SPWR is Rocking !!!! Woooohoooo

SPWR hit 20% up in one day. I had started looking into solar stocks around 1 yr back. Oil rising or not, its imperative that alternative will be sought.

In Solar stocks First Solar, Sunpower, suntech and LDK are some of the notable stocks. FSLR seems the most promosing one, however Sunpower (SPWR) is the second best alternative if you are looking for something not as expensive as FSLR.

Note: I own SPWR.

EMC rocking up 10% today

On June 27th I had posted my views on EMC. I had predicted buying EMC is a good idea. Valuations are good and future looks bright.

In a followup post I had cautioned that VMware could be problematic and with the founder CEO exiting without much explanation there could be cause of worry.

However overall EMC looks strong and their quarterly results prove that.

Market responded with same enthusiasm and gave it a 2 thumbs up. The stock is up 10%

Ps: I own EMC stocks.

Buy APPLE now

I know its a bad market and Apple stock has suffered lately on economy slowdown cues and news of Steve Jobs not well and no successor finalized.

However the product iPhone to too superior to be affected by this. Moreover $199 iPhone is going to bring in buyers which were not there before, its getting released this Friday already there is buzz around this. Also there are talks of iPhone without contract in other countries thats going to help. What happened to ipod is going to happen to iPhone is my take.

Moreover with iPhone who is going to need all the other features.

From Apple.com "Introducing iPhone 3G. With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping, support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more features at your fingertips. And like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and a desktop-class web browser. iPhone 3G. It redefines what a mobile phone can do — again."

BUY APPL.

ps: I own APPL

BAD news about EMC

Just heard and saw a 10% decline in EMC stock today because VMware stock fell drastically almost 30% today. Reason: CEO exit.

While some are saying its a good thing that the CEO exit other are worried VMWare would not be a spin off hence putting the weight on EMC further as EMC owns 86% of VMWare. When it was time to buy VMware I did not i went for the safer option of buying EMC, thankfully so.

I look at EMC stock, fundamentals and valuations again and I like what I see. although challenges like slowing economy and competition will still be there. Is it a good time to buy then?. Probably not but its definitely wait and watch. See what the new management does. The new CEO is Paul Maritz who rolled out exciting stuff like windows 95, NT etc. Is experienced at delivering excellent results at such operational levels.

Ps: I own EMC

India is rocking (NOT) ....and here's proof

In my last post "India is Rocking and here's proof" I had listed few instances to prove India is rocking and I immediately felt guilty.

Here's why ?



The above highlighted video is just a brief glimpse of the other side of India Rocking. No doubt India has grown by leaps and bounds but I think its back to a place where moving ahead is going to be challenging.

For foreign investors this is a Yellow flag. Yellow because I am still bullish about India (most of the challenges India is facing rite now is Infrastructure based or are historical reasons which have tried to make India's pace go slower and slower). India's rate of growth was touted at 10%, sure thing but inflation has started biting into this. Oil situation is not helping. And a substantial portion of India's GDP is going to be spent on subsidies (Fuel, farming etc.).

Agriculture has been the livelihood of majority of Indians. Guess what rapid growth and lure of fast money has made people (farmers, govt's) convert agricultural land into real estate for building more malls, businesses and what not. Where will that lead to rising commodity prices. Moreover the bottom of the pyramid (India) is made of the majority of poor people who struggle to make a livelihood. They need a mechanism to lift them from there, they need resources and someone needs to think about them before declaring India on a whole is winning. Rich are getting richer and poor are finding it hard to come out poverty. Its much better than it was 5 or 10 or 20 years back but India is not there yet. Much to do ..much more to do..

Infrastructure is still years behind. Who's going to push it. With this govt, I doubt. China has made legendary strides in Infrastructure but India is lacking there. Without Infrastructural support it would be difficult to maintain this growth rate.

Government has been pretty much dysfunctional in reforms area. There have been little or no reforms in India for past 4 years. Its a coalition and all the energy (after looking into personal interests and corruption) goes into maintaining a governing body. No work though.

Communists would be a challenge. Nuclear energy is curcial for progress, no progress made because no consensus reached.

And then there is that milestone. Elections. When all hell breaks lose. Agreed this is a victory dance for Democracy but India's is more of a chaotic democracy. With 100 languages , 30 official, several casts (and politicians ready to do every thing to please the castes), such diverse landscape who has time to think of progress.

Stocks: India's market have been a darling of emerging markets but how much of it was driven by valuations ? How much was bubble ? Need to be cautious there.

Overall still a Yellow Flag.

Ps: I own IFN to invest in India. IFN's top 5 holdings are:
1: Reliance Industries
2: Infosys Technologies
3: Bharti Airtel Ltd
4: Housing Development Finance
5: Reliance Communications Ltd.

India is rocking .......for sure this time there's proof

I have seen and heard that India is rocking several times and everytime there is some data to the opposite effect. However without looking at any controversary I was amazed when couple of things happened at the same time.

2 of my friends almost at the same time with different backgrounds (one an MBA) and another having a bachelors. Almost 7-8 years of industry experience. And both these guys today have a title of AVP.

While this is more an exception than rule but having 2 of my near friends getting this change at the same time was amazing.

Another of my friends was already a VP 4 years back in a leading financial institute. He did have his MBA and he did have the right experince.

Good to see that so much is happening in India still. Most of the action is attributed to the fact that many companies are starting in India.

Makes me wonder does the same situation apply to US ?

Some samples of India Rocking (or India Shining)

Buy EMC

Stocks has been pummeled and market has gone down by almost 500 pts in 2 days. And that hasn't happened for the first time.

Oil Price is going nuts, foreclosures are increasing, economic situation is not looking good. So what do you do ? Be afraid , be very afraid? But that doesn't mean stop breathing.

