Latest updates (inner pages) 19/Nov/2009 - The page 'PMdistiiled PMP preparatory' got edited 13/Oct/2009 - The PMP FAQ page, under PMP prep page is updated with the percentage of questions you will get from different process groups.

The Indians are proving it again!

Sreeshanth the cricketer is back with a bang after 19 months of exile from the Indian cricket team. He was sent out of the team due to his aggressive behavior. On the you tube, I was watching a video of Dennis Lillee bowling to Vivian Richards. Five balls in an over was aimed at the ribs of Richards and on the 6th ball Lillee got the wicket. Did the australians complain about Lillee on this?. Never. John Mcnroe was one of the most prodigal sons of modern day sports. He needed to be angry to perform well. Did the Americans complain about him?. No…Never. One day a boy from South India started bowling to the Goliaths of modern day cricket like the Heydens and Sysmonds and started taking their wickets consistently. Then comes the comment from Heyden ‘ Srishanth is an over rated bowler’. Indian’s listened to Heyden’s words and ditched the Indian boy. We even forgot the fact that Heyden is a batsman who got out consistently by this over rated bowler. So Sreeshanth had to be out of the team for 19 months despite having multiple five wicket hauls outside India. Can we attribute this to the Indian’s white skin syndrome?, or is he the victim of politics within India?.I always liked Srishanth for the aggression and emotions he is bringing to the field, which is lacking in other bowlers, especially Ishanth Sharma. Ishanth just bowls like a robot without emotions, and that is his undoing. Actually he is the most talented bowler in India. Every bowl Sreeshanth bowls, has the potential to get a wicket..and that makes the game interesting when he plays. Let him be himself, and let us support his natural behavior. Let us not try to make a Sachin Tendulkar out of Srishanth. Both are different human beings with cultural differences.

Never mind…Sreeshanth responded back with the true Indian spirit. As I used to mention earlier…Indian’s are great competitors. They need a small provocation to come out with their best. If Gandhiji was not thrown out of that train, most probably India would not have got independence. If Narayanamurthy was not imprisoned for one day in one of those communist countries, most probably Infosys would not have happened. If Harbajan singh was not provoked during the australian series, India would not have won the series…Even a terrorist attack will reinforce India further….contrary to the view of the terrorist.

So let us embrace our natural behavior. Let us not copy the right behavior from others. Let us be our own moral police. Let us not listen to others judgment about us. Let us stop living for a good name from others…let us live a right life as per our conscience.

Congratulations Sinniah Shanmuganthan, PMP

Dear Mr.Abrachan,

I am pleased to inform you that I have successfully completed my PMP credential in Qatar on 15 Nov 2009.

Your practical & exam oriented training was indeed very helpful in achieving this great milestone.

In this occasion, I will have to thank Syscom Management, the registered course provider for their sincere service.

Thank you once again.

Sinniah Shanmuganthan, PMP

Re-creation : Amazing colours….

10 day MBA – a must read for all business owners / managers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am into the third chapter. The first three chapters are;

• Marketing
• Ethics
• Financial accounting

I strongly recommend this to all budding business owners / managers

Even King Solomon was not as majestic as this flower…

Opportunity to be part of a great cause !

Hi Everyone,

Greetings from Bijumon Peter, Sneha Care Home-Snehadaan May I bring to your kind notice regarding a solemn supper organized by Bangalore School’s Sports Foundation in association with Sneha Care Home along with the Celebrity leaders of the state and the country, on the occasion of World AIDS Day on 1st December, 2009 at 7.30 pm at Hotel Chancery Pavilion, Residency Road, Bangalore The amount collected as entrance fee will be used for conducting a Sports day named “The CHAMPION in me” for the HIV infected children on 12th December, 2009 at Snehadaan Campus, Bangalore and for the other sports-related activities for the HIV infected children in the state in the ensuing years. Bangalore School’s Sports Foundation wishes to be a key partner in reaching out to the children and youth to promote sporting activities, prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS through sports and to build their self esteem and confidence. Bangalore School’s Sports Foundation will play a leading role in the sporting fraternity contributing to the global fight against HIV/AIDS by active sports and recreational development programmes and mobilizing resources for the children. Entrance Fee: Rs. 3000/- (Single) Rs. 5000/- (Couple) If you wish to be part of this venture and if like to have entrance pass, please reply or please contact Bijumon Peter ( 0091 9620129355) Thank you for whatever you have been to us and look forward to hearing from you.

