Software People Stories

My guest today is Mike Bowers, Chief architect at FairCom. We had a very interesting conversation that we decided to publish in two parts. In the first part of the conversation , MIke shares his career path and his perspective on how to approach software development. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the customer's needs and designing systems that are flexible and scalable. He also discusses the importance of data in software development and his experience working with different data models.Here are the key points from the conversation:Mike started programming at a young age and has been passionate about it ever since.He has a PhD in music theory and sees connections between music and software development, particularly in terms of patterns.As an architect, he focuses on designing systems that are flexible, scalable, and meet the needs of the customer.He believes that data is a crucial part of software development and that understanding data is essential for building good systems.He has experience working with different data models, including relational databases and JSON.Mike Bowers is the Chief Architect at FairCom with over 35 years of experience in software development and architecture. As the driving force behind FairCom's architecture and product roadmaps, Mike specializes in high-performance NoSQL and SQL databases, IIoT platforms, and legacy system modernization solutions. His wealth of knowledge extends to topics like database revolution, manufacturing 4.0, IIoT, edge computing, and data integration. With a deep understanding of the tech landscape, he actively contributes to the development of industry standards through his membership in the INCITS technical committee, focusing on SQL and GQL. Mike's insights resonate particularly well with audiences comprising CEOs, IT managers, software architects, software engineers, and controls engineers.

In this conversation with Ms. Vijayashree CTO - Shikshalokam | Director- Onlineengineer Inc. she talks about her career trajectory and how she approaches technical challenges. Here are the key points:Vijayashree accidentally ended up in computer science after wanting to study electronics engineering.She has a passion for system software design and coding.She transitioned from a services role to a product role to focus more on the technical aspects.She believes in balancing the technical aspects with user needs and understanding the business domain.She uses a collaborative approach to design, involving the team and getting their buy-in on ideas.She acknowledges the need for analysis and design but also emphasizes the importance of getting things into production quickly using Agile methodologies.When making decisions about new technologies, she weighs the risks and benefits, using proven patterns for critical areas but also taking calculated risks to experiment with new ideas.She communicates the importance of non-functional requirements to her team and integrates them into the design process to ensure scalability, reliability, and maintainability.Vijayashree talks about the challenges and the transition from working in the commercial sector to the social sector.Key takeaways for designing for the social sector:Users might not have the technical expertise and may have limited internet connectivity.The solutions should be designed for a wider range of devices including low-end smartphones.Multiple languages and possibly voice interfaces should be considered.There might be a need to focus on offline functionality as well.Metrics for success in the social sector:Adoption rate of the software by other organizations.User feedback and the resulting improvements made to the software.The impact of the software on the beneficiaries.There are also a few interesting career advices by herhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/vijayashree-urs/

Today, my guest is Shekhar Chandra - the Global Practice Head at Irs Software Inc.Here are the key themes from the conversation: Shekhar initially disliked sales because he is more of an introvert. However, he was eased into the role by his company and his technical background helped him gain the confidence to sell because he understood the product.Building a brand: Shekhar highlights the importance of building a brand for oneself, especially when venturing into entrepreneurship.Shekhar talks about the concept of building practices within a company to focus on specific areas of expertise.Shekhar emphasizes the importance of trying new things and learning from failures.Shekhar highlights the need for salespeople to have a good understanding of the technical aspects of the product or service they are selling.Shekhar then talks about the challenges faced by Indian companies trying to take their products global.Marketing is crucial: Building a good product is not enough. Companies need to focus on marketing and building alliances with other companies to be successful in the global market.Shekhar describes three different methods for partnering with other companies:Highlights some challenges faced by Indian companies when they try to take their products global. Shekhar also offers his advice for people in two different career stages:Mid-life career crisis:Late career:Shekhar Chandra - aka SC Shekar is the global practice head at Iris Software Inc. https://www.linkedin.com/in/shekhar-chandra-740953/

Shiv our host is in conversation with Harpreet SIngh, CO-founder and co-CEO of Launchale Inc. Harpreet has been associated with conceiving and launching many innovative products that have become a standard among developer community. In today's conversation he talks aboutHow he started his career in India and then moved to the US. He emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and self-improvement. He mentions his growth mindset and his habit of reading and taking courses to stay updated.Harpreet acknowledges the challenge of scaling himself as a leader alongside the company. He talks about managing time for both work and personal growth. He highlights the importance of clear communication and context setting to empower his team and free up his time. He also mentions using a prioritization technique where he identifies the top three important tasks for both work and personal life. Harpreet acknowledges the resistance developers often have towards documentation. He discusses how he built his team by looking for individuals who value clear communication and writing skills. He describes how he identified a niche in the developer experience (DevEx) domain. He noticed that even after implementing CI/CD practices, companies weren't seeing the desired benefits quickly enough. This led him to explore how AI and machine learning could improve software delivery pipelines.Launchable's product uses machine learning to predict which tests are likely to fail based on code changes. Launchable is now expanding its offering to include intelligent test failure diagnostics using AI and machine learning.Harpreet acknowledges that coding style can influence the likelihood of errors. Launchable considers this to some extent, but the focus is on broader patterns and historical data to predict test failures.He emphasizes the importance of lifelong learning for personal and professional growth.He also talks about careers in testing and tech in general: Harpreet is an entrepreneur, innovator, developer, and creative product leader who has dedicated his life to building new solutions for software teams. His latest iteration is Launchable Inc, an AI/ML company to help developers and QA. A seasoned DevOps leader, Harpreet has been building products for developers for the last 25+ years.Previously, he was GM for Atlassian Bitbucket and VP of Product at CloudBees. At CloudBees he helped create the Jenkins business that scaled to multi-millions in ARR.He has an MBA from Santa Clara University, an MS in CS from the University of Cincinnati, and a Bachelors in Computer Engineering from Pune University, India.

Today, my guest is Vinaya Mallya, is a seasoned IT professional, who has played leadership roles in the corporate sector, then was an entrepreneur building a team and moving on to create solutions to impact the social sector.In this conversation, :Vinaya shares her career path, including experiences in corporate IT, startups, and the social sector.Early Career in ITVinaya's original plan was to study civil engineering, but her principal encouraged her to switch to computer science due to her gender.Despite initial challenges and limited practical experience, a project in COBOL sparked her interest in software development.Her husband, an IT engineer, encouraged her to pursue a career in the field.Finding Passion at InfosysAfter getting married, Vinaya joined Infosys despite initial reservations.The initial training period was difficult, but the collaborative work environment with diverse teams motivated her.She discovered her passion for problem-solving, particularly collective problem-solving in a team setting.Work-Life Balance ChallengesMarrying young and having a demanding job at Infosys presented work-life balance challenges.Her supportive in-laws and husband, who encouraged her to focus on her career for the first five years, helped manage the situation.Traveling abroad for work required additional compromises to maintain family harmony.Leaving Infosys and Starting a StartupInspired by her father's entrepreneurial spirit, Vinaya dreamt of creating jobs someday.After 11 years at Infosys, the need to care for her children and the distance from her husband in Malaysia led to her resignation.Her mother's strong words about the impact on their children became a turning point.Starting an Animation FranchiseTaking a break from corporate life, Vinaya explored franchise opportunitiesAnimation, a growing field, emerged as the final choice, and she started a franchise of an animation institute.While the business didn't generate significant profit, Vinaya takes pride in providing a platform for young talent to launch their careers.Work in the Social SectorVinaya's entry into the social sector was accidental. Initially, she volunteered one day a week, but her time commitment gradually increased to five days a week.The transition from corporate IT to the social sector required adjustments. Vinaya had to learn to appreciate the value of creative solutions and a less structured work environment.She also enjoyed building a team of all women who could relate to the challenges faced by the target population.Challenges of an All-Women TeamVinaya acknowledges that managing an all-women team has its challenges, such as difficulty with travel and limited budget.However, she believes the team's ability to connect with the target population is a significant benefit.Career AdviceFor Early Career Professionals: Vinaya recommends new graduates invest five years in their careers, being open to learning new skills and flexible in their work approach.For Mid-Career Professionals: She acknowledges that some individuals may need to decelerate their careers at a certain point due to life circumstances. However, Vinaya emphasizes the possibility of re-entering the workforce or even transitioning to a new field altogether.After 10 years of experience, Vinaya suggests that professionals consider how they can "give back" to their field or community.OverallVinaya's career path demonstrates the value of flexibility and lifelong learning.Her experiences highlight the opportunities for women in both the IT sector and the social sector.Vinaya has close to 24 years of varied experience in the IT services industry, and more recently in the social sector. She started her career with Infosys, where she spent a decade amassing technical knowledge and honing her management and customer relationship skills. During her stint in Infosys, she got the opportunity to work in different geographical cultures spanning America, Europe & Asia. During the phase of motherhood, she shifted from the hectic corporate job to founding her own startup, a design services company for training and development of multimedia solutions. She was selected for Goldman Sachs-ISB sponsored – “10000 World Women Entrepreneurs Management Program” in 2011. Through a common network, she found an opportunity to get associated in the social sector. At Dhwani Foundation, Vinaya engages with NGOs to help them adopt technology platforms to smoothen their operations. Her motto in life has been to keep an open mind and contribute towards any opportunity that comes along. This attitude has helped her have a very diverse career in her 2+ decades of professional life and hence has not had a boring moment so far ! Handles:Linked in: linkedin.com/in/vinaya-mallya-a30109aEMail: [email protected]

