Effective Managerial Skills-Part 1

Management:

“The art of getting things done through people”

Managers:

“A person who achieves organization’s goals by motivating others to perform”

Hence they should be very efficient at man management

Modern management can be thought of as science in the environment of technology

Manager may perform the following tasks such as accounting, selling, manufacturing, purchasing etc. These are called as tasks and not functions.

The different functions that the manager performs are

Planning

Organizing

Staffing

Directing

Coordinating and

Communication

The person who can perform the above functions effectively and efficiently can be a good Manager.

Planning: Process of determining goals and objectives and evolving strategies, policies, programs and procedures for achievement of these goals.

Organizing: Involves evolving the structure of the people working in the organizing and their roles. Specifies authority structures and assign activities to the people backed by the delegation of authority.

Staffing: Involves manning the positions in the organization structure. It requires defining the manpower needs per position or center of activity.

Directing: In the process the manager is required o guide, clarify and solve the problems of the people and their activities.

Coordinating: Function which brings harmony and smoothness in the various group activities and individual efforts directed towards the accomplishment of goals. Synchronizing individual actions and efforts which may differ due to personal goals and common goals

Controlling: A process of measurement of an output, comparing it with the goals, the objectives and the target and taking corrective actions if the output is falling short of the stated norms. Controlling ensures achievement of the plan. It helps to evaluate the performance, highlights abnormal deviations guides manager to take specific corrective action. This may call for a change of plan, reallocation of resources, a modification of methods, procedures and even organization structure. The control is central to the managerial function

The manager uses a variety of tools, techniques and skills while executing the management process of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating and control

Few qualities that a Manager should have for being effective and efficient:

• Should be good at Audience evaluation
• Should have Effective presentation Skills
• Should have Good Listening Skills
• Should be a good Interviewer
• Interpersonal Effectiveness
• Should be good at Negotiation
• Should have effective Meeting management Skills
• Team Builder
• Should be able to Resolve any Conflicts that occur within the team
• Influencing Skills

Contributed By: Mr. Hitesh Sanghavi, MD, CUNIX

Managing Risks to Reap Rich Benefits

Software projects face the problem of quality, cost and schedule being affected by Risks that are unplanned, unexpected or simply ignored. Structured Risk management deals with as many of the Risks as possible in a cost-effective way to minimize their impact.

Every programmer, senior programmer, quality manager, project manager, team leader, project leader and every chief of the organization should know what are factors affecting the entire project. During the project also the change in requirements is a Risk. It is necessary to synchronize with the change in people, requirements, situation, and technology and to identify the impact on the entire project. Once the senior management and middle order management are trained and they are committed to force a culture through the team then this course can be given for programmer senior programmer and other members of the team. Planning is a very important activity and for planning to be successful it is necessary that we periodically monitor the plan with respect to Risks and contingencies.

Risk versus Opportunity

The opportunity for advancement cannot be achieved without taking Risk. We must learn to balance the possible negative consequences of Risk against the potential benefits of its associated opportunity.

Risk and opportunity go hand in hand.

• Balance potential negative consequence of Risk against potential benefits of its opportunity.
• It is a formal software engineering practice with processes, methods and tools for managing Risks in a software project.
• Provide a disciplined environment for proactive decision- making.
• Emphasis on continuous aspect of Risk Management.

Stages of Risk management are:

Identification, Analysis, Planning, Tracking, Controlling and Communication

What is Risk?

• "Risk is potential for realization of unwanted negative consequences of an event"
• "Risk is measure of probability and severity of adverse effects"
• "Risk is possibility of suffering loss"

Uncertainty: An event may or may not happen.               

Loss: An event has unwanted consequences or losses.

Given below are some typical problems that can sabotage your project:

• There is Risk to the schedule
• Coordination and communication with the client is not easy
• The GUI may not be compatible with the other system
• Lack of required tools will make coordinating Changes across various modules difficult
• Only   one   team   member   is   familiar with   the Prototyping life cycle method
• Frequent loss of project team members due to resignations is not good for the morale
• We have committed a bug-free product to the client, yet everyone thinks that it is SQA group's job to ensure this quality - our quality targets may not be met
• There have been too many unexpected requirements refinements; we may not be able to deliver the product on time

There are several categories of risks as Project Risks, Business Risks, People Risks, Technical Risks, Known Risks and Unknown Risks.

Benefits of Risk Management

• Prevents problems before they occur
• Improves quality of the product
• Productivity is enhanced by reduction in rework
• All resources are used effectively
• Teamwork in the execution of the project is the best

So, we will close this article by remembering few key points like the sources of the risk and its categories should be identified, the parameters of defining risk and a strategy to mitigate those risks should be in place and also the risk should be evaluated and prioritized with mitigation plans developed and implemented.  

