Software People Stories

In this conversation, Dr Asoke Talukder shares his experience and perspectives related to His aspiration to be in performing arts, when he was youngWinning in a detective story writing competition, getting into puppetry and becoming a leading shadow puppeteer in Kolkata Wanting to get into a teaching role, attracted by the vacation periods, to pursue his other performing arts interestsStarting his programming as a research scholar at Jadavpur universityThen joining the National Informatics Centre (NIC) before moving on to ICL India (ICIM)Taking on challenges when others had given up and this beginning the inception of his interest in multiple areasThe regulations, restrictions and other technical constraints as well a customer expectations required him to design and implement solutions that were somewhat unprecedented in the Indian contextA tricky issue caused by unstable connectivity over low speed lines in reverse emulation of terminals in India Delays caused by satellite link latency that had to be overcome through an innovative setup, in a matter of a couple of days, to make things work for an important customer eventGetting new customers by taking on problems that have been lying on their plates for a long time and solving themHis getting into genomics and startupsHis passion for teaching, to ignite young minds to get into academics and researchWriting a syllabus making book based on his entrepreneurial experience with mobile computingThe importance of security aspects to be treated as functional requirementsConverting a mis-use case into a functional requirement when it comes to securityHis current interest areas of AI, machine learning and deep learningBeing still hands on and writing code in R, Python, C/C++ or javascript, node.js, to create proofs of concept that can be enhanced by othersHow his width of knowledge and experience helps him solve or relate a problem to something he might have seen elsewhereSynthetic systems and the challenges in understanding and solving healthcare related problems and there is no one-size-fits allThe need for horizontal knowledge, to be a successful solutioning architectHis approach and process for quickly leveraging existing knowledge and experience to build more complex solutionsHis career advice, in particular about being a lifelong learner and possibly getting into academics / researchAsoke Talukder is a creative individual with expertise from Compilers to Cancer and Puppetry to Precision Medicine. He worked in India, USA, UK, and Singapore in technology domains for companies like ICL, Fujitsu-ICIM, Microsoft, Oracle, Informix, Digital, Hewlett Packard, Sequoia, Northern Telecom, NEC, KredietBank, iGate, SRIT etc. He cofounded companies like Cellnext and InterpretOmics. He Internet enabled Microsoft PowerPoint. He engineered the first 64-bit database (Informix) in the world for Digital DEC Alpha. He engineered Oracle Parallel Server for Fault Tolerant computer Sequoia, and developed many killer technologies and products. He engineered the first secured international communication network for Hong and Shanghai Bank Bombay and British Bank of Middle East, Dubai. He setup the first X.25 network in India for Department of Telecommunications (currently BSNL & MTNL), and the first Java Competency Centre in India.He engineered the Network Management System for Queen’s Award winning PDMX. He is recipient of many international awards for innovation and professional excellence including ICIM Professional Excellence Award, ICL Excellence Award, IBM Solutions Excellence Award, Simagine GSMWorld Award, All India Radio/Doordarshan Award etcetera. Asoke has been listed in “Who’s Who in the World”, “Who’s Who in Science and Engineering”, and “Outstanding Scientists of 21st Century”. He authored many research articles, book chapters, and textbooks. Two of his books have been translated in Chinese language. Asoke did M.Sc (Physics) with Bio-physics major and Ph.D (Computer Engineering). He was the DaimlerChrysler Chair Professor at IIIT-Bangalore, Visiting Professor at VIT University Vellore, Adjunct Faculty at ABV Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management, Gwalior and Adjunct Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, NIT Warangal. Currently he is an Adjunct Faculty Department of Computer Science & Engineering, NITK Surathkal teaching Machine Learning, and Chief Science & Technology Officer at SRIT India. 