Today, my guest is Amita Ardha, an enterprise architect who has been focusing on sustainable development solutions.In this conversation;Amita started her career in engineering and transitioned to IT due to her interest in the "why" behindthe coding.She realized the importance of understanding the business world and pursued an MBA with a focus onIT and software engineering.She eventually became a certified Enterprise Architect but took a break to focus on personal goals andexplore sustainability.This entrepreneurial experience involving a reuse studio helped her develop a broader understanding ofconnecting business with sustainability.Currently, Amita works as a part-time Enterprise Architect and is involved in sustainability initiatives.Being a Woman in TechAmita acknowledges the challenges women face in tech but emphasizes focusing on the work andenjoying the journey.She advises against attributing missed opportunities solely to gender and highlights the importance ofrecognizing individual journeys.Amita encourages women to take breaks without guilt and to keep striving towards their goals.Sustainability in ComputingAmita views sustainability as a journey from finite to infinite resourcefulness.Focus on Achievable Goals and Resource EfficiencyAmita emphasizes using resources efficiently and highlights cloud computing as an example of improvedresource utilization.She shares an example of identifying hygiene issues faced by sanitation workers and the potentialbenefit of providing antifungal cream.She recommends offering online sessions like storytelling or technology workshops to contributeremotely.You can see some of her work at https://www.instagram.com/bharatireusestudio/

Every year, the Software People Stories dedicates the month of March to women guests, to call out their contributions and highlight some women’s perspectives.Today, I am very happy to introduce our guest, Krishna Kumari, who is also a podcaster, hosting the New Indian Woman podcast.In this conversation, Krishna talks about:Her first association with computers during her engineering student days and her first jobReflecting on the novelty and curiosity around computers and software that generated an attraction to this sectorBeing a campus hire at an IT organization and moving across various roles over the next 22 yearsLeaving the software industry and volunteering at various NGOs for about 7 yearsGetting back to IT handling the applications portfolio at a large universityHow programming languages were associated with an invisible class system among the developers with developers wanting to work only on specific languagesGetting an opportunity to talk to one of her uber-bosses and complaining about not getting an opportunity to work on a language of her choice and how he could make a differenceHow she kept learning new technologies as they evolved, and as she moved from domain to domainHer tips on cross leveraging one’s experience when moving from one domain to another How it is important to understand the user experience and design for thatSeeking inputs from others as feedback, one gets opportunities to discover one’s strengthsHow it is important to nurture the quality of transparency to gain the trust of team members and how she discloses her strength areasHow a mentor was instrumental in guiding her in switching to the social sector, by making her think what her contribution to the social sector could beFinding a niche to contribute, by bringing her experience in process management in the corporate sector, to the social sectorHow forming genuine relationships with people is very importantShe shares the reason for starting the New Indian Woman podcast, to share experience and perspectives with more women Her career tips: the importance of the qualities that a person brings to the tableListen on!More about Krishna Kumari:I am Krishna and I currently live in Bangalore.​I have been interested in planning, productivity and time management related topics, right from my middle school.​Over the years, this expanded to a journey of continuous improvement and learning from others and examining of how I can live my life in a better way. Better for myself and for the people I care.​These learnings have helped me a lot, no doubt. I have been looking for ways to share the same with the larger community of people around me and learn more and more. And that is the genesis of this blog 'New Indian Woman' and many more things to come…​And if you are wanting to know more about my background. I come from a small town called Alleppey(now Alappuzha, famous for its backwaters), in Kerala. My mother tongue is Tamil. On the academic front, I have done Engineering in Computer Science and then worked in the new IT industry. I started as a software developer, worked many roles in a leading IT organization. When I was performing the role of General Manager, I decided to leave the corporate world and explore. This led me to start volunteering for different causes . During this period, I havebeen a volunteer with NGOs and citizen groups involved in a range of activities from structuring and managing a variety of programs, translating ideas to project opportunities, interacting with partner organisations to facilitate IT implementation, creating visibility of organization's operations towards stakeholder agencies and so on.been a visiting faculty for Undergraduate students at a University for Data Management course .engaged at my children’s school for multiple activities including implementation of new library software using open source toolshelped with teaching a Sewing course for Undergraduates at a University as part of their Creative Expressions programmelaunched my own podcast(yes, available in this site)pursued my hobbies - the ever common reading and of course, you guessed it right, sewing!​My learnings come from the 2 decades in the IT world (after a simple small town upbringing), my current explorations and interactions with a wide variety of people from all backgrounds . My learning also comes from being a mother to a young adult daughter and teenage son.Get in touchWebsite : http://thenewindianwoman.comFacebook : http://facebook.com/newindianwomanEmail : [email protected] : https://twitter.com/thenewindianwo1LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thenewindianwoman

Happy Women's Day!This whole month we have all women's special podcast.Today, Malini Gowrishankar , Founder and CEO of F5escapes is in conversation with Chitra sharing her experiences as below - Describes herself as a nerdy 1st bencher with interest in music poetry, screen tested with Doordarshan- Support role resolving backend issues, strong fundamentals in delivering high quality software- the disconnect between developers v/s requirements and realizing business value, software products v/s services- An understanding of the "why" as key to building good software- Building software is NOT a transaction, empowering people to encourage curiosity- A process of keeping many identities, thriving and not just surviving- Voice acting, scripting and weekend hobbies becoming her career- Starting f5 travels post the Nirbhaya incident to create an impact- A trip to Sikkim to prove some perceptions otherwise and travel as a transformation- create feeling of safety through establishing local connections and traveling in groups, solo women travel8 years in IT as a techie / project manager, 10+ years in media as voice-over/dubbing artist and creative writer, 8+ years in travel as Founder/CEO of F5 Escapes. Passionate about women empowerment, entrepreneurship and sustainable travel. Lover of rains, books, music, nature, performing arts, animals and children. In her free time, she also trains people in voice-overs; mentors young professionals and women wanting to return to the workplace. https://www.linkedin.com/in/malini-gowrishankar-40210515/

In second part of this episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Bharath Kumar who is a Marketeer from a Technologist, Head Of Marketing & Cx - Zoho Creator and he’s a Marketing and Content Specialist.Believing the part of Authentic marketing Creating a Product first and playing secondary to product but how do you differentiate the values of Zoho organization along with product featuresUnlearning and becoming second fiddle to the ProductChanging the model to inbound focus from an outboundGuiding through the vision instead of power Bharath also shares how he believes that one has to understand their own visionBharath further Bharath considers himself as an entrepreneurial marketeer. Bharath has 14+ years of professional work experience that helped him develop expertise in the areas of Lead Generation, Marketing communications, Brand management, Marketing strategy & Content marketing. Bharath is the marketing head for Zoho Creators for the last 5 years. Prior to that, Bharath was in the product marketing team for Ramco system and TinyOwl. He was the head of communication of Tamil Nadu Circle for Airtel where he was responsible for the content delivery and creating the brand promise for Airtel. Bharath was a software engineering in Infosys for 3 years. Bharath graduated from College of Engineering Guindy in Mining Engineering and Great Lakes Institute of management. Bharath can be contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bharathkumarb-marketer/ You can listen to the Part1 of the podcast belowhttps://pm-powerconsulting.com/blog/creating-your-great-day-every-day-with-bharath-kumar/

In this special episode, as part of our book launch "A Practitioner's guide to Enterprise Agility", we had a panel discussion on Enterprise agility. As part of this panel Sivaguru was in conversation with 3 eminent guest from IT industry, Ramkumar Venkatesan, CTO Cashfree payments, Vandana Malaiya, Partner Semcostyle and S Gopalan, MD Global automation Pvt Ltd. Listen to this episode to know what were the views on enterprise agility of our guests .Hope you enjoy the episode!

In today's special episode we have our authors in conversation with our host Chitra. They share their experiences and thoughts with Chitra about the story behind this book. Here is what Chitra has to say about this podcast.The five tantras of enterprise agility which emerged from real coaching, business and consulting experiences of PM Power Consulting authored by Paramu Kurumathur only meant a sequel was a matter of time.So when co-author and former colleague of mine Sivaguru asked if I be the host for a podcast on the new book,I jumped at the chance. In this conversation, the three co-authors of a practitioner's guide to enterprise agility, J.Veeraraaghavan, Paramu and Sivaguru shared their experiences around the process of creating this piece of work and what embodies its essence, working with their individual styles and ideas especially for which PM Power is a powerhouse and how it eventually all came together.Apparently, a trio of authors makes for the perfect book recipe. They tell listeners not only about what the practitioner's guide is but also how it enables enterprises on their agility path practically with converting philosophies of the five tantras using tried and tested tools and practices backed by over 15 years of PM Power experience. Listen to this episode of the Software People's Stories podcast.Listen on...

