Facts About PMP

Any qualification, let it be MS, MBA, CFA, PMP, PRINCE-2 or MCTS provides the individual an opportunity to "know" the sum of all knowledge in the respective line of  business. Expertise and real-world competence comes through experience and applied learning of the same skills. The certifications give you a global view of the relevant knowledge areas and helpful to those who are not in good position to claim anything about their usefulness to any organisation. Someone without the global view  and domain knowledge will have less options to think about. Doing certifications/training is like reading the user manual before operating the tool. Reading the user manual doesn't make an expert, but experience operating the tool does to any technician.  Most of these (like PMI) provide a good reference but it is AVERAGE global practice and not best practice. It is limited in so many aspects and hardly add any real  value to your project because they are so generic and may hinder the project also if used blindly by some non-technical PM. To make a project success, you need to adopt "BEST PRACTICES" suitable to your project. That is the difference between  failure & success apart from the basic assumptions made at the beginning and the scoping.

I, and most others, do not ignore the value of  PMI, PMBOK or PMP or something else. The issue is that PMP was marketed as best practice where it is not and PMI management has become too focused on the numbers rather than value. By being too commercial PMI is losing many of its volunteers, members, and even PMP. Just look at the statistics PMI publishes numbers of members and PMP are starting to drop and this is a fact and not a opinion. This is also due to the fact that many PMPs are not able to perform at the level "they are marketed and sold" - sorry for these terms but this is the reality everywhere. There are many lawsuites going against PMI as those who are preaching PM have nothing to do with projects  and they are too beaurecratic and theoretical (Oliver  F. Lehmann, PMP case). In fact, they create lots of confusion by giving unwanted attention to not so important matters and promoting mediocrity, gossiping (they call it communication), mis-communication thru  emails/ tables and graphs along with politics and corruption too to cover up their failures.

I have never attacked the accomplishments of anyone who has taken the PMP exam. I have always attacked the claims of people who want to make that accomplishment into something more than it is. When people suggest, imply, or state that the PMP provides assurance of skill and experience as a project manager ... that is just so totally wrong. Finally, if you feel devalued by the facts that are presented  here. Reality is a tough mistress.  Here are just a few of those facts:

•   The PMP was DESIGNED as an entry level certification.
•   The PMP uses multiple choice questions exclusively in its examination, and it does not deduct for wrong answers.
•   The passing grade for the PMP started out as 70%, was lowered to 68.5% in the late 1990s, and then lowered again to 61% around 2005 where it stayed until recently when PMI stopped publishing the passing grade.
•   The number of questions on the exam started at 320, was reduced to 200 in the late 1990s, and then reduced again to 175 around 2005.
•   From the start of the PMP until a few months ago, there was no requirement for experience as a project manager.
•   From the start of the PMP until about 2005, there was no experience requirement that even implied the need for experience as a project manager.
•   PMI verifies the experience of less than 10% of applicants, and when it verifies experience, it does not assess the quality of that experience. In other words, there is no assurance that any PMP has ever managed a project successfully.
•   The first time pass rate for native English speakers who take an exam prep course is around 95%. The first time pass rate for non-native English speakers is substantially lower and is about 65%.
•   PMI does not publish statistics on pass rates.
•   Some candidates lie on their applications because some organizations require the PMP for them to get an interview.

Are some PMPs competent project managers? Absolutely. Are all PMPs competent project managers? No. Are some PMPs worthy of respect? Absolutely Yes. Are all PMPs worthy of respect? Not a chance.

Then, what is so alarming? Is anyone employable and worthy of respect solely by virtue of holding a PMP? NO. There are reasons.  My experience  is that these PMPs are contributing more to project failures than success beacuse their  lack of real/domain knowledge, basic understanding and  inability to appreciate the figures in the PM tempelates and  decisions in critical matters.



What I recommend: Develop a set of criteria that are appropriate to your specific project needs. There is no such thing as a general competence or competency in project management. So make sure that the person's traits match your project's requirements.

A person who may be patient, may be the needed manager for one project, but slow down another one too much. A great group leader may be bad in documentation, a person who is nitpicking on forms and templates may de-motivate a team. Make sure the person has a sound level of knowledge. There are various certifications that test that, but you can also develop your own tests, of course.

I am in the favor of a domain specific project management - I wonder how a "generic" PM who does not have any domain experience would understand and manage any project on the basis of some  PM tempelates. I also think that a PM with no domain knowledge might do well if you  use an automated process that can provide him the necessary metrics - s/he wouldn't have to worry about collecting build times, number of errors, number of failed tests, the most problematic component - component taking the most time, etc. - s/he will get all that automatically through the automated process. So, in my opinion, you should look for a candidate who has the necessary technical experience as well - in addition to project management experience.

No certification guarantees leadership and project success. And no certification exam can test discipline and stamina, two major traits of very good project managers. And be prepared to find in the end that there are no guarantees in project management. Those who promise that probably have their own "Agendas" and they definately dont know what is your project.

Fall of Dubai World - Who Next?

Dubai is famous for its over ambitious builders & their projects. Everyone in middle east still consider  Dubai as model and racing with others to overtake Dubai. Dubai is the most vain and resource wasting places ever built by man. More incredibly we are being asked to believe this place built on sand is not the result of wasting oil money. Lots of big housing/commercial projects in Bahrain & Abu Dhabi etc are still under development to emulate Palm Jumairah  in their own way which has already become epitome of Dubai crisis.

Dubai crisis started from 'Realty' bubble which started to bust after unrealistic prices across the board  and without thinking about the sustainability of prices, demand and supply. Every Tom, Harry and Dick (btw gulf has in abundance)  was trying to become  another Donald Trump and people got sucked in the name of owning a house. $40K  worth of house was sold around a  $200 K  and people went on to buy despite beyond their reach. Their logic- Today’s  $200 K  house would get a value of $1200 K within 5 years. People started to think an asset would always appreciate than thinking about the real value.  Realtors spent a lot of money in unproductive things to justify the prices.

Banks started to give loans to real estate companies without assessing the real value. Their aim is to mint millions in interests. But these banks have forgotten to assess real value of realtors. Banks started to concentrate on variety of activities other than banking. They ventured in Forex, and derivatives which no one understands in the world. People went on buying homes with multiple EMIs without thinking about  their financial stability & sustainability of the plan.

Greed is the only reason for this crisis. Every product and service was priced artificially and companies have been started overnight and it looted money from public. “Overnight millionaire” was the motto for most of the entrepreneur.

Companies went on to stretch beyond their capabilities and core competencies. They took too much leverage. If you don’t think big, you’re dumb. Every company becomes dumb by over expanding in new businesses that are not their core competence. They employed thousands of people and borrowed through various innovative instruments which would be subscribed by a genius called private equity.

Take ex. of India. Whole India ran at leverage and domestic growth story. If  Pantaloon enters in retail business (Big Bazar), why we should wait was the question asked by Birla group and they acquired some retail companies and started MORE which is now creating more problems for Birla group. Stock broking is another business in which everyone from Kashmir to Kanyakumari started to capture their share in India. Insurance is another. Likewise everyone started everything and they went on to demolish brands and made every service as a commodity.

