Software People Stories

In this episode, Abhay Havaldar shares his story and experiences related to:Starting his IT career with a role in  testing software and going on to play other roles of marketing support and salesProduct management and support with a dealing room packageAlways willing to experiment and joining a venture capital firm - Draper InternationalEarly stage investing, General Atlantic, India - and a boutique investment firmWhy he got into ITHow he positions an IT solution to a prospective clientHis experience of product management, explained in today’s terminology, as Software as a ServiceHis experience with developing software solutions under a contract and the benefit of listening skills to add context to contractsThe power users wield in product led growth modelsHis starting out being a venture capitalist as a partner directly with the legendary Bill DraperHis approach of investing in the plan first, than the market opportunity that is forecastThe importance of evaluating all risks and being humbleHis thoughts on scaling startups and the Powerlocker model adopted by his formHis views on reviews by investors in the context of fundraising and context of goalsHow he approaches theme based investingHis approach to learning from othersBeing wrong is a great time to learnHis experience and perspectives on the social sectorThe importance of being comfortable with storytelling, particularly for entrepreneursExperienced Board Member with a demonstrated history of working in the venture capital and private equity industry. Skilled in Corporate Finance, Venture Capital, Investment Banking, Strategy. Strong business development professional with a MSc (Sloan Fellow) focused in Business Administration and Management, General from London Business School.https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhay-havaldar-a4a46523/

In this episode, K Nageswara Rao - known as KNR - shares his story and experiences related to:Four threads related to his careerIndividual contributor, team leaderConnecting digital switches in the telecom industry; each switch being a digital exchangeTraveling to locations that he is not supposed to talk about, due to security reasonsJoining Tata Unisys and learning a lot in terms of working with teams Working on the operating system : Unix SVr4Moving to the Solaris OS group with Sun microsystemsCreating a community for Open Solaris, engaging with various stakeholders, including studentsNext thread: leading R&D and product teams in India for large multinational organizationsGaining ability to work with people Fundamental challenges faced by him 20-25 years ago, still existingThird thread: driving innovation cultureFourth thread: influencing people’s lives: through processes and systems in companies or through coachingQuitting a corporate job to start - What is my North - a coaching company, continuing to help individuals growHow he combines or switches between working with people or with machines [embedded or systems software] using systems thinkingHow it helps when one abstracts specifics and infers patternsAsking open ended questions and helping people figure out the answersAbout the impact of not having direct customer connect and experience, when developing products and solutionsImportance of the ability to pay attention to detail and not jump to conclusionsHow an articulated shared vision by the leaders enables every individual to rally around a larger causeThe need to accept contrarian viewsHow humility is a strong characteristic for a great leaderEstablishing genuine connections with peopleIf humility a trainable skillHow humility can co-exist with confidenceIf it was easier to connect computers, compared to connecting peopleCreating an environment where people want to help othersThe role of constructive or creative dissonance in nurturing great communitiesCompassion being the common theme between being line managers and being a coachCreating a startup culture within a large organizationAspects related to product leadershipWhat he has enjoyed being in ITHis career tips for people considering a career in IT or mid-career professionalsAfter 34 years of a strong leadership career in IT, KNR decided to pursue his passion for helping people achieve success. When he quit his job as VP of Engineering in Unisys last year he started “What’s My North?”, to help people achieve success through Personal Transformation.  Before Unisys, KNR has worked in Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Tata Unisys and ITI, primarily in Embedded Systems and Operating Systems.https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayenarr/thecoachknr@gmail.com

