more prosperous if only I had acted on their timely advice. As always, they had fantastic news for me-if only I was ready to act upon..Buying and selling stocks on advice will perilously bring me closer to being a trader -certainly not something I started with (Mr Buffet - still with you). I also don’t have the wherewithal to become one; I believe it is too tedious to track markets on an hourly basis and have brokers on speed dial. As many have said it before, just be long term and the markets will take care of the rest...
2nd September
One of the other things that i am doing these days is reading up a lot since i can afford the entire day reading books. The detoxification therapy comes with a statutory warning of no-sleeping during the day and that again helps the reading cause. I have been reading Michael Lewis' Money Poker, A compilation of clichés by Christine Ammer, The fish omnibus , re-reads of Dave Barry to keep myself in some good humor and the bed time read for the next few nights will be 'What got you here Won't get you there' by Marshall Goldsmith. With all these reading, i haven’t become any more of a geek, but the exercise has proved worth the effort and offered some solutions and solace to the restlessness caused by a few days of inaction. I suddenly remember ‘Winnie the pooh’ here, who famously said - Never underestimate the value of doing nothing. Stock market gurus actually sometimes prescribe doing nothing.. As it demonstrates patience, perseverance and even conviction. While still at investing, doing nothing helps investors like me restrain from making unnecessary wrong moves and even more unnecessarily churn portfolios enduring pain while hoping for some gain. The question that refuses to go away easily now is how long will I do nothing?
3rd September
I had at least something to look forward today. Thanks to facebook, i got in touch with a buddy from school, Vijay Iyengar who was visiting India. We had promised to meet at a hotel in Malleshwaram after exactly 18 years. Vijay had left the country 18 summers ago to pursue education in Moscow. Subsequently, he moved to the United States along with his wife and lives in NJ. Vijay works with thought leaders from the medical world and represents his company Sanofi Aventis quite well in getting these thought leaders speak for the drugs and molecules that his company develops. The reunion was fun, full of nostalgia and helped me spend the day relatively easily. It took some convincing from me to assure Vijay that the decision to stay back in India was well thought of and work can be as challenging as it can be anywhere else. Fortunately, i had Manhattan Associates and IBM as examples to show how well the captive center and the off shoring model worked. I am due to join IBM in about 5 days and actually a bit nervous about how the big blue works given its scale. After a long time, Friday didn’t seem like a weekend and strangely enough, I am now looking forward to 8th Sept, Wednesday when I formally join IBM..
4th September
The day began lazily with a late brunch for all at home except me. There were a few chores to be attended to. A lure of a clean deal in a residential plot took me near the new international airport to check out a residential plot in a gated community. As in the past, this one too looked uncertain in terms of appreciation and valuations that I had to 'do nothing' about it. Before getting further frustrated, i decided to analyze the current status of my portfolio. It did show a steady net gain with the best performer in my kitty being Rallis India while Tata steel continues to be one of the bigger drags. Warren Buffet and Benjamin Graham's experience and wisdom tells me not to be disheartened. So, again I delve into some research reports with the hope of predicting it right, but no more for some time. I decide to again 'do nothing' and simply allow these companies the time to grow.
5th September
My detox therapy is going well, but I am now missing my coffee so much. I feel light but not weak, the day is spent with the family and those who know me praise me for the discipline while following a strict diet-but the doctor (my wife) isn't - she actually wanted me to follow the regime for 3 weeks for the most effective treatment and to gain maximum benefit. Sunday also meant, I get access to the internet using Ranjini's computer. Being between jobs has made me digitally disconnected with fewer email replies, facebook and twitter updates. But i still needed to be connected as my communication with IBM, my new employer is through web mail.
6th September
The markets open and the world goes back to the working mode once again on a Monday morning, my therapy has now reached final stage. It’s now a luxurious 75 mins at the spa in the mornings making it something to look forward to, not to mention the rejuvenated feel during the day. Diet is still the same. I also began preparing for my new job beginning in two days. Getting the necessary paper work, pre employment forms, photocopying, getting photographed for the various forms and identification needs were some of the distractive things I did today. The stock markets meanwhile are on a surge ready to break the 19000 barrier. My neighbor who is a portfolio manager looks elated vetted some of my investment decisons.There are more buy recommendations coming in from almost everywhere and from everyone, but the percentage of Indians who believe they can create wealth in the markets is still a dismal number-so much to speak about awareness and risk appetite. I used this good peak in the Sensex to redeem some of my mutual funds for some tidy appreciation.
7th September
Began the day with the last visit to the therapy center and came home and began browsing through the info way to find as much as I could about IBM, the history, break-up of the business, spoke to my Royal Blue Ambassador about the joining formalities. The afternoon was spent navigating the IBM website for pre-joining requisites that I was expected to be aware of. IBM being so huge cannot operate without processes and policies. I was soon to discover how scale can be managed and managed effectively and what a chaotic place IBM would have been without these processes and policies in place.