Everything has been created based on domestic growth theory which has been misunderstood by corporate managers who work in air-conditioned room with their tailor made PowerPoint presentations as designed in their PMBOK which they never understood.  They went on to give amazing numbers to their bosses and as a result everyone went on to venture in a crowded business and made it un-viable for everyone who has started it without knowing ground reality about the business.Whole mess has been started by marketing managers who doesn’t know any ground reality about business but who play efficiently with numbers, statistics, case studies and PowerPoint presentations.

Now these folks are calling this crisis as a event that occur once in a lifetime and it was beyond  imagination of everyone. Mess that has been created by managers without understanding of real condition. Mess that has been created in the name of expansion and diversification. Mess that has been created by leverage. Mess that has been created by greed of creditors. Mess that has been created by fictitious value creation by banks. Its all the creditors of Dubai who should be blamed rather than its vain leader for providing it money in bucket loads.

Analysts expect Dubai to receive financial support from Abu Dhabi - a fellow member of the UAE and home to most of its oil - though it may have to abandon an economic model focused on developing swathes of desert with foreign money and labors resulting in huge no. of job losses as cost cutting & restructuring efforts in the next few months.

Project Risk Management

We often execute the risk identification process many times within an iteration's life cycle or project life cycle. I prefer to execute it at regular intervals, during the monitoring and control phase, down till the closure phase. Many would do it even during the planning phase.

Planning is a optimistic exercise, Risk Management is pessimistic. When planning, we are optimistic about what should get done, by whom, in what sequence and when it should get done. After its planned, if we run through the plan with a pessimistic mind asking many 'what if' questions, particularly with those tasks for which we are not completely confident, I think many risks will be unearthed.

That means, even before the plan is put to execution, we should execute the same in our mind -pessimistically.

Another activity which can generate value is in the way the mitigation for the risks are managed.  Mitigations are action items. These action items (i.e., the risk mitigation), most could be within the direct authority and control of the Project Manager. Those which are not should be highlighted in the reviews as items for management attention and their ownership should be assigned and tracked.

To summarize ...

1. Execute the Plan even before executing it
2. Execute Risk Management processes (identification, prioritization, mitigation etc.) periodically
3. Maintain a centralized Action Items log and add the mitigation to this log
4. Highlight risk mitigation items that need management attention during Project Reviews
5. Assign ownership to each Action Item and track them to closure

GIS Data Quality & Concept of Six Sigma

A lot of different procedures for identification and improving business processes have been developed and tried by businesses with varying degrees of success. Some of the most notable earlier procedures include  Value Chain and Total Quality Management (TQM), Business Process Re-engineering, Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP), and Six Sigma methodology etc.

If we go as per the definition, to achieve Six Sigma, a process must not produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. A Six Sigma defect is defined as anything outside of customer specifications. A Six Sigma opportunity is then the total quantity of chances for a defect.

Why is Six Sigma so important in the improvement process? We talk of Six Sigma level implementations having an accuracy of 99.99966 percent. Well, after reading the following statistics compiled by the American Society for Quality, you will agree that it definitely is not!
Being 99 percent accurate means that:

• There is no electric power for nearly 7 hours every month in USA cities.
• Every hour, at least 20,000 letters are lost in the mail.
• Over 200,000 errors are made in medical prescriptions on an annual basis.
• Every week, doctors botch up 5,000 surgeries.
• Major airports report 2 incorrect landings every day.

Six Sigma is completely different from the traditional quality model of process capability. Traditional quality model was applied only to manufacturing processes, while Six Sigma is applied to all important business processes. Traditional quality model was known as Three Sigma.Three Sigma had a process standard deviation of less than one-sixth of the total allowable spread. Six Sigma requires the process standard deviation at less than one-twelfth of the total allowable spread.

There are several steps for the implementation of Six Sigma in an organization. These steps include:

• Understanding the commitment of top leadership

• Access to current information on customer requirements

• A process management system to measure current performance and identify where you need to make improvements

• Employing Black Belts and Green Belts to design and improve processes and to assist process owners

• Allowing management involvement and review to reinforce process management, improvement and design

• Adopting effective communication strategy to ensure that Six Sigma methods are implemented throughout the organization. Some famous organizations who have implemented the highest level of quality control are NASA, Boeing, AirBus etc.

Why not in GIS?

Lack of defined accuracy standards, data acceptance criteria and standardization of data preparation processes make it difficult to implement  any uniform quality standards in GIS projects.  GIS data is not a  finished product  in true sense as its  currency & completeness is dependent on  type of uses and many external ever changing factors that may affect  data quality during the QC stage itself. Multiple stake holders of different skills and requirements also hamper standardization. There is not a single GIS co. in the world that has implemented six sigma maturity model for data quality control. That means either  concept of 99.999966 % accuracy is not applicable to GIS or its not worth consideration because of its huge implications on cost and operations.

For promoting quality culture in the organization, one must first have quality people. People who understand the importance of Quality. The very first thing to have is quality leaders. If the organization can boost of quality leaders, they can easily achieve the quality service, quality product. It's not a one time affair or one persons job so in ever changing scenario one must always look into the opportunity to surpass there earlier best enabling them to produce quality products on constant basis. Three factors are important, quality resources, recognizing the importance of quality in work, investment with encouragement on continuous basis.

So, what to say to  those naive people who demand 100% quality of data every time without having quality people. Either they don't know the basics of GIS or just use quality issues as staletactic to delay the vendor payments and misguide the stake holders on their own side. Quality is everyone's responsibility at all level no matter you are on vendor side or client.

Talking - A poem by Khalil Gibran

And then a scholar said, "Speak of Talking."
And he answered, saying:
You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;
And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.
And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.
For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words many indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.
There are those among you who seek the talkative through fear of being alone.
The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves and they would escape.
And there are those who talk, and without knowledge or forethought reveal a truth which they themselves do not understand.
And there are those who have the truth within them, but they tell it not in words.
In the bosom of such as these the spirit dwells in rhythmic silence.
When you meet your friend on the roadside or in the market place, let the spirit in you move your lips and direct your tongue.
Let the voice within your voice speak to the ear of his ear;
For his soul will keep the truth of your heart as the taste of the wine is remembered
When the color is forgotten and the vessel is no more............

Dealing with less than effective managers

I found this article very interesting. Follow the link below for complete discussion and comments.

Working for an Idiot Boss: How to Handle a Lousy Boss?
http://www.resumark.com/blog/author/katia/

Main points are given here. ------------------------

If you’ve never had an idiot boss, consider yourself very lucky.

The rest of us sometimes have to deal with bosses who are control-freaks, intrusive, micro-managing, rude, and even obnoxious.

