Software People Stories

Episode: Banana Peels and Monocultures Stories from an Agility Coach Listen to Viktor Cessan, agile coach, share his stories, in a conversation with Sivaguru from PM Power consulting, as Viktor talks about - How he got into software His first startup, even while he was in school Starting as a content handler Understanding the challenges of working with remote teams Using feedback to improve one’s style of working How learning from others fueled the desire to share Connecting with the organization or teams when you start engaging His approach of using a discovery stage to get a first hand feel as a coach His experiment at Spotify of removing all managers The importance of empathy for a coach in a multi cultural team and being sensitive to diversity in the team. His impressions and experience of working in Bangalore and being adventurous with food in Mumbai The back story behind his podcast His thoughts on where Agile in the enterprise is headed, and the role of coaches Viktor Cessan has 13 years of experience from the software industry and has for the past 8 years coached agile, organizations, and teams. Viktor spends his time helping companies design systems where organizations, teams, and individuals become healthy are able to make an impact and achieve business goals and he recently published a free case study on when he coached agile transformation at Avanza Bank in Sweden. Since being introduced to agile methodologies in 2007, Viktor has been a Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Agile Coach at companies such as Spotify, Avanza Bank, King, and Nordic Entertainment Group. Viktor runs trainings and workshops on a wide variety of topics such as agile team dynamics, both introduction to and advanced product ownership, self-management, leadership, and management. Feel free to connect with Viktor on Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/viktorcessan/) , Twitter (https://twitter.com/viktorcessan) , or have a look at Viktor's esteemed Website (http://www.viktorcessan.com/) .

In this episode, Gopal & Sivaguru from PM Power Consulting are in conversation as Gopal shares his rich experiences through several anecdotes based on  -  The first transition from an individual contributor to a ‘leader’ Understanding the style of letting others do work Managing peers and allowing your natural instincts to play a role How one can manage divergent priorities between individuals and team aspirations Significance of opening up and talking Managing customer expectations Managing one’s bosses… and their bosses Being empathetic to understand the other person’s compulsions Nurturing a positive, trusting relationship The importance of feeling secure and confident.. And liking people for what they are Handling escalations A simple formula to be at peace with one’s environment and enjoy life

In this episode, Chitra from PM Power Consulting is in conversation with Padmaja Narsipur, Founder and CEO of Clearly Blue Digital where she shares her journey and experiences on - - Starting a career in Software and how she became a tech writer. - Moving to being a solopreneur  - The Clearly Blue Story - Having to bring her career to a halt *& discover new things to do; - Free lancing and the hamster wheel - Self management & time management - Discipline of free lancing to enjoy flexibility - What it takes to be a good tech writer  - Creating a workplace that she wants to come to & for anyone who wants to work there - Capitalizing on information assets through a digital & social presence online; beyond likes & shares; building brands,  - Defining user experience and managing media channels - Harmonizing with AI, balancing information, tech and nurturing one's imagination - How businesses need to navigate the digital world to build better products - Message for aspiring entrepreneurs - On being a mother  Padmaja Narsipur heads Clearly Blue Digital, a Bengaluru-based content design firm with practices in content marketing and e-learning. Her background is in Computer Science and Physics. She has previously worked with Intel Corp at Santa Clara, CA, after which she enjoyed a solopreneur career as a Consultant Writer and Manager in technical and business-centred projects for some of the world's biggest firms before launching Clearly Blue. Padmaja is a passionate student of human interactions with technology; and about the ways we learn and grow. She lives in Jigani (rural Bengaluru), with a supportive husband, three teenagers, one unruly puppy and a riot of serene guppies.

