Category Archives: Nothing official about it

13th Friday; Not so bad afterall!

Life is like that, Nothing official about it

Don’t they say 13th Friday is a bad day? Well, I don’t really believe that (bad things happen to me all the time, is a different thing).

I woke up with nerves weakened by wheezing. Wasn’t a good start of the day!

I assumed it is going to be another bad day and a bad start for the weekend.

Life is an irony and that is what brings a curiosity into life!

Today we had our quarterly review with the EXCOM (executive community). Even before the start of the meeting, the CDO said,

Joseph, thanks to you, iQuest is now very stable and every one has started to use. Good work!

I felt fantastic.

You know, how you feel when you kiss someone for the first time? You feel butterflies in your stomach? Well, I didn’t feel anything like that, but I felt just great. It came out spontaneously from him and that was cool!

And during the evening, my boss (the one who is leaving) and I were having coffee and we started talking about his experience in the firm. Towards the end he said,

You’ve a great potential and a great scope for learning. If you want to join me in the new firm or if you want a reference when looking for a job, just let me know.

Don’t you think it was nice of him? It is.

So I started the week feeling miserable and I end the week feeling appreciated.

Let me see how it goes through the weekend.

Boss says good-bye

Nothing official about it

It was surprising when my boss (remember that with recent dept changes I am reporting to the dept head) announced casually that he is quitting the company. He has been with this firm for about 7.5 years.

We, managers at the dept, expected this to happen a long back. He is a VP in the firm and has a fascinating career – he joined this firm when it was still a very young one; built the Chennai branch; then moved to Australia and built that branch. We all felt he was wasting his time being in IS; he should be heading the branch not a dept.

He is moving to build strategic accounts in a slightly bigger firm which is starting its operations in India. It is good for him. I wish him good luck.

How is this good for me? Well, I need to wait and see. But one of the option proposed was to merge both IS & IT depts and bring them under CTO. CTO discussed with me few options; if that happened, I would’ve gotten more visibility – He told the EXCOM that if Joseph (& another PM in the group) stays, he will be able to handle both depts. However, there were practical difficulties and this option is ruled out.

Even otherwise, I am expecting that this change will bring something positive to me! Hmm…wait and see.

Changes

Nothing official about it

I told you earlier that there are changes in the office. Here it comes,

Joseph who was managing PeopleSoft CRM will take additional responsibility of managing PeopleSoft Finance

So far, Finance was managed by a GPM who is a level higher than me. He was managing only Finance. Now he is moving to take over HRMS and only that. From now on, I will be handling both CRM & Finance. This is a huge responsibility considering these are the two applications that are used by EXCOM to report revenue to the public. It is highly important that these systems are in good shape.

On one hand, I’m thrilled to handle two of the critical applications of the firm. On the other, it is going to be extremely tough, considering the fact that I don’t know much of financial concepts.

I need to put on another hat now.

What’s next?

Life is like that, Nothing official about it

First there was stabilizing a sinking project
Then a client project at Canada
After that toning of the body

I’d set myself a target of 33 inches (from 37). I have gotten to 33.5. I’ve learnt that getting that further down is lot more difficult, since getting fat out of ‘love handles’ takes a persistent and consistent workout and diet. Consistent workout is okay; but being on diet is almost not possible – I’ve not been able to cut down on going out for lunch and drinks.

So I’m content with 33.5 and will continue to workout but not with the intensity that I’ve been doing for the past month or so.

And I’ve been thinking, what’s next – Dancing? Music? Or may be photography? Or ?.

Life is what happens to you when you are busy planning other things.

If I were to believe what I heard today in office, I’ll be handed with a huge (is there any word greater than huge?) responsibility. Hmm..let me see.

A good start of the financial year

Nothing official about it

When I took over a sinking project, about six months back, there used to be escalations almost every day. We used to be buried with tones of problems that we inherited. It was a 35 man-year project (yes you read it right) which was highly needed for the firm to stay in the business; but with the status it was in, it was heading quickly to trash.

I was brought into the project with a clear goal of stabilizing the project and rolling out to the concerned divisions. I had the tough task of building the team; bringing clarity to the stakeholders; emphasizing on a process and conducting short but repeated releases. We spent many long hours in the office; few sleepless nights as well (I still remember the 36 hours that we spent in the office).

Today the system is rolled out to all the divisions; it is getting used by every project; appreciated by external auditors. The cap to all of it was that today, we received an appreciation mail from someone who sent the first escalation mail. I don

Wanted

Nothing official about it

This Canada engagement is turning into a nightmare even after my return.

I was pulled into the engagement with a promise that I will return back to my department and resume managing the same projects once I was back to India.

But promises are made to break!

As this is a high visibility project and the skill set includes more of soft skills rather than technical & analytical skills, they want me to continue in the Canada Project until closure (for about 6 months).

However, I was not very happy with the assignment and don