Feel Good Factor :)

There is something good about this picture which makes me post it. Still need to figure out what!!

By the way - Thank you Savio for the click!!

Identity Crisis

What could have been a wonderful way to end a great/exhaustive week than fighting with someone on a silly pretext.The week went well but I feel very heavy from deep down. I hate picking arguments on caste/creed/religion. I sincerely feel -these are very sensitive, emotional topics to discuss. I try to restrict myself on passing any comments with this regard but sometimes when things are getting on your nerve you have nothing left to do than to retaliate - what to do after all human nature.

Fights, arguments on religion/ caste and creed is something which really chafes me. I am from Kashmir and I stay in any part of India (mind it I am not talking about world , I am talking about my own country) and I become an immigrant. People look at me as if I have done a crime in life. I am a North Indian and  I stay in South India (again mind it - my own country) and I am spoiling the culture. I want to ask this question to all those people who think I spoil the culture - please define "Which book says wearing salwar kurta is a culture? Which book says moving in your own country from one state to another is a crime?

We human beings consider ourselves to be the most elevated intellectual species. But I really wonder what happens to our intellectual senses when we discuss on sensitive topics like the ones I mentioned. Even after 62 Years of Independence we are busy fighting on topics like North India/South India - how many of us have ever tried to realize that removing north and south from North/South India we are left with one word India and that should ideally be our identity. That is what should matter. How I wish so!

Business Analysis - Requirement Related Activities

Some of impactful Business Analysis related activities which should be kept in mind from start till end of the project are given below.The approach below fits into any methodology (SCRUM, RUP- Rational Unified Process is an iterative software development process , waterfall, iterative process).

Identify Business Objectives

Business objectives are the single most important thing that every project should understand and define so that all efforts can be prioritized against the value that the project is delivering to the business. Some projects will need additional definition around key performance indicators (KPIs) as well, to ensure that they maintain performance standards from existing systems and processes in place as replacement systems are deployed.

Cut Scope
Most features in software are never used so it is better to cut them up front and never develop requirements for them or implement them in the software. Significant time and money can be saved by making such drastic scope cuts.

Elicit Requirements
There are many different techniques to elicit requirements and their priorities, including workshops, facilitated interviews, observations, or prototypes. The techniques used on a project will be very specific to the type of project, the stakeholders, the stage and even the type of organization. Most projects require some combination of many elicitation techniques.

Visually Model Requirements
Requirements models are essential to communicate requirements in a consumable way and to ensure that requirements are not missing during analysis.

Transition Knowledge 
As requirements efforts progress, the business, the business analysts and product managers increase their knowledge about what they want the end product to be. It’s important though that the development and test team gain that same knowledge rather than tossing some specifications over the wall. It is useful to track issues against requirements throughout this activity to track their questions about requirements because a lack of issues is great indication that teams are not consuming sections of the requirements.

Manage Requirements Change
One thing is constant on all projects - is that requirements and their priorities change. It is important to have a process in place that works for the organization to whatever level or rigor is appropriate. The hardest part of this is as lead stakeholders change or business priorities evolve, requirements might change, but more likely, their priorities will change and the scope of the project will change accordingly.

Deploy Solutions
In order to ensure successful user adoption of the new software - careful attention needs to be paid to training materials and user acceptance tests. Various requirements models like -  Use Cases, can be used to create user acceptance test scripts that the business users can execute. Similarly, many of the models can be converted into training materials so they can learn about the new system while minimizing training material development effort.

Evaluate Success
Excellent requirements are never the goal. The real end goal is to deliver successful products/services. Success is very specific to a business’s needs and the criteria for success is set early by understanding business problems and business objectives. After a project launches, the success should be measured to determine what additional changes are needed, such as additional features, training or maybe marketing support. The goal is to maximize the return on investment and learn for future projects and the only way to do that is to understand what it is after projects are done.

All of these requirements-related activities are important in delivering successful projects at a lower cost and on time.

The content of this post has been taken from various websites.

Go not to the temple!!!



Taken @ Trimbakeshwar - Nashik - 2011


"Go not to the temple to put flowers upon the feet of God,

First fill your own house with the fragrance of love...

Go not to the temple to light candles before the altar of God,

First remove the darkness of sin from your heart...

Go not to the temple to bow down your head in prayer,

First learn to bow in humility before your fellowmen...

Go not to the temple to pray on bended knees,

First bend down to lift someone who is down-trodden...

Go not to the temple to ask for forgiveness for your sins,

First forgive from your heart those who have sinned against you."

- Rabindranath Tagore, Poet

The Law of Detachment

The following post is very well written. I read it somewhere and I am not sure who wrote it. But whoever wrote this my due regards to him/her. Read on ....

The human mind has a tendency to get attached to anything it contacts. Your attachment has deadly effects on your life and peace of mind. Therefore, you need to develop a spirit of detachment. You cannot get detached from anything naturally. It needs conscious deliberate effort. You cannot forcefully pull yourself away from those things that you are attached to.

...To detach yourself from lower, you need to get attached to something higher. Attach to higher values and nobler ideals. The lower attachments will wane away. Just as although children are obsessed with toys, when they taste the joy of something better, like play station or a bicycle, they drop the attachment to the toys.

Similarly what are the toys that make us joy? Our toys are money, name, fame, power, position, status and family. Apart from these toys that are making your joys, you have to set a goal, you have to have a mission in life, and this mission must be beyond your selfish personal interest. It is a purpose that satisfies a larger interest. Perform dynamic action; thereafter peace and success will be your gain.

We secluded ourselves to assimilate wisdom and then emerged into the world to help humanity. To establish ourselves, we have to withdraw from the routine sensual existence. That, however, does not mean that we have to retire, that is not the idea. If you want to master the desires, you need to stay away from the sensual environment. You need not retire fulltime. You may do it for a short while on a regular basis. You need to frequently resort to a spiritual environment to recharge yourself, to imbibe higher values. Being amidst worldly enjoyments it is rather difficult to gain the strength of detachment because the spiritual inputs are washed away by the torrents of sensual temptations.

Detachment is an attitude of non-involvement. Detachment is rather subtle to understand and even more difficult to practice. The sense of detachment is not mere physical abstinence. When you detach yourself physically from pleasure without the mental detachment, which amounts to hypocrisy. The state of detachment is the attitude of not letting the objects of the world affect you or rule you. It is not what you do but how you do it that confers the statement of detachment upon you. Through non-attachment, there arises freedom from delusion.

Attachment blinds your perception of the realities of life. Delusion is false belief out of misunderstanding. Just as when a boy or a girl who is obsessed with the opposite sex is deluded and does not perceive the true nature of the other person and realities of married life. Detachment enables you to see the total scheme of things. You gain freedom from delusion. You begin to get established more and more in Truth the Truth of Life! We all came to this world with empty hands; and will leave the world with empty hands!

Random Thought

"The hands that help are holier than the lips that pray."

Taken @ Ameerpet, Hyderabad - 2012

Moving with Time - My Mum

It's your road....

and your's alone...

Others may walk

it with you,

but no one can

walk it for you!

Taken @ Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala, Mcleodganj - Oct 2012