Project Management: An Art or Science?

“Where are you?”, a stern voice on the other side of the mobile asked. “I am on a coffee break” was the calm response. “NO! Do not spend time on anything else. You need to be back. There’s a high business impact emergency”. After putting a long day and deservedly having a coffee break, the skilled subordinate walked back to the workstation. The issue was fixed in no time, much ahead of the agreed timelines with the customer. The Boss won the ‘Schedule Management’ battle but lost the ‘Stakeholder (Internal)’ confidence.

Our friend in the story somewhere tilts himself into the category of an autocratic leader who gets his job done.

There is another community that liberalise itself to a complete democratic mode, leaving all the nuances of the deliverables into the hands of subordinates. The method may give a free hand to deliver but potentially impacts costs, scope, schedule and may result in risks that have no mitigation.

Whichever is the endeavour, long or short one, ultimately fits itself in a category called ‘Project’. The one who manages it, is the leader and typically has to work on the principles of’ Project Management’ or ‘Science of Project Management.

Project Management, by no means, can be learnt on its own. It is an amalgamation of knowledge and experience. The skillset over a period has evolved and has set guidelines to make it easy for the Project Management Disciple. 

A project is a journey from initiation to closure. What lies within is vigilant planning, executing, monitoring, and controlling. 

The Project Manager is normally the first one to onboard and the last one to get released from the project. We will now see the different phases of the project which are the responsibilities of the Project Manager.

1) Initiation: Project Charter and Identification of Stakeholders are the key takeaways of this phase. Identification of stakeholders is very critical component, and the methodology can give guidance, however, no science can teach how to identify the ‘Unknown Stakeholders’who have the potential to influence the project. To overcome this challenge is an art that one must inculcate for a successful endeavour.

2) Planning: This planning phase encompasses Project Management to engage with stakeholders across various knowledge areas. The science helps to plan scope, schedule and costs which are the critical takeaways. However, no planning is complete without quality, associated risks, resources and their activities. The art indwells in the judgement and assessingthese areas beyond what is planned.

3) Executing: You reap what you sow. If the planning is not full proof, execution becomes a challenge. This is a phase where adherence to planning, quality and stakeholder’s management is the key however the real calibre is to manage and develop a team. This phase revolves around communication. High-quality project delivery is of no use if there is a lack of communication. It is an art that can keep the human aspect of any project connected; else it is bound to culminate into escalations.

4) Monitoring and Controlling: As the project nears its journey towards closure, volatile parameters are bound to put spokes in the moving wheel. If the Scope, Schedule, Costs, or risks start showing their tangible deviations then the Integrated Changes or the Stakeholderscan pose questions beyond the methodology. A Project Manager needs to rise beyond his role, boardroom talks and need to manage these challenges by thinking out of the box. This art comes from the experience and needs to be assimilated by the Project Manager as he moves across the projects or aims to move to a bigger platform called a ‘Program’.

5) Closing: The closure, by far is the toughest phase of any project. It is a review of all the phases which were delivered. Data points shall prove that the project has come to an end. However, it is the Project Manager who shall need his ‘Art of Convincing’ to bring all the stakeholders in sync for the final sign off before he can make a successful exit from the project.

With the advent of technology, human demands, and competition to survive it's not only the Science that can make a project successful but also it will need an art called ‘Pragmatic Project Management’ as a skillset for the future. The days for an autocratic or a democratic leader are soon going to be a story of the past.

Disclaimer: The above article takes the liberty to utilise and stitch the project management methodology to a human approach. The thoughts are individual, and do not propagate any methodology or represent any organisation.

Smart Learning : Key to Success

One of my engineering professors used to tell us a story of a sincere student and a practical student and how life differentiates between them when it matters.

A sincere student is the one who reaches classroom before anyone has arrived. He then occupies the first bench and seats exactly opposite to the professor. He takes all the notes in a neat and tidy manner and ensures that none of the classes or statements made by the professor are missed.He also ensures and checks if the teacher has covered entire syllabus.

A practical student is the one who might not take any notes but highlights important points to remember. What he never misses is to listen the teacher with a focused mind, gets his doubts clarified and thinks as he learns..