Contributed By: Mr. Hitesh Sanghavi, MD, CUNIX

Induction into an organization

The organization’s culture is defined by the shared values among its employees. Whenever a new employee joins an organization not so much aware of the organization’s culture except little hearsay in the outside world, an effective induction is necessary to make the new employee familiar about the organization as well as to prevent that person from the cultural shock.

The induction also helps an organization in communicating clearly the work and the expectations to the new employees.  It also enables the new employees to communicate freely their expectations in terms of the career growth, work environment to the management.

As we say, ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’ so the efficient and effective organization will always plan even the minutest activity like induction. The planned induction yields the fruitful result else it is a futile exercise which involves resources of the organization and also incurs cost.

We being an organization focused on process and quality always prefer to plan first and then delve into any activity. So, we planned the induction well with a check-list and ensured that the check-list is strictly adhered to by the responsible authorities.

I want to leave this article on the thought that first impression may not be a last impression but it is a long-lasting impression.

Contributed by: Rajendra Pratap Singh

12 Mantras for Effective Planning - Part 1

During my journey towards reading, understanding and learning the minute details of CMMI and hence process improvements, I have come across many new concepts unleashing immense knowledge but one concept which made me realize the importance of planning not only in herculean activities but also a minuscule activity of our day-to-day lives. That concept is ‘Generic Practices’ and we fondly call it ‘GPs’.

There are 12 GPs and following each one of them rigorously will make us systematic and hence will reduce the random thoughts drastically. The GPs are mentioned below:

GP 2.1 – Establish organization policy

GP 2.2 – Plan the process

GP 2.3 – Provide resources

GP 2.4 – Assign responsibilities

GP 2.5 – Train People

GP 2.6 – Control Work Products

GP 2.7 – Identify and involve relevant stakeholders

GP 2.8 – Monitor and control work processes

GP 2.9 – Objectively evaluate adherence

GP 2.10 – Review status with higher level management

GP 3.1 – Establish defined processes

GP 3.2 – Collect process related experience

After realizing its importance, we started an initiative in our organization which we fondly call as ‘GP Parade’. We made it customary that everyone in the organization irrespective of the level in hierarchy will participate in the ‘GP Parade’. Slowly, it has become a culture in the organization and our day never ends without ‘GP Parade’.

Apparently, we have seen a dramatic shift in the thought process of the people at CUNIX. One living example is the RACI matrix prepared by Ms. Harsha who works in admin department. The RACI matrix is shown below. It is a live example which is satisfying GP 2.4 and GP 2.7. So, from here one can understand that GPs are rooted strongly in our value system and we not only focus on learning it but also implementing it organization wide.

ADMIN DEPARTMENT'S ROLE RESPONSIBILITY - MATRIX
SR.NO.	Admin Activities	Employee Name	Employee Name	Employee Name	Employee Name
1	Opening and Cleaning Office	A	R	*	*
2	Office Key Management	*	R/A	*	*
3	Bank (Mon, Wed & Fri)	*	R	A	*
5	Prepare & Update PMS sheet every week on Saturday	R	*	A	*
6	Audit backup of all machines	R/A	*	*	*
7	Assets Register Maintain monthly	R/A	*	C/I	*
8	Router maintenance and operation	*	*	R/A/C	I
9	Biometric device maintenance and operation	*	*	R/A/C	I
10	H/W Repairs and Antivirus	R	*	A/C	I
11	Renew Internet	A	R	*	*
12	New staff induction	R/A	*	*	C/I
13	Muster, Check LAN, Update Board ½	A	R	*	*
14	Vouchers preparation	R	R	A/C/I	*
15	Courier Inward & Outward Management	A	R	C/I	*
16	Stationery	A	R	C/I	*
17	Printing of cards and other items	R/A	*	C/I	*
18	SUP	R/A	*	C/I	*
19	Staff travel	R/A	*	C/I	C/I
20	Visitors management	A	R	*	*
21	Vendor Management	R	*	A	C/I
22	Petty Cash	R/A	*	C/I	*
23	Utility Bills	*	R	A/C/I	*
24	Water and Tea Management	A	R	C/I	*
25	Cleaning of office	A	R	C/I	*
26	Release birthday cards	R/A	*	*	*
27	Diwali Program and puja	R/A	R	C/I	C/I
28	Picnic	R/A	R	C/I	C/I

Where R, A, C, I stand for:

R	Responsible	Primarily this person will execute the task regularly
A	Accountable	This person will get it done from the responsible person
C	Consulted	When expenditure & expense is involved this person will be consulted by R&A
I	Informed	This person is informed by R&A

Kudos! , Good work done Ms. Harsha. You definitely deserved a big treat. Your piece of work proved that we truly believe in learning and implementing things.

Watch out this space for more such experiments which we are doing in our organization which will definitely help, if implemented, other organizations to become systematic rather than random.

Till then, signing off. 

Contributed by: Rajendra Pratap Singh