Siva's Blogs

Tips for Effective Project Communication

2011-12-11T08:22:00.001-08:00

1. Be a active listener
Listening to the discussion, meeting, telephone call with perserverance. You be the person whom you want to be at the transmitting end, so make listening a good habbit.

2. Make notes while listening
Try to make notes while listening, that helps you to recollect later once your done with your communication. Notes will be helpful to understand the aspects of communication.

3. Review and summarize
Please review the notes and sum it up. Make necessary interpretations on the understanding of the communication you had.

4. Communicate back
Communicate back your understanding, by documenting your view and interpretations. Outline the thoughts first and proof read the documents effectively.

Need for Project

2011-11-05T01:44:00.000-07:00

Many times we don't know or analyze why we do certain things? Later on we analyze those. Many times we are part of the project we do our daily work on the project but we never bothered to ask why do this project? Whats the reasoning behind the project. Petty isn't?

In this blog we will discuss on the various reasoning behind the project according to PMI and also we will see some examples of the same. The below given picture represents my own way of seeing the reasoning behind a project:

We will see more about these needs with some examples. Keep visiting.

Risk & Issues: The big confusion

2011-08-29T01:26:00.000-07:00

Risk Vs Issues:

Many time I have asked this question to myself on the difference between risk and issues. Hence this article.

How risk can be quantified?
risk=probability of event x cost of event

Managing risk is one of the important part of the project management. In an generic term Issue and Risk may look closer but they are not. Risk is always considered to be an potential problem and should be monitored throught out the lifecycle of the program/project.

Characteristics of risk:
a. It can have an cause(Requirement/Assumption/Constraints/Condition).
b. It can have an impact which may be Positive or Negative
c. It can have an severity level attached to it.
d. It should have an timeline in which it expires.

When an risk becomes an issue?
When the risk increases it becomes an issue and special action item is required on it. Risk has to be monitored carefully so that it has to be moved from the state of Risk to Issue and take necessary action on the same.

So to be more clear Issue is an risk which has occured or materialized.Issue on the otherhand could be an occurance of risk already defined. Its gap identified between the action/execution on the stakeholder expectations.

Key Differentiators:

Sno#	Risk	Issues
1	It may occur or may not	Always current
2	They are uncertain in nature	It exists
3	Can be mitigated, enhanced or avoid	Not possible to do so, you have to resolve it
4	Needs an risk response and mitigation plan	Requires immediate action

My Blog disclosure policy

2011-05-15T23:10:00.001-07:00

This policy is valid from 16 May 2011

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog does not accept any form of advertising, sponsorship, or paid insertions. We write for our own purposes. However, we may be influenced by our background, occupation, religion, political affiliation or experience.

The owner(s) of this blog will never receive compensation in any way from this blog.

The owner(s) of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

This blog does contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content may not always be identified.

To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

Effort Estimation: How long its going to take?

2011-04-17T05:14:00.000-07:00

During our development efforts or Project management times, we would have come across this question "How long its going to take?" In this blog I'm trying to discuss the concept of "Three point Estimation".

What is Three Point Estimation?
Three point estimate is best suitable for IS Application projects and it takes into account best, worst and most likely scenarios. This is based on the statistical tools.

The Scenarios for Estimation:
a. Most Optimistic - Best Scenario (Mo)
b. Most Pessimistic - Worst Scenario (Mp)
c. Most Likely - Likely to happen Scenario (Ml)

Steps to Three Point Estimation:

Develop an Work Breakdown Structure

Define the Mo, Ml and Mp efforts required with the help of spreadsheet

Estimates each the E value and SD for each task.

Example:
How long it will take to develop the screen to add two numbers?

a. Mo - 5 Hours
b. Mp - 10 Hours
c. Ml- 8 Hours

Thought it can be calculated by Simple Mean which is called as Triangular Method using the formula (Mo+Mp+Ml)/3, thats not most recommended, so we go with PERT based calculation as follows.

E = (Mo+4Ml+Mp)/6

E=(5 + (4 * 8) + 10)/6=(5 + 32 + 10)/6=47/6=7.8

SD = (Mp - Mo)/6=(10-5)/6=5/6=0.8

Benefits:
1. Simple to work on the estimation, would take lesser time to estimate
2. Provides opportunity to consider best, worst and modest scenarios
3. Degree of uncertainty is also documented
4. There are no un-interpreted estimates.

Various links you can refer fore more details:
http://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/methodologies/Full_Software_Project_Template/EstimationGuidelines.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-point_estimation

Setting our project objectives - III

2011-02-17T15:29:00.000-08:00

In my previous posts we have discussed on what is project objectives and how to set them up using SMART. In this post we will see how the concept DISCO would be applicable in setting project objectives.

Rationale:
When we move on to create an project objectives, its not only we should get convinced about our ideas but also our team. Its then the synergy is created to work towards the goals/objectives together. The concept of DISCO advocates the strategy more similar to SMART but with more emphasis on team work.

DISCO:

Detail Specifics:

Be specific on what you want.
Probably have an work breakdown structure.
Help the team members to understand the specific you understood.