In this episode, Karl Hughes, founder and CEO of Draft.dev, sharesStarting his career, working with startups as a software engineerTaking on engineering management and CTO rolesCovid triggering a shift to get into technical writing for developersHow to think of documentation for developers, as an intentional activityHis views on Agile approaches and documentation and the need to right size the documentationHow the product maturity influences the need and depth of documentationWhy writing is the most effective way to document and communicateHis thoughts on effectiveness of visual communicationWriting for a diverse audience and the role of video for communicating with developersImportance of reviews and feedback for greater effectiveness of written contentHow he got interested in writing If writing is a teachable or learnable skillHow he balances and manages his time between the maker and manager modes of workingHis experience with Shark Tank, when his company was invited to pitch at Shark TankWorking with a global, distributed team of software engineersWhether audio has a role to play as a medium for communicating with developersHis career tips for getting into writingBio: Karl Hughes is a former software engineer and CTO in Chicago. He is now the Founder and CEO of Draft.dev, a specialized technical marketing agency that creates content designed to reach software engineers.Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarlLHughesDraft.dev writer application: https://draft.dev/write

In this second  part of the conversation with an IT industry veteran, Satyendra Kumar, he sharesHis perspective on Agile approachesAgile approaches are good for certain contexts such as: products, supported by DevOps and other techniquesMay still be reluctant for systems such as critical, real-time systems [nuclear, aircraft etc]For services work, need to be careful; unless there is a strong risk management approach, it may be risky to use Agile approachesExamples from his experiences in helping large organizationsHis approach to understanding an organization to enable change, by starting with a business problemHis tips to address data quality and quantity, by looking at the metrics system and identifying the right lead indicatorsThe need for the quality function to learn and evolveA sneak peek into his upcoming book on building excellence in organizations

In this first part of the conversation with an IT industry veteran, Satyendra Kumar, he sharesComing from a humble background and doing his initial education in a villageGetting into Delhi University based on his good academic performanceHaving to take up a job, to meet some family needsHow he chose a job in a defence agency and rising to a senior levelLeaving his job and getting into consulting and qualitySetting up the Tata Business Excellence Model for the groupWorking with different business units in different domainsSwitching to an IT organization before joining and spending 14 years at InfosysContinuing to work with different organizations post retirement from InfosysHow learning came naturally to him, particularly in very new, challenging and different environmentsHow he gains confidence about being able to do anything, amidst uncertaintyThe experience based on a major decision to switch from the comforts of a government jab, to a small apartment in a distant suburbHow he thinks scale in conceiving and implementing organization wide initiatives, while making sure he has enough bandwidth to plan for the future and growing his team to 700His experience of recruiting people from non IT organizationsHow to get comfortable with delegation, with trust in the teamHis experience of creating an awareness and acceptance of processes among technical teamsThe tendency in quality professionals to become more of audit persons than having a direct connect with the senior leadership, to help them steer the businessWhy there should be shared goals for improvement between the quality function and the business unitsIn the next part, Kumar shares the answer to the question on his experience and perspectives related to Agile approaches and many more interesting points. Do not miss that..Independent Advisor and Consultant to several large and medium scale institutions and enterprises since 2013. Was the Global Head and Senior Vice President– Productivity & Quality, Technology Tools & Software Reuse at Infosys Limited ( 2000 – 2013). Worked as Vice President at IMR Global, USA between 1998 and 2000. Worked as Deputy Chief Executive for Tata Quality Management Services – Tata Group between 1996 and 1998. Has consulted for over 50 national and multi-national clients in areas of Business Excellence, Operational Efficiencies, Customer Satisfaction Management, Business Continuity Management, Project and Program Management, and Quality Management. Had been Board member ( QuEST USA) , On the Panel of Judges - Wisconsin State Award ( USA) , Administrative Reforms Committee of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Chief Technical Advisor to the Confederation of Indian Industry – Institute of Quality.Has been a recipient of IEEE-Software Engineering Institute ( Carnegie Mellon University) International award (2011) and honoured with the “ Life Time Achievement Award for Quality and Business Excellence “ by a IT Industry association