Similarly in investing if you are investing money in stocks and you are in for a long term then what you really need to focus on is not the issues mentioned above but the long term view. In long term view you focus on fundamentals. You focus on how the companies are really doing ? What is the valuation what is the P/E ratio.

Based on all these factors EMC looks like a really good buy right now. It has been marked as Strong Buy by S&P and i think so too.

Good time to buy EMC.

In the mean time a good video about Oil situation.

I am sick of being a techie, I want to move into Project Management

How do I it ?

I have been asked this question many times since I am a Project Manager and all. So thought it would be good if I document this.

First of all read some material what Project Management is about. Consider reading bible of Project Management (as its called), PMBOK - Project Management Book of Knowledge.

What this will do is it will get your familiar with what you are getting into. If you sleep while you are reading it, its probably one indication that this is not for you (only one indication) there's more.

Also it makes you aware what is the scope of this Role.

Secondly talk to friends, colleagues, bosses who are in similar roles. Only because every organization is different, has different needs, different methodologies.

Based on your reading technical material on Project Management and live experiences feedback make a judgment call is this is something you would be interested in.

If the answer is yes then you need to think of avenues you can explore to get into.

Some of the avenues are:
Look your company site if they are hiring PM's. This is a good option because your company knows you and would look at you favorably. I have seen this work quite easily in many companies.

Secondly try to get into Project Management areas e.g. volunteers to do the status reporting, or volunteer to provide estimates for the team, or volunteer to track dependencies or action items etc. Start looking at Project Plans and understanding them. Start understanding risks and give your deliverables based on that. This approach gives you 2 benefits:

a) It allows you to venture into Project Management while not compromising your duties.

b) It lets other know that you understand what Project Management is about and your are capable of it.

Thirdly after you have had this experience say 6 months to 1 year and you feel you are ready to take on the world, start looking for jobs.

One question which keeps up coming all the time is "Do I need PMP?" My answer is no but it wont be easy without it. A PMP might help you getting filtered or getting you the call you want to come desperately. One of my friends who is an HR had told me the total impact for the whole process is about 5%. (reference: www.pmi.org)

So if you are ready to spend that kind of money and effort cool.

One last tip: Search for Resume's of other Project Manager's and see if you have similar skills. This helps.

Feel free to send me your comments.

Cheers !!

Safe and a decent risk free investment

Before Fed Chairman started cutting interest rate out of stocks, mutual funds and ETF's one of the most promising and safe bets was to invest in a CD.

Better than a fixed CD was a risk free CD. A risk free CD is just like a savings account where you can withdraw amount (limited) from your CD account. Isnt that convinient ?

What could be better than that ? A savings account which has rate comparable to a CD and you can withdraw money whenver you want. At that time the interest rate offered was 5.00%+ Considering my stock and fund investments it was a decent investment to make.

Now that US economy is facing all these challenges and Fed has cut interest rates so many times, all bank deposit interest rate had to go down. Interest on my account went from 5+ to 3%. I was happy to find out that this interest rate has been revised to 3.5% Isnt that nice ?

How do you compare available interest rates? www.bankrate.com gives this option. What account I was using for online savings. HSBC Direct gives that option. Finally something with little risk and sure enough decent returns.

Hope this was informative.

Project Management 101 (when in doubt..)

When in doubt, do everything !!

There would be situations in your organization where you talk to one person in your organizations (Sr Project Manager and/or highest authority in Project Management) you get different answers. This situation happens in companies which do not have a robust Project Management in place. (if there is still discussion happening on do we need Project Managers or Scrum Masters or both, its not a mature project management environ).

Good thing is the environment is still developing and you have a scope to be a change agent. Also you have the ability to pick and choose on what's best for your organization for Project Management.

Bad thing is its confusing time. No one really knows what is best or they know their aspect of it and you are left alone to try and figure out whats right and wrong.

In such a situation do all.

Secondly evaluate what things are best not done. i.e. why are you implementing something ? What is the purpose ? Who is the audience ? How does it add value to them ?

Finally learn to say No and have good reasons to back your decision. There will be several instances where people will come to you and say "I want to see this" and "I want you to do this ....",. Evaluate if it makes sense. It would be best if you try it out and then decide coz if a suggestion has come to you it might have some merit. But again since its your job and you are qualified and know most of what should happen in Project Management, you need to make a call yourself.

A case in example, both waterfall and agile methodologies can co-exist together. Agile in Scrum implementation and Waterfall in overall project management. If both are looked at independently, both methodologies can co-exist in their own domains. Scope of Scrum limited to Sprints while scope of Project is multiple sprints and anything which hampers that project. Different implementations for different views (ground, 100 feet or 10000 feet).

Happy Project Management

Cheer !!

My Space is hiring

Putting this post out there to publish that My Space is hiring.

Developers, QA, Project Manager's.

Please visit the official site for more details or let me know.

ETF's (A better alternative to Mutual Fund)

I had indicated in my previous post that mutual funds are good instruments to invest when you don't have time and energy to invest via stocks. There is a lot of research that you have to do when you are investing in stocks. Not that you don't in case of mutual funds but you have someone in charge to make sound decisions for your fund. A fund manager. Anyhow this post is not about stocks or mutual funds.

Its about a third option when you want to a buy a lot of stocks but don't have money to buy all at the same time and also you want to diversify. So what you do you look for an ETF. In simple language ETF is everything (check details) a mutual find is except you can trade an ETF like a stock and is not as expensive as a Mutual Fund.