So what makes a lousy boss?
A lousy boss loves to take credit for your work and never gives you praise or positive feedback for any of your achievements. A lousy boss fails to support you in accomplishing your work, unnecessary interfere due to his lack of understanding and insecurities and leaves you hanging when you actually need their help. He likes recruiting cheap resources but demands best quality and quick delivery (off course with invoice) within deadlines- any PMs worst nightmare. He is usually very poor in cash management which is his main job and to hide that he wants to put blame on others. His obsession with "client is god" assumption also makes him paranoid and anti to his own employees. All the “support” that you get is annoying and results in counter-productive micro-management when you actually don’t need any help and they are just interfering in your and your teams work.

Lousy bosses think their subordinates have no feelings, interests or personal lives outside work and only he cares about the organizations welfare. Fact is he is the biggest threat to the co.s future. They take their employees for granted and think they'll do anything for the salary and contract extension esp he happens to be an expat. They think employees are robots designed for carrying out their orders. They make employees stay late after work for no reasons, attend stupid meetings and perform tasks that make no sense or have little purpose. He has no faith on anyone except few slave types, non-performing psycophants because he lacks self esteem and faith in himself.

The worst type of a boss gives you way too many tasks to handle, with unclear directions, wrong type of untrained resources, and impossible deadlines, while constantly changing their mind and directions, and having no clue about what they want or how they want it done. At the end, when you are late or the work is not done to their satisfaction – it becomes your fault with all the resulting consequences.

Boss's energies are directed towards a whole day drama where he wants to show others that he is the best man for his job. Fact is that he is there because of someone's mistake not due to his capabilities and he is the biggest threat to the co.. He is poor in cash management due to overemphasis on cost cutting to maximize his bonus & commission.

Any of this sounds familiar? Try these four ways to deal with an idiot boss before deciding to quit your job.

So how do you deal with a lousy boss?

1. Be smart and adapt to their style of work. Find the buttons to press. Dealing with less than effective managers (let’s just call them idiot bosses), is a challenge that too many employees don’t know how to approach correctly. One way to prevent problems is to study and understand your boss’s personality, their style of work and their expectations regarding your work. You can then adjust your approach and your style to please your boss, while guarantying yourself peace of mind. For example, if your boss is an annoying micro-manager, ask them about their preferred ways of you reporting to them, and report back on a regular basis and make sure ask for feedback every time. Chances are you boss will love this and will soon leave you alone after seeing that things are done “their way” and that they are “in control”. They may also get tired of “too much control” having to give you feedback all the time and will eventually give you more freedom (as some bosses will put it – “because they trust you will do a good job”. The bottom line – you will make your boss happy and will earn your freedom while keeping your boss off your back.
2. Manage your boss. If it is at all possible, try resolving problems by talking to your boss – it is the quickest and the least painful way. If something concerns you, makes you uncomfortable or offends you – tell them about it right away. For example, if a boss is constantly yelling at you, simply tell them that you understand their frustration but them raising their voice makes you uncomfortable or even threatened. This especially works well if you are a female and you boss is a male – mostly will back down right away.If that doesn’t work, document the facts of all incidents and how that impacted your performance – as well as other employees in the company. This process may be enough to relieve you of the stress so that you can cope. If everything fails – ignore him and take your case to the senior management.
3. Do not take things personally. Try focusing on work. Try to perform well, while ignoring all these distractions and focus on your work to see if that changes anything. Let your boss know that you are doing job to the best of your abilities.
4. Find a mentor or a mediator in the office. If you and your boss don’t connect well, you should consider finding someone else in the office who may be able to help you. A more experienced, seasoned or an elder employee may be more respected by the boss and may have already found “a recipe” to handling them. They can put in a word for you as well as provide you with valuable support and advice in coping with the boss. However, be very careful about your choice of words when talking to other employees – you never know who else they might tell. Tell them you have a problem – don’t bad mouth your boss.
5. Don't be part of money-laundering project – If you are in this situation then you have no escape because you have been hired as per a plan where you have to take blame for all the misdeeds and inefficiency of the people who are sharing the booty. There are few countries where 90% projects are of this type and everyone in client is interested in making a project fail so they can float a new tender for another similar project with new vendor.
   
6. Don’t sacrifice your nerves or self-esteem – it is not worth it! Doing nothing and hoping that the problems will resolve themselves is the worst idea. No one (especially your idiot boss) is worth impacting your mental and physical health, self respect, self-esteem or sanity over them. If there is no way to resolve these issues you should start looking for another job. If you want to stay in your company, a good mentor can help you transfer to a different department provided co. is big enough and he is not the only boss around. If you do decide to quit – do it wisely: don’t burn bridges and have a backup plan if anything changes.

Remember nothing will work (among 4 ways suggested above) with a persons who is trying too hard to masquerade as an effective manager. He is trying to keep an eye on everything though he is blind like a bat. He is a control freak but no control on himself. He doesnt respect his employees and vendors except his own reporting manager. Then its sure, you boarded a sinking ship with too many holes where you have been hired as a scapegoat from the day you signed the contract.

BHUVAN: Indian Earth Observation Visualization

With Best Wishes to you all on our 63rd Independence day, I am putting this information to celebrate the success of Indian Space Programme in last 4 decades.

Bhuvan is a geoportal that provides medium to high resolution satellite imagery of virtually the entire India over the internet. You can "fly" around using mouse and keyboard on a simple desktop computer with virtual globe in front draped with IRS images over Indian region. Many other features are built in, including 3D terrain and information on many thematic data.

Bhuvan is an initiative to showcase this distinctiveness of Indian imaging capabilities including the thematic information derived from such imagery which could be of vital importance to common man with a focus on Indian region. Bhuvan, an ambitious project of ISRO to take Indian images and thematic information in multiple spatial resolutions to people through a web portal through easy access to information on basic natural resources in the geospatial domain. Bhuvan showcases Indian images by the superimposition of these IRS satellite imageries on 3D globe. It displays satellite images of varying resolution of India's surface, allowing users to visually see things like cities and important places of interest looking perpendicularly down or at an oblique angle, with different perspectives and can navigate through 3D viewing environment. The degree of resolution showcased is based on the points of interest and popularity, but most of the Indian terrain is covered upto at least 5.8 meters of resolution with the least spatial resolution being 55 meters from AWifs Sensor. With such rich content, Bhuvan opens the door to graphic visualisation of digital geospatial India allowing individuals to experience the fully interactive terrain viewing capabilities.

Multi-resolution images from multi-sensor IRS satellites of India is seamlessly depicted through the Bhuvan web portal by enabling a common man to zoom into specific area of interest at high resolution. Bhuvan brings a whole lot of uniqueness in understanding our own natural resources whilst presenting beautiful images and thematic vectors generated from varieties of geospatial information. Bhuvan will also attempt to bring out the importance of multi-temporal data and to highlight the changes taking place to our natural resources, which will serve as a general awareness on our changing planet. There are lot more special value added services which will be enabled onto the web portal in due course of time and each one of those services are going to be unique to preserving and conserving our precious natural resources through public participation. We are sure the common man will get rich benefits from these Indian geospatial data services in days to come.

