Software People Stories

Sanjay Jayakumar CEO and Founder of Ignitarium shares his stories about - Facing uncertainties from very early on, being good in math and physicsJoining the WIPRO factory from campus in 1991, and being with WIPRO for 21 yearsPhases in WIPRO of roughly 3 years each across various functionsEarly career in engineering, as the interface between design and production of computersMoving to the hardware design team and then onto chip design as part of outsourced R&DSetting up an SOC for Texas InstrumentsGetting an opportunity to setup an engineering centre at Kochi and scaling it to a 2000 person operationThe lead into starting IgnitariumUnderlying common principles when working across cultures in Japan and the USLaying the foundation for scaling the engineering centre at Kochi with excellent support at WiproThe transition to becoming an entrepreneur, starting with making peace within himself with the decisionThe long road, 200 calls and the first 3 customers, getting the team through personal and professional networks, the genesis of IgnitariumAdding value to customers and being key enablers in a product development ecosystem through their expertise in system on chips & signal processing intensive design to create a software enabled platformA Future forward thinking approach to continuous evolution of products and solutionsCulture of Innovation, continuous learning and growth opportunities Creating partnerships and contributing to ecosystemsMessages for aspiring engineers in today's world of content at your fingertipsFounder and CEO of Ignitarium, Sanjay Jayakumar proudly leads a cross-functional team of close to 300 professionals and has been responsible for defining Ignitarium’s core values, which encompass the organisation’s approach towards clients, partners and internal stakeholders, and in establishing an innovation and value-driven organisational culture. Largely admired for his charisma and humility, he has gained a reputation for inspiring people through his strategic vision and team building capabilities.Prior to founding Ignitarium in 2012, Sanjay spent the initial 22 years of his career with the VLSI and Systems Business unit at Wipro Technologies. In his formative years, Sanjay worked in diverse engineering roles in Electronic hardware design, ASIC design and custom library development. Sanjay later handled a flagship – multi-million dollar, 600-engineer strong – Semiconductor & Embedded account owning complete Delivery and Business responsibility.Contact him @ Linkdin/Sanjay Jaykumar

 Bhuvan Anandakrishnan, Director of Engineering Caterpillar Inc talks about -His starting days in the training as a fresh graduate in Satyam when he realised the power of computing and seeing the results come inHe found the joy in software by creating something where nothing was there and could get a sense of accomplishmentEye for quality by way of working in embedded software and getting feedback from a career tester. He also understood what it means to get a quality product from the eyes of the customerBhuvan talks about complexities of embedded software and the limitations and considerations one has to give when one builds. It’s detrimental for organisations to recall due to faulty software. He shares about the quality considerations that Japanese give and ensure that the product is released in Japan prior to releasing in other countriesRealised that it’s not about the software but the entire product that the customer can touch and feel that value has been delivered He speaks about the journey of unlearning of being software developer and becoming a product engineer, leader and business leaderBhuvan talks about his life changing decision to move to India to lead Cat and how that satisfied his Star, Heart and Dollar. Similar to Ikigai thinking model.Bhuvan also shares how that he believed Brahma and Vishnu (creation and sustenance) way to make some of his critical decisions (this is based on Vijay Govindarajan’s three box solution)He also shares his passion towards creating large teams and seeing them flourish in his mentorship and coachingBhuvan’s view is that one should think of the daily life to be part of a large infinite model and take each day with the same deliberate attempt to win instead of resting on your past laurelsBhuvan Anandakrishnan, experienced Director with a demonstrated history of working in the machinery industry. Skilled in Embedded Software, Value Stream Mapping, Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS), Embedded Systems, and Agile Methodologies.He started his career in Satyam Computers working in Embedded systems and firmware products. Found the complexities of programming in product and embedded system interesting and impactful.Bhuvan made the jump to becoming a product engineer and product leader developing number fo products for Caterpillar. Bhuvan uses various product lifecycle methodologies to give the most value for the end customer and increases their delight.He has graduated in Great Lakes Institute with a PGXPM and MBA from Bradley UniversityBhuvan can be contacted @https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhuvan-anandakrishnan-a1518013/

