Software People Stories

This is a conversation between Hariprakash Agrawal, Entrepreneur & Agile Coach with Sivaguru from PM Power Consulting, where Hari talks about: Graduating from IIT Kharagpur and coming to Bangalore Taking up a process related role as a fresher Starting his first company ‘OpCord’ for optimization and coordination Building his first automation Creating a product based on Excel to create BDD [Business Driven Development] based tests Starting a solution for car pooling, to address some common social challenges such as pollution How he encountered he bumpy road of carpooling solutions and its impact on the OpCord business Pivoting to a B2B model and adding cab services His preference to being a systems or process thinker How he had to convince about his interest to join a CMM course And how that led to him getting a new job Some differences between developing application software and embedded software The need to think of mistake-proof designs to reduce possibilities of errors, such as poka yoke Giving architects and designers their due recognition How a fresher caught an inconsistency in error messages How starting up is much more than an app or just software Work life balance for an entrepreneur Getting new joiners to be excited about the company purpose Advice for people aspiring to get into IT About our Guest: Hariprakash (Hari) is a serial entrepreneur and an enterprise agile coach. He is Founder/CEO of RideAlly Travels (Cabs, Taxis, Carpool), OpCord Consultancy (Consulting/Training) and also an Enterprise Agile Coach. He started RideAlly platform in 2011 and formed RideAlly company in 2015 which offers cabs services and custom-made ride-sharing platform to corporates.
   As an agile coach, he has transformed 200+ teams using various Agile practices from Scrum, XP, Kanban, SAFe, Lean etc. He has taken care of agile transformations at ABB, Cisco (SBG/CSTG groups), PayPal (DT division, CE2 program), Mango Technologies (acquired by Qualcomm), eRevMax, Sigma Infosolutions, Cosmonet solutions etc. Prior to 2009, he worked in SEPG/QA at Freescale, MindTree, STMicroelectronics and Sharp to enable processes based on Agile, ISO, CMMi, CMM, Six Sigma, PMP, RUP etc. He is an active volunteer and have served many NGOs, like, Rotary Club, BSPIN, Suncity Apartments Associations (1200+ flats), ASCI, Alumni Association, Orphanages etc. On academics, he is an M-Tech from IIT-Kharagpur in Reliability & Quality Engineering and BE from MBM, Jodhpur in Mining Discipline.  His detailed profile can be accessed at LinkedIn,http://in.linkedin.com/in/hariprakash/ His other social media handles: 1. Twitter -  @hariprakash 2. LinkedIn - @hariprakash 3.  Facebook - hariprakash.agrawal

A candid conversation between Madhavi Ravanan, SI Delivery Head at Nokia and Chitra Gurjar from PM Power Consulting, covered several topics from Madhavi's experiences on Luck by chance entry to NIT Trichy to get her degree in engineering Early development days for telecom software learning standards, switches and conducting experiments Role diversity and how she took on business development Developing technical practice as a means of incubating ideas, finding adjacencies and becoming a trusted advisor to customers How to keep new engineers challenged & focused Developing customer intimacy for effective stakeholder management Changing times of engineers then and now Re-learning and internalizing dev ops Importance of constant learning & re-inventing ones self Madhavi is a technology professional with a couple of decades of industry experience. She is an alumna of NIT-Trichy, from class of ‘98.  She started her career as a software engineer, developed software for a variety of telecom and networking gear, led product engineering teams, took a stab at business development, account management and technology practice development before moving into the current role. In her current role, she heads the telco cloud integration delivery unit in Nokia Software’s core services organisation.  She is passionate about technology as an enabler, thrilled with the pace of disruptions in the industry, enjoys new ways of working and likes doing some crystal-gazing. She is an avid reader and occasionally puts her pen to paper.  Tune-in to this podcast to hear her look back on the path she has taken, her views on what’s happening in the industry, what may lie ahead, how to stay future-ready and more.