With good wishes, Bijumon Peter, Coordinator, Sneha Care Home, Snehadaan Campus

Trusted customer’s are back again …

Last year, I wrote about these trust worthy fishermen, who paid me the price of our farm produce which they purchased, which exceeded the agreed upon quantity, even without supervision. This gave me the life’s lesson of ‘trust worthiness of the poorest”.  You can trust them. Today, after an year, they came back…again to buy bamboo leaf, which they use for protecting the chinese nets, and to attract more fish. When I saw them, after an year, I was really delighted. This time the negotiation was even smoother and faster. The speed of trust…..:-)

Re-creation…

Are you feeling tired and tensed?. All of us do, once in a while. Some times throughout a stretch of our lives, and it is temporary. It will pass away. So what is the point in worrying more about something. Surrendering everything to God helps. If we have to surrender something, we should own something. In this life, what is that we own….we dont even own ourselves….everything will pass away. When we say ’surrender’, we are just acknowledging the fact that we dont have anything of our own, except what is given from above, thats all. This attitude of surrender liberates. It gives peace and graceful rhythm to our actions. Creating a humble attitude out of surrendering everything and praying to implement his plan in our lives, makes things easier, and very often the results exceeds our expectations.

Once, one of my friends asked me this question “Aby, why are you praying for a BMW, when your Father has decided to give you a Ferrari?”. God’s plans for you are different. So surrender everything and listen…..

With one of the youngest students

Sent from my Nokia phone

Cause and Effect !

Recently I was going through the works of Swami Vivekanda..and these are some of the excerpts from the book.

Work and it’s secret – Delivered at Los Angeles, California, January 4th 1900

“One of the greatest lessons I have learnt in my life is to pay as much attention to the means of work as to it’s end.  It appears to me that all the secret of success is there; to pay as much attention to the means as to the end. Our greatest defect in life is that we are drawn so much to the ideal, the goal is so much more enchanting, so much more alluring, so much bigger in our mental horizon, that we loose sight of the details altogether.

But whenever failure comes, if anayze it critically, in ninety nine percent of the cases, we shall find that it was because we did not pay attention to the means. With the means all right, the end must come.”

In 1943 Karou Ishikava coined the cause and effect diagram.

Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, a Japanese quality control statistician, invented the fishbone diagram. It is often also referred to as the Ishikawa diagram. The fishbone diagram is an analysis tool that provides a systematic way of looking at effects and the causes that create or contribute to those effects. Because of the function of the fishbone diagram, it may be referred to as a cause-and-effect diagram. The design of the diagram looks much like the skeleton of a fish. Therefore, it is often referred to as the fishbone diagram. A cause-and-effect diagram can help identify the reasons why a process goes out of control. Often the fishbone diagram can be used to summarize the results of a brainstorming session, identifying the causes of a specified undesirable outcome. It helps to identify root causes and ensures a common understanding of the causes.

Cause-and-effect relationships govern everything that happens and as such are the path to effective problem solving. By knowing the causes, we can find some that are within our control and then change or modify them to meet our goals and objectives. By understanding the nature of the cause-and-effect principle, we can draw a diagram to help us solve everyday problems every time. Below is an example of use of Ishikawa Diagram to solve a difficulty on locating a drawing.

A Japanese building further on Indian’s idea!

From the pmdistilled program at bangalore

Sent from my Nokia phone

Questions to dear Neha…

Dear Neha,

As of today, you are the youngest in our family tree. We have great joy to welcome you to planet earth, and at the same time, I am asking these questions to myself…may be to you as well, since I do not have answers to many of them. I am sure that my ancestors also would have asked some of them..fifty years back

• Did you like earth?.  Which one was better….this mother earth, with all it’s diversity or the comfort of your mother’s womb, which insulated you from all these?.
• 20 years from now, will there be marriages?
• Will there be snow on the Himalayas?
• Will there be glaciers in Antartica?
• Will there be terrorism using atomic weapons?
• How will be wars like?. Will it be cyber wars only?
• Will there be religion and faith?
• Will there be enough drinking water for mankind?
• Will there be enough pure air for everyone to breath…..or will we be buying fresh air, like the ‘bottled water’ of today?
• What will be the main fuel of automobiles?
• Will there be different currencies or just one currency?
• What will be the job titles?
• Will there be demand for project management even then?
• What will happen to the IT profession?
• What will be the most lucrative profession then?. Will it be anything related to environment?
• Will there be the concept of family?
• Will the gap between the rich and the poor increase or decrease?
• What will be the average lifespan of human beings?
• Will there be aids?. What will be the main killer disease?
• How will classrooms look like?.
• Will there be real class rooms or will it be only virtual class rooms?