Basic features of Bhuvan:

Access, explore and visualise 2D and 3D image data along with rich thematic information on Soil, wasteland, water resources etc.

Visualise multi-resolution, multi-sensor, multi-temporal image data
Superpose administrative boundaries of choice on images as required

• Visualisation of AWS ( Automatic Weather Stations) data/information in a graphic view and use tabular weather data of user choice
• Fly to locations ( Flies from the current location directly to the selected location)
• Heads-Up Display ( HUD) navigation controls ( Tilt slider, north indicator, opacity, compass ring, zoom slider)
• Navigation using the 3D view Pop-up menu (Fly-in, Fly out, jump in, jump around, view point)
• 3D Fly through (3D view to fly to locations, objects in the terrain, and navigate freely using the mouse or keyboard)
• Drawing 2D objects (Text labels, polylines, polygons, rectangles, 2D arrows, circles, ellipse)
• Drawing 3D Objects (placing of expressive 3D models, 3D polygons, boxes)
• Snapshot creation (copies the 3D view to a floating window and allows to save to a external file)
• Measurement tools (Horizontal distance, aerial distance, vertical distance, measure area)
• Shadow Analysis (it sets the sun position based on the given time creating shadows and effects the lighting on the terrain)

Particular interest of ISRO/DOS would be to provide such functionalities to common man so that he/she adopts participatory approach with scientists to solve simple problems easily and interactively.

• Advanced functionalities to be provided in future versions
• Urban Design Tools (to build roads, junctions and traffic lights in an urban setting)
• Contour map ( Displays a colorized terrain map and contour lines)
• Terrain profile ( Displays the terrain elevation profile along a path)
• Draw tools (Creates simples markers, free hand lines, urban designs)
• Navigation map (to jump to and view locations in the 3D India)

You will be able to see the following data on Bhuvan

• Satellite imagery (LISS III , LISS IV along with metadata and Multi- temporal Data from OCM & AWiFS)
• Value added information (NADAMS “ National Agricultural Drought Monitoring System), Output of flood studies for certain areas,
• Thematic information (Wastelands, Soils, watershed,water resources related maps)
• Base layers ( administrative boundaries, transport layers, water bodies, etc)
• Census information
• Metadata

For more details visit: http://bhuvan. nrsc.gov. in/index. html

Do you Enjoy Being A PM?

One of the things that makes me wonder is when people introduce themselves as a project manager and you start talking to them about project management and then you realise they are not real project managers.

In fact the title of PM is very clearly defined.

1. The project must be controlled using a recognised project management methodology which varies by nature of Project, Country & Industry.

2. A PM does not define a project, only controls it. The PM controls only three aspects, time, cost & quality. The project is defined by the project board or consultant. If your project has no board, you are not a PM in the industry definition of the term. You are just a care taker.

For those that mange projects, it has to be one of the best jobs; every day is different, the achievement when a project goes well is fantastic (if not rare) and the way you have to deal with so many different people with different agenda makes it one of the most challenging. Change is a VERY difficult thing to accomplish - particularly on large organizations. Sometimes these projects don't go the way the owners wanted and get negative feedback. Thus PM become the scapegoats, though its not his creation and the (wrong) RFP was written by a "so-called" expert. However this is part of risk management and should be used accordingly. It is one of the few jobs that if done well goes unnoticed; the project was delivered on time and within budget that is expected and its not due to him. Projects get noticed when they go wrong and PM gets the credit for the failure. As non-technical (MBA) lobby is tirelessly trying to establish the notion - The secret to success is knowing who to blame. They are still not ready to take any lessons from this recession which happend because of this ostrich like approach of managers and decision makers.

I have also found Project manager to be a abused and misused term. I’ve been a project manager, technical specialist, QA/QC expert. I found that 90% of people don’t want change in their workplace, usually because it will adversely affect them. Situation becomes very alarming if there are people on client side who themselves don't want project to succeed as it may make them redundant (common in gov. projects). Contrary to that a failed/delayed project is good for their blame game approach. A project always creates change and rarely for the good for the people who are having it done to them by changing the status quo and throwing new challenges.

The term “project manager” is deliberately misconstrued by people who overestimate the earning potential of project managers. They wish to have associated with the term & include it on their CV as they think that this will a. get them a better paid job & b. give them some kudos by telling others they are a PM. I personally know many persons who following a project management awareness course or certificate course (few classes of powerpoint “this is a project” etc and online tests) added PM to their CV and started applying for PM jobs.

A project manager needs to be very good at pleasing everyone; they are blamed from all sides ehen the project is late/ over budget. Most of the times scope of work (SoW), time frames and budgets are unrealistic. Then there is the SoW and methods that the resources ( just hired in hurry) don’t understand and the sponsor (guy with the money) keeps changing because he started to understand SoW only when first delivery was made and invoice sent. You as the project manager have to deliver it to the same time frames and budget. Now who wants to be a Project Manager? Answer is obvious and thats the reason we see so many troubled projects and consequently co.s also?

ArcFM Developers Required

The candidate(s) should be able to work on the following activities:

Proposed responsibilities include:

Gather requirement and Preparing functional specifications document including;
UML based specifications, Logical Data Model, Preparing Design Documents, Physical Data Model Classes, Carrying out Application Development Work, Deliver new functionalities to existing GIS applications, Develop new functionalities to core software (ArcGIS / ArcFM)
Develop new GIS Applications, Emergency maintenance of existing GIS applications
Testing Application, Prepare Test Plans, Conduct Unit Testing, Conduct Functional Testing
Conduct Final Application Testing, Prepare User Manuals

The candidate is required to work in Bahrain at the end-client location.

B. Candidate Profile

The candidate(s) should have the following credentials

1. Graduate or Post Graduate in Computer Science or any related discipline
2. Familiarity with thin client tools such as Citrix and Windows Remote Terminal Services
3. Fluent with computer languages required for GIS development using ESRI and Telvent- Miner and Miner Tools
4. Familiarity with Oracle 10g and Access database
5. Fluent in English (written & spoken)

C. Experience

The candidate(s) should have at least three years of proven experience in:
1. Using ESRI and Microsoft Development Tools.
2. Data Modeling
3. Using SQL queries for Oracle 10g
4. VB6 and VB.NET for desktop applications
5. ASP.NET & VB.NET for web applications
6. ESRI ArcGIS 9.x (ArcObjects) / M&M AcrFM 9.x object library for desktop development
7. ESRI ArcGIS Server 9.2 / 9.3 for web development
8. Developing tools for Electricity and Water Utility networks

D. Contract Period

• The candidate(s) would be required for a minimum of five months during the yearly contract. The minimum duration of a given assignment (could be one or multiple tasks) would be for two weeks per developer.
• The duration required for a particular job would be mutually decided and accordingly the candidate would be deployed on site.
• Within two weeks from a request the developer should be made available for working on site.