Include Qualitative and Quantitative Measurements:

When you start setting the objectives check whether its measurable or not.
Ensure you have the following characteristics towards Qualitative and Quantitative measurements:

Qualitative: Measurable by standards (Defect Ratio, KPIs) more towards Quality
Quantitative: Resources, Timelines, Budget related measures

Seek Consensus:

Always seek consensus from your team on the objectives
You can force the team to follow your objectives until or otherwise they have the buy-in on your objectives
Seek to be understood and also make others understand

Creating Reasonable approach:

Be reasonable and justifiable on your approach
Don't set unrealistic targets and later on postponing them
There is a possibility of conflict in this area because perspective changes among people

Operate in methodical time frame:

Always have time strings attached to your objectives
Let the entire team be aware about the timelines
Create an schedule around the timelines

Example of such objective:

a. Creation of an micro controller based Attendance tracking system with in 2 months which includes key functionalities such Swipe Cards, Daily Attendance Reports and Solar powered system with defect ration <5%.

Setting our project objectives - II

2011-02-12T18:06:00.000-08:00

In my previous blog we saw about the difference between goals and objectives and how they are significant. So the typical two areas in general people suggest about setting objectives are
a. SMART
b. DISCO

We will see about SMART in this Blog:

a. SMART
S - Specific M- Measurable A-Achievable R - Realistic and T - Timebound

Specific:

So any objectives we have must be specific and focussed. It needs to be well articulated and clear to the point. Otherwise we can use the term "well defined". Probably the the following questions would help in doing the same: "What", "Why","Who", "When","Where", "How".

Measurable:

If you are objectives are not measurable how you will determine that you have actually achieved that. An measurable objective will help you to tell whether you are in the right path because its measurable.

Achievable:

There could be resource constraints, time constraints and many constraints which may make your task unachievable, so before determining your objective you decide whether its achievable or not. There is no point in having an objective which is not at all achievable.

Realistic:

The objectives should be in context with your goals. Its cannot be maligned with the goals. Its critical that your objectives are falling in line with your expectations of your goals fulfillment.

Time bound:

Any objective should be time bound, if it is not probably you have would not make any significant impact on your goals. Ensure your objective is having an deadline to achieve. If not achieve review the date, but having an objective without an specific deadline is dangerous.

In my next blog we will discuss about DISCO, even though they are very similar to SMART having an exposure to the same would give an alternate perspective.

Setting our project objectives - I

2011-02-11T16:03:00.000-08:00

Objectives:
I think doing an project without project objectives is more or less like shooting at random.

How do we go ahead and set our project objectives:
Its always important for you to understand that in general project objectives are more an detailed statement in nature, and it directly helps to satisfies need or desire. Primarily its derived from the Goals which are more strategic nature.

Examples for goals: I want to buy an cycle, I want to implement ERP for my organization, I want to construct a Bridge over river for my people, I want migrate my COBOL app to Java App due to high maintenance cost.

These examples mentioned over are here can be more like desire because the "I" term being used. In general its a person intention/goals turns into project with acceptance of the concerned stakeholders. It turns out to be aspiration of the organisation further.To achieve the goals the objectives could be broken down to multiple parts
.
In the example of buying an Bi-Cycle, this goal can be derived with the following objectives a. Save Money/Budget Money b. Select and buy

Widely there are two methods being adopted for setting the right objective they are a) DISCO and b) SMART

We will see them in little more detail in my next Blog.

CMM Implementation challanges and benefits

2011-01-26T07:20:00.000-08:00

Its quite long time since I wrote an blog, I recently came across CMM related stuff which is to be adopted to the project. I would like to share some of my thoughts here in that respects. Before I venture on to the challanges in this blog I would like to give the benefits which you would reap out of this implementation, please note that project can succeed with out these methods also. If you are very new to the CMM and looking to thing into perspective then probably this could help.

Benefits:
a. You would know your objectives clearly (Prefer to follow SMART)
b. Helps you to determine the critical success factors for your project
c. These critical sucess factors could be highly quantified with an specific time,cost and quality factors/metrics.
d. Helps you to identify the risks/issues and helps to proactively mitigate them provided you to proper reviews.
e. At any point of time during the project if you have an doubt whether you are in the right track see that each and every step you take in the project helps you in point a or point b.

Challenges:
a. To rigoursouly follow the documentation process needs time and efforts.
b. Determining the metrics to be followed would be difficult to benchmark if you dont have an history.
c. It cannot be merely an process it has to be incalculated with in your team members as culture.
d. Need to see the feasibility of applying the same in small projects, need to come up with minimal version of the same, probably could be an tailored one.
e. In the case different models practiced across organization, would pose an challange for the QAs to manage it.
f. Auditing is essential otherwise you'll never know whether you are on the right track even though you follow CMM.

Do drop your comments, if you have any.

Earned Value Analysis - V (Quantifying the project schedule delays and cost variance)

2010-09-13T03:51:00.000-07:00

Analytical parameters to the rescue:

When an CEO/Vice President/Delivery Head asks any project manager/project in-charge the following questions they are supposed to have answers for the following questions?

a. How much we are delayed?

b. How much we have earned till now in this project?

c. Whether our earnings till date are as per our budget or beyond our budgets?

d. Are we inline with our project schedule ?

e. How much effecient our resources are ?

f. How would you rate our project interms of Cost and Schedule?