In the second part of the conversation with my friend Prema Dhas Mohunraj - aka Prem, Automotive Engineer, Product Leader in the Automotive Space, Electrobit(EB), we touched upon his career and reflections, including:Shares his decisions and the outcomes of moving roles, company and locationTalks about family and decisions on moving career Prem shares his learnings on being part of a legal case while dealing with a software quality issueSharing his views on the role definition and switching his avatars based Riding the high on completing a software codeWorking between different meetingsShares his learnings and Premadhas started his career with Robert Bosch and moved to Wipro where he led several roles for 14+ years. His most recent role was being the Quality Lead/Project Manager for a client. Premadhas moved to Electrobit (EB) as an automotive engineer and then to lead their quality practices and now in Product lead role. Premadhas is currently in the Detroit Metropolitan Area. Premadhas did his engineering in REC (now NIT) Trichy in Electronics and Communication Engineering. Premadhas can be connected at linkedin.com/in/premadhas

In the first part of conversation with my friend Prema Dhas Mohunraj - aka Prem, Automotive Engineer, Product Leader in the Automotive Space, Electrobit(EB), we touched upon his career and reflections, including:Shortest stint in Robert Bosch for 2 years and talks about today’s trend of people moving out in less than 2 monthsBeen an automotive engineer for the better part of his career and worked in different parts of business with . Premadhas jokes that he was getting only one firm to get a pay check but very different clients and even mail idsShares his view of the automotive industry - number of chips in a car to number of people who used to work in the software side during the entire transformation Proliferation of companies coming in the space - shortened the cycle of development - want to keep up with technology and mimicking the cellphone designsTalks about the connected cars and keeps the conversation on what’s happening on the road in a real-time basis. Shares the need to adapt in 2-3 year period to new roles (within or outside the firm) to ensure that we continue to learn from our ecosystemPremadhas talks about mentoring and how that support has helped him identify newer roles that he has just joined in as a Product Lead in ElectrobitPrem shares some of his personal decisions and shares his change from being a manager to an individual contributor and it brought him to a new city to write C++ codePremadhas started his career with Robert Bosch and moved to Wipro where he led several roles for 14+ years. His most recent role was being the Quality Lead/Project Manager for a client. Premadhas moved to Electrobit (EB) as an automotive engineer and then to lead their quality practices and now in Product lead role. Premadhas is currently in the Detroit Metropolitan Area. Premadhas did his engineering in REC (now NIT) Trichy in Electronics and Communication Engineering. Premadhas can be connected at linkedin.com/in/premadhas

In this conversation with my colleague Srinivasan Sundararajan - aka Srini, we touched upon many topics related to personal finance as well as non-financial planning, including:His passion for data and analyticsUnderstanding that behavior matters as much or more than data and how his own approach to analytics has evolved over timeThe year end being a logical time window to reflect and planStart your reflection and planning from selfPicking the vital few aspects that need to be addressed and focusing measurements and analysis on thatHis reflection on the past year on a personal levelWhile he may not be very excited about planning quarter in quarter, using a quarter as a window to review financial investments , but shorter windows based on what the goals areAspects one should be clear about, both when planning and reflecting on the progress on plansHaving discretionary and non-discretionary aspects in the goals and aspirationsThe importance of making a public commitment or having an accountability buddyHow to use four words of Intrinsic / extrinsic, need/want driven to test motivationThe link to the blog post referred to by Srini on the four words related to motivation: https://pm-powerconsulting.com/blog/4-words-test-motivational-level/

In this conversation, my colleague Mohan Ram shares howHis reflection and planning cycle is not necessarily synchronized with the calendar yearHis preference to not think too far ahead in the future, but focus on the next 3 monthsHow the thought process is always on in the back of one’s mindHow to avoid the analysis paralysis, but move towards action with a golden optimal ruleHis experience and learnings from two of his bossesThe significance of journals and journalingHis preference for more visually laid out elements in a journal and fitting a note within half a page or one page max

As we approach the end of a calendar year, many of us have the practice of looking back on the year that was, reflecting on the highs and lows of the year - and shape our dreams and aspirations for the coming year.At Software People Stories, we are running a special series of conversations with people on their own approaches as well as practices and stories of how their thinking has changed over the years.Today, it is a conversation between the two co-hosts of the podcast, Chitra and Gayatri. In this conversation, they touch upon:Chitra’s practice of annual year end reflectionGayatri’s professional achievements in a large organization and being bit by the startup bugHaving many goals at the start of the year and achieving many of themPlanning for a college reunion that brought together over 250 personsSome ideas that did not see as much progress as desiredChitra shares her entrepreneurial journey in the learning spaceThe strength of the co-founders supporting each other through tough timesA new role in a new sector that she has recently taken upHer delving into authorshipTheir experiences and some practices as coaches and how that has influenced their ways of workingThe significance of time management and also ‘just be’ing.. And not doing anythingWhat Chitra would like to build up as a practice in the coming yearManaging your energy more than timeManage FOMO, by sifting through the barrage of information overload and pick the ones most relevant for you and how to get startedThe importance of having safe spaces to help explore problem spacesTheir ideas for the coming year, that they want to work onSome of the techniques they talked about include: Atomic habits and pomodoro techniqueListen on, to be inspired.

As we approach the end of a calendar year, many of us have the practice of looking back on the year that was, reflecting on the highs and lows of the year - and shape our dreams and aspirations for the coming year.At Software People Stories, we are running a special series of conversations with people on their own approaches as well as practices and stories of how their thinking has changed over the years.Today, my guest is Paramu Kurumathur, a colleague and a published serial author.He talks aboutTwo types of books he writesHow he motivates himself to make progress, even when there is no deadlineHow he plans and prioritizes time across projectsThe significance of a calendarHis thoughts on year end reflections and analogies from astronomyAnd the repeating cycles in calendars and their relevanceThe usefulness of year end reflections and new year resolutionsYou can reach him onhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/paramu-kurumathur-01489a6/

As we approach the end of a calendar year, many of us have the practice of looking back on the year that was, reflecting on the highs and lows of the year - and shape our dreams and aspirations for the coming year.At Software People Stories, we are running a special series of conversations with people on their own approaches as well as practices and stories of how their thinking has changed over the years.Today, I am in conversation with S Gopalan, my colleague from PM Power and an industry veteran. He prefers to be called Gopal.In this conversation he sharesThat reflections are goodHow his own perspective on annual cycles of appraisal [and feedback] have changed over timeThat he is not fond of setting goals such as losing weight within a fixed timeline, as effective, but rather prefers to take up things that would help make changes in his daily routinesHow taking micro goals per day, could possibly be accumulated and sometimes ‘binge’ completedThe benefit of making commitments publicHow his approaches are different when reflecting on two different contexts that he is actively associated with: a loosely structured team and a more structured team with tight timelinesWhat we, as coaches, need to think about differently - about tools to help us deliver more impactful engagementsThe value of reflections - to make one feel more secure and confident of the futureYou should have a plan, but be open to modifying that to adapt dynamically

As we approach the end of a calendar year, many of us have the practice of looking back on the year that was, reflecting on the highs and lows of the year - and shape our dreams and aspirations for the coming year.At Software People Stories, we are running a special series of conversations with people on their own approaches as well as practices and stories of how their thinking has changed over the years.Today, I am in conversation with Anantha Natarajan, my colleague from PM Power and an accomplished coach. He prefers to be called Anand.In this conversation he sharesHow his approach has evolved over the years, influenced by the context and environment he grew up in and moving to a larger city for studies and on to professional lifeA question he was asked by one of his mentors, about 25 years ago, about his aspirations for the futureHis practice of writing things down in his dream bookA model that has evolved and worked for him, that he calls i-fi; moving from the present I, to the future IThe importance of the role of a mentorWhether discipline is essential for these resolutionsHow considering some responsibilities as chores, obligations or blessings changes ones complete perspectiveThe high level overview of his i-fi modelAbout improving the quality of the inner mirrorThe relevance of choosing timelines for future plansFor more details on the i-fi model, check out Anand’s blog post.Accessible at: https://pm-powerconsulting.com/blog/i-fi-a-model-for-designing-your-future-and-personal-change/I hope you got some ideas to help you reflect and plan for the coming year.If some other practices have worked for you - or possibly not worked for you, would you like to share your story?Reach us on [email protected] and please do share with your networks to spread the word.

In this episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Bharath Kumar who is a Marketeer from a Technologist, Head Of Marketing & Cx - Zoho Creator and he’s a Marketing and Content Specialist.In his career spanning over two decades, he shares very interesting stories –Started his career in Infosys as a software engineerFound that his interests was in organizing events, quizzes and packaging and presenting the ideas were his strengthsDuring his career as a mainframe engineer, Bharath found that he was the most approachable and decided to approach a career in marketingHe talks about creating every day a great day and understanding what according to him made him feel greatShares his stories on what led him to choose marketing in MBABharath shares his dichotomy of experience in Madura Micro Finance LtdEndearing stories on being a communication - content management and head of circle communication for airtelBharath shares some of the data orientation and how to wear the data hat and keep visibility of the brand Identifying the patterns of data using clarity and ethical values. Bharath also shares how he always has the analytical mind and the eye for color/ patterns at the same time. In fact Bharath recommends that all of us need to keep this modelBharath considers himself as an entrepreneurial marketeer. Bharath has 14+ years of professional work experience that helped him develop expertise in the areas of Lead Generation, Marketing communications, Brand management, Marketing strategy & Content marketing. Bharath is the marketing head for Zoho Creators for the last 5 years. Prior to that, Bharath was in the product marketing team for Ramco system and TinyOwl. He was the head of communication of Tamil Nadu Circle for Airtel where he was responsible for the content delivery and creating the brand promise for Airtel. Bharath was a software engineering in Infosys for 3 years. Bharath graduated from College of Engineering Guindy in Mining Engineering and Great Lakes Institute of management. Bharath can be contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bharathkumarb-marketer/

