Manage Well - Latest Comments

Re: How to go faster than you can?

alawrence89 — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 12:32:06 -0000

Really interesting post! Loved how you supported your points with data! A big problem I often come across in terms of speed is getting approvals from clients faster. Any advice?

Re: Building Credibility in Four Easy Steps

Niranjan — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 08:09:19 -0000

Yes, Tathagat. Your 4E model is nice guideline. I liked very much point 2 and 4. It is very much true. I have experienced myself, when started Training 6 years ago, when quit MNC job. Initially building a credibility was foremost, one has to have patience to achieve till reaching this point.

Re: Week 1 of my Lean Consulting Startup

Ganesh — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 04:26:05 -0000

A very interesting post -

Re: Stop ‘teaching’ students about entrepreneurship…!

Avijit Samanta — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 11:58:58 -0000

It seems Kiran is there.

Re: Three questions every program manager must ask

Tathagat Varma — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 09:46:06 -0000

Republished at http://java.dzone.com/artic...

Re: Week 1 of my Lean Consulting Startup

Tathagat Varma — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 09:44:55 -0000

Cross-posted at http://architects.dzone.com...

Re: Why do you pay people? No, really?

Tathagat Varma — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 09:43:52 -0000

Also published on http://java.dzone.com/artic...

Re: My Antarctic Voyage

Sowmya — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 22:41:22 -0000

Great to know about your experience making up with the harsh conditions at South Pole .Would love to see this elaborate

Re: Hello World !

Meghana — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 02:35:10 -0000

Wow, impressive profile with an ocean of knowledge!!!! Looking forward to work with you for GHC 2014!!!!

Re: Get me 200 rejections and let’s talk…

Tathagat Varma — Wed, 28 May 2014 00:44:12 -0000

This post was originally published on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/tod...

Re: Hard work is killing people. Literally!

Nirmalya Sengupta — Fri, 09 May 2014 02:58:05 -0000

There always was, is and will be a difference between 'Working Hard' and 'Working Smart'. It is only that we fail to recognize it most of the times.

Re: Does the internet know you?

Tathagat Varma — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 11:03:26 -0000

Dave - thanks, fair point. However, it is now almost a year-old blog post, so perhaps I will be more diligent with the future blog posts.

Re: Does the internet know you?

Dave Aronson — Sun, 09 Mar 2014 10:27:53 -0000

I've just started skimming the post and need to leave, but I have a suggestion. The title sounded like tips on privacy, rather than what marketroids might call "building your brand". I'll be back to read the rest, since I *am* one of those who left the "real job" world for consulting, and would like to build my brand better, but you might get more appropriate viewers with a more accurate title.

Re: Design Vs. Innovation?

Tathagat Varma — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 10:25:10 -0000

Thanks for sharing your perspective Anjali. I think we need to learn a lot about design from the nature - millions of years of evolution provides us with so many interesting data points...

Re: Design Vs. Innovation?

Anjali Kulkarni — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 07:10:03 -0000

Dear Tathagat, This is a good article. I am working as a designer with UNICOM and this link was shared by Nitesh. I find this article to be intelligent. Here you have elaborated that nature Seeks balance, and its applicable everywhere in life in each and every stage of life, that's what I feel.
Briefly exploring after reading this blog , what I Feel and Understand is that Design directly proportion to the heart, mind and Brain and Design more shows “How”.

And Innovation is directly proportion to the Brain and thinking and Innovation shows “What and why”.here i would like to say that Simple Living and high Thinking as "Simple Design with High Innovation" which directly gives clear massage what "Design" wants to say- :)

Re: Dude, where’s my customer?

Tathagat Varma — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 23:37:47 -0000

I would not equate scrum to just 'collective brainstorming' - there is more to it. You might want to check out www.scrumalliance.org for more on this.

Re: Dude, where’s my customer?

Tathagat Varma — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 23:36:38 -0000

Lydia - not sure how your comment landed on my blog site, but you might want to check out www.scrumalliance.org to get more information around Scrum. While a certification is not *generally* accepted proxy to rocksolid experience and expertize, it might help you get started in this subject, and a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) is a good starting point in your journey. However, there is literally tons of knowledge and information available on the net in form of articles, whie papers, videos, tools, etc.

Re: Dude, where’s my customer?

lydia perry — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 04:26:47 -0000

Thanks . That was good information. I had a question - given all the buzz around Scrum (my company has started adopting it in a big way with almost all projects having stand ups, whiteboards coming up everywhere etc.), do you think it is a good idea to get a certification in Scrum?

Re: Why is your agile still a lot like dogma on steroids?