On the result day, professor finds out that both the students have cleared the exam.

When both the students start working, it’s found that the practical students fare better at the work place.

Sounds interesting. Isn’t it?

The fact of the matter is, sometimes a student needs to understand the depth of subject and not the ticks of the syllabus. Syllabus is for passing the exam but is not the way of life.

The teacher on his part, needs to understand the reality that today’s students are intelligent enough to pass the exams. What he needs to teach them is practicality of the topic and application of the knowledge in real life.

SAP is exactly like that practical way of life. A business user will not give you challenges on the subject you have learnt. Instead, he will come up with an interesting business requirement which as an SAP consultant, you have to correlate with your learning and implement.

A consultant who has an out of box thinking will be more successful than the one who can’t provide a solution because he has never read about it.

Learn to implement the knowledge and not for the exams. Your knowledge is for making a difference to others.

Don’t be bookish sincere ! Be a practical student

&

Keep learning SAP ! Enjoy Transactions! Enjoy the outcomes !

Image Courtesy : pixhere

Disclaimer: The article is a personal opinion and primarily written for students who want to excel in SAP as a career choice and the approach they follow for the certification exams.

Understanding Frequently used terminologies in IT

IT Industry for long has been out and out people industry wherein the results are tangible in terms of human output instead of machine measurable. This primary difference with any other Industry has made IT being synonymous with few  terminologies which have evolved over the years. However, many times, the terms and definitions are entangled and measured as per every organization’s requirement and approach towards its employees and business constraints.

Few of the definitions which are abundantly used, this blog tries to look into the other side of the same terminology and supports the old analogies being addressed with cohesive definition instead of measurement in silos.

      A. Utilization vs Utility : The typical KPI for measurement of human resource is utilization. It classically measures the percentage of billable hours in the available hours made by the resource on project/task in hands. More the percentage, happier is the unit in terms of having right number of resources on the task and adding to profitability.

However, one needs to look beyond the utilization. A resource can fulfill the utilization formula but one needs to look at his/her utility. Are we going to look at resource only for mathematical output of utilization or are we interested in making most out of the talent presented?  Utility deals with having a measurable output from the resource ensuring utilization and in addition makes use of his/her skill-sets which provide value or benefit to the customer as well as provide satisfaction to the employee him/herself.

Utility is long term whereas utilization is time bound.

Let the two terms be envisaged as utilization of resource improving utility of the resource towards self and the organization.

B. Billing vs Contribution : No organization can survive without billing and billable resource. However, billing is a relative term which provides tangible and time bound results whereas contribution is long term and building sustainable platform.

Only billing per se qualifies for the ‘Work Done * Billing Rate’ and is not justified only in case of failure of output. However, if contribution is amended as an addition to billing , it also takes value addition into consideration. The contribution need not always be part of the billing, instead it can purely be used to improve upon the face of the organization, act as bridge between deliverables and value addition and also to provide IP to customer or the organization.

The two terms need to be closely associated with each other if the agenda is repetitive satisfaction of the customer and annuity billing. Either of these, used independently would not suffice the needs of customer or the organization.

      C. Output vs Input : The most crucial result for any organization is Output and it is independent and relevant for all the functions whether they are billable or non-billable. The output is measurable considering it gives tangible facts, however no output is good enough for increase in efficiency if the input lacks in its strength.

The inputs are basic principles and thought process of any organization. The input could be in terms of ethics or for that matter can come with cost in terms of expenditure for training, quality requirements, infrastructure or organization goal and policies. More the authenticity of the input, better is the output to input ratio.

As an organization , it needs to look at the term as one definition as ‘Input based Output’.

     D. Leader vs Manager : Both the terms include ‘ER’ ( and To err is human) and unless both these terms are empowered to make full use of Lead and Manage functions, both of them could fail in the long run.

A leader is one who leads by example and needs to focus more on tomorrow leaving today as part of the managerial function who is tomorrow’s leader. A Leader is the one who shows the path, provides ground clearance, ensures that he takes on challenges himself with bull’s head and hands over a field for the Manager who then ensures the vision and expectations of the organization are executed with bunch of team members with integrity and clarity.