In this episode, Seema Joshi, global product leader at NICE is in conversation with Chitra Gurjar sharing her insights and experiences throughQualifying as a Civil Engineer, and doing site work, to pursuing an MBA and her first job in techMoving into tech and landing different jobs, finding what she wanted to doWorking on the frontlines of technologyHer life as a technical account manager and helping close sales dealsLearning about personas, how customers buy, who influences, who usesWearing different hats each time every dayDeal or no deal, a zero or a oneContrast in experiences based on what she felt was a good deal and how things turned outUsing various approaches to prioritization of backlogs like3 P approach - Persona, problem and pervasiveness of the problemThinking in line with a top down business strategycreating delighters for the customer, the KANO modelBuilding a great product team, starting with product managers themselves feeling comfortable with ambiguity, taking decisions with little data and being under the spotlight in a room full of stakeholdersBuilding partnerships of trust and collaborationStaying in the problem space, wearing different thinking hats, assumptions, solutions and discoveryHaving a sports mindset in your work - her volleyball analogy Working with engineering teams, incumbent on the PM to find the rhythm of the team and keeping a good tension across different teams by having all ideas on the table and open discussionHer suggestions for people wanting to pursue a product management career or a career in technologySeema is a Product Leader by profession, Engineering & Management graduate by education, voracious volunteer by belonging, sportsperson at heart, and poet by hobby. With 20 years of experience across Product Management, Innovation & Entrepreneurial roles, she is passionate of building products that delight customers and create business impact. Currently a Global Product Leader at NICE, she heads CXone India Product Management and UX teams.Passionate about community building & diversity Seema actively contributes to various industry initiatives, is Secretary at SEAP (Software Exporters Association of Pune), ex-founding Board Member of Product Leaders Forum, and is a TedX and keynote speaker.LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/seemajoshis/

In this conversation, Tom Henriksen talks aboutStarting a career in sales and then getting into techGetting into Agile, as part of a team adopting Agile practices, under a manager’s guidanceHis experience of transitioning from an individual contributor to a managerUnderstanding the importance of human skills in agile teamsSome interesting learnings from patterns of behavior in teams, particularly those based on misconceptionsThe fact that humans are hard, code is easyLearning to ‘talk their terms’ when connecting with executives, from the Dale Carnegie’s bookThe importance of empathy, to be able to understand the other person’s perspective and context and use appropriate language and create solutions that would meet their needsHow a visit to observe users for a day gave insights into the what their solution needs to doHaving an experimental mindsetThe importance of managing up, when it comes to adoption of agile practices in a teamWhy rinse-and-repeat would not work when applying what worked in one context identically in a different contextContext matters - and, like many agile coaches say, it depends.Stop selling agile, start aligningBeing aware of the dangers of gaming the system, when there is too much stress only on quantitative measurements and metricsThe trigger for Tom to launch the Agile and DevOps online summits, long before the pandemic hit and all conferences moved onlineHow he is able to bring in multiple perspectives by having track chairsSome experiments being tried in this year’s summit, such as live sessions, gamification and the structure of the three days along the Shu Ha Ri themesSome changes or shifts in themes he has seen over the last 5 yearsHis thoughts on curating the content from the summit over the yearsHis suggestions for early stage and mid-career professionalsFor more details on the Agile Online Summit happening this year between October 25 and 27, you can visit https://agileonlinesummit.com/Tom Henricksen is a problem-solving technology professional. He has worked in various roles in technology for over twenty years. Tom has learned how to solve challenging issues in technology and lead technical teamsLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhenricksen/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TomHenricksen