In this episode, I asked Tom Pierce, the president and founder of Integrated Information Systems (I2S) responds to my question on how the ‘integrated’ in his company name is internalized by his clients. He responded to that question and shared many more interesting thoughts in this episode. He shared:How their weekly 5 hour workshops for clients, to get vibrant conversations goingHow he uses music in some of his interactionsHis belief in segmentation and appropriate responses, rather than fragmentationHis experience with music, when practicing first base alone and getting the big picture when the full team came togetherHis metaphor from baseball, on being present and aware of the other players and take decisionsWhy preparation and practice trumps planning aloneHow Covid had a negative impact on collaborationAbout drawing from how children learn music to make software teams more effectiveHow the artistry of code can be better when a team member ‘listens’ to the rest of the team membersHow children are very perceptive, while AI [alexa] is notHis career tips for those considering a career in IT and those considering a switch mid-career, from non-tech to tech rolesHe also draws from his experience of holding his first grand child in his hands the first time.. Beautiful!, in responding to a question of patience and a sense of urgency or rushing through lifeHow he finds time for being interested and engaged in multiple activities Tom Pierce is the president and founder of Integrated Information Systems (I2S) of Louisville, Kentucky. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Wake Forest University (1981) and a Master’s in Divinity (1993) from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. After serving as an officer in the US Army, Tom has been immersed in the design and support of manufacturing software, as well as in the data-driven analysis of business and financial systems, primarily in large manufacturing facilities within the Aerospace Defense sector. A self-described MRP philosopher and ERP contrarian, Tom is a passionate advocate of simple approaches to complex problems. As a stubbornly resolute moderate, his company seeks to promote intelligent integrity by avoiding the opposing traps of overly simplistic naivety and overly complicated sophistication. For roughly four decades, Tom has focused his career and his company on the pursuit of trustworthy clarity and practical understanding of information, which is the light of all human pursuits.

In this episode, Tom Pierce, the president and founder of Integrated Information Systems (I2S), shares:Many in his family had been in military serviceIn his first assignment, being assigned to the analysis team because he has a background in math and computersGrabbing an opportunity to use a computer that was unusedDoing some simulation modeling solutionsLeaving the army in good terms and going back to schoolWorking for a defense contractor and then starting his own defense contracting firmLeveraging his experience in the military to solve civilian problemsSome generational differences in the approach to merge technology and processesHis experience of the rules and hierarchical models of working in the military, where, on the lighter side, ‘you cannot do anything without breaking some rule’Some examples of streaks of entrepreneurship that ran in his familyThe last straw that pushed him into entrepreneurship: a sense of frustration about how businesses were run and having his own values and ideas of how to run a companyNot compromising on the value of working with end usersHow tech fluency is more important than tech savvinessTom Pierce is the president and founder of Integrated Information Systems (I2S) of Louisville, Kentucky. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Wake Forest University (1981) and a Master’s in Divinity (1993) from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. After serving as an officer in the US Army, Tom has been immersed in the design and support of manufacturing software, as well as in the data-driven analysis of business and financial systems, primarily in large manufacturing facilities within the Aerospace Defense sector. A self-described MRP philosopher and ERP contrarian, Tom is a passionate advocate of simple approaches to complex problems. As a stubbornly resolute moderate, his company seeks to promote intelligent integrity by avoiding the opposing traps of overly simplistic naivety and overly complicated sophistication. For roughly four decades, Tom has focused his career and his company on the pursuit of trustworthy clarity and practical understanding of information, which is the light of all human pursuits

I continue my conversation with Jeremy Snyder, the founder and CEO of FireTail.io, an end-to-end API security startup. Towards the end of the first part, I asked Jerermy ‘how a developer should think, when using APIS - with so many moving parts - from security and performance aspects’He answers that and continues to share his story relating to:The extensive experience his co-founder has with API based architectures and implementationsHow APIs can implement business functions or offer specific extracts of data held in applicationsFirst, understanding how APIs could be compromised, to pick the scope for what their company firetail should be addressingHow many breaches are related to authentication and authorizationWhy a zero-trust approach is very critical and the good practice of sharing only minimum data that needs to be sharedThe importance of central loggingHow he manages to get a good night’s sleep, while playing a very crucial role in the chain of enterprise security in an API based solutionHis personal practices to handle pressure at work and stay calmThe story behind naming their company firetailHow he developed an interest in learning many languagesJeremy asked me about my linguistic interestsHis career tipsSocial media: https://twitter.com/halffinn , https://www.linkedin.com/company/77663520 , https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremysnyder/ Jeremy is the founder and CEO of FireTail.io, an end-to-end API security startup. Prior to FireTail, Jeremy worked in M&A at Rapid7, a global cyber leader, where he worked on the acquisitions of 3 companies during the pandemic. Jeremy previously led sales at DivvyCloud, one of the earliest cloud security posture management companies, and also led AWS sales in southeast Asia. Jeremy started his career with 13 years in cyber and IT operations. Jeremy has an MBA from Mason, a BA in computational linguistics from UNC, and has completed additional studies in Finland at Aalto University. Jeremy speaks 5 languages and has lived in 5 countries. Jeremy was once kicked off a train in central Sweden, and another time went several days without seeing another human, but did see lots of reindeer.Link to my podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-a-ciso/id1596056884

In this conversation, Jeremy Snyder, the founder and CEO of FireTail.io, an end-to-end API security startup, shares his professional journey and perspectives. Specifically, How he got into IT in the late 90s, when technology was coming into businessesEarly experience in Linux, VAX and Unix and implementing solutions for a translation agencyBeing responsible to evaluate, implement and integrate with various systems and thereby increasing the empathy for users and their situationsMoving to work with one of the solution providers and taking up tech support roles and trying his hand at software developmentGetting into and liking the infrastructure related rolesHis experience, as an IT infrastructure professional, of working with software developersThe ‘healthy’ struggle between the two roles and how IT teams would specify the environments to develop and deploy intoIT teams wanting to conserve resources and giving very limited capacities for developersDays when 98% availability was taken as acceptable and when crashes occurred, devs and IT teams would work overtime to find fault with the other teamStarting with Amazon AWS in 2010 when cloud computing was just evolvingUnderstanding the power of virtualized environments and why that needs a different way of thinking about data centers, getting away from the server-hugger mentalityThe need for users to develop trust in the cloud model of workingThe experience with gaining customer confidence in the cloud model in terms of stability, security etcThe harder aspect of addressing cultural issues triggered by fear of losing jobs by IT personnelTaking up other roles in smaller companies and understanding the security and vulnerability risks that companies could get exposed toPerimeter controls, endpoint protection, logging and monitoring etcFrom replicating data center structures to auto scaling infrastructure using containers and serverless architecturesThese resulting in more and more API based architecturesSocial media: https://twitter.com/halffinn https://www.linkedin.com/company/77663520 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremysnyder/ Jeremy is the founder and CEO of FireTail.io, an end-to-end API security startup. Prior to FireTail, Jeremy worked in M&A at Rapid7, a global cyber leader, where he worked on the acquisitions of 3 companies during the pandemic. Jeremy previously led sales at DivvyCloud, one of the earliest cloud security posture management companies, and also led AWS sales in southeast Asia. Jeremy started his career with 13 years in cyber and IT operations. Jeremy has an MBA from Mason, a BA in computational linguistics from UNC, and has completed additional studies in Finland at Aalto University. Jeremy speaks 5 languages and has lived in 5 countries. Jeremy was once kicked off a train in central Sweden, and another time went several days without seeing another human, but did see lots of reindeer. Link to my podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-a-ciso/id1596056884

In this episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Nanthakumar Arumugam who is a Technologist, Delivery Lead at ThoughtWorks and he’s a Quality Engineer and Financial Expert.In his career spanning over two decades, he shares very interesting stories –Nantha started his career as an instrumentation engineer within Polyester firm. His interest gravitated towards the PLC programming and that led him to join the software engineering full timeNantha joined Ready Test Go as a Quality engineer where he got his skill in the world of startup and certification worldNantha shares how the waterfall way of working had provided different domains and worked in 20 different programs in a very short period of timeHe also covers how he and his team ramped up on the domain and program rapidly Automation as a practice he gravitated to reduce the manual regression suite Nantha talks about the background on how Selenium tool came in as an antidote to the mercury tools (winrunner / loadrunner)Nantha shares his expertise on the passage of Automation CoE and a separate teamNantha talks about several hats he has worn in ThoughtWorks and shares the changes on how business interactions within TechnologyHe further shares the distance that’s reduced between business leads and access to leads to identify solution optionsNantha talks about the availability of tools that has made the business outcomes come out as soon as possibleNantha shares some of the key wisdom on how one has to build expertise in different facets of experience Nantha is the delivery lead and project manager in ThoughtWorks. He has been working with ThoughtWorks for a decade. He has played several roles including Quality Analyst, Quality Lead, Architect and Chennai Chapter lead prior to taking the current role. Nantha has done his PG in BITS Pilani and B.E. in University of Madras Nanthakumar can be contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nanthakumara/