In this episode of the Software People Stories, Visweswaran SK (also known as Viswes) and Sivaguru from PM Power Consulting uncover fascinating software experiences from Viswes around - How he started software development using punch cards Writing utilities for spooling printouts Exposure to database systems while working on a commercial application Developing a database system on SN computers Hackathon like approach for the dev team Learning to work within 256 kB! DECUS-C compiler: a community contribution :  Knowing that the code one wrote was being used after 10 years! His personal style of programming: from working within limited computing resources Testing when you have control over all pieces of code environment and when you do not Of chief programmer teams versus Agile ways of working Implications of Big Data on database thinking Is there a need for some standards for data interchange Technology that needs to adapt to senior citizens Here's also an introduction from our guest, in his own words - My name is Visweswaran S.K .    I am a graduate of IISc Bangalore and a post graduate from IIT Madras, I have been in the software industry since mid 70’s.    During my active life in software industry, my key interest was in DBMS related technologies. I had the opportunity to actively work in not one but two full fledged Data Base Management systems. I was also primary  architect for the designing and implementing the Data Base and Reporting System for a very large web based application. Experience in those projects were both challenging and rewarding !!   Having worked in  various software projects big and small, recently decided to retire from active software development and spend more more time enjoying small things in life like listening to music, reading books, travelling and tending to terrace garden . I also spend some  time putting some of the things I have learnt in software by managing a small website for a temple, creating a spreadsheet to manage my investments and by helping neighbourhood elders with their day to day digital challenges!!    I am also trying to arrange and cleanup my large collection of old photographs !!

Listen to Hima Patel from IBM Research and Chitra from PM Power Consulting as Hima shares stories from her passion around artificial intelligence and machine learning through some fascinating experiences. She talks about - Building intelligence, beginning with a book Image processing experiments and fun with friends  Research and Software, partners in crime Invention & Innovation Data lakes, silos, federations and marts - making sense for business Languages of business and analytics, working hand-in-hand Managing people in research Explanability of machine learning models Experiences as a research manager The power of believing in yourself and not giving up. Hima Patel is a research manager at IBM Research Lab and leads a team of researchers that work in problems at the intersection of machine learning and NLP. Her passion is to work on research areas that help solve real business problems. Prior to IBM, she has spent time in research groups at Shell, GE and brief stint at Visa where she has worked on varied research problems spanning from object detection in medical images to anomaly detection from  multivariate sensor data collected from machines. She is also actively involved with the organization of Grace Hopper India conference for last four years and is also an executive committee member for IEEE Computer Society, Bangalore Section. She holds a B.E. in Computer Science from GCET and M Tech in Information and Communication Technology from DA-IICT.

Listen to this conversation between Sridevi Devathi from HCL and Sivaguru from PM Power Consulting as they talk about Sridevi's career and journey around - How she started as a developer and then moved to quality Moving into estimation and setting up the estimation CoE Different generations of software architectures / models and various models for software development Some challenges that have continued to bother teams over the last couple of decades related to estimation Relevance of historical data based on standard estimation models, in the new and emerging approaches to develop software Her thoughts on using AI/ML for estimation Use of Function Points in the Financial Services industry Relevance and utility of structured methods for estimation for startups Effectiveness of Agile approaches including having the right coaches even in uncertain problem domains How art [or a hobby] can be a stress buster as well as provide motivation Sridevi comes with 24 years of IT/Software industry experience, of which she has spent 21 years with HCL. She has worked across Quality, Delivery Excellence, Process/Estimation Consulting, Presales, Project Delivery/Management and Software Development areas. She has been a trainer and consultant in Quality, Project Management and Estimation areas; and is managing HCL Estimation COE for past 10 years. She has participated in few industry forums, and was a panel member in two recent ISMA conferences. You can reach her via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sridevi-devathi-b4638018/

Joins us in listening to Paul Arieckal from Global Automation and Sivaguru from PM Power consulting as they have conversations around Paul's experiences in -  Learning the rigour of software development as computing resources were scarce Considering constraints at the time of design Making assumptions while designing applications: timetracker story Relevance of top down design in the age of cloud and microservices Trimming the footprint of an application from 2 GB to less than 200 MB Drawing inspiration for software from gardening What learning to play the violin taught him about writing software The importance of a test-first approach, in gardening or coding What is easier to debug? A crash or a functional bug? If you want to know what Paul compares debugging to - to get a high, listen carefully! Importance of not getting lost on the frills and focus on the core How can one avoid a burnout in the supposedly stressful field of software Paul is the Director, Engineering at Global Automation India Pvt. Ltd.  He has been with Global Automation for over 24 years and in the current role for 4 years. He is responsible for leading the software product development efforts starting with product conceptualization to delivering to market, through the phases of prototyping, requirements and specifications, test-marketing, software coding, testing, build and release. He is also responsible for managing the computing and networking infrastructure through deployment of state-of-the-art tools and technologies, providing a scalable and secured development environment for Global’s team. Prior to the current role, he was managing the development of a diverse set of software products, a hardware/software appliance implementing ndmp protocol for deployment in data centers for improved backup efficiency, an enterprise JAVA based private equity portfolio management application. His other interests include integrating iOT devices for affordable domestic home automation systems, and irrigation systems that utilize minimal water for water starved urban homes. Paul can be reached via https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-arieckal-085b6620/