Send your resume to ajaysrivast@gmail.com

Habits of a good manager

Read the full article 1st: The Seven habits of a typical bad manager

http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbit%2Ely%2F7HabitsBadManager&urlhash=ulwE&_t=disc_detail_link

I would like to add few more comments from readers across the world that you would also like to hear and may help 'some of us' in becoming a 'good manager' also.

• Always insecure and relying on shouting (lung power instead of brain power) to understand in attempt to fix any problem.
• Concentrates more on discussing things that are low on priority or any past mistake by others.
  
• Managers who doesn't believe what their Project leads says and make everything an open issue for brain storming. They take every issue with suspicion and wanted to clarify the same issue with some one whom they trust but has lesser knowledge. Suggestion- If you are unable to comprehend an issue related to technology, pls trust the people who are experts in that particular area and have the issue escalated for appropriate support instead of doing R&D to justify his ignorance by saying "its not rocket science".
• Constantly demanding your employees work faster, even when there's no pressing deadline and no road map.
• Trying to guilt-trip or bully your employees into doing what you want to make stories to save his skin than solving the problem.
• Takes two weeks to make a decision on even the most menial topics.
• People who worked would never be promoted because then there would be no one to do the actual work.
• Stealing the show from their subordinates - Often it happens that when the focus is on the success and easy bonus, these bad managers will depict them as the real achievers without any shame.
• Not owning the failure - This is again similar but reverse to above point, in case of failure, they dont own it, but scold the subordinates in front of everybody.
• Unwanted advise to peers - These bad managers will always poke nose in to others work and try to prove that their peers are less competent than themselves. They always give advise to others just to prove that they know better..
• Enough already with a spreadsheet that tracks everything from deliverables to the color socks you wore at the launch meeting. You gotta be engrossed in it 6 hours a day to understand how it can help you.
• They have no clear definition of direction where the organization is supposed to move to.
• Bad Managers treat people like equipment.
• The manager is always busy creating reports of work to be accomplished, but nothing ever gets accomplished because he is busy having his staff create pretty reports.
• The lack of common sense is the worst "habbit" could happen to a someone.
• There are managers who have bad sense of humor. They're always angry because they think it's going to get the team more productive.
• Acceptable sub-ordinates are those who dress like them, talks like them, and always agree with them.
• I see more managers who are good dressers than good planners. Seriously. I previously did audits for a very respected multinational company.
  
• A lot of folks want to be "managers" for the pay and power and career progress NOT because its their forte. In my last job, one chap was an engineer and he was promoted to manager the next day with zero training. You would not promote an air steward to pilot just because s/he has put in the time would you ?. s/he will be a really bad Pilot because he will be pretending whole day to be a genuine pilot. Long story short, often its not a person's fault when they are "Bad". Its fault of the person who hired him. He is doing the best he can do (ie pretensions).
  

Now My Comments:

1. I don't trash everything mentioned in the articles or the comments in the name of optimism and positively. You can always take lessons from such debates. Many so-called senior people may not agree with most of the things but these may help us in understanding the reasons for the last few failed projects in your co.. If you also don't agree then you are also among those bad managers who are misfits in the co. and thus screwing it everyday. Again, its not always persons fault when they are bad. Someone in the co. is responsible for breeding that culture of incompetence. Incompetence is a contagious disease that's is usually spread by few persons at the top. I have no doubts about it.

“Surround yourself with great people. Where you have intellect and brains, you’ll find the right answers.” Bad Managers can be changed into Good Managers, if they realise their weaknesses and improve themselves to have more confidence and less pretensions to survive in the business. Its a task that only they can do it for themselves. Buying degrees and certificates will not help much. Most of these bad traits have been noticed in the managers who lack subject knowledge and understanding of business and rely too much on commercially off-the shelf degrees and certificates to stay in the market. Its one who is suspicious about everything he listens from his own experts/staff and then relies on things from people who are not equipped to tell him the complete thing.

Many thinkers have taken different stances on describing this common crisis affecting the corporate world, but one thing is for sure, that one reason remains the same for all, and that there is a bad managers hidden somewhere within all of us and these things are helping in the rise of "Rajus"( small or big) in every organization.

And the one solution - The world needs to go back to the mantra of atleast some minimum level of honesty, work ethics and lesser drama to prove that "I got it coz I Deserve' it in the work place.

2. There should not be any PM who doesn't understand the domain and visualize the ultimate business needs of clients beyond the SRS document. A minimum level of first hand knowledge is required if not the expertise. 'General knowledge' is not usable knowledge because most of the time it is acquired by PMs during crisis when the problem is full blown. Its good for time pass only. They do a lot of miss-communication also and then create additional problems for the team. Domain knowledge helps a lot in the early stage of project when most of the challenges are identified and a lot depends on the PM to choose the right options and share the knowledge of his team members as well as the client. Usual manager who entered riding on degrees like MBA and certificates like PMSs etc alone will have no oversight and long term perspective and at the end totally fail in understanding these aspects and give undue importance to usual planning stuff like cost etc to show he is doing his best and only he can understand these things. Fact of the matter is that it doesn't help any way without the understanding of real issues affecting the project success. An ill conceived project will cost you many times more than initially planned no matter how many hours PM (with domain weaknesses) spends on planning and discussions.

Leader, Fake Leaders & their Managers

Lets discuss a real case study to understand the importance of this issue. General Motors and the MASSIVE failure on so many levels by that once mighty company. After all what went wrong. Can we blame only rising oil prices in 2008 for its failure? NO. Its all a leadership failure. Many people saw the crisis coming but there was also a lot of "whistling past the grave yard," as people hoped that this would not turn into a crisis. There was no real leader who had the guts to address these issues in GM and other co.s following the "American model." of management and marketing. That is the problem with this easy bonus culture. Everything is fine till you are getting more than what you deserve. Tomorrow is just another day of month in that organization. Is there anyone in America that want to argue against the fact that for 30+ years GM had fairly good management but NO LEADERSHIP? Who was looking at the foreign car manufacturers and doing some basic math and bench marking. The over riding reason for the failure of these companies is the failure at ALL LEVELS of management to have focus on the future and the will to do what was necessary.I am sure they have best of the managers (with degrees from best instt. & certificates like PMPs etc) and some "Leaders" too. Managers who refuse to take ownership and accountability both. They are just 'game players' who are more concerned about keeping the ball in other court and few reports on their laptop monitor. They could have done better. It is not rocket science but it does take commitment to a better way of doing things, a commitment to curing the common workplace. There are Leaders who pretend to understand everything, are great orators but lacked FOCUS, because they are not genuine stuff. Result is the poorly defined business needs and failed projects. There are many parts to that word "FOCUS" as it applies to business. One of the keys is that an organization has balance between the tactical world of what do we need to get done and what to we have to start working towards, strategically, so we will be ready to get it done in few years from now today.

http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/06/the-buck-stops-and-starts-at-business-school/ar/1

Developers, GIS Technicians & Surveyors Required

Our Utilities & Survey Div. in Bahrain has multiple openings for qualified Developers, GIS/ CAD Technicians & Surveyors to perform intermediate technical work generating and maintaining engineering (electric and water network) data and drawings. Must be able to work in field and office environment. Candidate must be able to generate engineering drawings related to system mapping, construction standards, or others as needed. Must be able to convert geographic information to digital data to prepare maps and integrate related engineering information. Knowledge of surveying, mapping techniques and principles, tabular and graphic data display, and computers a must. Education and experience equivalent to Degree/Diploma in EE, CE and/or related sciences with CAD or GIS experience. Experience with ArcGIS, AutoCad, GPS, TS equipments, and electric utility operations preferred. Possession of valid driver’s license required.