In this episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Saikat Chakrabarty who is a Technologist, Director, Engineering at Mihup and he’s a AI/ML and Computer Vision Enthusiast.In his career spanning over a decade, he has been a Telecom engineer, prompt engineering, Interaction designer and conversational AI. Saikat is working in the pioneering world of building AI tools that map the man machine and the personHe’s working in the contact center engineering by understanding the questions and asks from our customersSaikat started his career in creating software for LTE within 4G Telecom providers and says that he has not looked back from thereSaikat’s team in Mihup creates the analysis of the several thousand conversations between the customer and contact center and understand the sentiment of the userListen to the conversation on how the vernacular language support is being created in the AI platform to build accuracyUnderstand that initial days you have to choose the right place to work and always stay invested in oneselfSaikat also talks about his mantra of “Don't choose an easy path and continue to learn”Saikat talks about his interests in Medical and Computer science and Brain networks are working. Saikat believes that the future bet is lying on medical access across the globeSaikat says that software changes in months not years - you have to keep yourself updated daily and that’s the only way to stay relevant He’s also deep believer of the growth of the technology in Tier 3 cities within India given the organizations changing to remote first or HybridSaikat has been instrumental in Mihup's success as one of the leading Conversational AI companies in India. He leads the entire tech organisation at Mihup, with a team of almost 20 people working under him, ranging from Devops to MLEs, overseeing the end to end development and shipping of the Mihup products.Saikat Chakrabarty is a dynamic leader and Senior Engineering Manager at Mihup, a pioneering conversational AI platform founded in 2016. Mihup's revolutionary approach empowers individuals to seamlessly interact with the digital world while prioritizing inclusivity and accessibility, regardless of language, accent, or dialect.Technical Leadership:At Mihup, Saikat has successfully managed and mentored cross-functional teams in machine learning, R&D, product development and DevOps. His expertise in managing the development of Mihup's conversational AI products has positioned him as a trusted leader in the industry. With a deep understanding of a wide range of technologies, including Java (Spring Boot), NodeJs, Golang, Angular, Python, RabbitMQ, PostgreSQL, Redis, Kubernetes, and more, Saikat has played a pivotal role in building highly scalable cloud microservices and optimizing premise-based applications.Diverse Experience:Saikat's wealth of experience extends beyond his role at Mihup. He has previously worked with renowned companies like Lexmark and Polaris Network Inc., where he honed his skills and passion for AI/ML and computer vision. His contributions to these cutting-edge fields have resulted in 2 patents and 6 paper publications, consolidating his exceptional knowledge and expertise.Recognition and Awards:Saikat's exceptional contributions and dedication to his craft have earned him notable accolades throughout his career. Notably, he was awarded the prestigious Digital Transformation Award at Lexmark Focus-2-Future, alongside the Manager Appreciation Award and several other commendations. At Mihup, he has regularly been the recipient of special rewards for his undying passion and dedication towards delivering products that customers love to use.Saikat can be contacted at Saikat Chakrabarty:

In this episode, I continue my conversation with Presenjit Sarkar, who is a Technologist, Innovator, Disruptor - and distinguished engineer with Rubrik inc.In his career spanning over 25 years, he has been a researcher, inventor, startup founder among other key roles he has played.I asked Prasenjit, if an entrepreneur should take outside help in building teams and people..The answer to that question and a lot more in the second part of the conversation.Today, he talks about:Taking professional support to build a psychological profile of a new hireThe importance of reaching out to references and understand any challenges the candidates facedHow he finds time to manage multiple things and also stay current on technology, competition etcWhy one should not try to do everything oneself, particularly the founders, rather focus on the core strengthsHis thoughts on data protection and data qualitySome career tips for roles related to data scienceI asked Prasenjit in building teams and people, if an entrepreneur should take outside help..The answer to that question and a lot more in the second part of the conversation.Stay tuned in for the next episode.Prasenjit Sarkar is a Distinguished Engineer at Rubrik responsible for the architecture and development of relational, NoSQL, and Big Data backup and recovery products. He has previously led initiatives to formulate product strategy, deliver industry-leading backup and recovery features, and superior performance at scales of thousands of databases.https://www.linkedin.com/in/psarkar24/On X - @psarkar24

In this episode, Sivaguru is in conversation with Presenjit Sarkar, who is a Technologist, Innovator, Disruptor - and distinguished engineer with Rubrik inc.In his career spanning over 25 years, he has been a researcher, inventor, startup founder among other key roles he has played.Today, he talks about:His background, growing up years in IndiaDoing his PhD and moving to corporate research, as he is more of a hands on personAfter about 15 years with IBM, as a successful research scientist, left to start a companyGetting enterprise customers and then getting acquired by another companyHaving experience in large, small companies, startups, connected to academiaWorking in storage, big data management, backup and recovery spaceMoving from data protection to data securityThe experience of shifting from academics to corporateHow research focuses on thought leadership, while the priority in corporate is about market leadershipThe pleasures and pains of founding a startupThe feelings when one’s startup is acquired by someone elseAspects of chemistry and work styles that play out in acquisitionsThe need to be pragmatic, accept decisions, adjust and move aheadTips to manage one’s personal stresses and some techniques that have worked for him, particularly during transitionsHis tips for motivating people, and sharing your founder’s vision and excitement with the team that joins youManaging people, their aspirations and expectation, ambitions - is more difficult to manageThe answer to that question and a lot more in the second part of the conversation.Stay tuned in for the next episode.Prasenjit Sarkar is a Distinguished Engineer at Rubrik responsible for the architecture and development of relational, NoSQL, and Big Data backup and recovery products. He has previously led initiatives to formulate product strategy, deliver industry-leading backup and recovery features, and superior performance at scales of thousands of databases.https://www.linkedin.com/in/psarkar24/On X - @psarkar24

In this episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman has the conversation with Kamala Srinivasan who is a Technologist, Founder & CEO, Upahara, and women in tech influencer.In her career spanning over 25 years, she has been a STEM engineer, fintech developer, women in tech influencer and startup founder among other key roles she has played.Kamala grew up in a home with professors and engineers she recalls how having a clean room with AC blasting made her fascinated with the technology industryKamala shares her experiences of introducing reverse mentoring in India to enable senior people understand the pulse of the young people Started her career in the early 90s in the technology industry and worked in the financial sector Shares her decision making nugget to create a calculated move with the family onboard as well as a clear timeKamala shares that one needs to take care of self be it in your physical and mental stateKamala talks about her experience in fintech companies in India and US and how she found very less women in her age group. This made her take a call in the non-profit organizationKamala talks about creating ethically viable future and gives examples for thatKamala shares how her company is an app in your mobile phone to provide the application to connect people in need with people who would like to give. Her firm Upahara.com provides that service and she wants to share more about the firm in the future She shares some of the her book recommendation and philosophies that has helped her groundKamala shares tips on networking that listeners can help stay connected and learning from othersA technologist and an exec coach with more than 20 years of experience in both nonprofit organizations and technology industries. Kamala’s broad areas of expertise include global technology product delivery and operations, go-to-market strategy, digital transformation, and SAAS in Fintech, retail, legal, and media.Kamala’s expertise in non-profit and philanthropic fields, and in information technology has led her to seek a solution using emerging technology to create a robust platform that serves the needs of both donors and charitable organizations: a personalized, curated, discovery-based interface, connecting organizations and donors without extensive effort on both sides, like Fintech investment management products. www.linkedin.com/in/kamalasrinivasan/ https://twitter.com/Kamalasrini

In this episode, my co-host Gayatri continues her conversation with Dan Balcauski, founder and chief pricing officer at product tranquility, a company that helps high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new productsGayatri asked him what challenges he faced when he became a consultantDan sharesHow he did a solo backpacking around the world and the transformational experiences he gotHow he had to talk himself away from self-talk that would shoot any ideas for entrepreneurshipWanting to explore a ‘brain for hire’ model, to see if he could sell his expertiseValidating the niche to be in - of SaaS pricing advisoryWhy he did not consider a model of being a fractional product manager role, as a consultantWhat some of the inflexion points in his career have beenHow he has been able to support global clients, remotelyHis advice for young professionals who want to take up product management as a careerDan Balcauski, the founder and Chief Pricing Officer at Product Tranquility, dispels B2B SaaS Pricing Illusions.Dan is an expert in helping high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products. He has 15 years of experience managing multiple products throughout their life cycles, from start-ups to publicly traded multinationals. A fun fact about him: before founding the company, he took a sabbatical and completed a solo, round-the-world expedition to 21 countries.Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/balcauski/

In this episode, my co-host Gayatri is in conversation with Dan Balcauski, founder and chief pricing officer at product tranquility, a company that helps high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new productsIn this conversation he talks aboutHis student days in 1999, the peak dotcom eraGot a job in Austin, TexasGetting into engineering manager role, which included envisioning product roadmapsDeveloping an interest in articulating value of solutions Signing up for an MBA and doing work on pricingSeeing some of the mistakes made by others during mergers and acquisitionsSetting up his company about 4 years agoHow he learns from other experts and booksHis views and recommendations on pricing and inflationThe impact of Covid on pricing patterns in hardware and softwareListen on!Gayatri asked him what challenges he faced when he became a consultantThe answer to that question and a lot more interesting stuff in the next episode.Dan Balcauski, the founder and Chief Pricing Officer at Product Tranquility, dispels B2B SaaS Pricing Illusions.Dan is an expert in helping high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products. He has 15 years of experience managing multiple products throughout their life cycles, from start-ups to publicly traded multinationals. A fun fact about him: before founding the company, he took a sabbatical and completed a solo, round-the-world expedition to 21 countries.Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/balcauski/

