Software People Stories

In this episode Amrita Samuel, People Leader and Executive Coach is in conversation with Gayatri sharing her experiences onChosing HR as a career by choiceStarting out in banking, manufacturing, hotels & then coming to IT via a .com companyWorking out of retail company warehouses and in actual stores, later moving into HR consulting across several industriesThe start of her long IT HR stint beginning with figuring out alphabets in computer programming languages and acronyms of the tech worldThe feel of working with tech across physical notebooks, shared computers, and accessing email via dial up connectionsReflections on how mindsets and work constructs have shifted from meeting people in personHow people have understood the role of HR and what it encompassesHow people experience the organization through HR from hiring to retiring, HR as brand ambassadorsBeing a business partner, learning about what it means to code, what project management is and helping people who want to do something elseOn how people from tech functions bring more empathy to their role when some of them chose to move into HRFunctioning and enabling in the background Did she ever miss not being in the limelight? Being a true partner in an organizationWorking with over 12 countries and cultures and how they perceive HRHer upbringing and how its helped shape her perspectives in her roleCreating safe spaces, coaching leaders and being an invisible yet impactful functionAmrita is a thoughtful and accomplished people leader and executive coach. She is a certified Associate Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation with over 20 years of experience in global human resource management. Her belief in the power of the human potential has helped the leaders she has coached flourish in all aspects of their life. Amrita has held several leadership roles in her two-decade career in Human Resources. She has worked and led teams in India, USA, Europe and Asia. She has worked across multiple industries ranging from Technology, Manufacturing to Retail and Hospitality. Most recently she was General Manager & Global HR Head at Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT), where she has worked for over 14 years. Amrita is a food & travel enthusiast. She is a certified scuba diver &  home baker. She is committed to social sector causes & hopes to be an impact agent in that space.She can be reached at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amritasamuel/ OR @ amritasamuel@gmail.comFor covid relief please contribute via http://www.auwa.in/podforchange  OR https://fundraisers.giveindia.org/fundraisers/podforchange-covid-relief-fund 

In this conversation Chuck Weindorf shares insights and incidents from his long career as an IT software developer, guide and mentor, with Chitra from PM Power Consulting, aroundHis interest and curiosity to learn about new technology, picking it up as a hobbyist in high schoolHis drive to offer his services as a software developer when he was in high schoolHaving the drive and focus to stay on the software development path and learnHow he loves working with young people, encouraging more young women to take up software engineering, & how youngsters can prepare themselves for a careerSharing his learnings from his career, failures and experiences through his book Leaders & Software Engineers: Communicate and Motivate without speaking in CodeHow he developed the ability to "see code" starting playing chess moves in his mind and then visualizing code movement laterWhat it takes to be a good trouble shooter, dont have the fear of breaking something, discovering variability and complexityBeing experimental to understand complexity and gain confidence How new engineers can assimilate and understand existing code and systems and then build on them with newer tech and softwareWhat experienced engineers can do to enable fresh engineers understand pieces of the system and make the transition smoothEmpathy, living a day in the life of your customer and continuous improvement takeaways, making personal connects to be successful software engineersCultivating how to speak the language of business to get buy in for new features, technologyProductivity through the value lens for software, individuals and the organization, building bridges between software and organization needsTwo things to keep in mind for IT professionalsBring your best each day to workEmbracing new technology, learning it and guiding the company through its adptionCharles Weindorf is a retired IT Director and Chief Engineer with nearly 40 years of experience in software engineering. At Erie Insurance, he served in every possible technical and supervisory role, where he encouraged software engineers to understand their responsibilities, see their value, adopt change, and focus on future direction. With stories, humor, and recollections of his roots as a young engineer, he influenced the next generation of software engineers to excel in their craft. Learn more at www.leadingsoftwareengineers.com Charles attempts to learn a new skill or hobby each year—including creating a board game from one of his fiction works, leading a new spiritual retreat, leaning to fly in a simulator, and managing a political campaign. He is a lifelong resident of Erie, Pennsylvania, where he lives with his high school sweetheart and wife, Debra, his four kids, and seven grandkids.He can be contacted via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-weindorf-engineer/In Leaders and Software Engineers:Communicate and Motivate without speaking in Code, Charles Weindorf provides the Rosetta Stone for communicating to engineers with stories, analogies, and humor to encourage excellence in your team

