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What is your learning model?

In the competitive software industry, if you don’t keep yourself updated, soon you’ll be outdated. Yet when swamped with hundreds of concepts, methods and techniques, it is impossible to be updated continually. There is also a risk of, being updated in a soon-to-be outdated area.

Whether lucky or smart, I’ve always worked on challenging, well-paying and emerging concepts & tools. Having reached a certain stage in my career, I’m preparing for the next stage. I’ve followed ‘learn-do-refine’ model which has worked pretty well so far. With that foundation, here is my learning model for the next stage.

My learning model is of two layers - a core layer, domains in which I want to be an expert and a support layer, domains which will help me to practice my expertise effectively.

Enterprise Architecture

Many-a-times, those in software industry asks, ‘I have an answer. Do you have a relevant question?’. But successful (read profit making) companies are those that solve a business problem by engaging technology. EA brings this success story as a practice. I’m excited to learn about EA and possibly apply those concepts in the coming years.

Customer Relationship Management

CRM covers topics such as finding new customers, selling more to existing customers, and retaining customers. Now-a-days, CRM is considered relevant even for government organizations. I’ve been in CRM domain for the past 8 years and I’ve enjoyed both functional and implementation sides. I would like to continue to learn how CRM concepts help companies (and even governments) to be profitable.

People Skills

Executive educator, Marshall Goldsmith, says in ‘What got you here won’t get you there‘, that most of executive’s challenges are ‘people related’. To achieve anything significant, there needs to be a team (composed of seniors, peers, and juniors) and it is important to develop people skills to work with and with-in teams. Having been a asocial introvert, I find that this part of the pie is the most frustrating and emotionally draining; yet a critical part to be successful.

Project Management

I would broadly term this part as ‘Getting things done’ - the execution part of the deal. I’ve worked with some of the brilliant minds who are able to place best ideas on the table, but lack what it takes to get it done. Though I like to conceptualize a solution and communicate it with enthusiasm to others, I find it satisfying to get it executed - not really bothering about who gets the credit. You know what? When you get into that attitude, you almost always get the credit!

Financial Management

This is one area where I need to start from scratch. Executives translate every action in the organization into numbers - either profit or loss. It is poor financial management that has gotten the erstwhile famous companies into bankruptcy.

…and some fun

Another critical piece to continue enjoying other pieces. Though I don’t expect to be Ansel Adams or Mark Twain or Michael Phelps, I like to pursue photography, travel, writing and swimming as they joyfully refresh the soul.

Do you have a learning model? Do you think it is worth having one and pursuing it? Feel free to share your comments.

A First shot at web2py

An irony of being in software industry is that as I gain more experience, I go farther away from constructing software. I keep learning lots of abstract concepts, but don’t get to test them. Not to be out-dated, I write pieces of software myself to test these concepts and theories. Its like being in college continuously!

Of late, I’ve been reading a lot about cloud computing, SAAS, REST and web2.0. But I couldn’t find a way to test them. So I decided to develop an application, which I named YATSY – Yet Another Ticketing System – utilizing years of experience in customizing other helpdesk, support desk and service desk systems.

Only Google offered a free hosting (limited free hosting; with an option to upgrade) on the cloud. With its current offering Google AppEngine (GAE) supports only Python. And web2py, a python web-framework, makes it extremely easy to develop for GAE. Not only that – web2py claims to make it easy to build stand-alone applications for all the three platforms: Mac, Linux & Windows. Though web2py doesn’t have many contributed 3rd party plug-ins, I went ahead with web2py because of the above feature set.

One more negative about web2py is that it lacks a fine documentation. So it is little difficult for beginners. Yet discussions on their google group compensates for this lack.

With that said, web2py does make web-programming easy and hosting on GAE is even easier. Here is what I’ve been able to achieve.

You can see it hosted in Google AppEngine. The code is checked in Google Code.

Your comments are welcome.

Simply better entertainer

It intrigues the movie critics; he has reigned as a “Super-Star” of the Tamil movie industry for more than three decades. It is ever more intriguing when one realises that he is not even a Tamilian. As of this writing, he is one of the highest paid actors in South-East Asia.

He is so popular in Tamil Nadu that you can stop anyone, anywhere in the state and they will know about Rajini Kanth.

Never mind that his dance sequences are not elegent; never mind that his voice variations remain the same in every movie; never mind that he wouldn’t be praised for his acting; but every movie of his is a sure success (okay, most of them) in both rural and urban areas - now-a-days even in Japan!

How did he do it?

I was constantly reminded of him, as I read through ‘Simply Better‘, where the authors argue that providing “Core Category Benefits” is the sure path to long-time success than providing differentiation.

Evaluate the Super-Star on that - he has mesmerized the audience with his fighting sequences, punch dialogues and most importantly style and he has stayed within that boundary. He has not differentiated himself with directorial ventures; method acting and so on and so forth. He provided just the core category benefits of the entertainment industry and reaped the huge rewards in return.

If I could think of one fine example of ‘Simply Better’ entertainment experience it is none other than, Rajini Kanth.

Standing on giants

“Consulting is a tough business”, says Alan Weiss.

You better listen when a million dollar consultant speak.

From opening a bank account to steering a challenging project can be tough, especially when you are starting out as an independent consultant.

So how do you get through?

Motivation is a big part in getting through tough challenges. I draw motivation from family, friends, colleagues, popular icons. Even events can be source of motivation.

Paraphrasing Sir Issac Newton’s words, “If I’ve succeeded, it is because I stood on the shoulders of the giants.

Standing on giants helped me so far; will it get me further? Only time will tell.

Simply Better Consultants

‘Predictable and reliable delivery of category benefits is the driver for success’, argues Patrick Barwise and Sean Meehan in their book, ‘Simply Better‘.

I agree.

Taking parallel from the book, what are the ‘category benefits’ (those expected out of a category or class of products or services) expected from a consultant, as a product and as a service?

I could think of these two:

Domain Expertise: This is the only reason a consultant is in the room. They are expected to be a master in the domain - whatever be the domain - CRM, Project Management, Process Re-engineering, Peoplesoft.

Appreciation of business reality: Usually consultants have to deal with dilemma on the ground and steer their clients to a solution. The problem in hand will be a product of people and process. Yet, consultant should stay focused and find or create a path forward.

Domain expertise can be learnt. In fact, during their life time consultants achieve mastry of more than one domain. However the other skill is hard to learn and judge. But it will be needed in almost all of the assignments. Without it, it is hard to be a consultant.

Do you agree?