I continue my conversation with Shailaja Venkatasubramanyan.In the first part, she talks about how she got into Information systems and her career spanning education and startup sectors. How she balanced professional and personal demands and challenges.How she never hesitated to get into new areas and was always ready to learn.In this part of the conversation Shai talks aboutDifferences in teaching approaches for young adults and childrenHow she likes to learn when she is interested in a topic, and not for grades etcPeople learn best when they are invested in itI bring a lot of enthusiasm, by being funny and a pinch of entertainmentGiving interesting assignments (designing assignments that I would want to do)Also taught a strategy class: lot of case studies, that had a lot of learning valueOne of the aspects to address in teaching is to manage short attention spansHow teamwork is important even in academic coursesTrends and concerns related to Evolving Knowledge managementHer career tipsShailaja "Shai" Venkatsubramanyan is an Associate Professor Emeritus at the School of Information Systems and Technology at San Jose State University (SJSU), where she has taught and researched for over 15 years. She has a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems (MIS) from the University of Arizona, and is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and a Master Teacher Award recipient.Shai is passionate about using technology and data to solve real-world problems and to make the world a better place. She has also worked as a General Manager at theCoderSchool, a franchise that teaches coding and programming skills to kids and teens, and as a Knowledge Engineer at Kanisa, a Silicon Valley start-up that developed innovative solutions for online customer service. She has expertise in MIS, data analysis, databases, online customer service, and coding education. She enjoys writing, teaching, and learning about various topics related to MIS and beyond.https://www.linkedin.com/in/shailaja-venkatsubramanyan-b47742

I am in conversation with Shailaja Venkatasubramanyan, who is an Associate Professor Emeritus at the School of Information Systems and Technology at San Jose State University. She is also a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and a Master Teacher Award recipient.A special note on this episode: during this conversation Shailaja talks about some very personal moments in her life that some may find disturbing or moving.In this conversation, she talks about:Wanting to do science, but was influenced to take up commerceEncouraged by her mother, choosing to study accounting in the USATaking up courses in Information systems and computer scienceBeing encouraged by a professor to take up PhD in information science and getting a PhD in Management Information SystemsFinding herself amidst engineers and how she got over the initial fearsTaking up a teaching job at Tulane University, but leaving that after a year to take up a position with a startup in CaliforniaHow she had to do literally a cross country trip one weekend a month for one more semesterEnjoying the work culture in a startup, till they decided to start a familyMoving to San Jose State university after a first meeting at a StarbucksThe hectic and intense pace of life, juggling work and family, with an incident at home that needed help from the Fire departmentRealizing that it is best to focus on one thing at a timeGoing through a tough phase personally, with family health challengesFacing some unfair situations and harassment at workNot getting an empathetic hearing from seniorsHow all these experiences made her more patientWanting to spend more time with her ailing father, choosing to pause her career and focus on familyFeeling happy about her choices as she has a sense of overall satisfactionHow she was able to find her niche, and differentiate her strengths, particularly when among others with more technical backgroundsAn example was about learning what she needed to know for processing satellite dataShailaja "Shai" Venkatsubramanyan is an Associate Professor Emeritus at the School of Information Systems and Technology at San Jose State University (SJSU), where she has taught and researched for over 15 years. She has a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems (MIS) from the University of Arizona, and is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and a Master Teacher Award recipient.Shai is passionate about using technology and data to solve real-world problems and to make the world a better place. She has also worked as a General Manager at theCoderSchool, a franchise that teaches coding and programming skills to kids and teens, and as a Knowledge Engineer at Kanisa, a Silicon Valley start-up that developed innovative solutions for online customer service. She has expertise in MIS, data analysis, databases, online customer service, and coding education. She enjoys writing, teaching, and learning about various topics related to MIS and beyond.https://www.linkedin.com/in/shailaja-venkatsubramanyan-b47742

This is a continuation of the conversation with Kishore Kumar.He talks about how he started his youtube channel and trigger for his interest on astronomy after ending his formal professional careerHe talks about how he prepares , be it scripting, location , photography, tools for animation, java scripts and creativity to produce one episode on his channel.His views on “Time” before and after astronomy in his life.If you want time for something you will find it.His advice or tips on career questionsKishore Kumar is a youtuber with a unique youtube channel called @ahargana. This channel has the singular purpose of explaining the astronomical basis of the Hindu panchanga using custom-built planetary orbital simulations.Kishore was not always a youtuber. In his previous avatar, Kishore was a software professional for over thirty five years playing a variety of roles from programmer to program manager, general manager and vice president in leading companies such as Tata Unisys, Cognizant and Siemens. He has earned a masters degree in computer science from SUNY at Buffalo, USA and a bachelors degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from NIT Trichy. A lifelong self-learner, Kishore has leveraged all his learnings from his education and professional experience in the making of @Ahargana and contrary to appearance, considers it an entirely logical continuation of his life journey.Kishore may be reached at:Email: [email protected]: youtube.com/@ahargana LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kishoresridharakumar

Kishore Kumar is a software professional turned youtuber. He shares his career journey with SivaguruStarting career as system engineer later moved to programing on mainframes Moving to the USA and feeling the need of studies did his Masters in computer science . Learning AI way back in 1989 to 1991. How this helped later in his careerHow his career mirrors the Indian software industry which has changed shapes over years. How things changed from convincing the US for jobs to how later their trust on Indians helped increase workflow.Moving from service to product companyHis views on handling ambiguous requirements in old and new software development cyclesInfluencing teams with his systematic approach/processTalks about his personal transition while transitioning professionallyKishore Kumar is a youtuber with a unique youtube channel called @ahargana. This channel has the singular purpose of explaining the astronomical basis of the Hindu panchanga using custom-built planetary orbital simulations.Kishore was not always a youtuber. In his previous avatar, Kishore was a software professional for over thirty five years playing a variety of roles from programmer to program manager, general manager and vice president in leading companies such as Tata Unisys, Cognizant and Siemens. He has earned a masters degree in computer science from SUNY at Buffalo, USA and a bachelors degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from NIT Trichy. A lifelong self-learner, Kishore has leveraged all his learnings from his education and professional experience in the making of @Ahargana and contrary to appearance, considers it an entirely logical continuation of his life journey.Kishore may be reached at:Email: [email protected]: youtube.com/@aharganaLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kishoresridharakumar

In the second part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Mathan Ramanujam, Product Influencer and Hardware Designer and Director at SiMa.ai, shares his career journeyMathan shares on values on why would you work in a startup - Working for today’s salary or invest in tomorrow’s growth He also shares matching personal believes in the firm and extracting learning from failures and failure in itself Talks about each person needs to think of themselves as an IC irrespective of product or service worldMathan shares his customer to customer philosophy - Ensuring that customer need from marketing to end product launch - Development and productisation and sales & customer desk to the customerPutting onself in the fray in the various roles - shares learning to put oneself in the same role Shares his experience in doing a verification in two different decadesMathan shares how his Contacts have helped in getting Contracts Creating your own psychological safety and how one can create that in the team with 8-15 yearsHow can you build high potential people by building safe environment for failure as well as skill buildingMathan shares how he relates to being system centric and hence able to manage community between hardware and software and thus being successful in the embedded industry Mathan Ramanujam is the director in SIMa.ai. SiMa.ai™ is a machine learning company delivering the industry’s first software-centric purpose-built MLSoC™ platform. Mathan is a front-runner, growing high performance team ground-up! He’s is using his versatile nature and cross-functional experience to to build CoE for Infrastructure IPs for ML SoC, while Challenging himself to learn ML/AI.Mathan has over 27 years of total industry experience with 17+ years of Team responsibilities. Mathan has taken multiple Si from concept to production, specialized in Digital design, with FPGA in the semiconductor industry. Mathan started his career in Atlaz Telecom and moved to the bay area for Arasan Chip Systems Inc.in the role of USB Device, Ethernet controller and XGMII IP development - RTL. Mathan later moved back to India took up team leadership roles in Nokia, Texas Instruments, QualComm, Western Digital and STMicroelectronics. Mathan Ramanujam has done his B.Tech in Bharathidasan University in Electronics and Communication Engineering. Mathan can be contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathan-ramanujam-4495082/

In the first part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Mathan Ramanujam, Product Influencer and Hardware Designer and Director at SiMa.ai , shares his career journeyMathan started his journey as a hardware engineer at Atlaz Telecom and identified that creating Mathan’s growth can be traced very similar to Moore’s law - shares experiences on how tools, circuitry and semiconductor industry has exponential world and how he has adapted himselfSystem on the chip or SoC is the trend that’s making hardware Mathan realised his skill in building relationship and ability to deliver in the operational and later strategic rolesHe shares a few stories on being a product influencer and being invited to be part of panels on SoC and verificationHarnessing the team members strength and learning from them and ensure that the value is being always deliveredMathan shares stories on enabling people not different from learning to swim by giving a moving target and in the end people recognizing themselvesMathan talks about how he has ability to tell stories and discovered it Mathan shares a crumple zone as a story - End zone in view Story on moving from US to India and shares his experiencing of supporting his familyMathan shares India’s cities that are opening up for the embedded and hardware design Mathan Ramanujam is the director in SIMa.ai. SiMa.ai™ is a machine learning company delivering the industry’s first software-centric purpose-built MLSoC™ platform. Mathan is a front-runner, growing high performance team ground-up! He’s is using his versatile nature and cross-functional experience to to build CoE for Infrastructure IPs for ML SoC, while Challenging himself to learn ML/AI.Mathan has over 27 years of total industry experience with 17+ years of Team responsibilities. Mathan has taken multiple Si from concept to production, specialized in Digital design, with FPGA in the semiconductor industry. Mathan started his career in Atlaz Telecom and moved to the bay area for Arasan Chip Systems Inc.in the role of USB Device, Ethernet controller and XGMII IP development - RTL. Mathan later moved back to India took up team leadership roles in Nokia, Texas Instruments, QualComm, Western Digital and STMicroelectronics. Mathan Ramanujam has done his B.Tech in Bharathidasan University in Electronics and Communication Engineering. Mathan can be contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathan-ramanujam-4495082/