So benefits of ETF's in nutshell are:
1: Lower Costs: Most ETF's do not have 12b-1 fees.
2: Buying and Selling Flexibility: Buying and Selling can happen on Stock Market at any time just like stocks.
3: Tax efficiency - ETFs generally generate relatively low capital gains, because they typically have low turnover of their portfolio securities. While this is an advantage they share with other index funds, their tax efficiency is further enhanced because they do not have to sell securities to meet investor redemptions.
4: Market exposure and diversification - ETFs provide an economical way to rebalance portfolio allocations. An index ETF inherently provides diversification across an entire index. ETFs offer exposure to a diverse variety of markets, including broad-based indexes, broad-based international and country-specific indexes, industry sector-specific indexes, bond indexes, and commodities.e.g. If you want to invest in India an ETF like IFN would be a great way to start (I have invested in IFN)

I found it an effective way to invest in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and India only. You can invest in any number of way on any number of index's and gain maximum advantage out of it.

Hope you enjoy this post.

Thanks,
Sumeet

Nice Small Trip in LA (Los Feliz, Sunset )

This was one nice small trip which I could capture only partially as it was night time and could not roll down windows of my car and therefore could not take decent pictures. But what ever we could we have. This small trip is good to drive around. We started from Studio City to Los Feliz via Highway 5, then took Hollywood Blvd and then Sunset Blvd finally reaching Beverly Hills driving on Ave of the stars and turning back to drive on Rodeo Dr.


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Investing: Look beyond stocks

When I first tried my hands at investing in stocks it was too complicated and it gets overwhelming when you realize that investing in stocks is beyond "buy low, sell high" (even then knowing "when" is the key, when you know a stock is low enough or high enough :) )

So my first investment was a mutual fund. I had investment in a Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund. To be investing in a equity diversified fund made sense. One it will have stocks and second it will be diversified. It worked well for me, I sold it as soon as I made some decenet profits on it (I think it was something like 15% including dividens). Later I realized mutual fund investing is not like stocks and should not be treated the same. If you want to invest in stocks then do so, if you want to invest in mutual funds dont think stocks.

Benefits of Mutal Fund investing:

If you dont have time to track the market and cannot follow all the research and steps in my post on April 7th, http://freedomat35.blogspot.com/2008/04/stocks-investing.html then mutual investing is for you.

1. Diversification. If you dont want to take too much risk and invest in all stocks there are funds with invest in stocks, bonds etc.
2. Professional Management: The idea sounds great doesnt it at first. I dont have time, I am not an expert why not give my money to someone who does this for a living and has a record of giving good returns.

Some negatives:

1. Fees: Entry load (fees you pay for investing), Exit load (fees you pay when you selling), Redemption fee (fee charged to you if you sell before certain time), Opearting Expenses (12b - For Management fees and for advertizing expenses).
2. Little control: Now that you are trusting the mutual fund company you personally dont have control of which stocks you sell and buy and when. Its the fund manager (so research well)

Research Well:

Best place for mutual fund research is morning star. Yahoo Finance being one of the best financial sites.

1. Look for history of fund manager
2. Reputed fund company
3. Look for past record (1yr, 3yr, 5 yr and since inception)
4. Compare with other top funds.
5. Look for holdings in the fund. The normally give top 10 holdings which amount of largest investments in the fund.

With the info above its a good point to start.

Good Luck !!

PS: I found something better than mutual funds. Next Post

Interworking of Product - Project - Dev

Having worked in Consulting organization all my life I always wanted to work in a Product company and I am glad to say that working in a company where Product - Project and Dev Management is on the same page.

If that is the case and your company is on Agile imagine rolling out new stuff in 4 weeks !! Isnt that cool. So how do you get Product - Project and Dev on the same page ?

First step is clearly clarify what are the roles and if there is any misunderstanding on that. I did that when I joined the new team and it was extremely sucessful. As a result this is how the three functions stack up.

1. Product Manager:

   § Owns the requirements and prioritization based on inputs from Product Owner and team goals.

   § Provides specs, PRD, requirements to Dev team.

   § Gives direction to launch dates etc.

   § Manages external communications (partners, sponsors etc.) to provide timely feedback etc.

2. Dev Manager:

   § Owns the resources to execute planned work.

   § Has bottom-line responsibility for resolving resourcing , major software delivery issues.

   § Overall technical responsibility for design, architecture etc for product.

   § Provides leadership and guidance to team members reporting to reach optimum performance levels and career development.

3. Project Manager:

   § Owns the Project Management deliverables:

   § Project Plan. (In Agile world Sprint Plan) plus managing wiki and intranet.

   § Project Monitoring & Control: daily stand up meetings and spackle updation. Will also include management of Intranet sites. Updation of Issues list of the features. Manager planned versus unplanned work in consultation with Rob.

   § Project Reporting: Weekly Status Report for projects.

   § Communication: Communicates and interacts with stakeholders (Product Manager and Dev Manager) for team and manages inter-project dependencies.

Project Management 101

My intent of writing this is not to get too involved in heavy project management language but to put togeather some helpful tips.

1. Excel is your best friend. You will always need a tracking sheet nothing heavy, no tool, no enterprise blah blah..just a small excel sheet. It works like a charm.
   
2. Use some form of an enterprise tool. There will be a time when you need more than Excel, something everyone can see. Something like Sharepoint. The sooner you embrace something like that the better. It helps to share information, it helps to keep things on track and it helps to keep order.
   
3. Metrics: Sooner of later someone is going to ask how are we doing ? Where are we ? Also metrics give some sense of achievement and accomplishment. Start collect basic data and start representing the data in graphs. Hard to believe but the senior the person looking at your metrics more colors and graphs he / she likes :)
   
4. Reporting: There are different audiences for different reports. Know the difference, might lead to frustration. You might think I am giving so much detailed info and putting so much hard work but your boss might think its too detailed I only need high level. (been there done that :) )
   
1. For Executive Reports: Approach should be a high level Project / Product , When it will launch, Status, High Level Dependencies
   
2. For Project Level: Project, Tasks, Dates, Status, Project Level Dependencies, Resources etc.
   
5. Habit of writing Meeting Minutes. Its surprising how many people overlook the importance of writing Meeting Minutes, but its an important tool of keeping yourself organized. It also helps in documenting the next steps many times discussions are done but no one concludes the next steps. Basic Template of Meeting Minutes (what I follow):
   
1. Attendees:
   
2. Agenda:
   
3. Conclusion /Discussion
4. Action Items (next steps)

Its Coming !! Investing Time

As predicted before in my posts its a good time to invest in stocks. Valuations everywhere. With new earnings reports, INFY IBM giving expected and better than expected results there is no reason why you should not invest now.

The 2 major issues of Credit Crunch and mortgage crisis have been talked about since past several months. And Fed Chairman has done a lot to fix these 2 (regular drop in interest rates, buying bear sterns stocks, rebate checks by govt.). It seems quite a lot has been done to fix these 2 issues. With growing confidence in economy its only a question of time when it will go uphill.

Now not to sound too optimistic, I should say I am cautiously optimistic of the outlook of US Economy and will continue to invest in good stocks to take benefit of dollar cost averaging etc. EMC is being reported as a must buy, looking at valuations, recommendations, I am putting more money in that stock.

Local LA Trip. Studio City -> Pacific Hwy -> Malibu

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Career: Motivation

Motivation sounds like a good to have thing these days. While its important to get the job done, its equally important to put your heart behind it. Where does the heart come from ?

• Well from the fact that you signed up for something you like
• You have a tremendous opportunity to do a good job and feel motivated
• Your manager recognizes your efforts and give you a pat on you back every now and then.
• The drive to make things better

It is surprising how lightly this subject is taken in working world. I was shocked to hear this from a Product Manager when a developer asked him "we need motivation, can we have a pizza party". Product Managers answer was "You paycheck should be your motivation, look at your check and look at mine".

Management feels that there is stress and deal with issues of people quitting, wanting transfers, wanting to move on but are not asking the right questions. That's the reason why some companies make it to Top 50 in ranking and others don't.

Career: The art of fighting frustation

Who is not frustrated in current world today? Developers are frustrated because they dont have many challenging assignment to do and they keep on getting pulled in to fix or cleanup. Or they need to move higher be an architect or manager. Manager wants to move on be a director. Director wants to move on and be a VP and the cycle of professional life continues.

The key learning is to do what you signed up for best. Give it your best shot and ask yourself "Did I give my best ? could I have don't better".

As for growth once the answer to the above question is Yes, its a matter to time, opportunity and visibility.

Till then continue to do what in your guys is your best shot.

Stocks & Investing

My Last post about stocks are optimistic. I still am. US market has already had a good hit, if we are in a recession we are probably half way through it.

I started investing in July, August last year. Everything was Green then.. Then the tumble started and everything started going Red. Some of the mistakes I did are as follows:

1: I invested in NAVR. Simply because it was below $10 and there were buy ratings by some analysts. I did not check fundamentals (at least not well enough.) Should have done more research.
2: Second mistake I did was to invest too quickly in it and the knife kept on falling. I wanted to average out so that when it rises my overall investments are fine.
3: Should be more uptoday on research. Jim Cramer's rule of investing "Invest 1 hour per week per stock".
4: Another stock I made a mistake with by following my rules of investing. Rule: "If you trust the stock, you know the company, you have some idea of future; if stock falls more than 5% in a day buy IT". I knew INFY as I worked there knew it was a solid company but will have challenges in the coming year so i was not planning on invest BUT it dropped 5% in a day and I thought hmm thats a buying opportunity. And I did. Result. It kept on falling. So threshold of 5% is not enough these days. Don't invest unless you are totally convinced about fundamentals, future growth, valuation, reports from S&P or Reuters or other reputed agency, looked at financial blogs for any negative news about the stock.

My Rules of investing now :

1. Fundamentals - Business, Industry, Outlook etc.
   
2. Future growth - From reports, etc.
   
3. Valuation - P/E ratio etc.
   
4. Reports from S&P or Reuters or other reputed agency , also check CNN Money, AOL Financial news, Yahoo Finance
   
5. Looked at financial blogs for any negative news about the stock.
   
6. Invest regularly (monthly is good).
   
7. Invest on a bad day (but for a good stock which fulfills criteria above). A bad day would be a day followed by 2-3 days of upside in the market. If you follow the trend some days are growth days and they are immediately followed by down days when people book profits or have a bad news (which results in panic but does not affect individual stocks in long run).
   
8. Buy in the later part of the day. I check out prices over 1 yr, 6 month, 3 months, 1 month and 5 days. And based on all inputs above check out a decent low price, give my Buy decision on a stock.
   
9. Diversify. Own large caps, small caps, medium caps, mutual funds, Index Funds, growth countries like BRIC.
   

One of the Best Movies to watch

"The Pursuit of Happiness" is the real story of Chris Gardner. I only wonder what would anyone else do if he were in the same spot as Chris Gardner. To face hardhship is one thing, to face it and be so strong, keep your spirits high and still be able to pull off from bankrupty to a multi-millionaire. Its not an achivement its super human.

Hats off to Chris !!

It's a movie you cant miss.

Stocks , .seems like a good opportunity to buy

There is a lot of negative sentiment currently and there is panic. Despite all the bad news I think its a good time to buy. If you are already invested in stocks and are down by 10-15% its wouldn't make sense to sell these holdings now for loss. Its best to do disciplined investing and take benefit of dollar cost averaging.

One of my experiences has been despite being disciplined it also matters the time you invest at. e.g. if the market has been going up for past 2-3 days then don't buy today. Because considering cyclic nature of market and the fact that people will try to book profit the market will go down. Similarly you must do research on the stock you want to buy. If you have done your research then you will know the range the stock has been trading in (at least roughly and if there has not been an overly good or bad news about the stock). Combining the 2 factors together buy on the day market is in RED, buy the stock which has fundamentals correct, buy when the range of stock is making the stock trade in RED.

One another minor observation has been that best time to buy is around 3:00 PM. Only because it matches my style of investing. At 3:00 PM market has gone though cycles of heavy trading and at that time of the day stock price normally is stable so you are getting a weighted value of stock and not a sentiment, panic, speculation impacted price (which is usually the case 9:30-10:00 AM.
I have also experienced that when I buy a stock at 9:45 AM I get better opportunities around 3:00 PM therefore concluding that its best to wait till later part of the day.

Of course lot of other factors are at play. What if theres a market crash ? What is Recessions pulls you down further ? Well who knows. so far industries other than housing look ok (at least they don't look overly bad). And if are in recession we are probably already half way through. :)

Online Volunteering : What is Nabuur ?

Become an online volunteer with NABUUR.com

NABUUR links you directly with people around the world who need your assistance now. All you need is a computer, a little free time, and the desire to make a difference.

The above text comes from Nabuur site. I have been a member of this site for almost 2 years now and have been part of 2 projects. One in India and another in Uganda. Both the projects have had primary goal of "Setup of Computer Center" and have had challenges of their own. Its been exciting going through all the emotions, challenges emailing organizations for support, preparing business plan from scratch and thinking about all a center can do and impact it can have on the lives of people in the local community.

In Nabuur world there are three key players:
Local Representative (who represents the local community), Neighbors (who are online volunteers who are experts or simply have time and heart to help) and Facilitators who facilitate the project and communication between the above 2 parties.

Nabuur site has gone through much evolution and probably has all the tools you will need to manage a project.

The site has projects in virtually every area you would want to contribute in and will only take a few hours of your time per week from the comfort of your home.

Happy Volunteering.

Email from Governors office (of California)

I moved from Virginia to California and received the most shocking news about my Car Insurance. My Insurance premiums jumped 300% simply because I did not have a driving history in state of California. It didn't matter if I have driven in 10 other states or have a clean record or have been driving for past 10 years. Only thing that mattered was new California resident. In my view that was plain stupid.

So went to Governor's site and found a contact us link and wrote an email about how ridiculous this policy was and got back this email in response.

So I called up Insurance Commissioners office and told them that this is not fair. The lady who answered the phone said there is a 20% rebate for a good driving record outside state. So I will have to call DMV of my previous state and get a record from them and then apply for this rebate.
So if my previous insurance was $400 and in California it came to $1200 then with a 20% rebate I still pay $1000. Fair ? No way..

Anyhows that the best that you can do.

Likewise I callup IRS or USCIS or any organization that matters. Mostly their response systems are great and operators are very informed and diligent. Best to ask the source than look at tons of websites where information might be misleading or outdated.

"Fight Change" Versus "Go with the Flow" RESULTS

It's a difficult thing - Change ! Not everyone is happy, because people build comfort zones and do not want to come out of their comfort zones. People who are impacted by change feel threatened due to various reasons "is this person trying to act smart", "why is he telling me this stuff", "I like it this way and thats what works for me best", " it will be more work for me", " I just don't time".

Having faced each of the responses given above, the best bet was to show the true value of change. Whichever way you can "Reduced Effort", " Long term benefits", "Higher Efficiency", "Better organization"..etc. Get real numbers in terms of hours, in terms of inputs from other stakeholders, in terms of long term and short term view etc.

If none of this works best is to own the change and implement it. Once people see the implementation with their own eyes they will be happier to accept change.

One critical thing that needs to be achieved before making the change is to get agreement from Sr Management. Sr Management cares about benefits in real terms, ROI, number of hours saved, collective information, way to access information better etc.

Once all the step mentioned above are implemented you are one step ahead in implementing change. :)

Investing in Stocks

I have been investing in Stocks for a while now. Invested in India and now started investing in US. So let me start with how to invest i.e. mechanics of it.

Mostly adverstized stock trading platforms are Scottrade, TD, Etrade etc. I started with Scottrade as its price per trade was lower as compared to others. Its $7 per trade. However I wanted to invest in small amounts that when price per trade becomes crucial for your bottomline :) $7 yeah!!

So wuts the answer ? I found Zecco and I guess have a perfect combination now. Use Scottrade for long term and high amount investments. Scottrade is also good for research. You get free reports from S&P and Reuters. On Zecco you get 10 trades for free per month. 10 trades is good for me.

Free trade does not mean simply buy for free. Free trade also helps doing the dollar avergage. What is Dollar Average ? Well Dollar average is what gets you into disciplined investing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_cost_averaging So if i bought 5 stocks at $50 and market went south and my stock reached $45. So I buy 5 more to get my cost at $47.5 for 10 stocks.

This technique works simply because its impossible to predict the bottom. So best bet is to do research, fundamentals etc. and buy in small amounts.

How to choose stock? I have made some principles ..(will post in next post).

Creating Effective Change - Jack Welch - 1

Jack Welch has inspired many (me included) have read a few of his books most remarkable being "Straight from the Gut". Of course things are changing and I guess there was an article somewhere where the author mentioned how rules made by Jack didnt apply anymore. Well article is not about Jack but we can certainly talk about how Jack created effective change and made GE into what it is today. A nimble, comptetive, progressive organization.

Managers muddle - leaders inspire. Leaders are people who inspire with clear vision of how things can be done better. "What we are looking for are leaders at every level who can energize, excite and inspire rather than enervate, depress, and control."

"Fight Change" versus "Go with the flow"

Historically change has been difficult to accept for organizations. And everytime a change is initiated there are 2 parties involved one which believes that change is not good "we are fine the way we are we have been doing ok why change ?" then there other party which believes "something is not right, we have been having issues, slipped deadlines, missed deliverables.. we need to change the system to we can improve on this".

And then there is a third kind which tries to do both but reaches nowhere their stance "yeah there are certain things that can be done better we can change..but lets not rush ..lets not disturb anything for now..things are going good ." Well as much as this statement welcomes change it delays change as well.

When an organization sees few improvements, best practices, suggestions it should at least evaluate if those suggestions are good or not. Always looking for improvements makes an organization great. That is how an organization reaches CMMi level 5 by continously improving, looking at doing things better, not waiting for change to happen but affecting change, not being an instrument of change but a change agent.

Write a brief on why you fit current role ?

This question seems relevant during an interview but I have interviewed with a company which wanted me to write a sample of product document I would produce if I were hired (they gave me a scenario) and why i would be perfect for this job before they take me to the 3rd round of interview.

Intially I thought this was only relevant to the specific job I interviewed for however one of my friends was just contacted by a web company and they wanted him to write why he is a good fit for the role.

This sounds surprising initially but then it does make sense. First such request would be for jobs like Proposal Manager, Product Manager etc. Where one of the expectations of the job is to write business requirements, documents etc. Second it helps the candidate himself to clarify his position (i believe if you write it down it becomes clearer) and you think deeper on why you think this role is a good fit and why you want to take it. Third you can add some points to your interview process by writing a solid "why I".

So if you are targeting jobs where it is expected out of you to write proposals, requirements documents etc. be prepared for such requests from potential employers.

Also one of the favorite questions of interviewers is "why should we hire you?" You cannot ignore to have good answer for this question.

Drive Trip in Los Angeles ( A Days activity)

First activity was to view Hollywood sign from near. If living in Hollywood why not capture it in picture :)

This is view from Deronda Rd. The road to Hollywood sign is closed possibly due to fire hazard or to shoo away vandals.

Deronda rd is a winding road which goes over hills and you get to see how people have build houses on hills, exotic houses, nice neighborhood and hills. You get to this place by taking exit for Gower St. from US 101. For detailed maps search hollywood sign in google maps.

Next we wanted to go to Malibu.

So I took US 101 N and travelled around 27 miles to take Malibu Canyon rd down torward valley. Finally we hit Malibu and started seeing beautiful houses along side the roads. Several hollywood actors live around that area (we didnt see anyone though :) )

I couldn't capture but on your way to Pacific Hwy you see a beautiful scene you see the Pacific Ocean from a distance and on a bright day its breathtaking.

As soon as you hit Pacific Hwy you will see Malibu beach and you be ready for parking on the right side. There are several places where you can park on the side and enjoy the beautiful Malibu beach.

To take a break I had decided to stop at Topanga State Park. Topanga State Park is good for people who want to take rest, unwind, trek, hike ..Basically enjoy the wilderness. Again winding roads, nice drive.

Finally I took Topanga Canyon Rd to US 101 to head back home in the evening.

Another beatiful view from the top of the valley.

This view is on our way down from Topanga Canyon Rd.

Overall a good one day trip.

View Larger Map

Typical Interview Process

The best way to prepare about the position is to understand:

- Job description as mentioned in Job Notification. Make sure you cover all points mentioned in the job description and research as much as possible.

- Identify how your profile matches to this job description. You should be confident about every point you have in your profile. Eventually the goal of the hiring organization is to do a fitment check. Prepare before hand how you will fit in that organization.

- Typical format of an interview is Screening (over phone) by HR, Phone Interview with (someone from hiring organization), Face to face interview (several interviews in increasing order to designation or panel interviews), final phone interview (not in all cases but in some cases a follow up interview is done ..probably because more determination is made where the candidate will fit and that manager wants to know more). Offer.

- If you are Project Manager and looking for a Project / Functional role then other than your technical background which would need brush up , you must go through PMBOK.

Rest depends on specific organization you are looking at, research as much as possible.

Job Search in US (What worked for me)

First of all be sure what you are looking for. If you have a background in IT Services would you be looking in the services industry or are you looking for an American company a permanent job.

There will be several offers for contract jobs, be clear if you are looking for those, if not then simply focus on perm focus. Along the job search there is a major distraction of such offers. Save the energy for searching for right jobs at the right place.

Now if you have decided to go IT Services route I know people and friends in companies like TCS, INfosys , Wipro, Accenture, Sapient, IBM, etc. This way they get referrals, CV goes directly to the HR rather than a CV bin and everybody wins. CV being shortlisted and getting an interview call is a different ball game altogeather.

If you are looking for a Perm Job in American Company. Same logic applies as mentioned above except more needs to be done on job search front. Try having a professional network profile in a site like linkedin and add all your contacts you know from past (education, job etc). Stastically (not sure of the source but certainly some leading, renowed data bank), maximum jobs , key jobs are through networking.

Finally Job sites. I had accounts with Monster, Careerbuilder, Yahoo hot jobs, dice etc. For pure tech jobs I guess dice works best. Yahoo hot jobs gives least number and least relevant jobs (at least for me), monster is ok while careerbuilder is better than the rest and has some smart tools and comfortable layout etc.

However what really works is Linkedin and Ladders. Linkedin is catching up these days and best part is recruiters from companies have profiles there (you can look at their history, clients etc.) so you can reach out to recruiters directly. Same for Ladders, not only they have jobs listed (some exclusively ladders like Linkedin) but they you can search for recruiters also (who have jobs in specific areas and job functions etc. more targetted basically). Only catch is you pay up $30 for monthly membership (my take worth it considering whats at stake for you).

Bottomline network, reach out, spend some time on sites like Linkedin and Ladders. Look at your competition (other profiles which match urs but look better on these sites).

I can push CV in Fox Interactive Media (Myspace) reach out to me in case you are looking for a job here.

On a lighter note a friend of mine told me to be patient for the right job. It takes as many number of months to get a job as many years of experience you have :) If you have 7 yrs of experience it might take you 7 months. :) Ofcourse I did not believe that ..but an interesting thought..isnt it ?