In this episode Ramesh shares his experience and perspectives related toHis interest in software and programming that was fueled by an IIT professor teaching programmingOne of the very few who did a software project as part of his degree and then joining Tata Burroughs from campus, as the first batchGetting back to academics to get his Master’s degreeHow his extra learning at IISc and the work experience in the first couple of years helped him skip a few courses and jump into more advanced topics during the Masters’Joining HCL in their Singapore venture, Far East Computers LimitedHow his experience with facing customers helped in the assignment of setting up a QA environment at Oracle headquartersMoving to management roles in engineering managementJumping at the opportunity to start a development center in India from scratchThinking that he could do that for a year and then get back to the USAHow he had to take on various responsibilities of not just delivering, but also establishing processes, building networks for recruitment etcRealizing the need to take innovative approaches to attract the right talent, when competing with other companies that would hire in large numbersTaking up a teaching role at Anna University How that gave him an opportunity to observe the students over a semester, and not having to learn by interacting for 20 minutes in an interviewExtending this learning through internships Starting to love teachingThe trigger for his getting into writing [and authoring books], some of which are standard curriculum recommendations in about 50 universities across the world“Transferring knowledge to others will have a bigger impact on Society as a whole”Enjoying the role of a teacher at various institutionsHow some interests popped up by necessity, Slicing time every day for work, education and family - to make time for all Taking risks knowing that all options may not progress as desiredSome tips that would help selecting the right candidatesHow everyone should feel comfortable to disagree, but not be disagreeablehow , as a technical guy, you can have all the answers, but as a leader, you should have all the questionsHis career advice:Being passionate about what one doesDo not undervalue the importance of keeping your skills up to dateWhy you should become useless for your jobPlease bear with some audio distractions in the background in patches. You will love this story..Gopalaswamy Ramesh is an independent consultant, eminent author and has served as visiting / adjunct professor in several reputed universities and an acknowledged thought leader in the areas of global software project management, software testing and related areas as well as on soft skills. He has over three decades of experience in industry, consulting and teaching. He played a key role in establishing Oracle’s India Development Center and grew it from zero to close to 500 people. His contributions to this phenomenal growth were acknowledged in Oracle International magazine  When he left Oracle in 2002, he was their Senior Director, heading the engineering team at Bangalore.Before returning to India in 1994 to set up Oracle IDC, Ramesh worked in Oracle Headquarters in Redwood Shores, California, holding several technical and management positions. He also headed pre-sales and post-sales support of Oracle products in the ASEAN countries while working at Far East Computers, Singapore from 1982 till 1988. During this stint, he actively participated in launching and supporting Oracle in several countries in the region.Since 2002, Ramesh has been an independent consultant, offering consultancy services in the areas of global software project management, software testing and soft skills in India and abroad. His passion for teaching and sharing his vast knowledge and rich experience have resulted in his writing eight books have become best sellers and two of them being also translated to Chinese language. His books have been widely read and used as prescribed or reference books in a number of universities in India and abroad. The book Managing Global Software Projects won the National Award for the Best Book.As a thought leader, Ramesh has been an active invited participant in several well known conferences and workshops. He has played the roles of Program Chair, Technical Review Committee Head as well as an invited keynote presenter in several international conferences.Passionate about interacting with students and imparting relevant practical knowledge and training to students, Ramesh has been an Adjunct Professor in several leading universities and has taught in a number of very reputed institutions like IIIT-Bangalore, IIT Madras, Anna University, Chennai and Amrita School of Business. He was part of the Academic Advisory Board of Project Management Institute, India from 2009 to 2014, during which time he was the Technical Committee Chair for first two Research and Academic Conferences (RAC) on Project Management in India.Ramesh is passionate about inculcating the right value systems in school children and about people with special needs. He has also written books on moral education நிச்சயம் வெல்லலாம் நேரான பாதையில் in Tamil and Virtuous and Victorious – Always in English for school children. He has translated from English to Tamil the best-selling book GIFTED about the achievements of fifteen differently abled people. He and his wife, Lakshmi Ramesh who is a trained special educator are active participants in initiatives on people with special needs.Ramesh holds a B E Degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, a M S Degree in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (the thesis on Automatic Programming won the National Gold medal) and M S Degree in Engineering Management from Stanford University, California.Ramesh may be reached at gopalaswamy_ramesh@yahoo.com

In this conversation, Jayashree Rajagopalan, Engineering Lead in Amazon shares her experience and perspectives related to Started technology journey by being inspired by peers and deeply passionate to improveShares her humble beginnings from the temple town of Trichy and joined Robert BoschHigher education after a marriage break gave way to structured thinkingJayashree shares her passion in music and how her current work in Amazon music has brought her two world togetherShe shares how to make one attuned to always on streaming industry by creating availability and resilience in the hardware as well as one’s decision making processesShe talks about times of immense pressure on her time to balance work and childcare and tapping on all the options at her disposal to keep continuing her careerProgressively pushing the work area made her not only a reliable go-to person but also ensured that she keeps doing something additional to what the work asked forCreating that unique value prop that you bring to the table has been her mantra to not only continually learn and add value to her firm but also push her career goals Jayashree shares some of the scaling mantras that she employs at home that has worked well @ covid timesJayashree shares of creating an environment of safety as well as continuous improvement in the fast paced tech environment. She has some of the basic audits that she does to ensure that goals are reachedShe shares how people and entertainment industry changing to a hub moving inside our homes Jayashree shares that one should have a never quit attitude and continuously strive to move one notch better than the previous day for oneselfJayashree is the engineering lead for the Amazon Music and based out of Bangalore. In her current role, she leads the latest disruptions within the streaming industry for the global outreach of Amazon Music. In her words ‘Leading platform teams on content and data to drive success, innovation and customer delight’ is what brings zing to her step.Jayashree started her career in Robert Bosch India as a software engineer working in the telecom industry. She moved to the silicon valley to pursue her higher education. She has been part of the telecom industry in the first 16 years of her career and moved to the streaming industry as part of Amazon. Her initial career includes marquee companies such as Oracle, EMC, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia where she worked in several roles as an individual contributor to Tech Lead to Design lead prior to taking up leadership roles. Jayashree is passionate about music and is classically trained. Her daughters are also classically trained in music. Jayashree is a graduate of NIT Trichy and San Jose UniversityShe can be reached @ Linkedin/Jayashree