In this episode, Harish Achappa KM sharesChoosing mechanical engineering as a subject of study and getting into TCS engineering servicesWorking on valves and compressorsGetting into programming as part if his workThe experience of having a paid vacation in Italy!How his interest in programming developed after starting to use C, C++ as a hobbyNoticing differences in projects done at client locations v/s in IndiaWorking directly with users and feeding off the energy based on common questionsGetting quicker feedbackUnderstanding that some of the work cannot be done remotelyAvoiding assumptions and getting clarifications in contextRequesting to work in a development projectGetting an opportunity to work on a public infrastructure projectLearning the value and benefit of parametrization while programmingTaking some time to find his feet in a fully software coding roleHis experience of taking up a product manager role, enabled by his ability to ask a lot of clarifying questionsOn product thinking, even for an enterprise solutionHis career adviceCuriosity and willingness to learn: driveConsolidating the learningsTaking the responsibility for one’s frustrationsAre you motivated to build, generate ideas or bothHarish is a product manager with over 23 years of experience; he has been a developer, boot-strapped a firm and been a consultant. You can reach him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/hachappa/

In this episode, Brij Sethi, a Principal Consultant at PM Power, sharesHis growing up days in Pantnagar, near NainiTalHis passion for reading booksHis liking for mathematics and wanting to be an engineerBeing bitten by the electronics bug and electronics engineering in collegeJoining a masters in management in systems in IIM AhmedabadLearning Transactional Analysis Getting into a project to make ECG machines as an engineer, forgetting his MBAJoining WIPRO in 1993 and working on many challenging projectsHis strong feeling in 1998 to be a facilitator, including facilitating 6 sigma projectsTaking up the CTO role with HP, and enabling filing a record number of patents across teamsWanting to teach and getting back to WiproCreating education related media and starting a companyHow he connects various ideas picked up from books and other sources, by letting goBe simple in what he has to shareUsing Obsidian to keep connected points Making conscious efforts to digest what he readsApplying TA in business contextsTransitions across different ways or states of thinkingConsciously spending time in capturing his state of mind before switching statesBeing low on J orientation, can accept contradictions and unresolved stuffTip from his mentor: Need to wear a facilitator hat and outcome hatHis experience of working in a social sector contextA story on the approach of influencing with PowerPoint slidesWhy, Who and What - three questions for a facilitation sessionCreating an empty space for ownershipThe experience of a father-son founding teamThe trigger and satisfaction on launching his podcastHis career adviceLeave yourself open, take some risksBrij is a Principal Consultant with PM Power. He has worked for Wipro and HP for many years and more recently founded a Media Studio to make educational content. He facilitated deep expertise in HP during his tenure as CTO. The number of patents filed in 1 year went up from 6 to 184.Brij is a trained in group facilitation. He helps agile practitioners do personal action planning, undo team dysfunctions by themselves and dream a future by tinkering to a customer context. He also talks about career readiness in his podcast - Ready to work - on brijsethi.com.

In this episode, Thyagarajan, known as Raja - a Senior Management Executive and Chief Operating Officer with nearly 4 decades of experience in the IT industry involving International and multi-cultural environments, shares his story including points related to:How his uncle and brother were influential in getting into software after doing an MS in managementBeing part of a team that started a company, and being an entrepreneur without knowing itBeing a pioneer in the Indian IT industry, by having an approach of creating tools to improve development productivity or products to solve customer problemsInnovating techniques to create solutions, long before others, when there were no standards to do some thingsChallenges of running a company that offered professional services as well as productsTransitioning from a developer to more managerial rolesSome of the lessons learned in being an entrepreneurApplying technology based thinking to create generic solutionsTesting in a development environment versus running in a production environment and related lessons learntBalancing and prioritizing requests from various users and having a process to build the solution in an evolutionary mannerThe ways in which software development has changed over the yearsWhat it takes for someone to shift from a service / project mindset to a product mindsetRaja is a Senior Management Executive and Chief Operating Officer with nearly 4 decades of experience in the IT industry involving International and multi-cultural environments.His experience includes:Managing operations of an IT company, with its offshore center in India and marketing/sales offices in the US, that has over 200 employees.Handling IT projects and product development hands-on combined with heading the operations, ensures understanding of the operations in Toto.All round leadership experience of managing all aspects of the business - S&M, Technology, Delivery, HR and Finance.Innovatively creating products and services and delivering through hands on leadership