SCRUM Process

Currently we are using SCRUM process in our company. SCRUM is a good software delivery mechanism but is not for every organization and does not focus on all aspects. SCRUM focuses on short sprints (as name suggests what can be achieved in short time - sprint focus on that).

While its an advantage to focus on only the planned sprint it fails in having a long term view.

A typical example would be a web company which wants to roll small features out quick.

Team chooses the duration of the Sprint 2 weeks, 3 weeks wutever works. Three key players are involved: Scrum Master, Team and Product Manager.

Product Manager is the person who gets requirements from sponsors and ships it out to SCRUM master.

SCRUM master is not a true Project Manager, is a facilitator, is a coordinator and believes in completing the task at hand (2 weeks sprint).

SCRUM teams participate in Sprint Planning meetings where it is decided what activities / features or stories (as they are called) will be included in current sprint.

And then there is Product Owner who can also be the Product Manager but is not an ideal case. Product Owner is the person who works with stakeholders directly and is responsible in making a call as to which story is important for his sprint etc. For the sake of this discussion lets forget the product owner and concentrate on our three players before.

So a Sprint starts with Sprint Planning meeting. At Sprint Planning meeting team has a list of proposed stories which should be included in current Sprint.

Scrum Master manages discussion and activities in planning meeting and updation in tools which can be used to manage this. SCRUM Master puts all these stories on a board under backlog. Now you pick first and ask the product manager what this story is about. Once you know wut its about you ask the team who wants to work on it. People raise hands and own the story (remember SCRUM is a democratic process and believes in team volunteering for work. Ultimate goal of the team is to complete all story points committed by team and everyone works to complete this). With person assigned to a story now is the time for estimation. You estimate in days or hours your choice but you can only pick numbers from Fibonacci sequence. i.e. 1,2,3,5,8,13 ......idea is to force people to estimate correctly . Story Points as they are called should include time required and complexity and thus making up total of 5 or 8 or 13. Once this is achieved other cards are picked up and you discuss all stories planned.
next critical step is to decide how many stories this sprint. For that history is looked at and number is called velocity. Velocity is the achieved story points for the team. On top of that you add a focus factor (typically for teams which has unplanned work, maintenance etc. ) And you get current velocity team can commit to. Suppose your past velocity was 18 and in current sprint you have 20 story points (for 4 stories) you need to check other factors (maybe you have an extra resource this sprint or you have one resource at 50%) With that you decide the stories you want to implement.

So suppose your past velocity was 18 and focus factor was 60% (achieved / planned = .6) then current planned velocity = 18*.6 = 10.8. Now you need to make a judgment call if you have team and resources to plan something like 18 or go by what numbers tell you.

With this you have a plan for 2 weeks and you focus on completing this. People who own a story focus on completing it and people who don't focus on helping others. This data is added into a tool (several are available in the market). And status is taken in daily scrums. Daily Scrum is an exercise where everyone stands up (therefore called stand up meeting) to keep focus, keep people active etc. and every team members gives status on 3 things: 1: What did they do yesterday, 2: What will they do today 3: Any Impediments.

You can also plan a weekly status meeting to have an overall status check. For reporting you can send out status emails if the tool you are using does not give enough. Some tools are good and some give good snapshot of burn down (stories used, actuals, remaining, discovered work etc.).

Stories not completed in current sprint go back to Product Backlog which is mast log of all activities / features.

Repeat the exercise for next sprint.

Defintion of Success (in my words)

“Success cannot be measured, it can be felt. Goals can be set, measured and accomplished but success in life can only be attained if you have done the following:

1. Followed your Karma: Karma is the concept of "action" or "deed" in Indian religions understood as denoting the entire cycle of cause and effect. Whatever profession you are in did you do you best. Again the measure is not how you pare with others or what rating you achieved in you annual appraisals but is measured by the fact that given an opportunity what did you do with it ? Did you give it your best? Karma also includes responsibilities as a brother, husband, friend. Did you fulfill your responsibilities. Will these relations blink when answering what they think of you ?
   
2. Dharma: Dharma signifies the underlying order in nature and life (human or other) considered to be in accord with that order. The word Dharma literally means 'that which upholds or supports' (from the root 'Dhr' - to hold), here referring to the order which makes the cosmos and the harmonious complexity of the natural world possible. It's upto an individual to follow his dharma. Whichever religion one belongs to did he follow what his Dharma says. Working for non-profit and volunteer organization and helping others can be one's dharma. Its your choice if you include it as your dharma and follow it.
   
3. Fullfilment: There is no harm in asking for more :) The critial question is how much more. If you are taking good care of your family, if you are fulfilling your needs, if you are making enough to enjoy life (what ever interests you have)...then you are enjoying your life as it should be. This sense of fulfillment will last only for a phase, since life moves on, new needs will come up, new goals need to be set and hence new effort to keep the fulfillment stage on in your life. Of course there is much more and its a personal opinion.!!!””

PM Keywords (less heard ones)

Rolling Wave Planning: You plan for only a few weeks (this is different from SCRUM where you plan only for a sprint). Once one week work is complete you add one week to your schedule.

Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) – Show who does what (x=person, y=phase). The most important feature of the RAM is the participatory development process involving all stakeholders. Show who is participant, who is accountable, who handles reviews, who provides input and who must sign off on specific work packages or project phases.

Motivational Theory: Content & Process Theories

Content: “What” energizes, directs behavior –

1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory (Physiological, Safety, Social/Belonging, Esteem, Self-Actualization)

2. Hertzberg’s Motivator/Hygiene Theories (Motivator: Self-Actualization, Esteem ; Hygiene: Social, Safety, Physiological)

Process: “How” personal factors influence behavior

1. McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y (X: Assumes people lack ambition, dislike responsibility, are inherently self-centered and are not very bright; motivate by reward and punishment. Y: Assumes people become lazy w/o recognition, will accept responsibility, can become self-motivated and exercise self-control; motivate by removing obstacles and providing self-directed environment.)