In this conversation, Hendrik Esser, a senior leader at Ericsson, shares his thoughts related toHis love to construct stuff, even as a kid, to make stuff that others can useStarting to play games with his friend and then writing gamesPreferring electrical engineering, as the feeling was that computer science is just programming and he already knew that!Then, learning communication protocols and getting closer to softwareHis understanding of software work as art and the importance of craftsmanshipThe need to develop one’s talent into masteryAnd how with mastery you can be an engineerAnd one more level is to become an artist, when you transcend what you have learnt and move to express yourself creativelyHow he would like to use his artistry to make the world a better placeHow he got interested in the people aspects of software development, as work happens in teamsApplying for a group manager position, when had about 1.5 years of experience and the career advice he got, that he considers as one of the best he has receivedThe transition from game development to telecom softwareAbout programming by indirect observationHow understanding the purpose of a program gives him the motivation to solveFrom working on standalone machines where one has full visibility and control over everything that happens to working in teams and cloud based environments where most things are only indirectly feltFrom team sport, software development has become a societal sportHow, working in a multicultural team has helped understand that people are the same across the worldHow to treat a disturbance as an invitation for learningUsing curiosity to understand and explore other culturesHow a cross-national team worked on a very tricky technical problem and cracked it in 2 daysThe effectiveness of getting everyone into one room for richer interactions and the impact of the forced dispersal mode His interest in actively participating in communities and what he derives from such interactions and contributionsHow to reconcile the need for experimentation and progressive evolution approaches inspired by agile principles and the corporate expectations to be very predictable from the beginningHow to predict in an unpredictable worldUsing ranges, rather than precise dates, as leading indicators to track projectsHis career advice - develop social skills in addition to technical skillsHendrik Esser is a senior transformation expert, coach, driver and catalyst with more than 20 years of leadership experience at Ericsson. He is also internationally active in communities advancing business agility across industries.Hendrik is continuously exploring new ways to create better results and greater organizations.That journey started when he joined Ericsson in Germany in 1994 as a SW developer. Soon his passion brought him to a leadership career from being a Technical Coordinator through project management, project office management, portfolio- and technology management towards being the "COO" of one of Ericsson's large, internationally distributed development units with over 8000 people. In 2008 he was a key driver to the agile transition of a large organization. Through this engagement he became a recognized and sought expert not only in the Ericsson enterprise transformation, but also a strong contributor to the international agile community, exchanging and expanding knowledge and spreading agile mindset and ideas across industries. Part of his time he also works as a trainer for leadership programs within Ericsson.In parallel to his work at Ericsson, he is - as a volunteer - Program Director of the Agile Alliance's initiative "Supporting Agile Adoption". He has worked together with ICAgile on Learning Roadmaps for agile Finance. Also, he is an internationally active speaker at numerous conferences and company events on agile product development, HR and project management.LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/hendrik-esser

In this episode Madhavi Nadig, a seasoned professional with experience solving challenging problems using technology shares her stories with Chitra on Choosing to do engineering as she couldn't become a vetGetting a bachelors and then a masters in computer scienceWorking in 3 different industries via companies like EMC, Jumptap (online advertising) and then Spotify (music)Being known as an 'optimizer' and learning how not to over-optimizeApplying data driven decisions at work and deciding on feature stickinessMeans of getting data and using it, instrumentation, user flows, user interviews and using proxies - some of the Spotify story in IndiaMaking a habit of talking to usersUser insights and developing algorithms for an audience of musicWorking across time zones and cultures, ensuring people have information at handAssimilating new joinees in a remote working environmentThe 100 stories projectA short simple message for aspirants who want to be developersMadhavi Nadig, earned her B.E. in Information Science from PESIT, Bengaluru and an M.S. in Computer Science from SUNY University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY.Madhavi firmly believes problem-solving requires the right mix of creative thinking, technology usage and organizational hacking. Driven by this philosophy, she has successfully led geographically distributed teams of technical and non-technical groups, delivered high quality software solutions and streamlined organizational processes. Her career spans across the entertainment, mobile advertising and computer storage industries. She worked in the US for 10 years with companies such as Spotify, Verizon and EMC as well as small startups. Currently she works with startups in Bengaluru as a freelancer.Reach her at : Linkdin/Madhavi Nadig