Tathagat Varma — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 11:11:45 -0000

From my interactions with practitioners, the reality is that no one really cares about the 'pure agile' theory. Everyone is freely blending agile methods with whatever works for them (and even things that don't work!). I think this is a great news - and perhaps the only real hope. Reality in the trenches will always trump vision hiding inside powerpoint decks. So, over a period of time, I think the forces of free market and Darwin will collectively ensure that only the ideas that are perceived as pragmatic, efficient and effective will go on to evolve in the long run...

Re: Why is your agile still a lot like dogma on steroids?

S M Kripanidhi — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 23:22:33 -0000

That is so ture. What should we do to maintain the integrity of Agile as a philosophy so people can benefit from it ? and what can we do to prevent Agile from becoming an other dogma or ritual as in a cermony moderated by a religious priest ?

Re: Why is your agile still a lot like dogma on steroids?

Tathagat Varma — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 23:12:17 -0000

Thanks Kripa (had been meaning to reply to you for over a month!). To me agile was supposed to be a philosophy but had ended up being a religion. And we all know once we have a religion, what comes next...

Re: Does the internet know you?

Tathagat Varma — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 12:58:24 -0000

Alok - thanks for sharing your views, and wish you success in your journey... :)

Re: Does the internet know you?

Alok Singh — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 09:32:34 -0000

I came across this post from one of the email discussions on the scrum development listserv. I'm also guilty of not doing enough for the internet to know me. Though, I always dream of bringing a positive change in society, but could not achieve anything of substance till date. As Cohelo says in Eleven Minutes, “Dreaming is very pleasant as long as you are not forced to put your dreams into practice. That way, we avoid all the risks, frustrations and difficulties, and when we are old, we can always blame other people - preferably our parents, our spouses or our children - for our failure to realize our dreams." I guess I'm going to be one of these guys :)

Re: Why is your agile still a lot like dogma on steroids?

S M Kripanidhi — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 02:20:52 -0000

So very well said, Tathagat.

Ask someone who is talking about Agile as to what are they trying to accomplish by "doing Agile". They only have "motives", they do not seem to have "goals". If they were trying to achieve something by being agile, they would be more focussed and be able to figure out how to use agile concepts to their advantage in accomplishing their goals quickly.

Being agile is a default start-up culture. More often than not, larger enterprises are more comfortable making a mockery of it and are unable to figure out the common sense behind agile.

As you rightly point out, agile concepts tell you how to beat complexity, unpredictability, volatality and risks in software development, in an imperfect world. The agile strategies are very strightforward :

1. Increase Employee Engagement: so that we are able to create an environment of trust and empowerment, so that people enjoy what they do and therefore increase their "productivity" in whatever they do. This this the theory of what is called "positive psychology" , "happiness advantage" or "flow". It is like a "commando culture", who are willing to risk their lives for accomplishing their goals.

2. Accelarate Learning : while working in an imperfect world, we need to learn to build our capabilities fast, to do the right things right in a given context. We need to therefore learn to manage our learning, so that it happens quickly. Collaboration, the PDCA loop, Retrospectives and Fast Feedback are key to fast learning. This should result in a true Inspect-Adapt culture working in an imperfect world.

3. Incremental Innovation: Accelerated learning should result in enhanced capability that enables us to cause continuous improvements to the ways we do what we do, by learning and discovering newer and better ways to do the right things right the first time.

4. Increase Speed: All the above enables us to increase our speed of continuous delivery of value to our customers, thereby increasing the ROI of our work. We also on a continuous basis learn to identify and elimate waste to prevent us from slowing down.

As far as Agile is concerned, if we see the above results in a project endevour, they would surely be harnessing agile concepts to their advantage. If not they would be doing Agile as a ritual, a dogma process, without knowing why they do, what they do, the way they do it.
That's the unfortunate part of doing Agile.

Re: Why is your agile still a lot like dogma on steroids?

Tathagat Varma — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 02:02:09 -0000

Hi Kurt - this blog post is my take on the prevailing mindset that I am (steadily if not increasingly) seeing in the agile training, coaching and thought leadership community at large. Instead of helping people how to open up our minds and discover newer ways to solve problems, we are telling them that agile as we know today is pretty much the done deal, and if you 'deviate' from expert advise, you are committing the biggest sacrilege of our times! Discipline is important, but it can't come at the cost of curbing my freedom to experiment and think outside the established line of thought - how so much flawed and immature my ideas might be (didn't we all start like that some day?). Like I wrote in the blog, my view of agile is the problem-solving approach that helps me get started irrespective of wherever I am, rather than putting pre-conditions for success by creating a utopian make-believe world, which I might never have.

I would rather have an ounce of free thinking than a gallon of canned thinking...