In this episode Amit Sarangi, Agile Evangelist is in conversation with Gayatri. Amit shares his experiences onStarting his career in the functional HRM area as a business analystComparing the modules and configurations that used to be done in Oracle to the no-code generation of products of todayWorking as an onsite coordinator and understanding business needs and mapping themHow the Agile journey has transformed him as well as how software is perceivedChanging the mode of working from being like a whack-a-mole in terms of how feedback used to be collected and how that has changedHow people need to be understood as who they are and not as robots to churn so many lines of code regularlyHis childhood, being a kid of Sanskrit professors, filled with stories, realms and possibilitiesThe choices he’s made in his life and being comfortable staying out of the comfort zone and he’s better for itThe legacy he’s leaving behind and inspiring today’s technologists to do the sameUnderstanding your roots and past, constant curiosity and embracing the future creates multiple possibilities and opportunities. Asking listeners to keep exploring! Amit can be contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amit-sarangi/ Here is the link to the Give India campaign in support of the #PodForChange Covid Relief Fund https://fundraisers.giveindia.org/fundraisers/podforchange-covid-relief-fund

In this episode, SeethaPrasad Mandikel CEO and Founder of Tribyte Technologies shares his stories with Chitra around His love for programming and natural motivation towards doing it, active coder at least once a week and reviewing codeThe "Made in India" inspiration when working in Talisma towards becoming an entrepreneurHaving a lot of ideas, taking nearly 2 years to decide that "this is the one" and the journey from an idea towards making it into a business and founding Tribyte technologiesStarting the business with building a video platform for entertainment and education & focusing on creating a platform to enable learning by making it both engaging and interestingHow they got first customers, being confident about the problem being addressed of self-paced learning amidst bandwidth challenges to stream HD videosEnabling their early customers digital journeys, learning and co-creating the platformDeveloping and maintaining customer relationships mainly through partnering and referrals, and helping customer grow their businessThe growth explosion due to the pandemic, how the team responded and enabled educators transition to online education and ensuring customer business continuityLessons learned while scaling rapidly at the onset of the pandemic to enable customers quickly move online, handling nearly 1500 sessions with 40-50 attendees per session, all starting at 9amSmart scaling approaches keeping cost and performance in mindA time when J&K state customers were enabled quickly so they could continue teachingHow he built the team at TribyteCatering to different learner personas and categoriesMessages for aspiring technologists on having a passion for programming & for entrepreneurs to examine viability & feasibility of a product or solution before starting your business Seethaprasad Mandikel is the founder and CEO of TriByte Technologies, a Bangalore (India) headquartered company, focused on developing a cutting-edge Interactive Learning Platform.Seethaprasad has 25 years of experience in building technologies for large scale deployment with last 10 years focused on EduTech. He has grown TriByte from a start-up to enterprise by providing white-labelled solutions for many marquee customers and serving millions of users across 7 countries and 3 continents.Prior to TriByte, he was part of the founding team of PI Corporation (later acquired by EMC) as Development Director. He worked in companies like Microsoft Corporation in the US), Talisma/ Aditi Technologies and with Robert Bosch, IndiaHe can be reached via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seethaprasad/