These are some questions without any sure answer for me. One thing I am very sure…any body with an ability to deal with some of the potential issues (is it just my thinking like any other elderly) will be in demand…and project management leading to the solution of some of these will be most critical.

Let the Lord almighty give you all the grace to live gracefully on planet earth.

With all the Love and Best Wishes

Aby Grandpa

Recreation

Sent from my Nokia phone

Time to do things? – Art of doing more of few things!

Recently one of my clients wanted a training program on the ‘Key habits of successful project managers’ and this made me to revisit the ‘7 habits of highly effective people’ course ware, which was gathering dust in my small library of books which I have read completely or partially. This may be the answer to many of my project management workshop participants, who do not have the time to prepare for the exam, after investing their money and valuable time for attending the workshop. Most of them complain about external factors, for their inability to prepare for the exam, and get those credentials, which can give a boost to their career, if not protecting their career during recession time.

Stephen Covey, in his master piece ‘7 habits of highly effective people’ talks about ‘Put first things first’. First things are those things that you, personally, find most worth doing. They move you in the right direction and help you achieve the most important goals of your life. Time is constant. All of us have only 24 hours / day. It is all about managing your priorities. That is the only thing possible. Time management is out. Self management is in.

If we analyze the activities we do, during the day, they can be classified into;

Quadrant #1 Urgent & Important stuff

• Crises
• Pressing problems
• Deadline driven projects and meetings, preparations etc

Quadrant #2  Not urgent and important

• Preparation
• Prevention
• Values clarification
• Planning
• Relationship building
• True-recreation
• Empowerment
• Higher studies

Quadrant #3 Urgent & not important activities

• Interruptions
• Some phone calls
• Some mails, some reports
• Some meetings
• Many proximate pressing matters
• Many popular activities

Quadrant #4  Not urgent & Not Important

• Trivia busy work
• Some telephone calls
• Time wasters
• Escape activities
• Excessive TV
• Chatting
• Pointless surfing etc…

Quadrant#2 activities, important&not urgent activities  are the most critical. These are the activities which will give you maximum leverage towards your goals achievement, and at the same time Quadrant#1 activities cannot be avoided, they are the urgent and important stuff. By focusing on Quadrant #2 activities more and more, the time spent on Quadrant#1 will automatically come down. Unfortunately, the problem with Quadrant#2 activities is the fact that they are not urgent. That means, even if you do not do them, nobody is going to question you, and at the same time these are the ones, which will give you maximum benefit.

We can easily find out time for Quadrant#2 and Quadrant#1 activities, by eliminating / reducing quadrants 3 & 4.

When I was a smoker, smoking around 10 cigarettes per day, despite the ‘SMOKING is injurious’ signs, per day I was spending approximately 2 hours/day  in smoking only, which amounts to 14 hours/ week.  Smoking is a typical not urgent and not important Q#3 activity. By quitting smoking, I get an additional 14 hours / week to spend on Q#2 and Q#1 activities.

Dear friend. Stop the ‘blame it on circumstances’ game and start taking responsibility of your actions and time, because time is constant, and you can manage only your priorities.

So I already spent 44 minutes in blogging, and I hope, it is a Q#2 activity, if it is impacting you positively, else even this post is a result of Q#3 or Q#4

