I'd be leaving for Seattle, USA inshaAllah on 3rd October's night- a day before my birthday. I have been a bit busy with a lot of related stuff and I hope everything turns out to be good.
I have been given farewell by Adnan and Affan yesterday night. It was an Aftar at YenHui- it was scheduled to be at HsinKuan (Hassan Khan) though. Nevertheless, food didn't matter at all. it was the occasion that was important. I am quite happy that everything has turned out to be good.
A nice black wallet by Adnan and lightblue Tshirt by Affan were the presents. These were accepted wholeheartedly with great enthusiasm.. :D.
I thank Adnan and Affan for the really nice farewell party and hope to see them soon.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
What to do when you miss a deadline - guide for team leads and project managers
It is 10:12pm. Your QA team is working hard to test the fresh 'nightly-build'. Your developers are right on the edge of their seats to fix any bug that comes up. Few of your developers are actually fixing a few 'leftovers'. Bugzilla says that there are only 10 bugs are left with 2 being highly critical show stoppers. Your lead developer has assured you that the show stopper will be fixed by midnight.
'Midnight he says', you think, 'he'll probably get it done by 1. QA guys will test it by 4. and IF there is no other bug that comes up in that testing I just may be able to send the build to client by 5. Bandwidth isn't enough.. It takes 2 hours to upload with everyone online. Right, so i may just get things ready by 6. DAMN... I AM ALREADY 2 HOURS 13 MINUTES LATE AND THE LEAD DEVELOPER IS GIVING ANOTHER 8 HOURS OF WAIT... 8 hours..eh...'
"8 HOURS IS ONE COMPLETE DAY!!!!" you shout at the lead developer
'Sir i said it will take only 2 hours to fix the showstoppers' dev-lead replies innocently.
'What about these 2 features that you have marked as deferred?'
'The first pagination feature will take another 6 months. The second feature is related to first and should take a long time to implement'
You want to laugh your heart out on your leads response. he just doesn't understands it-does he...?
Now what should you do...? Should you as a project manager:
i. Start pulling your hair
ii. Start pulling hair of your dev lead
iii. Start playing blame-game with each other
iv. Call a team meeting. Tell dev lead that he is of no use. he lacks ability to give proper estimates. he is responsible for delayed delivery. CEO might get really crossed if this client is lost and he shouldn't be surprised if he is fired.
v. Think of a rational solution and try to rationalize why is the project one complete work day behind despite constant work. Think of how to make client feel okay if not great.
If you have chosen an option from i to iv, you are precisely the type of audience this paper has been written for !! Feel free to read further. If you chose iv then you already know what to do in case of failed projects.
WELCOME to the world of failed projects..
As the first thing to ponder, always remember that projects sometimes tend to get quite late. Sometimes they are even a year late. Thing to realize is that projects don't a year late at once. They get late one day at a time. (reference dr fakhar lodhi). I would even say that project get late on an hourly basis. One hour at one time. So how to prevent projects getting 1 hour late at one time.
CONSTANT VIGILENCE
Don’t rely on the estimates your dev lead gives you. Make your known estimates. Let your dev lead give you heroic Hollywood style estimates. Prepare realistic estimates for yourself. Always remember that in movie of software development, it is not always the dev team rescuing the damsel in distress. So always have a plan B. let your dev team work on their estimates. Set short measurable/accountable goals. Granular level of such goals should be 1 day for large projects-projects which have timeframe of more than one month. For smaller projects go for sessions as your touch-base granularity level. Meet with your dev lead for a quick 2 minute meeting to see what has been achieved in last slot and needs to be done in next (session or day). Let your devlead worry about each slot's development; you should concentrate on overall progress. You should ponder if/how last slot's development has contributed to the final delivery. is everything on track. Have we lost any hour today? How many hour (or days) are we behind.
Bottom line is that let your dev lead be hero of your movie. You should play the part of his father-father who has more white hair than his son, yet have the same yet more mature thinking pattern.
SETTING EXPECTATIONS RIGHT
If you experience a feeling that there is something wrong then you should immediately go back to the drawing board to see what actually is wrong. Don’t overlook any gut feeling. Always remember/practice Murphy’s Law. It is always better to inform everyone involved including the most important party-client that you will be a week late a month before actually being late rather than telling them that it will take another day to complete right when the client had everything else prepared.