1. Electric GIS/ CAD Technicians

• responsible for transferring feeder information(cable type and size, feeder connectivity information, phasing, device placement, line and substation layout) and design from survey inputs to GIS.
• responsible for reading wire information (voltage, phasing, primary lines and secondary lines, types of wire used) from planning drawings and transferring it to digital format

2. Water Network GIS/ CAD Technicians

• responsible for transferring mains, valves, service pipes, customer information etc from survey inputs to GIS.

3. ArcFM Developer (Experience on .Net, Oracle, ArcGIS Server & ArcFM)

Apply: ajaysrivast@gmail.com

OpenSource & Geospatial Intelligence System (GIS)

GIS is not just maps and visulaization. It has left the geography train much before. Lets not dilute it by using its old definiation which centred around it and kept it at the periphery of overall IT infrastructure. Lets call it "Geospatial Intelligence System" (GIS).

Geospatial Intelligence System (GIS) is now at the core of many consumer applications. We all know it is more about the integration of locational intelligence with the existing IT setup so users can take the advantage of this powerful tool. With the addition of an integration platform, which may include an enterprise service bus, GIS services can be fused with the other shared services of complementary enterprise systems (CRM, ERP, CIS, etc.) to provide a more complete business picture. Along with the proliferation of consumer mapping and Free and Open Source (FOS) platforms, GIS integration has grown over the past five years, so has the overall interest of developers and new breed of GISers. Use of Open Source technology enriches service offerings and provides value in overall efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility to organizational business processes with lesser limitations due to sw specific requirements and architecture. For example, compare Microsft MSN with Google products. All google products are open source, youtube, orkut, g-maps, g-earth ocean etc. You can't fix many problems in the popular GIS softwares. You are always limited with ArcGIS, Mapinfo or Autocad or any other, but with open source there is no such limitations. In most of the audio video web applications, open source has given a new concept for web that is known as web 2.0 technology where these sites Google, eBay etc are launched. Very soon web 3.0 technology is about to come.

Scapability, Customisation, Compatibility and even performance is beyond desire in open source eg like WMS, WFS, Open Jump, GRASS, Postgre SQL, Web 2.0 etc. The core programming is back with bang and now even microsfot is afraid after the recent success of Google products. All the big co. have setup R&D div. for this and even smaller enterpreneur are happy as all they need now is buch of capable and motivated people only. EU has already taken the lead and soon when Indian and Chinese talent pool will also become familliar with this advantage then Microsoft and ESRI, MapInfo, AutocAD etc will face a tough challenge in market

Tool to Technology: Time to move From CAD++ to GIS

GIS is a wonderful tool, the problem is that it is used for cartographic reasons mainly. After seeing the growth of GIS and its utilization It looks like GIS itself is in crisis. There are many issues with GIS. Biggest problem is too much technology and not enough thinking about what it should be used for.

It seems engineer’s dont want to use GIS and the obvious reason is that GIS is not an engineering tool. It lacks many basic requirements of their engineering operations that these enggs tackle using their own methods in traditional ways. There are activities centered on viewing the territory, and generally speaking a huge percentage of these teams do not have access to GIS tools. I'm thinking of utilities/environmental studies/planning/assessment/monitoring as an example. Engineers in this area keep working in a manual fashion - they would benefit enormously just by having a simple and accessible spatial view of their object of study. Also, difficulties inherent to GIS should be ironed out - data and analysis tools should be streamlined to be effectively used on a daily basis. Once you give tools like these to a team, you'll see a huge gain in productiveness. That's what GIS should be selling today. In fact GIS should be sold as component of overall "IT infrastructure" with proper integration tools. Alone it becomes CAD++ (GIS used for the tasks that can be done with any CAD) and people usually use it to take colorful printouts and slides for presentations.

I think real profitability of GIS comes after integrating it with other real-time analysis software. Though, in itself, GIS softwares are a huge advantage for any utility company but that basically involves data processing capabilities, reports and some advanced analysis. Unless we will be able to let GIS softwares seamlessley talk with other softwares, its capabilities would be limited. Apart from ESRI, Intergaraph GE Smallworld provides wonderful solutions for Utility companies. But real challenge is to make it talk with other analysis s/ws or ERP s/ws with which can provide real-time Fault management system, Load analysis, Designing capabilities and so many other exciting features.

The real power of GIS is as a tool to increase operational efficiencies. I come at it from a more engineering-centric view and therefore not one of absolutes. When an engineer is looking to design a network, dam, or building for that matter, it is important that they know what the conditions are at the site. GIS allows them to understand a number of conditional attributes and onsite conditions (to a number of things). At this scoping or pre-feasibility phase, the level of accuracy required is really quite small. That is the reason utility co.s and engg. applcations dont require precision of coordinates. Engineers typically go through a series of phases (scoping, pre-feasibility, feasibility and design) which allow them to start at a very small scale and narrow the choices for the ultimate purpose. The power of GIS for these engineers is in avoiding costly and time consuming field visits and some level of simulation in the office.

So what does all this have to do with increased profitability for the typical business? I believe that, just as with engineering where you have to align the use of GIS with your objectives, in business you must also keep clearly defined 'business goals' in mind. Before diving into GIS analysis ask the question, how will GIS help this process and will it make it more efficient. In most cases the answers you get from using GIS are not as accurate as physical field work; however, using GIS to narrow the choices for fieldwork can be a very efficient and cost effective solution? In some cases GIS can also accomplish certain tasks in a fraction of the time it would take to accomplish using more traditional methods.

Anyway, GIS is a tool like any other IT application. It relies on skilled use to create a desired result by manipulating your database. The skill not only comes from knowing what buttons to push but also knowing what the appropriate processes as well as understanding the desired result. For ex. many orhanisations have realised now that GIS is a wasteful expenditure with no justification for RoI. Its time to correct the expectations and contain the hype created by sales and marketing persons that "GIS is the answer to their all kinds of problems" if you buy their boxes. GIS is nothing more than a location based "Asset Management System" that can be integrated with some other non-GIS applications. Most of the co.s fail to do that and they end up with CAD++ with all the expensive sw's instead of a real enterprise GIS due to lack of vision and expertise at right level. Use it as an enabling technology to improve your efficiency and not as a tool to print drawings, reports and posters.

As Joel Barker says;

Vision without Action is just a dream.
Action without Vision just passes the time.
Vision with Action can change the world.