In this episode, we bring you what "pay it forward" means to some software people, currently associated with PM Power Consulting.  Sivaguru: Being grateful for the nudge from a neighbor and the in person tutoring and guidance to see me as an engineer, without expecting anything in return, and how teaching is a way of sharing your own experience Chitra: being spotted by a coach to get inducted into basketball, being tutored and mentored by a professor in college and one way she pays it forward is to teach children play basketball and draws a lot of energy from their happiness. Sivakumar: the selflessness of caregivers for elder care that he was touched by and an idea to institutionalize paying it forward Anand (Anantha Natarajan) talks about the emotional kindness that he received and paying that forward and sharing words of appreciation pretty much every day, as a habit Gayatri, remininesces on her grandfather’s words.. About the wellness of everyone in the world and, how volunteering has been her way of paying it forward in different areas and her wish for more social enterprises to address very serious issues such as environment Vishu narrates how he realized that what interests him most is doing good for the world and has a very nice story to illustrate the theory of abundance, some of the initiatives he is associated with Gopal talks of random acts of kindness that he has received and experienced in his life and how extending a helping hand makes his day and is very empowering and his passion to share as an act of paying forward Paramu can relate this to practices in ancient Greece or Indian societies, the difference between gratitude and indebtedness  JV says that it is a wonderful concept and one feels very good and the world is a livable place only because many people pay it forward and JV wants to pay many things forward, starting with what he received from his father How can you pay it forward? Do what you are passionate about, to see success in other people.  And, of course, you can share your story on this podcast, Software People Stories. Do write to us at podcasts@pm-powerconsulting.com , and share your story.

In this episode, PM Power colleagues Gayathri and Chitra are in conversation as Gayathri shares narratives about Learning in the face of continuous change Owning your career and sustaining like marathon runners How business is getting re-invented and 4 dimensions of business agility Purpose driven learning & how organizations can unshackle themselves Alignment of purpose and business agility Of cruise ships and yachts  Experiences, outcomes & results and how these impact an organizational culture Her narrative on preparing and undertaking a physically and mentally demanding journey with a team of 10. Message on uncovering the learner within one’s self.

In this episode Ramkumar, VP Technology from MiQ Digital is in conversation with Sivaguru from PM Power Consulting. Ram shares his views on - How he got into software to have greater flexibility in terms of companies to choose from How he understood that every software, every company provides great opportunities to do great work Qualities he looks for, when hiring What does empathy for users mean to backend teams? Contextual choice of Agile or Waterfall How to effectively organize teams that produce microsservices and consume microservices Testing during an architectural transition of a software platform Evolving safety nets for development practices as an organization grows The importance of being adaptable in one’s career progression Handling stress at work The future of a software career Ramkumar has over 2 decades of experience working in US and in India. He has worked in different domains such as ERP, Oracle Core Database development, E-commerce, Big data. Currently, he heads the technology team at MIQ which is a leading independent marketing intelligence company. His Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramkumar-venkatesan/

We welcome back a fellow PM Powerian, Vishu Hegde in conversation with Chitra where Vishu shares a flow of thoughts on  Connecting with organization vision with 2-steps removed Building a temple and laying bricks Principles of flow and identifying bottlenecks using flow metrics Understanding flow of work by visualization, metrics, work-in-progress & throughput Starting with mindset and structure to enable organizations to see a "flow" How companies can move from IT agility to business agility Systems thinking paradigms and dys-functions Building a leadership canvas, Engaging leaders in a VUCA world Transitioning s-curves & examining points of discontunuity Navigating stuck points in life and work - the middle challenges 4 dimensions of S-Curves, a teaser. Making the leap with guidance and coaching

In this conversation, Sivaguru from PM Power Consulting talks to Sukumar, Co-Founder of Tiny Magiq, where Sukumar shares his stories about: His friend who inspired him to get into software How, on his first day at a client’s place, he did something totally unconnected - as he thought - to software His first lesson at work - attitude! What one can learn from working on a maintenance project How his first role with a sales responsibility was so stressful, tending to a breakdown Mustering the courage to seek guidance to change the vicious cycle to a virtuous cycle His personal transition to handle uncertainties in his CXO Roles What he learnt from a war veteran on doing pilot projects Taking an integrative approach to knowledge management and process to deliver knowledge just in time How the blogging experiment opened up cross Business Unit exchanges Some techniques he used to foster innovation across a large organization Inspirations from the paper ‘Ronald Coase Penguins’ by ‘Yochai Benkler’ on socio psychological rewards Why his company is called ‘tiny magiq’ Applying tiny changes in his own life - as in push ups His perspective on the future for a career in IT Sukumar has 31 years of experience in the IT services industry. He runs a Digital transformation & Behaviour transformation enabler startup called Tiny Magiq with 4 co-founders since Feb 2015. He left Cognizant in April 2014, after nearly 19 years, where he served as Senior Vice President, Global Chief Information Officer & Global Head of Innovation.  Sukumar in his 8 year stint as a CXO in Cognizant led award-winning transformation programs in IT, Innovation Culture and Delivery Management. Sukumar is an avid blogger/twitterer, a fitness enthusiast and a travel bug. He researches the Indus Valley Civilization in his spare time. Sukumar received lifetime recognition for his work in IT through the 2014 Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders program. Sukumar is rated by Huffington Post as one of the Top 100 Social CIOs in 2014 & 2013. His social media handles: linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajagopalsukumar/ Twitter: @rsukumar Facebook: https://facebook.com/Sukumar Website:  https://tinymagiq.com