Apologize
This perhaps is the most important part. You have missed the deadline and now you have to break this not-so-great news. You MUST apologize.
I heard in one of lectures that there are three parts of a good apology:
i. say that you are sorry
ii. Accept that it is your fault
iii. Offer what you can do to make it up for what has happened.
As i said, it is the most important part. Be creative while apologizing and offering anything to make up for losing deadline. Having said that, make sure that you don't 'over-promise' anything- never promise something that you can't deliver. As mentioned before, leave all heroics to those others. Be creative but not stupid. Two wrongs never make a right.
'Midnight he says', you think, 'he'll probably get it done by 1. QA guys will test it by 4. and IF there is no other bug that comes up in that testing I just may be able to send the build to client by 5. Bandwidth isn't enough.. It takes 2 hours to upload with everyone online. Right, so i may just get things ready by 6. DAMN... I AM ALREADY 2 HOURS 13 MINUTES LATE AND THE LEAD DEVELOPER IS GIVING ANOTHER 8 HOURS OF WAIT... 8 hours..eh...'
"8 HOURS IS ONE COMPLETE DAY!!!!" you shout at the lead developer
'Sir i said it will take only 2 hours to fix the showstoppers' dev-lead replies innocently.
'What about these 2 features that you have marked as deferred?'
'The first pagination feature will take another 6 months. The second feature is related to first and should take a long time to implement'
You want to laugh your heart out on your leads response. he just doesn't understands it-does he...?
Now what should you do...? Should you as a project manager:
i. Start pulling your hair
ii. Start pulling hair of your dev lead
iii. Start playing blame-game with each other
iv. Call a team meeting. Tell dev lead that he is of no use. he lacks ability to give proper estimates. he is responsible for delayed delivery. CEO might get really crossed if this client is lost and he shouldn't be surprised if he is fired.
v. Think of a rational solution and try to rationalize why is the project one complete work day behind despite constant work. Think of how to make client feel okay if not great.
If you have chosen an option from i to iv, you are precisely the type of audience this paper has been written for !! Feel free to read further. If you chose iv then you already know what to do in case of failed projects.
WELCOME to the world of failed projects..
As the first thing to ponder, always remember that projects sometimes tend to get quite late. Sometimes they are even a year late. Thing to realize is that projects don't a year late at once. They get late one day at a time. (reference dr fakhar lodhi). I would even say that project get late on an hourly basis. One hour at one time. So how to prevent projects getting 1 hour late at one time.
CONSTANT VIGILENCE
Don’t rely on the estimates your dev lead gives you. Make your known estimates. Let your dev lead give you heroic Hollywood style estimates. Prepare realistic estimates for yourself. Always remember that in movie of software development, it is not always the dev team rescuing the damsel in distress. So always have a plan B. let your dev team work on their estimates. Set short measurable/accountable goals. Granular level of such goals should be 1 day for large projects-projects which have timeframe of more than one month. For smaller projects go for sessions as your touch-base granularity level. Meet with your dev lead for a quick 2 minute meeting to see what has been achieved in last slot and needs to be done in next (session or day). Let your devlead worry about each slot's development; you should concentrate on overall progress. You should ponder if/how last slot's development has contributed to the final delivery. is everything on track. Have we lost any hour today? How many hour (or days) are we behind.
Bottom line is that let your dev lead be hero of your movie. You should play the part of his father-father who has more white hair than his son, yet have the same yet more mature thinking pattern.
SETTING EXPECTATIONS RIGHT
If you experience a feeling that there is something wrong then you should immediately go back to the drawing board to see what actually is wrong. Don’t overlook any gut feeling. Always remember/practice Murphy’s Law. It is always better to inform everyone involved including the most important party-client that you will be a week late a month before actually being late rather than telling them that it will take another day to complete right when the client had everything else prepared.
Apologize
This perhaps is the most important part. You have missed the deadline and now you have to break this not-so-great news. You MUST apologize.
I heard in one of lectures that there are three parts of a good apology:
i. say that you are sorry
ii. Accept that it is your fault
iii. Offer what you can do to make it up for what has happened.
As i said, it is the most important part. Be creative while apologizing and offering anything to make up for losing deadline. Having said that, make sure that you don't 'over-promise' anything- never promise something that you can't deliver. As mentioned before, leave all heroics to those others. Be creative but not stupid. Two wrongs never make a right.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Softec - begining of its end
Softec event was 'held' here in FAST-NU lahore campus on 30th and 31st of August. I attended a few softec events in past. Despite not being a great of fan of softec, i must say that a few of those events were pretty good. Having said that, this particular event was such a waste of time. Most boring event i've ever attended. It was even worse than the events conducted by VOICE!
I belive softech is dying its own natural death now. This particular events was nothing more than the start of the end of softec.
These are my opinion about this event. You are free to have yours.
eFQue
I belive softech is dying its own natural death now. This particular events was nothing more than the start of the end of softec.
These are my opinion about this event. You are free to have yours.
eFQue
Monday, August 11, 2008
Time and Space - Republication
Time and Space
October 16, 2007 by farhanqureshiit is all matter of time and space… everything that we see, we feel, we experience for ourselves and for others is a matter of time and space.
Though these two things that have been made the topic for this particular piece, are the most vital (read as important) things in anyone’s life, none of these things is something that one can control. Sometimes it seems to be a great pity that we as human beings have been given potential to do unlimited tasks yet very limited time. Similarly, we have limited space at our disposal to accompolish things.
I really can’t control time and i can’t determine the space where i currently am. The time at my disposal and the space around me has been already determined and decided for me. I would be tested according to the allotted time which is unknown to me at the moment, and according to the space which i really didn’t decide for myself.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Factious Rights - Republication
| Factious Rights | December 5th, 2007 |
Every individual has rights and has a right to exercise them. A system runs fine as long as it ensures the rights of individuals involved in the system are being protected. However there are places where expression of one’s rights is factious. It not only deteriorates individual relationships, it poses a threat to the complete system. One such example can be seen in the relationship of an employee and employer. Employee has a right to leave his job for good. Similarly, Employer has a right to fire his employee for any reason. However, just a mere mild expression of this right in front of one by the other creates a great rift between the two. There may be no intention to actually practice his right, yet its expression does an irreversible damage to the mutual understanding and relationship. The same is true between the relationship of wife and husband. Both have rights to quit living with the other. However expression of this right often dents such relationship to a point which cannot be removed. Just like my other post, this piece of writing has no conclusion. It didn’t have any start and there is no point in the above paragraphs which can be pointed out as the climax. These are just random thoughts put into words; thoughts based on my experiences. Experiences - where I had no wish nor had any intention to practice my rights. Experiences - where those above me had no wish nor had any intention to practice their rights. Yet, they were Factious Rights and they were expressed | |
Breaking the Ice - RePublication
| Breaking the Ice | November 28th, 2007 |
It has been a long time since I was granted permission to write here in an open and free manner. However, despite several attempts, I wasn’t able to do so. Nevertheless, I on my way to office today decided to one thing. That one thing is to break the ice. And that is what i am doing it right now. I am breaking the ice. On a glacier, if a crack is able to make its path through the face of the ice, it is very likely that the whole glacier will break soon. I have several topics to write on in my mind but have no words. I kept on trying to take one topic and save it in form of my words but to no avail. Several things contributed to this condition. Last year has been quite tough on me. Perhaps broken hearts are the most difficult things to repair (read as mend). To those who have read any/all of my previous work, this post may seem to be quite wayward-having very little or no format or flow at all. Yes, this is quite unruly. It is just my thoughts that are coming to my mind. I am just expressing them here with very little or no thought being given to my thoughts. i’ll end my first post here. A few may like it, others wont… I just remembered a beautiful saying by someone written in the start of one of shafiq-ur-rehman’s book… i am presenting it here with a little modification. “Wo jo iss kisam kay posts ko pasand kartay hain, wo iss post ko waisa hee pa-yain gay jiss qisam ki posts wo pasand kartay hain” adios. | |
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Received a Present - Really Happy.
I have received a gift from a friend of mine. It may be a trivial thing for most of people but very special for me. I rarely get a present from anyone and it is one of those few occasions-hence i am very happy. It is a key chain of Royal Bank of Scotland sent by my cousin.
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