Suggested reading ‘The seven habits of highly effective people’ by Stephen Covey

Mega Indian Projects # 3 Delhi Metro

The concept of a mass rapid transit for Delhi first emerged from a traffic and travel characteristics study carried out in the city in 1969.[5] Over the next several years, many official committees by a variety of government departments were commissioned to examine issues relating to technology, route alignment and governmental jurisdiction.[5] In 1984, the Delhi Development Authority and the Urban Arts Commission came up with a proposal for developing a multi-modal transport system, which would consist of constructing three underground mass rapid transit corridors as well augmenting the city’s existing suburban railway and road transport networks.[6] While extensive technical studies and search for financing the project were in progress, the city expanded significantly resulting in a two-fold rise in population and a fivefold rise in the number of vehicles between 1981 and 1998.[6] Consequently, traffic congestion and pollution soared, as an increasing number of commuters took to private vehicles with the existing bus system unable to bear the load.[5] An attempt at privatising the bus transport system in 1992 merely compounded the problem, with inexperienced operators plying poorly maintained, noisy and polluting buses on lengthy routes, resulting in long waiting times, unreliable service, extreme overcrowding, unqualified drivers, speeding and reckless driving.[7]

To rectify the situation, the Government of India and the Government of Delhi jointly set up a company called the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on March 5, 1995.[8] Physical construction work on the Delhi Metro started on October 1, 1998.[9] After the previous problems experienced by the Calcutta Metro, which was badly delayed and 12 times over budget due to “political meddling, technical problems and bureaucratic delays”, the DMRC was given full powers to hire people, decide on tenders and control funds.[10] As a result, construction proceeded smoothly, except from one major disagreement in 2000, where the Ministry of Railways forced the system to use broad gauge despite the DMRC’s preference for standard gauge.[11] . The first line opened on December 24, 2002 and the entire Phase I of the project was completed in December 2005, on budget and almost three years ahead of schedule, an achievement described as “nothing short of a miracle”.[12] Dr. E. Sreedharan, the Managing Director of the Metro during the Phase I construction, was declared “Indian of the Year for 2007″ by CNN-IBN news channel.

For the complete article, click here.

Courtesy : wikipedia

Mega Indian projects # 2 Chandrayan

Chandrayaan-1, (Sanskrit: चंद्रयान-१, lit: Moon-traveller, or moon vehicle^[3][4] pronunciation (help·info)) was India’s first unmanned lunar probe. It was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation in October 2008, and operated until August 2009. The mission included a lunar orbiter and an impactor. India launched the spacecraft by a modified version of the PSLV, PSLV C11^[2][5] on 22 October 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Nellore District, Andhra Pradesh, about 80 km north of Chennai, at 06:22 IST (00:52 UTC).^[6] The mission was a major boost to India’s space program,^[7] as India researched and developed its own technology in order to explore the Moon.^[8] The vehicle was successfully inserted into lunar orbit on 8 November 2008.^[9]

On 14 November 2008, the Moon Impact Probe separated from the Chandrayaan orbiter at 20:06 and struck the south pole in a controlled manner, making India the fourth country to place its flag on the Moon.^[10] The probe impacted near Shackleton Crater at 20:31 ejecting underground soil that could be analysed for the presence of lunar water ice.^[11]

The estimated cost for the project was Rs. 386 crore (US$ 80 million).^[12]

The remote sensing lunar satellite had a mass of 1,380 kilograms (3,042 lb) at launch and 675 kilograms (1,488 lb) in lunar orbit. ^[13] It carried high resolution remote sensing equipment for visible, near infrared, and soft and hard X-ray frequencies. Over a two-year period, it was intended to survey the lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and three-dimensional topography. The polar regions are of special interest as they might contain ice.^[14] The lunar mission carries five ISRO payloads and six payloads from other space agencies including NASA, ESA, and the Bulgarian Aerospace Agency, which were carried free of cost.^[15]

After suffering from several technical issues including failure of the star sensors and poor thermal shielding, Chandrayaan stopped sending radio signals at 1:30 AM IST on 29 August 2009 shortly after which, the ISRO officially declared the mission over. Chandrayaan operated for 312 days as opposed to the intended two years but the mission achieved 95 percent of its planned objectives.^{[1][16][17][18]} Among its many achievements was the discovery of the widespread presence of water molecules in lunar soil.^[19]

 

For the complete story click here

 

Courtesy : wikipedia

Mega Indian projects #1 One terra byte micro chip

1 Terra byte micro chip by Indian engineers

From my latest project management training program

Sent from my Nokia phone

A relaxing evening at a beach in kerala

Sent from my Nokia phone

The emergency exit ..needs emergency attention. Courtesy Air India Express DXB-Kochi flight

The emergency exit of an aircraft i boarded recently. frightening.

Sent from my Nokia phone