Importance of time management and effective delivery of the presentation

Every now and then we focus on effective use of time so as to get best output possible. Ignorance, lethargy and negligence of not putting in efforts in preparation for that final show are the main causes of not been able to grab the best of the best opportunities.
What I mean to say can only be explained through an example. So here you go!
You have been working on an assignment for years. The work products, the processes, every small level detail is known to you. In due course you might have found and experienced very challenging situations. You have done some fantastic discoveries, identified solutions for most complex problems. Whenever you got an opportunity to present your work you did little work but due to sheer involvement and understanding of the subject you managed to get audience’s attention and praises. After some time you start taking the subject/assignment little lightly as you know in and out about it. Suddenly an opportunity of life time comes in front of you and you are asked to prepare formally and come out with a detailed write up of all that you worked upon and put it in proper understandable format. It goes through some reviews by peers, supervisors. Some give useful comments, some ask you to do changes which you do not approve but finally manage to put things in place. You are desperately waiting for the day when you will get the opportunity to put forward your years of hard work in front of the world. The entire process till the day is so tiring that as you are closer to the day of final presentation you start losing patience, you no longer want to sit down and go through your own work, contents again and again and try to fine tune it, by heart it, try to rehearse, do mock sessions in privacy etc etc. Then typically what happens is on the very day of your so long awaited presentation day you become nervous, skeptical, you start getting the feeling as if you are not connected and prepared at all.
On the start of the day itself you eagerly await for getting it over. Anxiety is gone and in its place comes mind block, cluelessness, closely coupled threads starts falling apart and suddenly you lose track of what you have been doing so far. You are in no mood to rehearse, practice at that 11th hour. When you start the presentation you suddenly feel where am I? What am I supposed to speak? Where to start from? To it adds the first 10 minutes of silence and no response from the audience. Then by the time you start feeling comfortable, your thoughts fall in place, you start getting control and you are in a mental state to give your best shot and answer all the trickiest of the questions, it’s all over. When your energy level and confidence is at its peak you have almost consumed 90% available time. Your first impression has already been established and audience is in no mood to further listen to you or your great work.
That’s over, all the time you waited for is gone as flash of light. You lost the battle without getting a chance to put your best foot forward, all the ammunition you had is still intact, you never could use it and the war is over with you left behind to think on why and how things slipped off your hands and you could do nothing expect for witnessing it and cursing later throughout your life.

So what could have been done to save this and to make sure that you make most of the opportunity and avoid setbacks later.
1. Never ever give up on that last day preparation, minute details
2. Think and speak out the examples that you want to give, the best practices that ou want to highlight
3. Prepare starting speech of not more than 2 minutes
4. List down all the points in specific order that you want to cover and keep it handy
5. Know your presentation path and slides in and out
6. Think of scenarios where you might have to traverse back and forth the presentation
7. Think of some funny stories you can use in between the presentation
8. Know facts and figures, use them as punch lines
9. Make confident statements and have at least one take away for all variety of audience
10. Never have too much technical details in the slides if you have less than 30 minutes to present the entire subject/topic
11. Do not go through the slides, make last minute rehearsals.
12. Keep your mind away from the topic before few hours of the presentation and indulge in more generic activities like dress up, read news paper, speak to few people around
13. When you enter the presentation room or get up for the presentation take a deep breath and try to read audience
14. Get well versed with the ambience and things you are going to use during your presentation
15. Always make sure you put your best contents/highlights in the first 5 minutes it self
16. Always give a brief background of what topic you are going to cover, what areas you are going to highlight, success stories
17. Last but not the least, never ever lose focus, if you feel that you are going wrong, take a pause (use one liners) and come back to the track