2. Ouchi’s Theory Z/Japanese Theory ( focus on team, company; usually lifetime employment, collective decisionmaking )

Monte Carlo Analysis - computer simulation of project outcomes using PERT estimates; result represented in S curve. Provides the ability to compute the probability of completing a project on a specific day. Can also be used to assess feasibility of schedule under adverse conditions (eg when a schedule constraint is identified)

Heuristics - rules of thumb

Ishikawa: Made popular Pareto Chart, Cause-and-Effect Diagram and Control Chart.

Taguchi Method: Is used to estimate the loss associated with controlling or failing to control process variability. If you select good design parameters, you can produce products that are forgiving and tolerant. The tool helps determine the value or break-even point of improving a process to reduce variability.

Delphi Technique:A forecasting technique used to gather information; it relies on gathering expert opinions. usually goes three rounds; Gain consensus of expert opinions.

Kaizen: Continuous Improvement.


Gold Plating: Giving the customer more than was required, it has no value.

Kaizen (Continous Improvement): Japanese term. Kai (alter) Zen (make better or improve). Small improvements in products or processes to reduce costs and ensure consistency of performance of products or services.

Statistical Independence: The probability of one event occurring does not affect the probability of another event occurring (e.g. rolling a dice in subsequent rolls)

Marginal Analysis: The concept of optimal quality level is reached at the point where the incremental revenue from the product improvement equals the incremental cost to secure it.

Halo Effect: The tendency to rate high or low on all factors due to the impression of a high or low rating on a specific factor. This can mean, "You are a great programmer. Therefore, we will make you a Project Manager and also expect you to be great".

Learn't some interesting lessons about Chaos

I posted a question on a social job site to see how others respond to necessity of Processes in a no processes world in an organization. And some of the inputs were very interesting and they went to the root of the problem.

Managing Chaos "There is no managing chaos. There is only working through chaos with very small incremental process creation and application. Once people start to see how automation and process expands your circle of influence, because you get things done and make advancements in the company rather than always fighting fires (which won't go entirely away by the way), then they may follow."

Benefits of Chaos: " Chaos is exciting, stimulating, they feel energized by the challenge like the rush of getting it done against the odds, even if they have helped create the odds."

Quite Interesting insights. While there is a world which has learnt lessons (maybe too much) and made words like six sigma, CMMI, ISO very common. There is another world which is at conflict and does not agree with a format. Do processes kill innovation ? I don't agree, but good to know what others think.

TCS reducing salaries and wins a mega contract

Salary Cuts
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14597455

Followed by Major Deal news
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/TCS_bags_Rs_784-cr_outsourcing_deal/articleshow/2743786.cms

Well I this is one company which has been run by the book. In this case chapter being EVA. I remember my time in 2000 when recession hit US markets and Dollar was weak. TCS was probably the only company which reduced salaries of staff then many other companies like Infosys took back offers and in some cases staff was let go.

This time again challenges are similar US economy slowing, rupee strong but TCS still continues to be a leader in the pack, TCS has steadily continued on the path of bigger deals, diversified its business from US centric to global in the true sense (Europe, Emerging Markets...) etc.

So while true concepts of EVA do incline towards taking measures like cutting salaries but overall health of Indian Economy and IT growth story is still intact and TCS having learnt the lessons from past should be ready for such situations (as it seems from diversification, maturity and globalization)

New to Los Angeles

3 weeks since I arrived in Los Angeles.

Negatives:

1. Traffic
2. Super Expensive Rents
   
3. Expensive Auto Insurance Rates
   
1. California resident who has just moved in is considered as a new driver, does not consider past record in other states. If you want that your past driving history be considered request DMV to send records to your Insurance Company the total effect of this would be 20% discount. (Overall insurance goes as high as 200% when you move in this state).
   

Positives:

1. Weather


2. Nice areas for living (studio city, toluca lake, sherman oaks, santa monica, pasadena, monterey hills etc..)


3. Tons of places to see (Santa Monica Beach (see below), Rodeo DR., Beverly Hills, Hollywood blvd..)

Career: Interview Questions for Project Managers (Ones I have faced)

1: How do you describe your Ideal Job.?

2: what would others say are your weaknesses/strengths?

3: Tell me about a time when u negotiated a win win situation.

4: Tell us about yourself.

5: Give an example of conflict with Boss.

6: Why are you here?

7: definition of Success.

8: Why should we hire you?

9: What accomplishtmetns do u have so far?Tips: confidence, Eye COntact, Research, ask questions thru research, giving examples. Close the interview, personality.Leadership, drive, interaction, dreams-goals,professionalism,eye contact, confidene, maturity, sense of humors, overall dynamics.

10: PMBOK (what is project float, lead time, lag time).

11: Accomplishments:

12: What is a project charter and what are components of the same. ?

13: 2 Major problems in agile projects.

14: What is EVM ? How will you use this in ur projects ?

15: Methods of Project estimation.

16: What is the most important contribution to ur employer ?

17: Give an examples of a risk u took at work and how it turned out. hardware ordering for server setup in frankfurt.

18: Whats ur management style like ?detail oriented, hands on, transparent (highlight issues).

19: What is fishbone or Ishikawa ?

20: What is Pareto Principle? (80/20)

21: Difference between SITP and UTP in testing.

22: What is CMMI and 5 levels of CMMI.

23; What is your companies productivity factor.

24: ...

Perils of the new jon

Perils of a new joinee when you dont know what do you want to do ?

Its crazy. So what do you do ?

1. First of all take a deep breath.
   
2. Figure out whats going on.
3. Talk to everyone in ur communication area. (definitely your boss).
4. Ask them what they think should happen.
   
5. Figure out whats not going on and it should.
   
6. Is it your job or does it make sense to make it your job to do whats not going on ?
   
7. If it does, do it.