In this conversation with Sanjay Tambwekar, CTO of Qwikcilver is in conversation with Chitra where he shares his experiences aroundHis first exposure to engineering while witnessing his father building barges in shipyardsWriting software at TUL after his graduation from IIT BombayWorking at Bell Northern Research and developing systems engineering understanding Being part of the supercomputer team at CDAC and enabling its power for actual use by other government agenciesWorking at Verifone on digital payments software solutionsCustomer empathy and customer relationship experiencesHow he transitioned to management at Verifone and later managing a very large team at Sasken, along with his philosophy on management and leadershipExperiences and learning in his role as CTO, from managing delivery, to understanding different customer personas, scaling transactions and conceptualizing product featuresA critical message on road safety through a foundation that he and his wife started and parents being role modelsHis 2 part message for aspiring software and technology engineersFocus on the process to improve, your first competition is yourselfBeing an entrepreneur or being an employee, an marriage analogyAs the CTO, Sanjay leads the evolution of prepaid solutions at Qwikcilver, now merging into Pine Labs. Prior to this, his journey covers different domains across parallel computing (CDAC), payments (Verifone), wireless communications (Sasken) and digital storage (NetApp). He has a degree in EE from IIT Bombay, MS in CSE from NCSU, and a Diploma in Practicing Management from INSEAD.  In the memory of their daughter, his wife and he run The Arundhati Foundation with the primary aim to improve road safety. Sanjay loves swimming, and occasional sketching.Sanjay's LinkedIn profile Social media handles related to The Arundhati Foundation : Twitter : @4stambwekarFacebook : https://www.facebook.com/thearundhatifoundation

In this conversation with Chitra, Pragati Ogal Rai shares her stories aroundHow she became a technologist, published author, community technology evangelist, startup entrepreneurHaving innate curiosity to study electronics and computer science, teach and do a double masters in computer scienceWorking in a startup with her professor on creating a Skype-like feature on a palm pilotWorking in mobile technology for 6 years, hardening mobile platforms before Android and IoS became popularDeveloping and training mobile engineers and becoming a technology evangelistWriting a book on Android Application SecurityHow her career learning helped build a ladder to what she took up nextGetting people to do the right thing through empathy, patient listening and investing time in problem discovery and the art of enabling developersBuilding and promoting communities, its all about the peopleLessons in community buildingInspiration to start an NGO focusing on Autism Spectrum DisorderHer lessons from her startup experienceHer message for technology aspirantsPragati is the Founder of ViryaDewdrops Autism Foundation, COO - ISSA India Chapter, Chair – Women in Cyber Security India Chapter, author of the book "Android Application Security Essentials” and the winner of 2014 Zinnov Thought Leadership award. In her 20-year career, Pragati has had the privilege to work with Motorola, PayPal, Deutsche Bank and Microsoft. She has held leadership roles in technology, evangelism, strategy, innovation, global program management, and product marketing. She was a founding member of Mo’blast a technology company in US and has now founded ViryaDewDrops Autism Foundation, a venture focusing on individuals with autism. Pragati works with academia all over the world in different capacities and volunteers at Swapaksh - a school for kids of migrant worker living in slum areas.  She is a recognized and much sought-after speaker at international technology events. Pragati has a dual Masters in computer science - one from Banasthali Vidhyapith (Gold medal at university level) and the other from San Jose State University. Pragati spent thirteen years in California before relocating to Bangalore. Reading, organizing, and spending time with family and friends keeps her life spiced up. Her inspiration is her mom and dad.Here is her book on Book Android Application Security Virya Autism NGO https://www.facebook.com/viryaautism@viryaautismjoin the Virya community