Vasu and Chitra, colleagues at PM Power Consulting are in a free wheeling conversation as Vasu shares myriad nuggets on - -  Starting his career in Tata Steel - Generating PLOP reports for management review (its in the podcast!) - Developing products at Wipro; from idea to product; building a cost effective project management product. - Secrets of MS Project & software development - Experiences from product development & finding ways to gain customer insights - How he stayed at companies for long tenures - How he got into coaching & what it means to be a good observer - Making coaching successful - Being genuine when helping and communicating with people

In this episode, Mosesraj R, CIO & Head of Delivery Excellence at Brillio and Chitra from PM Power are in conversation as Moses shares stories on - Where his career began - Fundamental principles working across manufacturing and IT - Understanding the meaning of value to deliver the right solutions & build successful products - Managing customer expectations - Balancing the roles of CIO & delivery excellence head - Some tips to enable digital transformation - A back to the future retrospective Moses is the CIO and head of excellence at Brillio.   He led the cloud transformation of the enterprise.  Over his 20 years of career, he has led multiple change management initiatives to drive better delivery to customers.  His interests are storytelling, imagining products that break barriers and motivating people by helping them see life as a whole.  Moses won India Top 25 CIO awards in 2016 in ICMG Architecture event and has been invited to many organizations / events to share his views. Moses has 20+ years of Work Experience and is a B.E (Mechanical) from Government College of Engineering, Salem and M.S (Software Systems) from BITS, Pilani  Moses has given a some interesting talks at various forums: Questions that make you a better manager (@PMI - PM Footprints) – Introduces three questions as challenges to managers, when answered will help in becoming a better manager Lessons from Modern Coaches for Project Managers (@PM+ conference) – A study of modern sports coaches as to what managers can learn from them Customer Centric engineering team (@Harman) – Introduces the Need & Value paradigm, on how engineering teams can build value consistently Story Telling for Agile Coaches (@Prowareness) – Introduced coaches to the art of story telling with examples. Demystifies story telling that anyone can become a story teller Bridging Eagles Eye and Worm’s View (@HMBP Conference) – A talk delivered in HMBP (High Maturity Best Practices) conference about roll down to goals to team level measurements

In this candid conversation Neeraja Ganesh, Head for JobsForHer foundation and Chitra Gurjar from PM Power Consulting, talk about Neeraja's experiences through her journey. She shares - Learning from whatever came her way as a means of growing and sustaining herself Discovering the power of asking Personal transformation from an introvert to being a confident communicator Process implementation to suit different functions Being uncomfortable with comfort in a role & using her strengths to play different roles Passion about growing people in their career, specially women Stepping out of a work & home only life to network & gain new perspectives after a long corporate career Lessons for women wanting to get back to work after a break Neeraja Ganesh is the Head of the JobsForHer Foundation which has been setup to bridge gender gaps in India.Neeraja has over 25 years of experience in the IT industry having worked for a variety of companies like Cap Gemini, ANZ and others.She is a designated career mentor on many mentorship portals. She was awarded at a TEDx Women event organised by the Dayananda Sagar Institutions for her 25 years of achievements in the corporate world. In her pursuit to share her experiences and learnings with the ecosystem around her, she delivers talks on a variety of topics which serve as inspiration and learning for others. She has also recently been bitten by the writer’s bug and has written a few articles, again with the intention of helping everyone learn from her experiences. She actively engages with industry bodies and other organisations who work on Women Empowerment initiatives. She is an active member of the Women Empowerment Committee of BCIC(Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce).One of her favourite topics which has had rave reviews everytime she has delivered talks on it has been on “Networking”. She brings in her professional experiences to every aspect of the topic which makes the audience relate, understand and immediately learn and start implementing the tips given by her. She can be reached via  https://www.linkedin.com/in/neeraja-ganesh/ https://www.facebook.com/neeraja.ganesh.1 https://twitter.com/neeraja_ganesh