In this episode, Ramesh Shastri, software engineer to business head shares his long journey of 38 years in professional career with Shiv, In this conversation he talks about-Gravitated to IT like peers, as that was the well paying sectorStarting as an individual contributor growing to become a business unit leaderFrom systems programming to business applicationsHow his roles changed over the decades of the 80s, 90s and 2000+How he has enjoyed the roller coaster ride of 38 yearsBeing associated with some of the early product development initiatives in IndiaWorking with partner organizations to create full solutionsThe importance of listening to customersHis work with an NGO called MAYA on livelihood initiatives for the Channapatna toymakers over the last 5 yearsHow he finds the toy industry situation somewhat similar to the IT industry situation in the initial stages, before export revenues started to grow significantlyA quick overview of toy making in ChannapatnaHow they are going about bringing in structure, process and product quality in the industry, by setting up a producer companyWhether some of the approaches used to help the artisans can be relevant or applied to the software industrySome aspects that the IT sector [people] can learn from the artisan sector, particularly, pride of creation or ownership of what they createHis view on opportunities in the social sector for people in IT, looking for a changeRamesh Shastri’s professional career in Information Technology has been a long journey of 38 years; He has held positions from software engineer to business head. He has lived and worked in India and the United States while also covering a lot of ground in between.For the past 5 years he moved from the leading edge of the technology sector to the trailing edge of the social sector. He is now focused on creating sustainable livelihoods in the handicrafts sector.Reach him at : Linkdin/Ramesh Shastri

In this conversation, Madhurima Agarwal, Director of Engineering Programs and Leader at NetApp Accelerator shares are career journey with Chitra. She talks about -Her love for technology starting when she believed in grade 8 that she was the best programmer in the worldBeing an entrepreneur during her college days with her father as mentor and angel investor, building a product to automate member directory for the chambers of commerce and industry at RanchiLearning empathy, self-discipline and confidence through her ventureUnderstanding what entrepreneurs go through in early days from personal experience enabled her while mentoring entrepreneurs today and facing bias as a young entrepreneurTech world a fair space where your work speaks for itself and need for women to speak about what they have doneFinding the right product market fit, her rules of thumb - Knowing the domain or asking experts - Understanding pain points of customers Developing an experimental mindset, encouraging and accepting failure, having a mentorChanging tracks and feeling confident to do so Support and communities between investors and entrepreneurs to build great products and encourage entrepreneurshipHer 3 messages for technology and entrepreneurial aspirants - Be the best at what you do; -Don't be afraid of failing;  -Be OptimisticMadhurima Agarwal works as the Director for Engineering Program with global responsibility for leading NetApp’s startup program called NetApp Excellerator – startup.netapp.in. She also plays a key role in driving enhanced collaboration between engineering and market-facing functions across NetApp India and acts as the touch point for all external partnerships. She brings with her over 17yrs of experience spanning domains across the globe with leading financial firms. She’s been an entrepreneur and currently dons the hats of a mentor and advisor to startups. An alumna of IIM, Ahmedabad, Madhurima enjoys driving innovation and taming the power of technology to achieve organizational growth.She’s an avid reader and enjoys writing on topics around entrepreneurship. Madhurima is an advisor to the WIT (Women in Technology) group at NetApp and focuses on professional development of women in the workplace.Reach her at :linkedin.com/in/madhurimaagarwalTwitter : @MadhurimaAg

In this conversation Srilakshmi, Program Manager shares her 30+ year story with Chitra through her essence of being a person who naturally brings people together. Her story board contains Science as her forte and choosing to study engineeringGetting her first job in HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd) to build the Light Combat Aircraft or LCA, her first exposure to program managementLearning slowly and a project definition phase of 2-3 yearsWorking on mini computers and coding in machine languageMoving to the US for a PhD, choosing computer science over management & economics, multiple transitionsBeing the first batch of computer science graduates from portland state universityJoining Intel and staying there for 15 yearsWorking in bunny suits inside fab labs on software for p-n junctionsrealising that software engineering was a job and her passion lay in bringing people together and organizing thingsBeing part of various server teams at Intel and becoming a program manager in 2002Moving to India, discovering that leading by influence was her preferred way of working, working at NetApp, Cisco, VMWareSharing her Program Management principles of equal authority, responsibility and weightage to all functions of a groupCollaboration via a "map day" exercise and common understanding of the "why" of a project, examples from her experience at Intel and ADE (Aeronautical Development Establishment) & the importance of keeping the vision in mind at all times and to know how everything is connectedChanges across time around collaborationHow the pandemic has brought about awareness of different ecosystems Exploring influence without authority in the role of a program manager, knowing yourself when a job is well done and being approachableHer passion around voluntarismLooking long term, making technology an ally in your work and finding happiness in what you do.Srilakshmi Renganathan was a Software Developer and is now a Release Manager & Program Manager. She started her career at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited HAL in Bangalore and moved to the US for her Masters in Computer Science. She  worked in various MNCs - Intel Corp, NetApp, Cisco & VMware. She is currently a Software Release & Deployment Program Management at Zebra Technologies ( for Reflexis Retail Task & Schedule Management Software products recently acquired by Zebra).She describes herself as a mother, daughter, wife, friend, ever longing to be a social worker.As a software Program Manager trying to stay connected to technology by doing hands-on tactical coordination work assisting in moving products from inception to entity. She’s touched various domains albeit from the periphery including aircraft communication systems, chip manufacturing, storage technology, cloud infrastructure to more recently SAAS - Software as a Service. Sri continues to engage & adapt  through changing tools & technologies through the past 3 decades!  Electronics & Computer Science Engineer by Education & Software Engineer by training. Multi-Tasker, organizer, blogger & constant social media updater :) who lives by the phrase “sharing is caring”.