Matt Genovese Founder and CEO of Planorama Design continues his conversation with Chitra and shares his thoughts on-Writing effective stories or work behind defining the requirements Working in collaboration with the development team, discussing the challenges of an APIIssues working with IOT projects and hardware have synchronous issues and different hardware failuresWhat failures to take care of and what can be ignoredImportance of functional verificationAlong with writing user stories, discovery and thinking is also importantWhole process of discovering problems, asking questions, naturally brings the right people in How diagrams help all the stakeholders understand/Visualize the flow togetherHow and when a design sprint happensHis message to someone who is aspiring hardware or software careers –Matt Genovese is the founder and CEO of Planorama Design, bringing over 25 years of career experience in high-tech, spanning semiconductors, hardware, IoT, IT, and software product development. He has a strong track record of planning, launching, and shipping products that work. Matt’s company, Planorama Design, is a software user experience design professional services company, designing complex, technical software that is simple and intuitive to use. Staffed with seasoned engineers and user experience (UX) designers, the company is headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA.Matt earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He began his career at Motorola-Freescale Semiconductor in product & test engineering and moved into design verification of RISC processors and SoCs. Matt has also held product leadership roles for complex and technical software development. As a result of his deep professional experience, Matt strives to “get it right the first time” starting with the software application’s user experience design, down to the hardware at the bottom of the stack. Planorama helps drive product development processes that create products that work out of the gate. Social Media Handles:Way to reach Matt : https://planorama.design/podcast/Join AI Product Hive – an AI-focused Community for Product Managers, Designers, and Development Teams (Slack) https://aiproducthive.com/

Matt Genovese Founder and CEO of Planorama Design shares how he -Started learning programming as a kid on 8-bit computersFounding Planorama Design, software experimentsImpact of dinner table conversations around trigonometry, tinkering and electronics projectsNeed to know “why”, diving inside the black box, having the freedom to take things apart to learnWorking at Motorola, from fabrication to production, moving into functional design and verification for SoC for Power PC based RISC processorsPoints of view on the cost of releasing bugsBringing design into software engineering, getting requirements right to build the right productFocus on delivering hi-fidelity requirements for software engineers to do a great job, reduce time to deliver a quality productMatt Genovese is the founder and CEO of Planorama Design, bringing over 25 years of career experience in high-tech, spanning semiconductors, hardware, IoT, IT, and software product development. He has a strong track record of planning, launching, and shipping products that work. Matt’s company, Planorama Design, is a software user experience design professional services company, designing complex, technical software that is simple and intuitive to use. Staffed with seasoned engineers and user experience (UX) designers, the company is headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA.Matt earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He began his career at Motorola-Freescale Semiconductor in product & test engineering and moved into design verification of RISC processors and SoCs. Matt has also held product leadership roles for complex and technical software development. As a result of his deep professional experience, Matt strives to “get it right the first time” starting with the software application’s user experience design, down to the hardware at the bottom of the stack. Planorama helps drive product development processes that create products that work out of the gate.Social Media Handles:Way to reach Matt : https://planorama.design/podcast/Join AI Product Hive - an AI-focused Community for Product Managers, Designers, and Development Teams (Slack)URL: https://aiproducthive.com/

This is part 2 of the conversation celebrating the milestone of 250 episodes, with our guest host Gopalan.Gopalan was the first guest on the show and agreed to play host and have the hosts as guests!In part 1, he was exploring aspects related to how the hosts prepare for an episode and how different formats worked for the Software People Stories.In this part, he continues to explore his curiosity of how the minds of podcast hosts work, in handling planned and unplanned situations.He asksSome things that went wrong and what went right.. About similarities of podcast editing and movie makingSome difficult guests, who would veer off topicHow does one stay in the conversation, but stay detachedHandling situations when known persons say things that you do not feel the same way about or know it may not be completely factualHow one would resist the temptation to not get into arguments or negating something that a guest saysSome of the podcasts that Gopal listens toWe hope you enjoyed some of our experiences in bringing you 250 episodes of stories of software people.We believe that everyone has a story to tell that will inspire or educate others.When would you like to tell your story?Or, if you would like to submit somebody else’s story, and be a guest host, please record a sample or the full conversation and share it with us.

This a very special episode for all us, hosts - and assume, for you, our listener as well.This is the 250th episode of the Software People Stories.About 5 years ago, A desire to learn something new and leverage that learning to pay it forward to the community, led to the launch of this podcast.What started as Software Lifecycle Stories pivoted to Software People Stories and thanks to all your encouragement and love, we are at 250.This episode is a little different from the usual episodes in that we have reversed the roles.The very first guest on the show, Goplan, plays the host and the three co-hosts, me, Chitra and Gayatri are the guests.In a freewheeling conversation, Gopal had many questions about what happens behind the scenes and inside our minds in the context of being associated with the podcast.The topics covered include:What the experience has been for the hosts to have a consistent and regular scheduleHow was the experience of discovering new aspects of people that you have known for long, through the podcast conversationIf the hosts had a structure in mind for the conversationsHow such structures work when there are multiple guestsGopal asked for some examples of things that went right and some things that did not go as per plan.The answers to that questions and more interesting questions, listen to the next episode, which is part 2 of this special conversation, to celebrate the milestone of 250 episodes.

In the second part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Woody Zuill, Expert Coach and co-author of Mob Programming, shares his career journeyBalancing the speeches and consulting with consulting engagementsWoody shares tips and tricks of being in the speaking networksWoody talks about joy of creating his own businesses - Almost 16 of them is creating Woody shares early experiments on signs and making new thingsHe shares his passion of making his day productive by avoiding repeated steps and automateWoody shares his deep inflection points in his career that has positioned him today Woody also shares his ideal places to work and attracting like minded people to work Instead of Doing what others are expecting of us and always uplifting to oneself alsoWoody also shares deep views on how one needs to contribute for a better tomorrowWoody has been programming computers for almost 40 years, and have 20+ years of experience as an Extreme Programmer, and 15+ years as an Agile Guide of some sort. He truly believes that code must be simple, clean, and maintainable so that we can realize the Agile promise of Responding to Change, and that we must constantly "Inspect and Adapt".Woody is a co-author with Kevin Meadows of the book "Mob Programming, A Whole Team Approach". He’s a prolific speaker on this topic at conferences, user groups, and meet-ups all over the world.More generally, I've delivered workshops, trainings, and coaching sessions on Agile Software Development, Mob Programming, and Software Development Practices for a number of firms including Ericsson, Schneider Electric, Qualcomm, Intel, H & M, King Games, Capital One, Twitter, and Spotify.Woody can be connected at https://www.linkedin.com/in/woodyzuill/

In the first part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Woody Zuill, Expert Coach and co-author of Mob Programming, shares his career journeyShares how he joined software development after he created tools to improve his day-to-day lifeJokingly Woody mentions how he didn’t have to clean up(unlike doing carpentry) after a hard day at writing codeEarly experimentation on pair programming and having fun and how he found that explaining ideas, listening each other and accepting each others opinions - most importantly stop interrupting othersTalks about the story of using pair programming for knowledge transfer in a rapid mannerShares his principle on how experimenting is the fastest way to build cultural nuancesPaying attention to others emotions and deeply listening enables - Listen as if the next sentence is the most important thing we are going to listenHis motto - Be the best team member that you can be Woody shares tips and tricks on deep listening skill and staying curiousAha moments Woody has had how “Teams” have evolvedHow can you lead from without any of the influence and how that led him to become a speaker and teacherWoody has been programming computers for almost 40 years, and have 20+ years of experience as an Extreme Programmer, and 15+ years as an Agile Guide of some sort. He truly believes that code must be simple, clean, and maintainable so that we can realize the Agile promise of Responding to Change, and that we must constantly "Inspect and Adapt".Woody is a co-author with Kevin Meadows of the book "Mob Programming, A Whole Team Approach". He’s a prolific speaker on this topic at conferences, user groups, and meet-ups all over the world.More generally, I've delivered workshops, trainings, and coaching sessions on Agile Software Development, Mob Programming, and Software Development Practices for a number of firms including Ericsson, Schneider Electric, Qualcomm, Intel, H & M, King Games, Capital One, Twitter, and Spotify.Woody can be connected at https://www.linkedin.com/in/woodyzuill/

In the second part of the podcast episode, Shiv Sivaguru continues his conversation with Mohan RamMohan talks aboutThe challenges in working with details as well as abstractionsThe cost of not understanding implicit requirements and the importance of progressive elicitation of requirementsHow coaching and observations of people who were doing well in these aspectsWhy crossing the initial hurdle of winning the confidence of your clients / users is extremely critical for the success of a projectHis personal philosophy in working under contractual constraints - of cost or timelinesHow Agile approaches are suitable to work more effectively under dynamic scope conditionsHow individuals can find a balance between having or not having an aptitude for technical or managerial flavors of workHow he developed an interest in philosophy and constant learningWhat he would like to do with the ancient wisdom, in applying them to day-to-day contextsHis thoughts and tips for career questionsMohan Ram is a Principal Consultant at PM Power Consulting, he works with Clients in their Agile Transformation initiatives, Digital Innovation and Transformation journey and helping build Individuals and Teams that are capable of effectively Delivering outcomes and Managing these Transformations in a Confident and Sustained manner.