In this conversation, Ranjani Mani shares her experience stories with Chitra onHer belief in making a world that our children can live inProduct management, analytics and consulting for 14 years, customer experience & startup mentoring3 things she's passionate about - Reading, Writing about Tech & AI, becoming betterDoing her bit to enable women with choicesThe impact of growing up in an environment of equality and mutual respectTaking a user centric approach to designing solutionsWhy she did an MBA, how it helped open her mind, deal with ambiguity and welcome diverse viewsWhy so many AI projects failHow Product Management experience compliments her analytics roleHaving multiple interests and curiosityHuman centered AISymbiosis of AI and human presenceWhy she believes we need more women in analytics, the broken rung and the 5C framework to own your careerRanjani has over 14 years of experience in setting up and growing data science, product management, consulting, and customer experience analytics teams. Her interests lie in solving business problems through analytics, strategy and leadership.Ranjani currently works at VMware India, designing and supporting SaaS transformation through Customer Success with business analytics and AI-driven customer experience. She also drives and collaborates VMware's site activities engaging with start-ups and VCs in the India ecosystem to identify collaboration opportunities.Ranjani is a DEI evangelist who is keen on bringing more women into the technology space, specifically Analytics.A passionate writer and voracious reader, Ranjani writes about Tech and AI, Future of Work with exponential technologies, leadership, and managing Analytics teams, book reviews on LinkedIn and her personal website. She also reviews interesting books and provides #2MinExplainer videos on STEM, Finance and Behavioural Economics on her YouTube channel 'Reviews with Ranjani'.Ranjani holds a bachelor's degree in Engineering (Electronics & Communication) and an MBA from MICA, Ahmedabad.She can also be reached via LinkedIn.Disclaimer: All views expressed are personal in nature and solely that of the speaker/author.

In this conversation, Hamsa Ravikiran and Sivaguru exchange Japanese language and Sanskrit snippets as Hamsa shares her stories onWorking after her BE and getting exposure to a breadth of software development from coding and testing to project and program management at Exim SoftTaking a break, doing an entrepreneurial program at IIM Bangalore and getting the first prize for her business ideaJoining IBM to conceptualize and implement a knowledge management systemTaking another break and starting a company to deliver marketing services, by women working from homeDiscovering Youth for Seva an NGO, and finding her callingWorking with corporate CSR’s on awareness around waste management & segregationHooked onto learning Sanskrit since 2013 and conducting workshops on spoken Sanskrit to doing her MA, MPhil and now planning to do her PhD in SanskritExperiences working from home and finding a balance between remote and in-person working & setting boundaries when working from homeContrasting being an entrepreneur and a project manager in a corporate settingRelevance and applicability of techniques learned as and entrepreneur and/or working in corporates, to the social sector to help sustain those activitiesContinuously motivated and challenged while learning SanskritTranslating principles from the Ramayana by examining its stories like case studies to apply in daily life, todayFinding one’s calling or purpose in life and a message in Sanskrit An engineering graduate who joined the IT industry as a programmer,  moved on to become project manager working in Indian software company  and later an MNC. Hamsa completed the Management Program for Women Entrepreneur (MPWE ) from IIM Bangalore and  co-founded an IT & Marketing firm named AddTo . She then worked with an NGO called Youth For Seva as a coordinator for Environmental issues and Corporate Social Responsibility. She took up Sanskrit Studies, conducted  spoken sanskrit workshops, organised exhibitions and events to teach and promote sanskrit . Hamsa completed her MA - Mphil in Sanskrit and is currently pursuing a Phd in Sanskrit.Hamsa can be reached through her email hamsa.ravikiran@gmail.com