In this blog we will discuss on the parameters which are necessary to answer these questions. I suggest to read my previous blog if you have not gone across to know the fundamental parameters which are required to understand this blog.

1. CV - Cost Variance

Helps to determine whether your project has execeeded your project or its under budget. Its the variance between Earned Value(EV) and Planned Value (PV). (EV-PV)

2. SV - Schedule Variance

Helps to determine whether your project is as per the schedule or behind the schedule or ahead of schedule. Its determined with the help of the variance betwen the Earned Value and the Actual Cost. (EV-AC)

3. CPI - Cost Performance Index

Cost performance index (CPI) is a measure of cost efficiency. CPI is calculated as EV divided by AC. This would be indicating the cost for every single rupee spent.(EV/AC)

4. SPI - Schedule Performance Index

The rate at which the project scheduled deadlines are met as per the original plan. (EV/PV)

Please find the attached excel sheet which provides you an additional information on the CV,SV,CPI and SPI parameters.

Reference file for download:

Analytical Parameters for Rescue Spreadsheet

Earned Value Analysis-IV (Using Excel)

2010-09-13T00:15:00.000-07:00

Deriving PV,EV and AC with an Excel Sheet

For executing Earned Value management or Analysis effectively you need to calculate 3 important data which is crucial. The following are discussed earlier also to make it much more comfortable when its reinforced here.

PV:Planned value is also called as Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled(BCWS). Authorized budget for planned work. Based on this budget we estimate our quote and profitability in the initial stage of the project.

EV:Earned Value is also called as budgeted Cost of Work Performed. Authorized budget for work actually completed. This what we are supposed to have spent on the project.

AC:Actual Cost is also called as the Actual Cost of Work performed. The cost actually incurred in completing the work actually achieved. This will be based on the actual resources and efforts spent on the project. Precisely based on the % of work we have completed.

Example:
Lets assume there is an project which starts on 2nd Feb 2010. We have planned to use 2 resources and 88 Man hours to complete the project for going live. During the execution of the project we want to have an reality check on the project using Earned Value Analysis/Management Techniques. We want to do it as on 8th Feb 2010. So we need to check how much of task has been actually completed on 8th Feb 2010, by representing the work completed in %.

Task A is 100% completed.
Task B is 100% completed
Task C is 75% completed with an alternative resource due to non-availability of resource.
Task D is 50% completed due to an sudden resource change in Task C.

If you refere back to the excel sheet on workings you will be able to figure out the following facts on on PV, EV and AC.

Planned Value/BCWS : 6080
Earned Value/BCWP : 4448
Actual Cost/ACWP : 5744

So the project is over budgeted and beyond schedule. In my next blog we will discuss on the on the various parameters which can be determined using these three derived values (PV,EV and AC).

Please find the attached excel sheet which helps you understand more on calculating the same.

EVM (Earned Value Management Template Sample)

Other useful links:

An Approach with MS Project http://epmcentral.com/articles/evstep1.php
An Wonderful video explaining EVM in simple terms: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UggTFk2EiUg (Recommended)

Earned Value Analysis-III

2010-09-08T05:28:00.000-07:00

Earned value analysis can be worked out effectively when you have compartmentalized the project or you have made the project with an clear work breakdown structure. Refer to my article on Work breakdown Structure for having an understanding of workbreakdown structure.

Please note that workbreakdown structure has to have the following characteristics:

Please note that any work breakdown structure component must have scope of work to be achieved, Total
cost (Direct and Indirect Cost) and time frame for completing the same.
Each and every WBS item must be assigned to an Individual or an group.
It must be having an facility to update the % of work completed, whether its an milestone or not.

Now lets get into the actual subject about to be discussed. Too much of wbs..huh...Be patient while we are going to get across to three important terms:

a. BCWS - Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled - (Budgeted cost of project as per project plan upto the schedule)

b. ACWP - Actual Cost of Work Performed - (Actual expenditure made on the resources for the work actually performed)

c. BCWP - Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (Budgeted cost of project as per the work executed)

Example:

An project is schedule to start on 1st Jan and proposed to be completed by 31st March. It has 3 Milestones 1st on 15th Jan, 2nd on 15th Feb and 3rd on 15th March. Now assume that the entire project budgeted cost would be approximately 1,00,000.00. As per the budgeted schedule, we would spend Rs.25,000.00 at 1st Milestone, Rs.50,000.00 at 2nd Milestone and Rs.75000.00 at the 3rd Milestone.

Assume that we are in the second milestone and looking the current project status, the following could be the scenario:

a. BCWS - 50,000.00 (Scheduled)

b. ACWP - 35,000.00 (Actuals ) - Its surprisingly happened with the limited 2 qualified resources we have achived

c. BCWP - 45,000.00 (Budgeted as Per Schedule - We should have actually spend 45,000.00 as per our budget)

We will explore further in my next post.

Image Courtesy: http://www.baz.com/kjordan/swse625/htm/tp-py.htm

Earned Value Analysis-II

2010-09-08T05:05:00.000-07:00

Earned Value Analysis is actually in attempt to do the same activity of Plan vs Actuals but in a more scientific and prudent manner, so that decisions can be taken with lot of confidence and clarity.

The key factors which are handled with respect to Earned Value Analysis are the following:

Cost
Work Scheduled
Work Accompolished.

Need for EVM:

Helps in tracking the project status in simple terms
Typically helps associating non-productive man hours.
Helps to arrive in Budget Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS) Vs Actual Cost Work Performed (ACWP)
Ultimately the project has to be monitored in terms of Cost,Budgeted and completed work.

EVA calculations are derived from measuring the characteristics of projects performance and status. So, whats required to learn and understand EVA ? Not really much some, if you are maintaining timesheets, proper track of projects progress with little formulae you can really achive it.

We will see the method of calculating the same in the next part.

Earned Value Analysis - I

2010-09-08T04:19:00.000-07:00

Earned Value Analysis - I

In many projects when being managed the top management or project manager either the misses the budget on time and cost. Earned Value Analysis will help you to have control on the same. Any Project Manager would like to know the following facts:

1. Where we are as per Budget?

2. Where we are on Schedule?

3. Where do we stand on our accomplishments?

Earned Value Analysis will help you to understand the current status of the project on the terms of accuracy,consistency and criticalness of the project.

The key factors in arriving at an understanding on financial impact of the project.

% of Budget Spent
% of work done
% of Time Elapsed

But looking at only these aspects will not provide complete picture or state of the project in its entirity, due to lack of its clarity and relationship to the entirity of the project.

Earned Value Analysis is industry standard or practice to Measure Project Progress, Forecast and final cost, provides you the variance in Budgeted and schedule. The key aspect is its provides you numerical indicators for evaluation and taking decisions.

In my next part we will see more about EVA in detail.

Simple and Straight forward approach towards an Business Intelligence Project

2010-07-31T02:21:00.000-07:00

An broad level outlook on the approach towards an Business Intelligence or Reporting Project.
1. Requirements Identification
a. User Requirements
i. Target Audience – Who will be the users of the outcome of the project
ii. Identification charting requirements – Need to an understand charting or dashboard requirements of the customer in term of analytics required.
iii. Reporting Requirements – Level of drill down required or the data grains required.
iv. Parameterization - Type of Parameters required
b. Application Requirements
i. Existing database being used whether its single databases or multiple database.
ii. Look and feel the application

2. Decision on the tools and method to be used
a. Decide on the tools required based on the following factors.
i. Look and Feel required
ii. No. of Users and preferred licensing methodology
iii. Flexibility in development and Database support
b. Reliability and performance of the tool to be used
c. Also device and methodology in which the reports being generated
d. Also decide on the appropriate ETL tool to be used
e. Project Plan

3. Initial Prototyping
a. The prototyping on the application look and feel would help the user to give the feedback on the approach towards the BI result.
b. Also prepare the Example charts and Drill down reports to manage the conformance of the end users expectations easily.
c. Prepare the charts and reports with maximum variations possible.

4. Database modeling
a. Logical modeling to convert the application database data into Staging or reporting database; You can also use the logical modelling tools available for modelling, once the model is reviewed and approved by the necessary stakeholders physical model can be generated and published for use.
b. You can refer kimbhall’s dimensional modeling for building the warehouse
c. Identify the Facts and dimensions properly to suit the granular level of detailing required in the reporting project.

5. Report Design, Development and Testing
a. Use the right tools for developing the reports
b. Try to use the Database Native connectivity options for better performance.
c. Initial stage customer feedback would be a lot more helpful in following similar standards across all the reports.
d. Minute detailing such as Spelling Mistakes, Header, Footer, Page Nos, Special Symbols are some of the key things in the static reports.
e. Test the application for correctness of data, Input Parameters, comfortless in viewing and printing the reports if required
f. Test the application with huge amount of data.

6. Deployment and Usage
a. When the volume of reports is huge strive to maintain the version control system for the reports for change management and maintainability.
b. Once the reports are designed and tested deploy the same in the reporting application.

Creating Work Breakdown Structure

2010-07-05T04:01:00.000-07:00

"A WBS, as defined in the PMBOK® Guide—Third Edition is ―a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables. It organizes and defines the total scope of the project. Each descending level represents an increasingly detailed definition of the project work. The WBS is decomposed into work packages. The deliverable orientation of the hierarchy includes both internal and external deliverables.

Creating workbreakdown structure is key element in project management. This will be the one of the factor for deriving estimation, scheduling and control factors. WBS is a skeleton of a project.

It may be project which might be related to Traditional Waterfall or Agile Workbreakdown Structure plays an crucial role. In the case of SDLC it revolves around the deliverables (Requirements Document, Design specs,etc.,) where in the case of Agile it revolves around the end user functionalities commonly refered as user stories. It could be more related to the Product Backlog in the Agile Project Management world.

How to make an Work Breakdown Structure:
1. Clearly understand the project statment or Project Objective.
2. Involve all the key stakeholders in this activity
3. Arrive at the 100% rule of WBS including all the deliverables in the WBS. Its important that you dont miss any deliverable.
4. Now breakdown the line items of deliverables into decomposed items
5. Step 5 can be achived with the help of the team along with the team member contributing to the estimated timeline. This is recorded in the Workbreakdown package dictionary
6. Each Work Package can have multiple milestones.

In the case of Agile projects, the sprint meetings can be revitalise the WBS or product backlog for proper maintenance of the WBS.

WPF-Domain Driven Development

2010-05-14T05:14:00.000-07:00

Many new developers would be confused while developing the new line of business applications. Even the developers who are familliar with the development days of Visual Basic 6.0 found it easy to migrate Visual Studio 2005 and form based development.

These years lot of focus is being given to the domain driven development which is largely driven by the Java development methodologies.

There has been various architectures and patterns being discussed and put into use in the day to day development of Enterprise Applications.

Some of the options which are explored and developed are the following:
a. Microsoft Enterprise Library www.pnpguidance.net
b. Development based on ORM - Use of NHibernate/Castle Active Record
c. MVC (Model View Controller)
d. MVVM (Model View View Model)
e. Entity Framework
f. Using WCF
g. Using Linq-to-SQL

Out the above said methodologies Entity Framework is in its nacent stage of usage. Sure, its going to get going based on the receptiveness based on ADO methodology.

Go Green with ERPs

2009-09-29T05:35:00.000-07:00

ERPs generally help you to improve the process. How can an ERP system can make your organization eco-friendly.

1. Going with workflows
Workflows in an ERP system can help you reduce the process flow of documents between people to people as paper documents; This also increases the visibility of the process across the organization

2. Alerts Mechanisms
In traditional usage of office applications people tend to take printouts of huge statistical data and act upon the critical areas. ERP systems will help or assists you with setting upon alert mechanism may be its inventory, increase of credit limits, excess budgets, etc.,

3. Passing of information through Emails
ERP systems alows you to send critical documents such as Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, Production orders to be reviewed and ammended online. These documents can also be sent to the respective people via emails.

4. Review meetings
No need for people to take printouts of their analytical areas instead they can share the ERP data screens through video conferencing, remote desktop access by sharing their data and discuss among peers.

These ways ERP can assist you in reducing your Travel, Printing of paper, Spending of money in Logistics, etc.,

This may seem to be an cumbersome excersice even for the companies which have already implemented ERPs but belive you can do a lot of good thing to the future generation and the organization, by implementing step by step at least any one of this and follow it rigorously.

Be the change you want to be - Mahatma Gandhi.

Thanks.

Challenges for small software companies in Domestic Industry

2009-09-23T02:57:00.001-07:00

In this blog I would like to discuss the various factors which pose as an challenge for the growth of smaller software companies.

1. No idea about the market
When the companies enter into the market, they have very little or no idea about the current market situation, have less amount of analytics. This situation makes them unclear about the problems they are about to face in the market.
2. Unorganized business segment
Since the market is largely unorganized for the domestic industry per se, the cost factor will be key for the growth. Due to unhealthy competition prices are not organized and they become volatile.
3. Funding
Due to the very problem of high attrition rate and Industry own high pay scale issues funding needs to be the key. The smaller companies get into the viscous circle of not getting paid by the customer in time due to no clear definition of success.
4. Lack of documentation
Documentation and process is lacking which will be taken as an advantage by the customer. Documentation involves quite an amount of process understanding rigorous auditing by the organization.
5. Failure to learn from mistakes
When we fail to learn from mistakes we tend to end up in an bigger problem. This happens with the smaller organization. Smaller organization focus only on getting the business, but instead they should focus on getting sustainable business.

Open for comments & Discussions.

Reasons for failures of ERP Implementation Part

2009-07-25T06:13:00.000-07:00

There are various reasons for failure of ERP implementation . This blog discusses some of them for your understanding:

1. Success is not defined properly.

The success of the project is not defined properly. The success has to be defined in such a way that its measurable and achievable. Some example can be mentioned as given below:

a. Completion of first 25 Purchase order in the new system
b. Inventory match between the live erp system and physical inventory
c. Trial Balance match on the first month after going live on ERP system financials
d. Completion of first 10 sales invoice from the new ERP System

These predefined measureable statements would be the key for defining the success fo the erp system.