Utility GIS: Are you Running with Horse on your Back?

GIS is a mature technology that is well understood by GIS practitioners, but, paradoxically, many utilities struggle to implement an enterprise-wide GIS. Instead, they rely on workflow and build applications with little regard for data-sharing among users and standardization.

Through the appropriate use of geospatial or related technologies, a utility can build an end-to-end, return-on-investment (ROI) driven enterprise GIS strategy that improves operational effectiveness, safety, and environmental and financial performance across a number of business processes.

Traditionally, utilities have engaged GIS vendors or consultants to undertake “needs analysis” that were meant to identify opportunities within the business where GIS technology could help drive down cost, as well as improve efficiencies. In many cases, however, these studies were carried out using a bottom-up approach that focused on the technology (features, functionality) rather than on the business outcome. They resulted in application focused approaches that neither broke down organizational barriers nor bought any tangible benefits in their work flow. Unfortunately, they often hampered the operations that utilities practiced for years without improving the bottom line. Result was that these utility co.s were disappointed after some time without any ROI justification. Most of the utility co.s have realised by now that GIS is a wasteful expenditure with no justification for RoI. Its time to correct the client expectations and contain the hype created by sales and marketing persons that GIS is the answer to their all kinds of problems. GIS is nothing more than a location based "Asset Management System" that can be integrated with some other non-GIS applications. Most of the co.s fail to do that and they end up with CAD++ with all the expensive sw's instead of a real enterprise GIS due to lack of vision and expertise at right level.

A common misconception exists about business case development being a means to an end (to obtain budget). However, developing a business case in isolation of the business is a recipe for disaster and that is the reason for many co. feeling the burden of carrying GIS. Without a proper road map sometimes they move in the wrong direction without prioritizing their needs and thus waste of time, effort and money. Although funding could be obtained by building a business case with assumptions and unchecked facts, the subsequent delivery of the expected benefit almost always fails to meet expectations. As a result, subsequent results for funding may be met with skepticism, delay and a lack of commitment or buy-in. If GIS is not improving the efficiency of your orgnisation then you are running with horse on your back and definately you can not go long like this. Need is to have relook at your plans and also at those who are responsible for execution as they may not be knowing what they are doing due to lack of clarity about the technology and the business needs.

A better approach exists, an approach that must be business-led (not technology-led); benefits-focused (not functionality or application focused); highly-participative (top-down) backed by a strong technical team; and must use proven ROI methods for quantifying and proving the value of the investment. On the spot brain storming sessions should not be used to resolve the important issues and fix the business needs due to the obvious differences in the understanding of GIS, perceptions of problems resulting in impractical expectations from these projects. The outcome of the approach that follows these principles should provide a powerful and robust business case that is supported by senior stakeholders, quantifies the required investment (human, capital and operational), defines the benefits delivery roadmap and delivers realistic ROI justification.

Global Economic Crisis: It’s a Leadership Crisis

In 340 B.C. Aristotle began describing a series of principles that have been embraced in both western and eastern cultures. A thorough understanding of these ideas enables a leader to think and act with greater clarity and effectiveness causing people to voluntarily follow the leader’s direction and example. Basics never change and they are same across all the business & co.s. A leader can never achieve greatness and success on the outside unless he or she has developed fundamental qualities on the inside and he has followers who also understand and follow his way. Behavior decisions and choices are all a reflection of our inner world and the way you chosse to live & survive here. Unfortunately managers can unintentionally get caught in the competitive "win at any cost” mentality or the greedy "more for me” line of thinking. This can derail the careers of most intelligent people. We read all about it every day, manager who abused their trust of the community, customers, regulators or employees. It happens in the sales, research, or in operations from the executive suites to the front lines. Successful business thrives on sound character, values, and principles more than laws, regulations and fines.

There are basically three kinds of leaders in organizations today: unsuccessful ones, those who are occasionally successful, and those who consistently maintain the commitment of followers on a long term basis. No need to waste time on the first two categories. The third type requires an understanding of the finer qualities of leadership, character, intellect, and values. Character based leadership cannot be achieved by arrogant or power-hungry managers who choose to intimidate others. Sometimes those in authority feel driven to be overly aggressive, take short cuts, and do what is expedient versus doing what is right. They failed to realize the long-term impact of these practices and depend too much on no. & statistics (which are mainly used to mislead management & people both. Ex. failed big banks did in US & EU) without understanding the sustainability of the plan.

I have long felt that decision makers now give too much emphasis to numbers because of wrong type of education (courses for degrees and certificates). I dont want to name but you know the trend for getting some management related certificates because co.s give weightage to it. These are acquired by usually bogus candidates to pad up their week CVs. Management education is veering more and more towards becoming quantitative-oriented. This is emanating from a belief that whatever one can measure (& plot in xls for reports & presentations) one can manage. The irony is that human nature ( and so market) is highly complex and the complexity of the human personality and its interaction with others is only glimpsed at through a habit of observation and learning and this has been proved by many business leaders of past & present. One can only vitiate the understanding of human nature by trying to reduce it singularly to something which can be measured or captured in various metrics.

A true leader makes plans to benefit everyone and not just for his salary & commission. They don't rely on no.s alone to take decisions and plan strategies. Sensex is not the only driving force behind them. Wall street is not the only road to walk. They don't make plans that can not be converted to reality (profit). Knowledge base and understanding is must for anyone who is taking decisions that can make or break any organization. Second hand knowledge increases dependability on others ( usually a coterie with third hand ie GK type unusable knowledge) and risk of failures in an environment of aggressive marketing. Most leaders would never plunder their company, misguide the management & board members, rip off investors, cook the books, or ride on the safety of others by taking short cuts. They dont indulge in activities or initiatives that don't ultimately dont add value to clients bottom line.

Leaders who earn the respect and commitment of their followers demonstrate qualities and characteristics that run deeper than leadership skills, techniques, and knowledge alone. Effective leaders lead by example and exhibit their true character consistently. This in turn causes people to voluntarily support an organization’s mission and purpose. They know that leadership is a privilege. It means you have to consistently do the right thing for the right reasons. Good leadership is an inner choice. It is character based. Good leaders will give your organization a competitive edge; bogus leadership, on the other hand, will cost you in critical times when you need the support of followers the most.

"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. . . . The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives." - Theodore Roosevelt

10 people most responsible for the recession http://www.webinfoathome.com/articles/read.php?article_id=145

http://kafila.org/2009/02/13/the-caste-of-a-scam-a-thousand-satyams-in-the-making/#comment-4830

Governance of Indian Universities: Deemed to Decay

India with a current student population of around 4 million in its universities and colleges is the third largest system in the world after USA and USSR. The unprecedented expansion of higher education in India, which took place in the last four decades, has, however, been extremely uneven and resulted in the neglect of quality, research and management aspects. The universities and colleges function much below their optimal levels and fail even to fulfill their minimum and basic tasks such as making admissions, completing teaching, conducting examinations, declaring results and awarding degrees on time. The very credibility of the higher education system stands eroded.