In this conversation, Paramu shares his experiences on writing books with Sivaguru. Listen to this chat between 2 colleagues at PM Power Consulting covering Paramu's views on : Where ideas come from, or where he gets his inspiration on topics to write about Specific triggers for this two published books so far [and the third - a technical book - he is working on now] On writing sequels and if they are expected by the readers as more of the same Book writing being a team sport The challenge of understanding reader expectations, for the first or even the second book About pivoting the idea or narration across evolving versions of the manuscript Inserting ‘hooks’ to keep the readers engaged The next 2 books he is working on, now On why he wants to continue writing technical books Are software development ‘methodologies’ myths? A sneak peek into the upcoming technical book, on Agile practices The five principles related to Agility in an organizational context A sampler fable of the hare and the rabbit race

Many stories play out in our lives. Listen to a lively chat between Sivaguru from PM Power Consulting and Yogesh Gupta, President and CEO of Progress Software, talking about - How he got into IIT How a joystick that got him into programming His early interest in AI Embedded code to Enterprise code Building a distributed relational database Building on something that he already knew, to get into completely new areas, such as marketing His thoughts on ‘AI in everything’ How technology can be considered additive Integrating multiple products to create value for the users Looking at acquisitions also based on clear use cases Some of the cultural challenges in integrating different products [and teams] and mutual respect - for values, culture, background etc The importance of explaining the why to everyone, to get them on board His approach of teaming young professionals with much more seniors, soon after he took charge and the benefits His thoughts on the open source model and the nativescript project What he hears as one of the top expectations from his customers His advice to aspiring IT professionals, based on his own experience And finally, his experience in the transition from a techie to a leader A technologist at heart, Yogesh Gupta is passionate about how technology can make life simpler—both for businesses and individuals. Since joining Progress in October 2016 as its President and Chief Executive Officer, he has strengthened the company’s market position, improved customer relationships, launched new products, acquired three companies and significantly improved operating margins and cash flow. Progress has also refreshed its Board of Directors, increasing the diversity of the Board with four new independent members to build a strong new leadership team that can drive further success.   Prior to joining Progress, Yogesh was President and Chief Executive Officer at Kaseya, Inc., a private equity-backed software company providing IT management software solutions to managed service providers. Before Kaseya, he served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of FatWire Software, a VC-backed marketing automation software company. He led FatWire through the great recession and doubled its revenue over four years, leading to a successful exit to Oracle. A 30-year software industry veteran, Yogesh held several corporate officer roles at CA Inc., including the role of Chief Technology Officer for five years and Chief Strategy Officer and head of M&A for two years.   A recognized expert in emerging technologies and industry trends as well as a published author, Yogesh holds a patent in the field of neural networks. He earned a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin and a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He also serves on the boards of Beth Israel Lahey Health System (BILHS) and Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (MassTLC).

Episode: 4 decades in 2 phases Sub title: Consultant to Implementer In this conversation Sivaguru from PM Power Consulting is in conversation with his old friend Neelu (PK Neelakantan). Listen to their conversation as Neelu talks about: Two significant phases of his career Playing software development and business development roles A major personal decision to move base from India to the US An urge to do something on his own About losing the job at the time of the dot com bust About an environment where programmers were younger than the programs they were working on Some challenges in managing knowledge workers Literally jumping into a data lake! Assigning a monetary value for software, for a buyer Some challenges in concluding a sale of a platform product What you tell demanding users Resisting the urge to do it yourself and letting team members learn by doing Handling things beyond your control Managerial style of doing together and inspiring Earning the team’s trust by adding value in all interactions And not being able to please everyone all the time Neelu has about four decades of experience in software development having worked with organizations in India and the United States in different capacities. He lives in San Diego where he works at the San Diego Community College District as their Application Development Manager overseeing the student administration systems. We invite listeners of the Software People Stories podcast to join us and celebrate International Podcasting Day, on the 28th of September 2019, hosted by Hubhopper in Bangalore. We would love to meet you.  Please register yourselves here (https://podcasts.hubhopper.com/o2podcollective-international-podcast-day?fbclid=IwAR312Zbr8VdPHI0p4eJurzzkoROGiQMSpPk9tmpRV_3MMMDxf2CLRLVg_IA) quickly and block your dates. See you there!