2. Transparent Communication by the stakeholders

Stakeholders are not communicated properly on the problems and decisions. Decisions which are not taken timely will create delays in implemenation. This has

to be taken care in both vendor and customer side. Example of such non-communication are as given below:
a. Lacking certain functionality in the ERP
b. Non-availability of report formats to the Report development team
c. Not revealing certain inputs for completion of the accounts mapping.
d. Decision on process from the Head of the departments

ERP: Psychological Factors

2009-07-22T00:08:00.000-07:00

Why do organization restrain themselves to ERP. This blog discuss some of the internal psychological factors which makes organization restrain to going ahead with ERP

1. Change Management: Users accustomed to the existing legacy solution or systems have to get used to the change which tend to happen in an ERP Implementation
2. Training: The Users needs to be trained to the new system, time and effort required would be high
3. Control: The existing system might give ease of control for managing the mistakes effectively, imposing an ERP solution might put them on to control on data authorization, approval procedures
4. Accountability: When you implement an ERP the accountability of the data is made responsible to an person, which they might be fearing off
5. Perception on Failures: Their competitors and partners they work with might have told them about the problems in an ERP implementation which might given an negative perception about ERP Implementation

SAP B1 (Business Process set right)

2009-07-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

SAP B1

The Small and Medium size ERP is being talked all over india now. the SAP Business One an SME version of ERP meant for Small and Medium enterprises is gaining high importance at this time of recession and slowdown economy to have better control of business processes.

Why do we need SAP B1 - If any organization is worried about having an ERP they should try to figure out solutions for this questions:

1. How long it takes to prepare an Balance Sheet?
2. How many times we check the inventory before we make an new purchase order?
3. Which are the product lines which is taking more time for delivery? Where is the bottleneck?
4. Which is vendor is delaying in supply of raw materials? Should I continue partnering with him?
5. How much credit period I get from vendor ?
6. Whats the time spent on reconciliation of Bank statement from my books of accounts?
7. Do I have control of the Customers and Suppliers I deal with? Whether do I have all the sufficient information regarding them.
8. How about the control on expenses we make? Can we have an budget and make control over the same?
9. How many leads I came across this Quarter, how many have been lost and why are they lost?
10. Whether my Purchase and Sales documents are proper with numbered, year after year and maintained properly for statutory and auditing purpose at any point of time?

Hope answer to these questions would make you understand the need of an ERP like SAP B1.

Why waste time, evaluate it.

SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services

2008-10-07T02:55:00.000-07:00

Many companies have SQL Server 2005 can use the SQL Server Reporting services to manage the basic BI Needs. The inbuilt application capabilities help the end users to create their own applications. This reporting also helps to add as many parameters they need according the defined ones based on input query fields from any other tables in the same database.

Basically works based on Datasets, this tool is bane for SQL Server users who want to create on the fly Reports based on RDL (Report Definition Language). This also enables you to export the report to XML, XLS, CSV and PDF Formats.

It would approximately take 15 minutes to setup and run a Sample SQL Server reporting services. Have a try...

Useful Links:
http://www.sqlmag.com/Article/ArticleID/46169/sql_server_46169.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aafHygddNqc

Chennai OpenCoffee Club - Seamless Effort

2008-03-03T04:51:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

We all know each other some times we dont share our thoughts we might be of million dollar usage to you or your community. Chennai OpenCoffee Club is an very useful and wonderful forum where lot of entreprenuers join and share their thoughts on IT Ventures, troubles in opening new ones and sharing their thoughts. The Message conveyed by it can be said as its sounds as "A Place for the startup Eco System around chennai". Vibrant!!! Isn't?

Many VC's could be watching those who knows? Its a very good effort indeed by Siddharth..

Do become a member and share your thoughts...and lets make this city and India a prosporous one be encouraging and enabling upcoming entrepreneurs. Aware, its not only an online forum they do have personal meet arranged insite city at least once in a month.

Keep going young india. Visit http://chennaiopencoffee.ning.com/ for more information.

Siva.

One Youngster with lot of Dreams

2007-08-25T06:34:00.000-07:00

One Mr. SenthilKumar my friend has started an Website which helps anybody to have information about currents pricing trends in Hardware Market. He has also decided to help people to start up their own Website. He has also having an idea to import Hardware from US.

As an measure to envisage this he has started his own website. Please visit the website www.aanjisystems.com for more information.

BI: Business Intelligence - - - Need Analysis

2007-07-23T01:50:00.000-07:00

Business Intelligence: Need Analysis

To know what is business intelligence refer to my previous blog.

When does one Need an Business Intelligence Tool?

Business Intelligence tool becomes your need when you dont have sufficient amount of analytical reports to support your decision Making. Business Intelligence tools becomes imperative when your Decision making manager doesn't have necessary data or numbers in right time to make the decision. The decisions made out of gut feeling does not make sense always.

To understand the above statements its good to know that why can't we get the necessary data or numbers from the existing systems:

Lack of reports available in Existing Transcational/ERP Systems: The existing systems such as ERP/Transcational systems give only statistical reports pre-defined or designed at the time of implementation which is mostly restricted to few numbers. At that point of time we dont really realize the need for more analytical reports becoz of lack of data. After the implementation of ERP systems the Management would very well require the Operational Managers to use the data being entered through Transcational Systems or ERP. At this juncture the existing ERP system would not be suffice to solve your problems.

Ability to Integrate Dis-separate Database Applications: There might be a production Monitoring system which is very native to the machinery and there could be another Inventory management system to track your production. There is very little chance that these two applications to speak to each other and give insight to the status of production and inventory co-relating both information. If the both applications are of two different vendors with two different database its more complicated to get in sync both of their views and provide an soution to competent reporting needs. Basically when it comes to hetrogenous data sources available in an organisation it becomes difficult for an ERP system to manage all.