In this episode, Muktesh Murthy, a practice head in the information security space, shares his story and touches uponDoing his schooling in many places, as his father was in the Army His interest in accounts, commerce and economics and hospitality managementStarting his career in hotel management and then getting into a computer course, as he wanted to get into roles where he can directly influence the resultsDoing some development work, then managing an account and later on becoming an information security professionalHis motivation to acquire various certifications and desire to learn from everyoneHow he expanded his knowledge around standards, as new specializations were introduced in the areas of information security, business continuity etcHis style of working where he prefers to sit with teams and help them create relevant documents, so that they are confident of doing it themselves in the futureHow he balances the need to be objectively critical and at the same time, nurture positive relationships with peopleThe importance of getting and sharing the big picture with the entire teamHow the SHE policy has been incorporated into every meetingOutthinking the attackersCareer tips to become an infosec professionalAn MBA, PMP and ITIL certified professional with over 29 years of overall experience of which over 26 years has been in the Information Technology field and 3 years in the Hospitality Industry. Presently working as Practice Head in Tech Mahindra, Bangalore.The 26+ years in IT has seen rich and diverse experience in Information Security, Risk and Compliance, Process Consulting, Delivery Management, Program and Project Management, Operations Management, Vendor Management, Account Management and Quality management to name a few. Have extensive experience in domains like Insurance, Logistics, Manufacturing, Health Care, Education etc.Presently the past president at the Project Management Institute (PMI) Bangalore Chapter from Jan 2022 to Dec 2021. Served as the President of PMI Bangalore from April 2020 to Dec 2021 and on the board since 2015.His certifications include* Project Management: PMP, Prince2Agile Practitioner, SAFe Agilist* Service Management: ITIL Intermediate, ITIL Foundation, ISO 20000-1* Compliance: PCI-DSS, COBIT, ISO 27001, ISO 22301, ISO 27701, ISO 9001* MBA: IT and Marketing

In this episode Cynthia Swarnalatha Vice President – Engineering, SW CoE, Compute Business Group & HPE India Site R&D leader, is in conversation with Chitra Gurjar on a variety of stories and matters that that span 3 decades and include Choosing to study computer science with her love of math, being the 2nd batch of CompSc graduates from her collegeHaving a “give-it-my-best” approach and curiosity to learn attitude starting with a role in customer tech supportNavigating learning, delivering and communication by reaching out to people, asking questions and consciously looking at “What I can do differently”?Plunging into new roles and a 3 yr self-checkpoint rhythm to see where she isTransition from IC to manager roles and embracing the decision making challengeBeing a “customer first” person in all roles she has playedKeeping focus on the problem space - an approach to customer driven innovationHer view on “iterative development” and agile in large organizationsManaging transformationsManaging global teams4 point message for aspirants in tech - anticipate change, adaptability, curiosity and passionA global engineering leader with over 3 decades of experience spanning various technology domains. Cynthia’s diverse career includes roles with many enterprise organizations like Wipro, Motorola, Cisco, NetApp, [24]7.ai, Intuit, Pega Systems and now at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. She has led diverse functional teams in Product Development, Quality Assurance, Engineering tools & infrastructure, Solutions Delivery and Operations.She has also led global engineering charters out of India and has been recognized for organizational transformation, institutionalizing processes, building high performing teams and creating an exemplary work culture within the teams I led. She’s passionate about driving value through strategic growth, ownership and delivery of key product development and innovation.She is a strong champion of Diversity & Inclusion and has been the executive sponsor for the Technical Women’s community in her previous companies. She has served on the NASSCOM Regional Product Council for Karnataka, and has been part of ABI’s Grace Hopper India Conference advisory council.