In this conversation Shane Hastie and Sivaguru from PM Power Consulting talk aboutShane starting his career in South Africa in 1982Getting a solid grounding in mainframe programming from an intensive training program & programming in Assembler for a teller machine software for a financial institutionWorking on ‘End User Computing’ approaches on the mainframe, very closely with the business users - very similar to the Agile approaches of todayBeing one of the early users of a PC, and with the limited capabilities, considering the mainframe as the best peripheral that one could attach to a PC!Starting a company with his wife, focusing on solutions in a PCBuilding solutions for small and medium airlines in AfricaMoving back to New Zealand and joining a company thereLeveraging his experience in business analysis and project management as a trainerGetting an opportunity, in 2002 - to have close interactions with many of the signatories of the Agile manifesto - and understand the intent behind many of those ideasWorking with ICAgile for the last four years and how ICAgile has internalized Agile thinking, particularly the humanistic values and in the ways of workingHis transitions to various roles over his careerThe excellent support he got from his wife all throughThe transition to a trainer, wanting to share his knowledge and experience with others & training over 40000 peopleHow he could easily adapt to ambiguity and taking to the Agile approaches [including precursors such as Rapid Application Development etc]A bad experience in delivering to specs, but not the needMost people who come to classes want to learn and they are ‘participants’ in their own learning journeysThe impact of the pandemic on in person learning and the effectiveness of remote learning and his tips on adapting in person delivery to remote learningOn the ethical coaching framework initiativeHow to find out if one has in them, to be a trainer or coachShane Hastie, MIM ICP-PO ICE-ACShane joined ICAgile in 2017 as the Director of Agile Learning Programs and is now the Director of Community Development. He contributes to the strategic direction and expansion of ICAgile’s learning programs, including maintaining and extending ICAgile’s learning objectives, providing thought leadership, collaborating with industry experts, and supporting the larger ICAgile community, which includes more than 150 Member Organizations and over 100,000 ICAgile certification holders.  In the Community Development role, he is responsible for building and nurturing the community of over 500 ICAgile Authorized Instructors.  Shane is a TBR certified Trainer and is authorized to teach the Facilitating Exceptional Remote Learning class from Judy Rees. Over the last 30+ years Shane has been a practitioner and leader of developers, testers, trainers, project managers and business analysts, helping teams to deliver results that align with overall business objectives. Before joining ICAgile he spent 15 years as a professional trainer, coach and consultant specialising in Agile practices, business analysis, project management, requirements, testing and methodologies for SoftEd in Australia, New Zealand and around the world.He has worked with large and small organisations, from individual teams to large transformations all around the world. He draws on over 30 years of practical experience across all levels of Information Technology and software intensive product development.Shane was a director of the Agile Alliance from 2011 to 2016 and was the founding Chair of Agile Alliance New Zealand. He leads the Culture and Methods editorial team for InfoQ.com where he hosts the weekly InfoQ Culture Podcast. He was one of the authors for both versions of the Agile Extension to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge and a member of the core team for BABOK V3.He is co-chair of the Agile Alliance Agile Coaching Ethics initiative, working to produce a code of ethical conduct for agile coaching.He is co-author of the recent book #noprojects - A Culture of Continuous Value, available on Amazon and from InfoQ“I firmly believe that humanistic way of working and the agile mindset are desperately needed in organisations all around the globe today.  Taking agile values and principles beyond software is important and making sure they are properly embedded is absolutely crucial for success – we’re in an industry that touches every aspect of people’s lives and massively influences society as a whole and I want to be a part of making sure that industry is both ethical and sustainable.”Contact info:Email: shane@icagile.comTwitter: @shanehastieLinkedIn: shanehastie  InfoQ Author Profile

In this conversation Sunil and Sivaguru from PM Power Consulting talk aboutHow he accidentally joined his friend in a startup, when his campus offer from a larger company was put on holdHis liking for software, right from the 6th grade, influenced greatly by his fatherHow various experiments and explorations he undertook, helped indirectly and subtly build his brand and portfolioHow the startup experience is like an adrenaline inducing activity and one has the opportunity to pick up anything related to the product and learn, as a startup is always short on handsLearning the ropes of programming in the large - as a team and the interfaces and experience of working with hardware that will run your softwareThat inputs could be from beyond just keyboard and mouseThe added complexities of enterprise software, where your code needs to integrate and work with other pieces that move on their ownWhy one should design enterprise products that are least disruptiveThe unique experience when you see your first customer actually deploying your solution in the enterpriseThis is an experience that one can get only in startups and a story where this learning happenedHis transitions from a startup employee, one of the initial employees  (founding members) in a startup to a co-founderUnderstanding the impact of ‘not now’ situations and decisionsThe significance of explaining the process, when someone is not clear about decisonsOn what he considers non-negotiable The key skills and aptitudes necessary for anyone to get into a startup His guidance on finding the right reasons to change, particularly mid-careerHow founding teams assemble themselves and an optimistic outlook for a career in ITSunil Mukundan likes to describe himself as a startup junkie who loves to build products from ground up and be a part of primal decision making in a company. He has, over the years, dabbled in video, compression, networking among others. co-authored multiple patents in the video delivery and networking domain.His linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunil-mukundan-9881563/