Please vote for the Software People Stories podcast under the Business and Entrepreneurship category for the Hubhopper Awards at https://www.community.hubhopper.com/hubhopper-awardsThank youIn this conversation, Anantha Natarajan - known as Anand - a colleague and coach at PM Power Consulting, he shares his experience and perspectives related to coaching senior leaders and mid level managersHow he had to rediscover himself and his approach while working with experienced managers and leadersDemonstrating your competence without giving solutionsWhat he had to change about himself.. And knowing one’s placeAbout the approach of earning the trust of one’s bossHelping leaders look great by helping them achieve their goalsWhen you are quiet, you have to listenThe impact of working in a dispersed mode in earning trust and establishing working relationshipsHis thoughts on the continuous flow of valueWhat is value - in value flow - and three dimensions to consider when discussing flow of valueHis views on flow of value and playing bridgeThe need for process and partnerships among managersThe importance of experimentation and retrospectionsReach him @https://www.linkedin.com/in/anantha-natarajan-pm-power/Know more about himhttps://pm-powerconsulting.com/experts/ananth/

In this conversation, S Srinivasa Raghavan better known as SS or Raghavan, shares his experience and perspectives onHow we mutually influenced each other in choosing our careers in hardware and softwareBeing strong in English grammar, that helped him though the came from a tamil medium educationGetting to know the power of  programmability in a calculator and being inducted into FORTRANDeveloping an interest in software as a way to solve problems more than writing programsAbout campus selection, tests and interviews - and how he got into a hardware role for his first jobLeading a team developing a disk controller and wanting to start something on his own with a friendWanting to do hardware, but put more software into itHelping one of Infosys clients solve a very difficult problem with their mainframe, in the area of connectivity using a hardware solution for data transferBased on the success of that assignment, getting an offer to form and lead a group working on hardware projectsHaving control over his timeAn expectation from the younger generation to get deeper understanding of the core and related technologies they work onWhere he gets ideas for innovationHis answer to the question: Can a software professional switch to hardware?Some stories of challenges in making rain gaugesHis views on the level of discipline comparing hardware and software engineersHis views and tips on aspirants to the hardware discipline as a career and whether software engineers should dabble in hardwareS.S. Raghavan, Founder & Managing Director Spatika Information Technologies, is a successful entrepreneur with a career spanning 40+ years. Spatika, under his able guidance, has developed products like Telemetric Rain Gauges and Telemetric Weather Stations which are currently installed in over 5000 Gram panchayat across various States in India. The team at Spatika also developed a VoIP phone as early as 1997 for Satyam Computers. As Vice President at Infosys, he made significant contributions by developing many indigenous telecommunication products that were first in India.  During his stint at Infosys, he was the main architect in developing the Bilingual Electronic Keyboard. He was also responsible for automating Rural Telegraphy in 7 states through the development of store and forward message switching system.  Prior to Infosys, he worked with HCL where he was responsible for designing and developing the entire Disk Sub System for the indigenous 16-bit computer.He holds a BE degree from the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore

In this conversation, Jayaraman Raghuraman - known as Raghu - SVP – Digital Engineering and Tech.Debt, Schneider Electric shares his experience and perspectives onHow he became a software developer.. And likes to all himself a software developerAbout his aptitude to solve problems in math or trivia etc.How he was lucky to be at the right time for this industryThough interested in computers, he had to choose an elective in electronics and instrumentationTaking a gap year, joining a part time post graduate management programGetting an opportunity to be formally trained in BASIC after clearing a tough testHis experience with his first boss, as task master and expecting high standards of performance from his teamThe ‘perks’ or working late or overnight!Focusing his first decade of profession to learn languages, technology etcWhy he considers himself as a second generation IT professional in IndiaThe motivators for him to change roles and jobsCrediting his managers for the learning and growth opportunities and guidance in his careerThe importance of being open with your weaknesses with your teamAbout his style of getting things doneThe power of 1-on-1sVirtual coffee hourThat the emotional needs of global teams vary with the locationHow he interacts with other ‘Raghus’ in his teamThe four key questions to ask oneselfWhat am I good atWhat am i not good atWhat do i like doingWhat do i not like to doThe future of careers in IT, requiring the understanding of applications of IT Raghu, short for Jayaraman Raghuraman is a Software professional, with a passion for software, IT and Technology. Raghu has spent his 30+ year of his career in the technology industry, mainly focus on strong execution and operational leadership in software product development and working closely with global customers. He spent the first 16 years of his career in India and the last 20 years in the USA, but lived in several countries, as well as led teams across China, Mexico, Brazil, France, USA and India. Established track record of leadership in providing vision, direction, organization and execution of technical strategy to achieve organization and business objectives, on time and with high quality. Achievements include years of delivering on IT and Technology transformation goals while managing budgets between $100 - 500 MM in Fortune 500 organizationsRaghu’s passions include working with people globally and developing young talent, as well as spending time watching a lot of movies, cricket and any sport. Currently, a new passion for Raghu has been to listen to murder mystery and police novels by the author, Michael Connelly.Social handles :Twitter: @jraghuLinkedin: linkedin.com/in/jraghuramanCan be contacted at : J_Raghu0709@yahoo.com

In this conversation, Raminder Rathore, a senior DevOps specialist,  shares her experience and perspectives onHow her getting into IT was destined, based on her father’s foresightIf you learn something, it is always good to share it with others [and teaching is a good option]Her first career transition from a teacher to a developerTaking on other roles such as a tester and business analystGetting a break to be a consultant - a problem solver and liking itBecoming a tools consultant and discovering the importance of processes that go with the toolsThe significance of parents sharing their vision for their kids, with the childrenAbout the many options that kids of today have ahead of themHer exposure and experience with different locations / regions / countriesHer personal philosophy of empathy and emphasis on listeningThe art of saying NoThe importance of training in personal developmentCertifications, sharing and learning, using case studies as an approach for learningThe importance of communication - particularly when the teams are mostly remote and distributedHer concept of one team that she promotes, particularly with organizations on a DevOps adoption journeyDevOps is more than automated CI/CDThe answer to one questions that was waiting for fourteen years to be askedHer advice to people considering a career in IT as well as those who would like to switch to DevOps roles after some years of experienceRaminder Rathore is a DevOps practitioner; currently employed with HCL Technologies for 14 + years and in the IT industry for about 20 years. She started her career as a trainer then progressed to become a developer and then gradually moved across different product lifecycle phases; first becoming a tools consultant and then graduated to become a DevOps practitioner. She leads the DevOps COE at HCL that works with different customers across the globe on people, process and tools areas.

This conversation between Mohan Panchapikesan, CEO and Director at Medexpert Software Solutions, shares his stories about - Mohan started his career after completing his engineering in Anna University and IIT Kharagpur and talks about being a self made person but stays as a small town boy from Trichy Mohan shares being inherently curious and how his firm looks at not only the hospital management software but also the Ecosystem that drives it including insurance, pharma and the equipment sourcing and the entire supply chainMohan talks about the growth and fixed mindset and its application being the CEO. Being in a position of authority, having an understanding of people’s fears and ambiguity enables in bringing cohesion towards the goals of the firm by motivationMohan talks about Elon Musks’ motivation of moving to Mars due to the explosion of population and take that as an opportunity He refers Ford, Starbucks, McDonalds and Microsoft stories to talk about being bigger is better and democratising everything you doTalking about evolution and democratising the reach of services between the 1990s and 2020s has expanded the voice of individuals & takes the example of this podcast being in existence because of the forces that are in playStaying curious is the only way to sustain your learnings Perform or perish in corporate world has seeped into the personal world as Adopt or Die Discoverability is the key in the age of plethora of choices and technologists become the match makers of the world. Best match makers are those that have the horoscopes of all the open source software out thereFrom interoperability to intelligently make those inter connectionsIntelligence in integration and ecosystem is evolving. Unless we as mankind evolve with it, we will become artificial or redundant in the ecosystemOne has to be attuned with what is happening around us social or technology wise Mohan started his career in software in SA Software working as an RDBMS specialist. He later honed his data and software skills working in Walmart as a program manager. Mohan worked in Cognizant in various leadership roles by scaling people, technology and solutions to provide the right type of integration to the clients. Mohan became an entrepreneur serendipitously through a mutual friend. He’s now CEO of Medexpert software solutions that’s focused on reducing inefficiencies in the Medical ecosystem and driving innovations.Mohan can be reached at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpjaya/