A Girl's Survival Spree :-)

I felt the warmth of my mother’s womb.

I cherished myself, inside her dark soft water sack

Suddenly, I heard a gush of Tsunami,

A wave of some soft liquid burning me away

I cried.  I cried in pain.  I moved up

Close to my mother’s racing heart

Next day morning, I heard someone yell at her

Asking if I am there or forever gone!

She said she could feel me still

Alas!  I survived.  The first ever time in life!

Inside my mother’s warmest womb

I am born.   With people whispering that I am a girl

My mother sounded frightened and cried

People who own me, disowned me right away

I didn’t know what all this meant on the day one of life

When the fuming fires around subdued,

My mother came to my rescue and fed me

I felt the closeness of her chest, her outer skin

I sucked her in hunger wanting to survive

She hugged me close and kissed me on forehead

I decided, I am going to live no matter what

For me, for her and for my little life that just began!

I started to walk.   My father started to love me

For the small smiles I often kept giving him

I went behind where ever he went around in the house

I helped him get his shoes as he wanted to go out

Brought him a glass of water, with my tiny hands

As he came back home tired and smells of sweat

As once I started to run, and wanted to play with him

He pushed me aside.  I fell down.  But I didn’t cry

I didn’t want to give up.  I want his love.  Unconditional

He had no choice but to love me back

I know he started enjoying my presence in his life

Yes, I survived.  Yet again, as my dad’s dearest daughter

I went to school.  It was the first day in the class

There were girls and boys all frightened of a young woman

Probably of my mom’s age, having a big spectacles

And bigger book and a longer scale in her hand. 

She gave me a stern look.   As if why girls should study!

I wanted to ask her back.   Why did she then come in there!

But later on, I realized all teachers looked just like her

But they are sweet, neat and a great knowledge treat

As I completed my high school, debate restarted

On why I should go to college and on my own choices

I put my foot down.   Strongly holding on my forte

To study more and succeed.  Stand on my own in life

Self-reliance is the biggest strength to any woman

Why not me?   I want to prove those who subdued me as woman!

I went to college.  I choose a course of my choice

A different one from than the traditional one’s meant for girls

Boys in my class looked at me like a species of different kind

Physics and astronomy seemed my field of interest

People looked at me as if I am doing something odd

I want to even out all the odds that come on my way

Was ready to fix flat tires and equally build rockets

I dream big, bigger than a bride could dream in her life

I thought wild, making my creative sciences run riot

I trespassed easily into the boy’s domains making them feel

Small amidst my loud achievements that made all noise

To make my mom and dad, stay at peace in the long run

I decided to marry.   Nothing conventional about it

I choose my groom.   Of my choice.  Of my dreams

My in-laws expected me to be a typical shy Indian bridge

I gave them a run of the mill with my different thoughts

I was too much for them to handle in peace. 

They tired their level best to put me down. In all means

Chased me out of the house. Threw me on the roads

I got up and smiled.  I dusted off the dirt on my dress

Smiled again.  I am on my own and my man came along

Yes.  I have won again.   Against the regular turmoil odds!

I aged gracefully.  But disease and depression took over

Silently but wittingly I decided to fight this too

The woman in me, is wide awaken.  Much stronger

How will the spirit that led the mantra manage disdain?

I cherished my health and started doing what best I can

Gave up on the good food I loved.  Pushed those extra miles

To burn up the piled up unwelcoming body weight. 

I have 2 choices to make.  Fight it and win over it

Or just ignore the reservoirs of diseases and die

How will I?  I woke up on time.   Gave it a big fight

If I have to be there to do anything, I need this body

In a good condition, healthy and happy, free from disease

I smiled as I looked one day in the mirror.

Wrinkles and white hair added to my wisdom

The young dynamic dynamite of the yesteryear's

Is coolly replaced by fragile, grounding wit and wisdom

I am happy that my mind is alert.  Body is coping up.

Made long good foot prints to leave behind a happy note

My epilogue filled with great things to inspire and sustain

Even longer and happier, with more merrier once I am gone

For I am leaving behind no distressful days, but the days of wins

Winning from the times of cradle to the ultimate grave

Carrying life with fulfilling memories and care and grace

A woman is made to survive.  No matter what the situations are!

A real woman of substance will never fret, frown or cry!

But with every fall, she will raise again, slowly but steadily

She will emerge again from the fires of life, confidently every time

Yes, this is the story of a girl.  Who went on a rampant survival spree!

A girl’s survival spree! 

Role of women in contemporary society

Woman - The meaning is ‘Sakthi’ – the power.   Unless we understand the true strength of a woman, we cannot fathom to what extent she can go, how far she can climb, how deep she can dive and how far she can swim.   The supreme power of a woman has to be first realized and recognized within. 

 

We are talking about a world where we want to identify woman to break the glass ceiling. Like what we saw in the recent US elections…but the power is that of the 18 million cracks that fell on the glass and it is for us to go beyond as Hillary Clinton mentioned.  The day is not far. What are we running behind when we have everything within us to control things around us?   Unless we realize this potential, it is useless to find acceptance by the society at large.  

The role of woman begins from the family, the network of friends and neighbors, the society we live in, the communities we participate and the communal aspects that we endear to ourselves and contribute.   Educating our families, creating harmony in neighborhood, participating in movements of all kinds, irrespective of gender specific issues, but for the common good of the citizens of this country, this all takes the strength of the women.   Today, we can not only run the governments and space ships equally, we can create world peace or break the peace both at the equal strengths.   It all depends on how we divert the extremely powerful potential that is hidden within us as women.

We should take up on our roots, to go back to our ancient wisdom of cooking that brought families and their health and wellness together to leap ahead. We should go back to our ancient science and heritage that brought vast cultural extravaganza to the world of arts and creative sciences to move forward.  We are today emerging technological experts and social animals.  In this run to the mill grinding process, we should not forget that we women ultimately have the power to create the wellness of our families and societies at large.   Today, we don’t need to change the world at large.  We need to bring up kids who are sensible, old who are taken care, rich who are humble and poor who are not vulnerable.   This will in turn make the world around us living worthy.  Or else, day in and day out, our lives will be a struggle for survival.  It is time to pause and bring in a change.  Only we women can do that in this contemporary society.   Jai Nari Shakthi!

Agile Myths

Agile Myths:      Some myths about Agile are debunked

All of the below are false

Not for operations
Not for regulatory projects
Not for Mainframe projects
Not for all projects
Not for BIG projects
Only for techies
Scope Creep
Lack of control
High risk
No discipline
No design
No planning
No architect needed
No documentation
No estimation
NO PM's needed

Distributed Agile!-   How do we do this distributed
1. Agreements
2. Standards
3. Tools
4. Processes

7 Rules of successfully distributed teams

1. Don't
2. Don't treat remotes as if they were locals
3.  Dont treat locals as if they were remote
4. Latitude hurts, longitude kills
5. Don't always be remote
6. Invest in the appropriate tools and environments
7. Establish standards and agreements


The DNA of success
1. Agile exposes capability gaps
2. Awesome Capability
3. Attitude
4. Aptitude

Agile helps create a great working culture

You don't want a toxic brilliant team not a happy dud one!
High performing teams are happy and highly capable!


Agile Pitfalls

1. Environment
    Wrong physical environment
    Lack of proper tools
    Funnel not managed - too much WIP
    Resources splintered and working on multiple projects

2.  Leadership
    Leaders don't walk the talk
    Wrong leadership style - command and control instead of servant leadership
    Lack of a clear shared purpose and strategy
    Lack of trust

3. Knowledge
    Lack of training or inaccurate material
    Teams don't know what Agile really is
    Leaders not trained and aware
    Lack of sharing
    No access to coaching
4. Capability
    Poor core capability
    Lack of capable Agile PMs and IMs
    Lack of critical thinking for problem solving
    Can't do attitude

************************************

Why change? Why Agile?

1. Happy people
2. Reduced risk and cost
3. Faster time to market
4. Improved quality
5. Increased Revenue
6. Happy customers

Increased Profitability and happy shareholders

****************

7 Key impacts of going Agile

Resource allocation
Team structure
Work environment
Work prioritization
Leadership style
Making time to collaborate
Authentic Transparency

Agile Program Pattern & Agile Operations Pattern

Agile Program Pattern

Program pattern used to launch and execute programs and projects

Strategy

1.  Idea
    Strategic initiative
    New requirement
    Enhancement
    Problem
    Opportunity
2.  Discover
    Understand and strategize
3.  Deliver
    Governance
    Funding Gates
    Iteratively build
    Test and Deliver

Again goes back to the 5 phases
1. Mobilize
2. Understand
3. Explore/ Strategize
4. Build/ Test/ Implement (Prototype)
5. Manage/ Evolve


Leaders to evaluate and check the funnel management
Write a 'discovery brief'

Program Pattern - used to launch and execute programs and projects

Discovery Pattern:
1. Problem
2. Desired Outcome
3. Blockers
4. Epics
5. Solution Strategy
6. Estimate
7. Plan
8. Cost/ benefit

Collaborate to Elaborate
Iterate until done
Identify the cone of uncertainity-  Discovery or Delivery

Estimate- Solution Strategy - Epics  (Iterate till done)
Demand is always more than supply..so it is very important for proper funnel management


************************************
Agile Operations Pattern

Agile lifecycle of delivery
1. Discovery
2. Discovery (Optional)
3. Deliver (R1)-  Release or Phases

leads to
Iteration 0 -  is the set up iteration
Iteration 1 - Work
Iteration 2....n

At Start of Iteration
1. Iteration Planning
2. Daily standups
3. Work
4. Showcase
5. Retrospective (At the end of iteration)

Scrum

Inputs -  From customers, team, managers, execs
> Product Owner
> Product backlog -  A priortized list of what is required, features, bugs to fix
> Team -  Sprint Planning meeting
- The team commits to as much high priority backlog as can be completed by the end of the sprint
> Sprint Backlog (Task breakout)
> Scrum Master
> 1-4 week Sprint (Sprint end date and deliverable do not change
> Daily Stand up meeting (15-30 minutes)
Sprint Review
> Finished Product (product increment)
> Sprint Retrospective

The Operations pattern used to effectively run and optimize any business process

The Business Canvas includes
1. VSM Practice (as-is)
2. Customer
3. prod services
4. process
5. People
6. Inputs/ Outputs
7. Metrics

Test Hypothisis for Agile Projects and
Manage / Evolve - Roll-out to all areas and evolve in Agile Project