journey towards meditation and self realisation

Well, yesterday went in well, I experimented few things, first I went to a meditation camp which was referred by my boss, I had decided that I will go with hope and no preconceived notion and criticism. I did exactly same. I went and followed what others followed for 90 minutes. It was first of all a 45 minutes drive from my home; i had promised myself that I will not drink the previous day even though it was Sunday.
I woke up sharp at 5 a.m. got ready and reached the ashram in an hour’s time with a tea and cigarette in between. I started with light music in car and went with no expectations, I had just decided whatever I see and face I am going to experience it and then decide.
Well, I parked my car, followed others, around 150 people, they all sat in one place, no body spoke a word. I thought they are waiting for someone to commence, induct as I came 15 minutes ahead of 7:30. After 15 minutes of wait, in the background some spiritual guru's recorded message was being played, I tried to gather few things but the voice clarity was not good. I waited.
Suddenly at sharp 7:30 a.m. somebody said something which I missed and then what I saw that everybody in the open air room closed their eyes and there was pin drop silence, I tried to understand the situation, I thought it is some preparatory exercise, so your mind, soul and body is tuned in to the meditation.
After 5 minutes of speculation and wait for somebody to appear, I thought it is going to be long before somebody commences the meditation or speak, so I decided to follow others. I too closed my eyes and started thinking the same which I was doing for last 20 minutes by keeping my eyes open.
After some time I started hearing birds chanting from the neighborhood trees. Birds were making variety of sounds, that was pleasant. I was enjoying it, after 15 minutes or so, I noticed keeping my eyes closed, that some people started snoring, as the age group was right from 20 to 70 a guess, I thought elderly ones or the ones who did not have a good night sleep have fallen asleep. On the other hand I really started appreciating the preparatory course before actual commencement of the mediation. They wanted everybody in the room to be completely alert, out of their sleep and are in perfect mindset to start receiving what will be told in few minutes.
Well, I don't know but I think after around 30 minutes or so I too fell asleep and I was half conscious, I might be in the same state for around 15 minutes, then suddenly I felt, I was falling from the chair I was sitting on. I opened my eyes for a while and saw everybody in the same position and state when we started all this. I thought it could be any moment now and started assuming that the whole meditation would last for around 2, 3 hours. That started giving me first feeling of getting and walking out. But then I thought of holding it back for a while.
Again when I next opened my eyes it was 45 past 8, more than 90 minutes of my sitting in the chair, without hearing anybody, or talking or receiving any piece of advice, mantras. This was strange. Then suddenly, somebody said something and I woke up from my half sleep. I was feeling good though, few people came forward and said for couple of minutes which sounded like some chapter, part of Bible, Geeta or Quran. Only difference was that there was repetitive reference of some Guru.

Then there came a guy who made few announcements, referred few brothers and sisters and gave some directions for collecting books etc.
I came along with others out of the room. Was wondering what to do next as my boss had informed me that he is off sick and will not make it instead I can meet his wife, as I had not seen her earlier and was not having her cell number I could not reach her.
I met an old colleague of mine who thought I am a regular member of the ashram and do meditation regularly. When I told him I came for the first time, he was quite surprised and awkward to see me in the meditation hall straight away. He took me to my boss’s wife and introduced me. To my and their surprise I came to know that it was long process before jumping into the meditation hall. What surprised more was that in my 90 minutes of sitting, all others in the hall were meditating.
Well, I had mixed feeling, but definitely my colleague, boss’s wife and one more colleague who came for the first time were not finding situation amusing, they were little upset that I directly went into the meditation hall and skipped initial 3, 4 sittings with a guide/mentor, registration and book purchasing process. They thought without understanding the concept of meditation, Guru’s directions and method/style of meditation and preaching’s I straight away went in Nirvana.
Well, that was it, after a brief discussion, I realized, what I am looking for is similar in nature, I mean the experience in the meditation hall but what bogged me down or made me nervous was that I will have to follow some guru, some preaching’s, some set methodologies, somebody’s believes and practices and then there would too many people around me with whom I will have to search for Nirvana, peace of mind, self realization. This was not acceptable to me. But I really thank my boss for giving me this experience, exposure and first insight into meditation. I will not join the ashram or group and follow a guru, but whatever I learnt yesterday was definitely a good and unique experience. I am going to take it further and see that I find myself, do self introspection and realization and meditate in a way I enjoy most.

Tips on effective project management

I was wondering why 65% of the projects go into trouble and more than 85% of them are never recovered back on track.As a fact of matter, reports have concluded that “it is, basics which were missing in the projects” and we always look out for rocket science solutions.Well, it is always “easier said than done”.Commonsense and street smartness are definitely prerequisites for any work including project management.

Following table highlights basic tips for effective and successful project management