8th September - early morning..
I now get into active work life which also means this diary would also end and it would be sometime before I come back with more blogs. For now, the immediate learning is to make newer friends, learn to navigate the big blue maze and set up an office and get back to the working ways. I will try to continue to keep an eye on the fate of my portfolio and hopefully, will be able to share some details and i hope there will be a few more zeroes in the net profit.
For the past few weeks, it has been a very emotional time for me as I bid farewell to my dear colleagues and friends of the past 7+ years at manhattan Associates. I woke up today to realize i didn't have to be at the bus stop in time for the office cab. I also signed up for an Ayurvedic detoxification plan to flush away all the toxic remnants of the loving farewell lunches and dinners from the past weeks. The Panchakarma therapy lasted 10 days at the comfort environs of Parampara Ayurvedic center at Sadashivanagar under the watchful eye of Ranjini, my wife and a physician herself. During the next 10 days, there is nothing much to look forward to, other than a regimented life with the work life being uncharacteristically calm.
1st September
Almost midweek and after a long time, Wednesday looks calms and I am already missing the numerous meetings scheduled for Wednesday. The idleness bout already seems to have taken over me and my idle mind is now meandering and throwing posers- do i really need to do something around the house in order to keep myself busy? Cleaning, organizing stuff, run errands for the family, revisit my investment portfolio. Thinking of investments, I call up Nagaraj BG and BLN Swamy, my trusted friends and advisors in the moneyed world. Life would have been much more prosperous if only I had acted on their timely advice. As always, they had fantastic news for me-if only I was ready to act upon..Buying and selling stocks on advice will perilously bring me closer to being a trader -certainly not something I started with (Mr Buffet - still with you). I also don’t have the wherewithal to become one; I believe it is too tedious to track markets on an hourly basis and have brokers on speed dial. As many have said it before, just be long term and the markets will take care of the rest...
2nd September
One of the other things that i am doing these days is reading up a lot since i can afford the entire day reading books. The detoxification therapy comes with a statutory warning of no-sleeping during the day and that again helps the reading cause. I have been reading Michael Lewis' Money Poker, A compilation of clichés by Christine Ammer, The fish omnibus , re-reads of Dave Barry to keep myself in some good humor and the bed time read for the next few nights will be 'What got you here Won't get you there' by Marshall Goldsmith. With all these reading, i haven’t become any more of a geek, but the exercise has proved worth the effort and offered some solutions and solace to the restlessness caused by a few days of inaction. I suddenly remember ‘Winnie the pooh’ here, who famously said - Never underestimate the value of doing nothing. Stock market gurus actually sometimes prescribe doing nothing.. As it demonstrates patience, perseverance and even conviction. While still at investing, doing nothing helps investors like me restrain from making unnecessary wrong moves and even more unnecessarily churn portfolios enduring pain while hoping for some gain. The question that refuses to go away easily now is how long will I do nothing?
3rd September
I had at least something to look forward today. Thanks to facebook, i got in touch with a buddy from school, Vijay Iyengar who was visiting India. We had promised to meet at a hotel in Malleshwaram after exactly 18 years. Vijay had left the country 18 summers ago to pursue education in Moscow. Subsequently, he moved to the United States along with his wife and lives in NJ. Vijay works with thought leaders from the medical world and represents his company Sanofi Aventis quite well in getting these thought leaders speak for the drugs and molecules that his company develops. The reunion was fun, full of nostalgia and helped me spend the day relatively easily. It took some convincing from me to assure Vijay that the decision to stay back in India was well thought of and work can be as challenging as it can be anywhere else. Fortunately, i had Manhattan Associates and IBM as examples to show how well the captive center and the off shoring model worked. I am due to join IBM in about 5 days and actually a bit nervous about how the big blue works given its scale. After a long time, Friday didn’t seem like a weekend and strangely enough, I am now looking forward to 8th Sept, Wednesday when I formally join IBM..
4th September
The day began lazily with a late brunch for all at home except me. There were a few chores to be attended to. A lure of a clean deal in a residential plot took me near the new international airport to check out a residential plot in a gated community. As in the past, this one too looked uncertain in terms of appreciation and valuations that I had to 'do nothing' about it. Before getting further frustrated, i decided to analyze the current status of my portfolio. It did show a steady net gain with the best performer in my kitty being Rallis India while Tata steel continues to be one of the bigger drags. Warren Buffet and Benjamin Graham's experience and wisdom tells me not to be disheartened. So, again I delve into some research reports with the hope of predicting it right, but no more for some time. I decide to again 'do nothing' and simply allow these companies the time to grow.