Lack of Prioritizing the Report Preparation Activity: The IT Team who does this job of solving the reporting needs fall prey to irregular priorities and Infrastructure realted problems. They get trapped to the daily problems faced by the IT Infrastructure chaos which exists almost everyday. Then the Priorities are not organized or recorded many request go in air. Hope we discussed various factors which are contributing to the non-availability of analytical data helping decision making.

In the next blog we will see how a Good BI solution can make difference to your IT Infrastructure and reporting needs of the organisation.

An Individual can do a lot to the world

2007-07-23T00:05:00.001-07:00

Hi,

This is to bring to your notice about an Tamil Magazine article which brings awareness to the community on the importance of Water and its implications it causes to the environment. One Person from coimbatore who is a bus Conductor is creating lot of awareness by putting on campaings to the world and the community

The Article titled "En Kuzhandai Ethilay Neerai Parkum?" is an reality check towards the point on where the world is going in reality. He portrays about the various problems the young generations will face upon in the future if the environmental problems are not given due notice. When you find time please try to go through this article released in the 2nd Week Magazine Kungumam on July 2007.

He also tackles reiterates the legal issues which are coming out of environmental problems. We need to avoid using the Mineral Water and Oxygen Parlours which shows the inefficiencies of our government and our people to control or manage the Environmental problems.

I'm trying to put small efforts to appreciate this mans efforts. Lets also try to use this media such as Internet to propagate the message of peace and prosperity.

Lets make a new world for our Generations

2007-06-08T21:56:00.000-07:00

An call for Awareness on Environmental Issues

As responsible persons who are educated and well equiped with IT Infrastructure and communication systems, we all forget the Nature. If this continues we all will leave our generation in great Trouble.

If you are still not aware of the climatic changes occuring in the world. Make sure you visit the few links which I have given here:

http://library.thinkquest.org/C006156/main.htm - Awareness on Global Warning
http://www.apeuk.org/climatechange.htm - To know the possible disasters we are going to face.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/g8-on-climate-change - What the G8 Speaks of Climatic Changes

As an Inidividual how can I contribute ?

1. By Switching of your lights in your home (When not required only)
2. By using Energy Saving Lights
3. By utilizing Water Properly
4. By Growing Trees near by
5. By acting eco-friendly (Using Paperbags, Neglecting Platsics,etc.,)
6. By Spreading the message of Peace and Eco-Friendlyness across your friends

These are very few ideas you can do lot more to this world...

Lets make a new world for our Generations better than then one which was given to us.

Thanks

2007-05-30T00:37:00.000-07:00

Business Intelligence: An Insight into your Business Data
A Layman’s Perspective

Any Hardcore business person might have a fair opinion that all computers, software and technology are useful but they don’t contribute to the business. (Some might be exceptional about this!!)

We use of lot of Intelligence to search these kind of information’s Right. Just Kidding…

Importance Business Intelligence By example:
Lets assume Mr. Raj, CEO of an XYZ Company would like to travel from New Delhi, Capital of India to Colombo, Capital of Srilanka on 5th June 2007 for an official meeting. For him to make a decision how to go about this he might need the following resources:
What his plan on 5th June 2007 (His engagements, appointments, Personal Meetings etc.,)
Availability of Flights on that Day
Cost of the those available flights on that Day
Local commuting from office to Airport Time required

When a person would like to travel from One place to another for a business trip he needs data in terms of Time, Money, Business Propositions, etc., Why not big organizations think of having an Tool to analyze the data of a Day-to-Day business which can give them better insight to the business

Business Intelligence:
Business Intelligence is a tool one can use it to analyze various types of data to make good decisions.

Believe it or not Microsoft Excel is being put in use or being used as one of the Analytics software. Let us see where and all the Business Intelligence would come into play. This is only a Limited listing of few areas or functional departments which can get used of Business Intelligence which can really help their analytics to make decisions:
Purchase
Supplier grading based on commitment on Deliveries
Which supplier has given good credit terms
Which supplier has got less return of goods
Sales
Region wise sales
Sales by sales person
Sales done during the Season
Customer wise Sales Analysis

The above given are only example to understand about business Intelligence usage in day to day Business Environment. We will see more about the various aspects of it in the upcoming blogs.

Can you answer few questions as a Business decision maker?
Are you spending too much time helping your end-users download data to Windows?
Do staffs have to re-key numbers from printed reports into Excel spreadsheets?
Do managers want to be able to run reports right from Windows icons on their desk, with run-time prompts built right in?
Does your end-user want better ways to present reports graphically with drill-down capabilities and drag-and-drop formatting?

Thanks.

To Have more understanding refer to the following Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business%5Fintelligence
From one of the Leading Vendor of BI Tools Cognos
Five Strategies by MAIA-Intelligence BI Vendor for SME in India

En Iniya Tamizha...

2007-01-15T04:01:00.000-08:00

Iniya Tamizhar Thirunal Vazhthukkal.

"Pongaloo Pongal!!! Pongaloo Pongal!!!"