In the first part of the podcast episode, Shiv Sivaguru is in conversation with Mohan Ram, a senior professional in the IT industry who has played various roles related to networking software development to business line management and now a coach with PM Power Consulting.Mohan sharesHis growing years in a conservative family in Thanjavur district in Tamil NaduAbout how his life was comfortable, not luxurious and how those days and culture had a strong influence on his lifeGetting into IT. probably more by chance and then liking the opportunities to apply logical thinking and solving problems for others and the gratification of seeing users benefitting from the solutionsMoving to systems engineering and networks and looking at those technology areas and find applications in the commercial worldThe opportunity to be mentored and coached by good managersDiscovering his strength of going beyond just technology and connect with customers, into more techno commercial rolesHis feeling of being thankful for being at the right places at the right timesHis interest in ancient wisdom, yoga, vedanta, music etc - all towards finding and keeping a balance in lifeLooking forward to the next phase of his lifeThe support and concerns that he received from friends and familyThe opportunity to work with geek, to contribute to create and refine a network operating system with one of the early startups in the networking space, that triggered his curiosity to get into softwareGetting into creating software products as well as services, particularly managed services Seizing an opportunity to address new and greater challenges nd moving from C-DAC to HPThe two important switches:Coming out of monotonySeeing a bigger opportunityAn important aspect of being a good mentor; and learning to look at the forest and not get lost among the trees - leveraging his strength of paying attention to detailSwitching to project and program management roles and stress the need to understand the nuances of project managementI asked him about how he was able to work in zones of abstraction or ambiguity, while interacting with customers - to understand requirements and come up with an approach or solution and create a project plan to execute, when his strength of attention to detail.The answer to this question and a lot more in part 2 of the conversation.Mohan Ram is a Principal Consultant at PM Power Consulting, he works with Clients in their Agile Transformation initiatives, Digital Innovation and Transformation journey and helping build Individuals and Teams that are capable of effectively Delivering outcomes and Managing these Transformations in a Confident and Sustained manner.

In the second part of the podcast episode, Shiv Sivaguru is in conversation with Vadeesh Budramane,Founder and CEO of AlgoShack, shares his career journeyShares his thought processes on why a product company to be started He also shares the decision parameters that he considered and that’s common across entrepreneursJourney to be gratifying to the founders and early employeesCelebrating every small milestone from ID issuance, website, logo and creating a sense of moving in the right directionAbility to make an impact in the automation - Vadeesh talks about creating an inclusive environmentVadeesh shares the principles in which AlgoShack is created in terms of usage of tools and techniques and democratization of quality engineeringHe further shares how AI is embedded in the test processVadeesh talks about creating fit-for-purpose solutions that’s specific in the domainVadeesh talks about his advice to people joining the testing industryEnabling automation testers to modularise and optimise test cases constantly keeping users and non functional scenarios in mindVadeesh is currently CEO at AlgoShack and he has held several roles such as Senior Vice President at Sutherland Global Services, Director & Head of Healthcare Vertical at Computer Sciences Corporation and Managing Director at FCG.Vadeesh has 32 years of experience focused on product engineering, innovation & IP creation. In his 15+ years of experience in senior leadership positions, Vadeesh has been responsible for strategic planning, end-to-end operations, and P&L. He has built globally competitive leadership teams, orchestrated strategic customer engagements, and created significant value for stakeholders.Vadeesh is a leader with experience in managing offshore delivery center and vertical delivery with a team size of 3000+ people & $250m P&L. He has experience across healthcare, ISVs, telecom, and real-time embedded systems industry verticals and North America, UK and Europe markets that include global delivery, customer engagement, business development and P&L responsibilities.A leader with hands-on experience in seeding and developing globally competitive leadership teams, developing competencies, transforming delivery organizations and driving business models for outcomes.Vadeesh can be contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/in/vadeeshbudramane/

In the first part of the podcast episode, Shiv Sivaguru is in conversation with Vadeesh Budramane, Founder and CEO of AlgoShack, shares his career journeyVadeesh talks about starting in the embedded programming with Time Division Multiplexing and has built and learnt numerous protocols and standardsHe has also multiplexed his time across different domains such as Automotive, Medical instruments, Healthcare and Telecommunication Vadeesh shares his experience why he started the firm AlgoShack focused on the QE Combat the challenge of building quality software by automating automation testingHe shares his experiences on how critical devOps processes in the medical field and thinking about holistic environment He shares how he has built a keen sense of understanding the domain of telecom with different protocolsWhile he took up assignments in Healthcare, the type of stakeholders and touchpoints has moved him back to a learner of the domainVadeesh shares his passion of teaching and learning and thanks his Wipro days to inculcate that and further strengthened while working for HCGVadeesh decided to start a firm in test automation for embedded systems and we will hear more about the start up journey in the next episode. Vadeesh is currently CEO at AlgoShack and he has held several roles such as Senior Vice President at Sutherland Global Services, Director & Head of Healthcare Vertical at Computer Sciences Corporation and Managing Director at FCG.Vadeesh has 32 years of experience focused on product engineering, innovation & IP creation. In his 15+ years of experience in senior leadership positions, Vadeesh has been responsible for strategic planning, end-to-end operations, and P&L. He has built globally competitive leadership teams, orchestrated strategic customer engagements, and created significant value for stakeholders.Vadeesh is a leader with experience in managing offshore delivery center and vertical delivery with a team size of 3000+ people & $250m P&L. He has experience across healthcare, ISVs, telecom, and real-time embedded systems industry verticals and North America, UK and Europe markets that include global delivery, customer engagement, business development and P&L responsibilities.A leader with hands-on experience in seeding and developing globally competitive leadership teams, developing competencies, transforming delivery organizations and driving business models for outcomes.Vadeesh can be contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/in/vadeeshbudramane/

In the second part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Fred George,Consulting Developer in Scienta AS and master change agent, shares his career journeyFred shares his experience in creating and nurturing thinking diversity in his London projectEnsuring that you create a blameless culture and a wonderful experimentation and that’s what enables innovation to flow and no permission culture He shares about creating change management in behaviors starting with extreme rigor in processes. Once the barriers are broken in, processes are completely taken out and that’s when you become truly agileUnderstanding the five key principles on agility Fred shares about rewilding and increasing experimentation He shares his expertise on balancing his brand, building products and consultingFred shares about inculcating no-fear environment and ensuring that he picks the team around him Fred shares his thoughts around how AI needs to be looked at as a way to do your repeated steps - Understanding the essence of the workStay in the learning journey and that’s what enables you to be successful Fred can be contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-george/ Fred considers himself a hands-on software developer with executive responsibilities and experience. Early experimenter in micro-service architectures from 2005, and father of the post-Agile process termed Programmer Anarchy. Earlier implementer of new technology for his entire career, including computer networking in the 70's, LAN's and GUI in the 80's, and OO and Agile in the 90's. Very early adopter of Kanban processes. He has used over 70 programming languages in his career.

In the first part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Fred George, Consulting Developer in Scienta AS and master change agent, shares his career journeyFred is a career IBM developer and speaks about the skills he developedFred shares his experience in gaining an MBA degree and speaks about how IBM is great in building great people around yourTalks about how one needs to imbibe oneself in the talking to executives Shares some of the stories on ensuring that fears are quelled and anticipate the people who are fearing Talks about hard and complex problems that he welcomes to solveFred’s mantra is “I can't do everything well, but Most things can do as well as anyone else”Fred shares how he ensures that he gets the right set of team members and mentor them around you. Ensuring that management are taken into confidence in the journey using transparency and metricsFred shares his movement from being in the management cadre in IBM to a consultant and ensuring that he taught himself new language skills. Fred knows about 75 languages over the period of timeFred shares his experience on how job descriptions have become very convoluted and complex and that’s leading to dysfunctionsFred shares about the new concept of thinking Diversity and what type of innovations that are coming inFred can be contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-george/ Fred considers himself a hands-on software developer with executive responsibilities and experience. Early experimenter in micro-service architectures from 2005, and father of the post-Agile process termed Programmer Anarchy. Earlier implementer of new technology for his entire career, including computer networking in the 70's, LAN's and GUI in the 80's, and OO and Agile in the 90's. Very early adopter of Kanban processes. He has used over 70 programming languages in his career.

In the second part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Karl Scotland, Agile Transformation Services Practice Manager at TEKsystems Global Services and a master facilitator, shares his career journeyKarl shares his journey of how he became a master facilitator and that started when he was experiencing tremendous resistance with Scrum. (Karl moved to using Kanban and lean concepts :) )Later when he was designing for larger change, Karl came across using X-matrix - with an agile transformation flavor embeddedKarl talks about his realisation that one should not think about just to implement scrum/kanban Agility needs to be baked is created my own sense of self discovery - Achieving flow And the next step was to start looking for evidence to look for and think about strategy as always about tough choicesSomething similar to Agile manifesto - A even over BKarl shares his views on Tool selection and it should not define process. Usage of tool should stay at the tactical side Choice of tool should always be to help us capture flow data and understand blockers on Interesting story on the balancing the speaking and consulting engagement Shares the passion on building community events Karl can be reached at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kjscotland/ Karl helps businesses become Learning Organisations. Karl has held several engineering and management positions in Neural technologies, BBC, Cisco, Yahoo and Rally software. Over the last 20 years Karl has been an advocate of Lean and Agile approaches to achieve this, working with companies including the BBC, Yahoo!, EMC Consulting, Rally Software, Cisco, SDL, Legal & General and Alegis. During this time, he has been a pioneer of using Kanban Systems and Strategy Deployment for product development, a founding member of both the Lean Systems Society and Limited WIP Society, as well as being active in the community and a regular conference speaker. Karl is a co-founder of the Lean Agile in Brighton.