Warning Bells

Departments have faculty members that do not hold advanced degrees and very few hold doctorates from reputed institutions. Those who hold Ph.Ds have no publications as first author in reputed International Journals. Too may non-serious actors have intruded into academics. Who will expose them. Almost 70 % of the faculties in every department in Universities (including the Cental Univ.) have never published papers in Int Journals or presented papers since last decade. This is the group that becomes biggest hindrance to growth of the department & spoils the environment in the department by creating obstacles to their colleagues who can produce good work and make them irrelevant. Such unwanted persons in acadmeics have made a nexus to manipulate things to their advantage.

Promotions of faculties should be on the basis of publications and research only. Requirement of recommendations and refernaces is the biggest catalyst in the decay and destruction of higher educationa d research in India. More than 70 % Ph.Ds and promotions in universities are bogus due to this loophole and no one is talking about this menace as all the unwanted ones are breathing through this hole only.

A survey of employers shows that only a handful of the 1400 engineering schools in India are recognized as providing world-class education with graduates worthy of consideration for employment (Globalization of Engineering Services, 2006). AICTE and UGC have failed beyond doubt in controlling the quality of staff and institutes. Grants are given to private institutions on the basis of their political affiliations who in turn encourage internal groupings within the department in promotions etc. Situation is going to become worse after the implementation of 6th pay commission as everyone wants to be promoted to the highest pay scale by manipulating the system.

Many Engineering colleges do not appear to meet the NBA standards, and yet they are NBA accredited, it does not appear that the NBA criterion on faculty and staff for accreditation is being applied in any meaningful manner, suggesting another level of institutional failure.

http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/asianuniversityrankings/asian_university_rankings_top_200_universities/

Time to expose the Rajus in Universities and Higher Education

The National Policy on Education-1986 was introduced to reorganize and strengthen the higher education through multi-pronged strategies and programmes and structural reforms. Policy interventions have, however, failed to create much impact. There is a need to revamp the governance framework of the universities and bring in place a rigorous system of performance audit to stem the rot into the system.

Institutions are not serious about maintaining the standards and quality of teaching and research. Thats is the reasons for finding so many manipulators we see everywhere eincluding your dept to the corridors of UGC and AICTE. You can get any accrdiation if you can manage a few babus there. Univ. cant attract talented persons because they are not interested and dont want them. It has become the fiedom of "Idalist and Incomptents". Even senior professors are afraid of any bright knowledgable person around. Its not going to happen even after the 10th Pay revision if we dont the impression that teaching is not for idalists and incompetents. Lot of people are responsible for this and its not due to few black sheeps as talked by many whenever any scam is exposed. We have to admit theat there are many black sheeps in the education sector also. In fact there are 'very few white sheeps and too many white collar bandits' n the education sector throughout the world like U.K. and Aussies Univ..

There is a need for an independent evaluating agency like USA and many other countries to check the bogus rating bodies working under the control of UGC and AICTE. It should be made mandatory to all Univ. to have a sepaarte section on their websites where professors, departments and institutions can be rated and evalauated by the students after they pass out only. This can be done by a separate national level site also to avoid any disagrremenet about the artings. These ratings should be given a good weightage during the promotions, evaluations and ratings by the authorised gov. agencies as interview and inspections have been proved ineffective and helping only in promoting the incompetencies. This will definately help in checking the groupings and manipullations happening in education.

How many of our respected professors and institutions will agree to this kind of evaluation by their ex-students? Hmmmmmmmmm.

I posted this suggestion in one of the yahoo groups who talk too much about higher education and morality but my comments were never posted.

http://www.careers360.in/cover-story/iipm---best-only-in-claims.php

Satyam Fiasco and Corporate Culture: Tip of the Iceberg

'The scintillating performance of white collars are now showing up patches of darkness in the private sector also. The hollowness of money spinning generation has been opening up. The charisma of Business school theories and their products are now no more a spell bounding. The fort of globalsiation has been collapsing. The series of "economic and systematic scam" is gruelling the murkier scenario of "Global depression". The Satyam episode is not a earthquake. The epicentre of the Satyam (and many more to come in future) shake is well known , but we all had closed our eyes (and ears) when many among us were feelings the tremors in the past. We have never released ourselves from the lust of money and machoism. This global economic crisis is the result of misplaced priporities and short sighted business plans. (Dont blame oil prices alone.) Unlimited greed to capture the global market ( without any long term vision and ethics) made way for unsustainable and impractical plans (expansion, over-production resulting in over-employment with high bonus for sales persons & managers for showing projected profit with wrong assumptions) that were not feasible in any sense. Everything was justified in the name of aggressive marketing. (Remember those lectures from your colleagues for raising these ethical issues during lunch break discussions. "In fact there is nothing that can be called right or wrong in this world. It’s all a matter of our perception and personal preferences". You were told). These are the only two unsocial product of Global economy that was in hands of over ambitious marketing persons who believed that anything is good that helps in getting the business. There was no difference between temporary and long term goals due to lack of vision. The illusion (Professionalism & Cheating as two sides of a coin) is created by these so-called elite managers and we are mortgaging the existence of reality. Profit projection is the only way to justify their positions (and year end appraisals), though most of them have brilliant CV but usually without basic understanding of that field. The unsocial marriage of profit making plans and market opportunities has given the birth of unsocial child of "Unfaithful" corporate culture and capital. Who will cherish this unsocial child? The egoistic rhythm of big B - Schools (and E-Schools also) is now jarring the world civilization. Let us hold them now and teach them to respect the basic ethos of society where at present honesty and transparency are noticed as sign of unprofessionalism.

In fact the way to deter others from such manipulations, and even to get at others is to expeditiosly put Raju and his Accountants/ Auditors/ Directors behind bars. This may give those who know about misdeeds of others to come forward and expose them. Also an enquiry should be set up to know the utilization of all the top B- school products hired on multi-million packages by these co.s. Were they just used to mainly mislead clients, balance sheet manipulations and shield the manipulators at higher management level? I am sure that these B-school products contributed enough to the downfall of the USA financial sector also. All the co.s that gone bust (or got bail out) are those who were too generous in recruiting from top B-Schools and giving commission based bonus to their managers. A make-believe fantasy world was created by these people where they tried to hijack the basics theories of good business practices, sustainable growth, parameters of professionalism & socio-economic realities.

The fantasy created for the elite service providers has been evaporated in the heat of Global Depression, Ethical Terrorism and Global Machosim. The hammer of TIME has been bolting on the face of these hollow technocrats and managers. The sin of indecent sleepless nights in front of workstations are now coming to reality. We need to say no to this brutal community of so-called professionals. Let us bridge the respectful and dignified economy and work culture where the breads and pride of 70% marginalised population will be weaving the theory of Management and Policies. This is the basic ethics of Social Capitalism. Otherwise there are numerous balance sheets are ready to mortgage the dignity of humanity on this Globe.