In this conversation, Ted Harrington, Executive Partner at Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) shares his career journey and perspectives with Sivaguru on various topics related to IT security and ethical hacking. He talks aboutHis company of ethical hackers helping other companies secure their IT systemsWanting to be an entrepreneur and starting a consumer facing businessMoving to a company, as the CEO / founder wanted to mentor someone and felt that would be a good experienceWith that experience, feeling the need to serve businesses rather than consumers directlyHow he met his current business partner and how the plan for the company evolved literally overnightHis four core principles: do hard things, do things that matter, do things in the service of others and to get better every single dayApplying these principles in the security business and getting a clientMindset needed for outhinking a hackerThinking like a hacker and why it may not be possible to think one step ahead of the attackerDeveloping the skill of thinking ‘evil’, to raise the security levels of our solutionsWhose job it is to think security in a teamHow security is a leadership issueHow security thinking can be used to ensure the adherence to company values such as customer experience, quality etc.Using security as a business differentiator and gain competitive advantageHis thoughts on security aspects of the ‘supply chain’Zero trust and defense in depth modelsHow not to become obsessed and become a pessimist, thinking only of all bad things that can happenHow he likes to look at systems in everything and how they could be improved by breaking themHow he approached writing his book that is related to technology, when technology is changing very fastHow to make security layers least obtrusiveWhat it takes to become a security professionalTed Harrington is the #1 best selling author of HACKABLE: How to Do Application Security Right. He’s helped hundreds of companies fix tens of thousands of security vulnerabilities, including Google, Amazon, and Netflix.Ted has been featured in more than 100 media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Forbes.His team founded and organizes IoT Village, an event whose hacking contest is a three-time DEF CON Black Badge winner. He hosts the Tech Done Different podcast.Reach him at: ted [at] tedharrington [dot] com or https://tedharrington.com

In this conversation, Raja, a coach at PM Power, who likes to be known as a lifelong programmer shares his journey into the world of software and the lessons he learnt and his view onHow he was inspired by two of his teachers to learn programmingHis liking for experiments that kept him interested in ITThe transition from an individual contributor to working in teamsHow he would like to be associated with only one role : a programmerHis surprise, when he took up employment after being an entrepreneur, to see designations and very hard delineation of responsibilities by rolesHis views on the titles on people’s visiting cardsWhether he has a ‘Raja technique or Raja methodology’His views on ‘super specialization’ that many developers prefer, to work only on the server side or on the client side etc and who should own the value chainThe power of the concept of ‘mock’s and ‘stub’sHow an explicit approach can help in improving team productivityAn analogy of a carnatic musicians in a concert having respect for each other on the concept of respect for each otherThe secret sauce of delivering high quality software is the respect for each other in a teamHow effective ideas can be simple and can come from anyone in the team, not necessarily senior in terms of experienceHis advice on choosing a technical or managerial path for one’s careerWriting single intent code that progressively evolvesRaja would like to be recognized as a programmer since 1993 having extensive experience in architecting and implementing object-oriented and distributed systems. He has created applications for people to collaborate.He preaches and practices Clean Coding Techniques.His profile on the PM Power site is at: https://pm-powerconsulting.com/experts/raja-subramaian/His LinkedIn profile is at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raja-subramanian-kamakshi-iyer-87aa7a54/He can also be found on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-D08_UMQN5fM4rLx2Q7JOg