I remember those days(1994-95) when I heard these sound across my home early in the morning around 6.00 AM. New Pots with Firewoods in new Mud Stove, Hens running arround, Dogs standing along with us shaking their little tail!! Those New pots will be tied around with "Manjal Kotthu" (Sorry for Poor English). My Family people used to put Kolam right from the Night.

When I was in tirupattur (Ramanathapuram district) I used to see many people getting injured becoz of manjuvirattu (Snatching the Prize money from Sharp Combed Bulls). I had also seen one Game called "Rekhla Race"(Race between Bullock carts) which are mind boggling. I'm really unaware whether these games still exists are not.!!

Just about 10 years further, Times has changed a lot, now Gas stove is used for preparation of pongal with in minutes, except new dress nothing has changed. Its very surprising that many people doesn't realize that we are all missing those wonderful days. And when people realises that its too late. Atleast some TV channels reminding about those tradiational games like "Jallikattu" with no viewers, is the pitty.

Lets pray god and the Nature to remind us about our tradition and culture to make the Human Being realize that Nature is always bigger than Anybody.

Infact, I'm writing this Blog with out celebrating the pongal at my Home. I dont know how many houses are quarelling "Pongaloo Pongal!!! Pongaloo Pongal!!!" today ? ?

Hope time changes and give back us the feel of the age-old Tradition, Love and Culture to us.

Project Management @ Customer Site - Part II

2007-01-11T03:29:00.000-08:00

Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish."
- Jean De La Fontaine

Continuing the yesterday's blog on Project Management @ Customer site.

Before continuing further you must understand that you are not consulting the client or customer as a person, rather you are representing an Organisation and always the organisation is behind there to support you.

"Understand that You are not on your individual capactiy and you are representing your organisation."

4. Communication
Clearly understand the communication channel and escalation levels. Use all modes of communication such as Direct Interaction, Telephonic Conversation, Emails, Meetings, Discussions etc., Try to interact with End Users and ask them their problems so that they will be free to share their knowledge base and don't commit or expose the product during these discussion. Make sure you complete the informal discussion with a nice note in an friendly manner. When End Users are not-cooperating due to their other works or busy schedule try to re-prioritise your activity to their needs at times to show that you are flexible enough and support their needs. (Make sure you dont do it regularly).

Whenever there is a need for escalation do the escalation to the higher ups. Dont escalate for small issues.

5. Politics
Unlike our government politics dont get too much into it. But its good if you can understand the politics of the organisation to get the work done. It would help you understand people very much. (After all Implementation is about selling our product with post sales support)

6. OffSite Co-Ordination
When ever you communicate a problem to the offsite, be very clear and define the problem with examples becoz offsite people doesn't know the scenario underwhich you have faced the problem.

Do prioritize your requirements to the offsite team so that they can work on your priorities. Do Keep an excel sheet fo r this activity which would be very handy. (Dont forget to add an remark column which emphasises the reason for priority). Dont expose any offsite members to the customer, which will enable the customer to lose confidence on you and rather create problems at the off site.

7. Professional Ethics

Try to be polite during your discussion. Dont use unparlimentary words even offline with the End users or any person in the client. Do follow the dress code of your organisation. Do follow the Customer Shift Timings and be punctual. Dont misuse the client resources such as Phone, Papers, Internet, etc., Do take permission on using the necessary resources if required.

Project Management @ Customer Site - Part I

2007-01-10T04:20:00.000-08:00

Project Management at Customer Site seems to be a night mare for many new commers in to this field and also to the experienced ones at times.

"I'm the customer, you deliver me what I'm asking for"

This statement will tell you how annoyed a customer will be when his expectations are not met. Managing customer at customer site is like meeting the lion at lions Den. You dont have worser scenario than this if you dont have a history of please experience with the customer you have met so far.

No worries, see the below given quotes by unknown:

"To my customer"
I may not have the answer, but I’ll find it.
I may not have the time, but I’ll make it.

Being at Customer site the Implementation consultant and software engineers needs to follow very small things which can make the customer happy.

You have to make sure you have the following information before you go to the customer site for the implementation.

1. Project deliverables
What is to be delivered. A Product with what features. What is their expectations on the product ? What is the history pre-sales communication between the customer and the organisation. What are all the modules to be delivered

2. Scope of the activity to be done
What you are going to do there. Training, Implementation, Mapping of the requirements in the product, Data Migration. Be aware of the activity going to be dealt there. Try to get acquainted with the necessary techniques in handling these activities.

3. Understanding Customer Business
Basic understanding of business being done by the customer.
If you understand the business nature of the customer it will help to speak with them in their language which helps to build the rapo with the customer in the future it will be the credit you can bet up on to certain extent.

Will blog further in the upcomming blogs.. soon...

I Love India

2007-01-10T04:17:00.000-08:00

Annaivarukkum Vannakam (Wishes to everyone)

Since My monther tongue is Tamil. Its important to give due importance to it when I start my first blog. Hope you wont mind.

I would like to share my experience on my IT Career, some Scintillating incidents I had/would come across with you all.

Do visit my blog and make your comments.

Siva.