Sr#	Area	Tip
1	Success criteria	How will you know when you are done?
2	Project definition	Clearly define the project, objectives, boundaries, deliverables
3	Stakeholder identification and objectives	External as well internal stakeholders and their prime objectives
4	Roles and responsibility Chart	Take acceptance from all owners and make them speak out their responsibilities
5	Template repository	Keep all Project templates in one repository. Have uniformity
6	Budget tracking	Regular, periodic, provisioning
7>	Project scope and out of scope	Clearly define what’s not. Have a single document for scope
8	Risk management plan	Take it separately, have weekly meetings and monitor if new risks have been identified and old risk are mitigated. Keep track of risk log once a fortnight not to get into risks but to check if Risk management is happening
9	Team involvement in identifying steps required for each project deliverable	Take agreement on time commitment and evaluate against estimates
10	Change management plan	Every change in deliverables, scope, technology, schedule etc should be managed
11	Competency level check	Training plan, mentoring, backups in case
12	Go no-go decision plan	Evaluation Criteria, periodic, documented. (DAR)
13>	Disaster recovery plan	Task force. Identify individuals/groups for crisis situation. Draw demarcation and segregate different situations. Do not involve all teams/members at all the times for all the crisis
14	Requirements management plan	Business to technical to testing requirement mapping and traceability. Update all changes and impacted areas. Maintain requirement change document throughout the project
15	Shorten meeting times	Ideal time is 10 to 20 minutes
16>	Assess status report effectiveness	Check if you get queries, feedback on reports. Is it read? Does it meet all stakeholders expectations (perspective). If not, is it good to make different reports for different stakeholders
17	Test orientation	Should NOT be 1. defect free delivery 2. good testing means highest number of defects
18	Closure	Create an open, safe place for people to give honest and sincere feedback on the project
19	Anonymous survey to your project team	Questions like: What went well on the project? What could have gone better? What would improve your experience on future projects? How could the project leader be more effective?
20>	Sign off, project closure and acceptance	Make sure formal document (one pager) is prepared and sent across to all stakeholders specifying project has been completed and delivered detailing out important scope and its readiness. Take acceptance from all

how to implement Risk based testing methodology process framework

How is risk based testing or RBT methodology implemented in IT Projects

Slide-1 - RBT, Risk Based Testing, Scope and coverage of presentation

RBT, Risk Based Testing is a very flexible process; it can be applied as per the project requirement, in parts, as a whole or for specific goal.

RBT can primarily be used for e.g.

1. Functionality readiness over a period of testing time

2. Testing critical and high priority functionalities early in the phase

3. In case of reduced timelines RBT helps Prioratise testing

4. as a dashboard for testing progress monitoring and control

5. Getting early warning signals

6. Go: no-go decision making based on accurate predictions rather than guess work

7. Giving early deliveries or staggered/iterative deliveries

8. Dashboard for testing effectiveness and senior management view (macro details, business oriented) avoiding micro level details

Slide-2 - Business Challenges and Needs

Slide-3-Risk Based Testing (RBT) Process

At high level RBT process consists of following steps/processe:

1. Identification -

a. Stakeholders and their objectives

b. Factors to be considered for assessment of complexities and Risks (e.g. Functional complexity, new functionality, inexperienced resource, unclear/changing requirements etc)

c. project tasks, functionalities (Break up), activities to be considered for RBT implementation

2. Analysis -

a. evaluates the factors (parameters) and assign constant values to each factor on a scale (preferably 1-10).

b. Assign weights to probability of failure and impact upon failure to Cost, Time & Quality.

c. This is one time activity at project/application level by management, SO etc

d. Take the functional break up and ask Testers/Test Leads to assign weights (Failure probability and Impact on time, Cost and Quality) to individual functionality

3. Risk Exposure Calculation -

a. Calculate total weighted average of each factor as well as each functionality, multiply it by constants and find a product

b. derive % distribution of each function. Assign Risk Exposure Number (REN/RPN) as per defined category. Refer classification table

4. Testing Policy

a. Create complete set of testing techniques to be applied to the project

b. categorize these techniques in 3 classes, basic testing, partial testing and full testing

c. Define the scope of testing for each functionality class based on its RPN value

5. Test Planning

a. Plan the testing activities, Analysis, preparation and Execution based on time distribution given by RBT to each phase/activity

b. Translate total time available to each functionality and further to each scenario/test case.

c. Associate Testing Type to each test scenario/test case

d. Also maintain RPN number for further tracking and monitoring

6. Governance

a. Create a dashboard for progress reporting, Risk monitoring and functionality readiness

b. Populate data from test metrics like testing reports (Planed/Execution, pass/Fail, Defect status etc reports)

c. Calculate % completion through statistically applied formulas

d. Refer prediction model given by RBT for go, no-go decision making

Slide -5- RBT Approach – In Nutshell

The overall picture once RBT methodology is applied to the project.

It shows all the requirement classification in the FMEA (Failure Mode & Effect Analysis) mode.

Lower the probability of failure and lower the impact of this failure, function gets allocated to one of the three categories.

Green ones are the functions which have less risk exposure than the ones in Red.

The monitoring and control is done in RBT not based on tasks or %completion of phase which is a usual practice in Project monitoring and status reporting.

Here we monitor the progress and completeness readiness of each functionality where in its risk exposure is already known and the timeline by which each functionality should be ready is calculated and monitored.

This method gives control over driving the testing efforts, defect fixing efforts so all critical functionalities gets developed, tested and remains stable in QA environment for longer duration. The benefits are illustrated in detail in last 2 slides.

