Live It

Background   Just gave PMP and passed with proficiency in Initiating, Planning, Execution, Control process groups, and moderately proficient in Closing Process group. Due to the dryness of the subject it immensely helped me to stick with a schedule, do the homework, do the finals as per the schedule and meet the “milestones” set .Once I did that I felt prepared for the exam preponed the exam by 1 week to enjoy the July4th holiday with the family. My 2 cents for exam preparation, I would see Scope, Time and Cost as the core areas for preparation and the rest as supporting areas. It does not mean they are any less important, but these three areas nicely flow from each other and should be treated as one coherent unit. PMBOK, while having its weaknesses in explaining few things, is actually pretty good read and I read the PMBOK once apart from other exercises and material s. These are the dates and scores of my preparation: Exam Date Exam Name Sc...

Leadership means making a difference. Leaders create a positive change and are able to provide the impetus that creates an atmosphere of positive change that improves the world in ways large and small. Leaders provide a new ways of thinking and new energy to current situations. Whether it means facing the issues in their department, practice, family or personal lives leaders do what needs to be done, even when it would be easier to delay, procrastinate or ignore problems. The basic function of a leader is to persuade, influence, motivate and to inspire others over time. Additionally, in my opinion, the most effective leaders are characterized by a sense of service to others. Professionally I have had numerous opportunities to display leadership skills. One recent occurrence was at my workplace K12 Inc. I saw an opportunity to cut down my team’s production support effort by increasing the efficiency of the processes established by my team. I took the lead in quickly putting toge...

In this 21st century Information Technology (IT) has changed the world in an unprecedented way. It is a revolution that everyone wants to be a part of and to say that each and every sector in the human arena is touched by IT is not an exaggeration. As I was growing up in the mid 90’s, I realized that those who control information are the most powerful people on the planet. One of the biggest advantages of IT is it dispenses information to anyone and everyone willing to seek information thus breaking the power barrier. As a computer science engineer it is my privilege to empower each individual with the information necessary to help grow and to chase their dream with a click of the mouse, and I would not trade this for anything else. For the past eight years in an attempt to stabilize my life I took the less risky path and worked for big corporation’s helping them serve their mission. What I would do if my living expenses were covered is, starting my own company, where I ca...

From the beginning of my career after graduating with a degree in computer science in India, I was offered the option of entering the world of programming or pursuing a career in quality assurance. To the surprise of my family and friends I chose to enter quality assurance. I worked for a year in India and a year in the United States as a process quality consultant with a focus on educating technical teams on the importance of ensuring process quality in service firms. Some of my clients included Tata Consultancy Services and Bank of America. In the course of working with these clients and others get a grasp on their internal processes companywide I soon felt the need to equip myself with additional technical skills. I trained myself in Java/J2ee technologies through self study, completed the Sun Java Certified Programmer exam and became a programmer. I have worked as a Senior Java/J2ee developer for the past few years and have had a chance to implement and produce high quality delive...

The topic of my today's article is 'how to say a positive NO', you must be wondering what the heck, I know how to say a no, but in my experience I feel that at times these simple things get difficult, let us look at some examples. Your manager asked you work a third weekend in a row, this happened to be the same weekend you and your spouse planned for an outing long time back , you need break from hectic schedule ,but can you say no to your boss, your apprisals are fast approaching and the promotion is pending. Your child cries, I need a new gadget, you say you already have so many ,all my friends have it , how do you say No with out feeling guilty as a bad parent ?At the dinner table your spouse brings up the topic of your aged mother who reached a position where she is no longer safe living by herself, your spouse is vehmently against it how can you say No to your own mother? Daily you see lots of violence in the society , crime everywhere ,nations acquring nuclear weapo...

In this post I want to write down few things around family and marriage.Family is such a powerful institution which is the very base of this human society.It is the place where the next generation of the humans are born ,raised and nurtured. As a kid I never used to understand the values that my parents were trying to inculcate in me,only as an adult and only when I am trying to mother a child is when I realise the enormous number of times I refer back to who I am ,and what my parents taught. There are many advantages of having a sound family.In my observation ,I find a person who comes from a stable good family more contended inside out than a person who isnt,even though the later might have other richess,the one with a good family is more well rounded. If family is this huge tree of life, then marriage is the seed.Needless to emphasise the importance of a good marriage for a healthy family,In my article I want to put forth some out of the box ideas about marriage. I request all of yo...