5th September
My detox therapy is going well, but I am now missing my coffee so much. I feel light but not weak, the day is spent with the family and those who know me praise me for the discipline while following a strict diet-but the doctor (my wife) isn't - she actually wanted me to follow the regime for 3 weeks for the most effective treatment and to gain maximum benefit. Sunday also meant, I get access to the internet using Ranjini's computer. Being between jobs has made me digitally disconnected with fewer email replies, facebook and twitter updates. But i still needed to be connected as my communication with IBM, my new employer is through web mail.
6th September
The markets open and the world goes back to the working mode once again on a Monday morning, my therapy has now reached final stage. It’s now a luxurious 75 mins at the spa in the mornings making it something to look forward to, not to mention the rejuvenated feel during the day. Diet is still the same. I also began preparing for my new job beginning in two days. Getting the necessary paper work, pre employment forms, photocopying, getting photographed for the various forms and identification needs were some of the distractive things I did today. The stock markets meanwhile are on a surge ready to break the 19000 barrier. My neighbor who is a portfolio manager looks elated vetted some of my investment decisons.There are more buy recommendations coming in from almost everywhere and from everyone, but the percentage of Indians who believe they can create wealth in the markets is still a dismal number-so much to speak about awareness and risk appetite. I used this good peak in the Sensex to redeem some of my mutual funds for some tidy appreciation.
7th September
Began the day with the last visit to the therapy center and came home and began browsing through the info way to find as much as I could about IBM, the history, break-up of the business, spoke to my Royal Blue Ambassador about the joining formalities. The afternoon was spent navigating the IBM website for pre-joining requisites that I was expected to be aware of. IBM being so huge cannot operate without processes and policies. I was soon to discover how scale can be managed and managed effectively and what a chaotic place IBM would have been without these processes and policies in place.
8th September - early morning..
I now get into active work life which also means this diary would also end and it would be sometime before I come back with more blogs. For now, the immediate learning is to make newer friends, learn to navigate the big blue maze and set up an office and get back to the working ways. I will try to continue to keep an eye on the fate of my portfolio and hopefully, will be able to share some details and i hope there will be a few more zeroes in the net profit.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The anatomy of a goodbye
This week has been a very memorable one filled with a lot of nostalgia. The beginning of the week was the last day at work for me at Manhattan Associates, a place where I have spent the last 2675 days or 7 years, 3 Months and 26 days to be precise and clocked in more than a 100,000 kilometers on the commute using the office cab and developed many a friendships, skills for life, fair degree of prosperity in life not to mention the satisfaction of having achieved a lot professionally. While this has been a very satisfying stint for me personally for having got numerous opportunities to work with the best minds and customers in the supply chain management space and equips me for my next job, it also left me a little bleary eyed to part and say goodbye to so many wonderful friends and colleagues across the globe with who many a milestones were together achieved, successes celebrated and setbacks re strategized. The innumerable product releases, travel to customer locations, satisfying our internal clients, managing people, working on quality initiatives, traveling to campuses (NITs,IITs, local colleges) to meet the most enthusiastic and brilliant minds trying to lure them into joining us has best defined my years at Manhattan Associates. This again re emphasizes the fact that when people with a good skill set and even better attitude get together - Success is just another flagged cell on the on the MPP. As manager of fairly large teams, I have in the past replied passionately to goodbye emails and on odd occasions a nonchalant 'Thanks, Good Luck' also, to anyone who has sent me their farewell email. However, it was only last Friday that I realized that a lot of emotions go into writing one and however hard I tried to make it humorous, it ended up in a pathetically polite note (those who received mine will agree). Some recent ones that came into my inbox had plenty of humor in them - One of them likened his journey in the company to the tossed around and reincarnated Dude (call him AsokJoecool if you have to give him a name) while another one almost said where she wasn't going next and yet another one writing a scroll of honor of all and sundry who had helped him in his brief career so far.
While I did not really take long to compose my email, answering a few direct questions wasn't something I was prepared for and the toughest one amongst that was the 'What went wrong that you are leaving'. It took some composure before i said "well, actually nothing" as mine was more of a Just about time move to a larger organization where I hopefully get to learn more and enjoy as I have at Manhattan Associates for all these years.
To, the Ol' gang at MA - Bangalore & Atlanta, I am surely going to miss you - thanks for nurturing me and providing me the fish during the time i was learning to cast...
While I did not really take long to compose my email, answering a few direct questions wasn't something I was prepared for and the toughest one amongst that was the 'What went wrong that you are leaving'. It took some composure before i said "well, actually nothing" as mine was more of a Just about time move to a larger organization where I hopefully get to learn more and enjoy as I have at Manhattan Associates for all these years.
To, the Ol' gang at MA - Bangalore & Atlanta, I am surely going to miss you - thanks for nurturing me and providing me the fish during the time i was learning to cast...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)