Slide – 5 - Factors and Complexity Calculator

A - Following 3 steps are one time activity for each application or project

Step-1: Identify all the critical factors/parameters applicable/relevant to the project/Application.

Step-2: Arrive at Complexity value (on scale of 1-Least Complex to 5-Very Complex) through brainstorming, involving SO, managers and key project personnel

Step-3: Use the factor values as constants through out the project/Application for all releases.

B- Regular Activity once every release or delivery

Step-4: Involve Testers/Test Leads who would be working on Test preparation and execution. Plot all the functionality in the tool

Step-5: Ask Testers/Test Leads to weigh each function against the identified Factor. (Hide the constant values to avoid influence)

Step-6: Calculate weighted averages and functional complexity values. This is bi-directional. We get for each function total weight against all the factors and secondly, each factors weight age for the release.

Slide -6 - Risk Exposure Calculation

This slide is a alternate and more detailed approach in weighted averages calculation. The first part is continuation to the previous slide.

Step-7: Calculate % weight age distribution of each function. This will give what is the complexity factor value of each function.

Step-8 - Plot the requirements and find the probability of failure of each function against each factor. The scale can be 1-3, 1-5, 1-10.

FMEA - Failure Mode and Effect Analysis is an effective and more accurate way of calculating RPN (Risk Priority Number) or Risk Exposure of each functionality.

Impact is assessed based on the probability of failure value. It need not be necessary that if Higher the probability of failure higher is the impact. In some cases it can be reverse depending upon evaluation criteria.

Step-9 - As done on slide 6, similarly slide 7 demonstrate end to process of risk exposure calculation. First Identify the Probability of failure of each function based on all the factors. Hide the Constant values from testers/Test Leads to avoid influence.

Step-10 - assign the impact value for each function on time, Cost and Quality if the function fails.

Step-11 - Calculate weighted averages and then multiply both weighted averages to get the Risk exposure value for each function. Calculate weight age out of 100%.

Step-12 - Assign Risk Severity number of RPN based on the step-13(Criteria) given in next slide

Slide – 7- RBT based Test Planning and Effort Distribution

Allocate time for test preparation and test execution based on risk exposure or Risk Severity number. The time gets allocated to each requirement accordingly. Higher the RPN more the time allocated.

This is the one of the benefits of RBT, it accurately assigns time based on risk, traditionally we end up spending equal time on all requirements irrespective of the complexity, severity, probability of failure and impacts.

Define Testing Policy:

Testing methodology or testing techniques here are classified into 3 types.

1- Full Test Suite

2-Partial Testing

3- Basic Testing

There are many testing techniques which are used in testing projects. The approach suggested through RBT is lesser the RPN lesser the nature of testing involved.

 

Slide – 8- Testing Policy

The RPN or Risk exposure of a functionality/Requirement can be translated to individual Test scenarios as well as test cases. This is primarily done by Test Leads/Testers during test scenario and test case identification

Point to be mentioned here is that: Particular Requirement may have high Risk Exposure, but test cases for that particular requirement could have different Risk exposure depending upon the nature of the test case. The total Risk exposure % of all test cases associated with a particular requirement should sum to Risk exposure of the requirement.

 

Slide – 9 -RBT – Assessment and Monitoring

Assessment of % readiness/completeness is done mathematically as well as by taking data feeds from testing reports on periodic basis.

Actual % completion/readiness is arrived at and focus areas are highlighted from the beginning of the project itself.

This helps project in many ways

1. Requirements having maximum/critical defects

2. Individual Requirement readiness in %

3. Focus shift required on continuous basis in the areas of development, defect fixes, testing

4. This also drives the testing focus as required and defined in testing policy rather than focusing on all areas equally.

5. This also gives overall consolidated view of testing progress hiding micro level details which most of the times confuses SO/Management

6. Overall project tracking and % readiness (This is not as per phase but as per original business requirement)

Slide – 10- Benefit Illustration 1 – Defect free Delivery of Business Priority Functions

This example illustrates one of the many benefits RBT provides

1. Prioratise deliveries based on readiness, predict successful deliveries well in advance

2. De-scope partial requirements rather than complete release based on accuracy of status given by RBT

3. Deliver agreed requirements defect free without fear of production failures and QA assurances

Focus completing testing on time or before time if the need be through prioritization

Slide – 12 - Case Study 2 – Reliability, Predictability and Optimum Quality Delivery

1. Deliver entire project with accurate status and predictions about open issues, functionalities that works completely

2. Deliver less critical functionalities with open and acceptable defects and rest of the functionalities with 0 Defects

3. Stop focus on less critical items on right time and divert efforts in more critical areas

4. Bring critical functionalities to completion early enough so they remain in QA environments for longer time thus assuring stability