In this episode Dr. Neeta Trivedi, a former senior scientist with the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and an entrepreneur, is in conversation with Sivaguru. Neeta shares her experiences onHer modest family background from a small town with modest dreamsEven without access to information sources, wanting to do something different, something bigBeing fortunate to have passionate teachers right from primary school, who were invested in building good persons overall, and nt just limiting themselves to teaching the curriculumGetting into a new program launched by DRDO, to develop computer scientistsStarting her career with computer land war game systemsUsing the 2167-A methodology for software developmentGetting opportunities to attend conferences including once where she got to meet Prof. Watts Humphrey{understanding that developing software systems is more than writing some lines of code}About meeting her husband to be and later shifting to Bangalore after marriageWorking on cockpit display systems for the Light Combat AircraftGetting her first opportunity to see what is ‘inside the box’ of a computer and did not have an option of opting out.And how that have her a very good experience to understand various dynamics in a large programHow the nuclear blast at Pokhran and subsequent Y2k meant a lot of constraints to be faced by the scientistsHaving the rigor of 100% test coverage, 0% dead code etcAn interesting situation while integrating subsystems that took many months to resolve and the learning from that experienceNuances in hardware design that influence or constrain software to be developed or deployedMoving to work on UAVs and adopting structured systems development methodologies (standard 498)How she likes to use a metaphor of a divided two way street and 2167A, her experience with 2207, that is more flexibleAbout using beetles to reach inaccessible spaces in times of disaster, where UAVs cannot & interesting experiences convening a group on micro air vehiclesAbout taking a voluntary retirement and starting a companyHandling Functional and non functional requirementsThe importance and need for systems thinkingNeeta did MSc Computer Science from Devi Ahilya University, Indore, through a DRDO sponsored programme, and joined DRDO in 1989. She later pursued academics while on the job, to obtain MSc (engineering) and PhD from Indian Institute of Science in the areas of Wireless Sensor Networks and Information Fusion.Neeta worked for DRDO for 28 years before voluntarily retiring as Scientist ‘G’. She had a brief stint as Subject Matter Expert in Tata Advanced Systems Ltd after that, and is presently focusing on her startup venture Inferigence Quotient LLP.During her initial years in ISSA-DRDO, Delhi, she was a team member for Computerised Land Wargames for the Indian Army. From 1996 to 2007 at ADE-DRDO, Bangalore, she led the software design and development team for Cockpit Display Systems for the Indian Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas. The display computer hardware and software were designed and developed completely within India at a time when indegenious capabilities in these areas were at a nascent stage, and private industry was still evolving. The display system successfully flew many hundreds of times, providing a platform for proving other avionics subsystems as well. From 2007 to 2017 at ADE she headed the UAV Payload Data Processing group, contributing to the ground image exploitation systems of various UAV programmes including micro, mini, tactical and MALE UAVs.At TASL she contributed to Mission Systems, Ground Operating Systems and Ground Support Systems for aerial surveillance platforms, and to group autonomy for aerial robots.Her startup venture is about building intelligent systems using computer vision and machine learning.She has been part of many other technical and techno-managerial activities. She was expert member and convener of the Aeronautics R&D Board panel SIGMA (Special Interest Group on MAVs) for over 5 years, expert panel member of National Programme on MAVs, a joint initiative by DRDO and DST, contributed to white paper on homeland security for Govt of India. She has over 20 technical papers in national and international journals and conferences, and has also been on review panels herself.Neeta is a senior member of IEEE and of Computer Society of India. She has received various awards including Young Engineer Award from Indian National Academy of Engineers, Young Scientist Awards from DRDO and from ADE, and Technology Award from DRDO. Her professional interests include Multisensor Data Fusion, Computer Vision, AI, Mission Systems for Aerial Surveillance Platforms, Ground Operating and Support Systems for UAVs, Payload Data Processing, Avionics and Cockpit Displays, Autonomous Single- and Multi-agent Robot Systems including Hybrid Navigation, Software and Systems Engineering.Contact: neeta@inferq.comFor covid relief http://www.auwa.in/podforchange OR https://fundraisers.giveindia.org/fundraisers/podforchange-covid-relief-fund