Both the roles are continuously evolving and need to move forward in tandem with each other. Either of them fails and the result will be collective failure.

     E.  Loyalty vs Assurance (Longevity vs Value Add)

Loyalty need not always be looked in terms of longevity. Instead it is a term which has to be coined with loyalty to self, role and organization.

It is more to do with integrity than the duration. Close in sync with Loyalty is assurance to deliver. Loyalty in terms of Longevity does not provide assurance. Assurance is more to do with value addition and it can come only through Loyalty (self, role and organization).

With virtual world and humans as the only parameters, all the above terms are extremely intrigued with each other and need to be looked as a single pack of Quality deliverables. Each one has got its own importance and leaving one for other may not result in fulfillment of organization’s goals in the longer or short terms.

P.S. The blog is an individual thought process based on frequently coming across the above terminologies and the author’s way of understanding the meaning of each of them. Feel free to share the blog.

- Jayawant

Campus Hiring & Career Roadmap

Recently during one of the recruitment drives, I came across an interview evaluation and I was highly impressed with the resume, qualifications and big brand to back the aspiring young candidate. All pointing towards assured successful assessment, which made me look forward for meeting with the candidate.

The candidate arrived with an anxious face but opened up as discussions progressed, and took us back to his college campus hiring days. The candidate was one of the bright students of the college and managed to overcome the stringent norms of campus recruitment to finally bag an offer from his dream company to serve them.

The employment evaluation did not go through as per expectations and the obvious disappointment made me think beyond and go back to the basics of campus recruitment.

The campus recruitment is one of the best possible gateways for any youngster to land up in an organization which gives him a good footstep in early career and students look forward for such placements. With lots of hope, the youngsters join the organization and are required to undergo multiple trainings and evaluation, finally to be awarded and compartmentalized in one of the technologies which the organization deem perfect fit for the candidate.

Normally, such organizations are very professional and on their behalf do take due care to give confidence to recruitee regarding the projects, type of work, location as well as some soft skills boosters regarding multi culture fitment. However, many a times, the recruitees are found to be hesitant and low on morale as they realize that whatever they had learnt all through their undergraduate program with plans to build their career based on their learnings and there hardly is any correlation or connection with the education imparted to them. They wonder with the usage of degree, syllabus, all the hard slog of years to find themselves sharing cubicles with peers, who in no way match their background or aspirations but are deployed for the similar profile. The only common thread between them, is being confused with the education and job profile at hands.

Why does this disappointment happen ? Can this be avoided to have a better career roadmap for aspiring students ?

Isn’t it a time, the industry needs to address the overall career planning of the students. Shouldn’t the organizations and the industry as a whole revisit, rethink, reassess, revert to old days of fitting candidates according to their skills and education, rather than getting a bunch of talented youngsters and placing them according organization’s own assessment irrespective of the resource’s interest and liking.

Primarily the recruitment runs on few basic principles, which in my opinion should also be extended to campus recruitment :

1.Demand vs Supply Ratio :

a.  Every organization runs on an yearly roadmap and budget for hiring and has clear vision in terms of percentage of employees hired under campus program.

b. The organization is also aware of the Technology trends, Technical demands and skill requirements.

c. The same demand supply ratio needs to be in sync with institutes and target for recruitee should be mapped to educational streams along with percent allocation of count from each stream.

 2. Job Clarity and role expectations :

a.  Let the students know the criteria as well as have clarity about the job before they appear for campus hiring process. They can choose or let go an opportunity with a particular technology if the role/profile/technology is not as per their liking. This will avoid, post deployment heartbreak or mismatch of expectations from the job profile after being placed.

b. The choice would also help the student as well as the organization to come out with transparent roadmap for the hired students.

 3. Evaluation of skillsets for the right fit :

 a.  Cut off for the necessary skillsets during campus recruitment itself

b. Compartmentalize the fitments based on organization’s assessment of student during campus evaluation

c. Hiring post cutoff for particular technology will take care of Go/NOGO for the student as well as organization ( The technology training will happen as per regular process, post joining).

The concept and intentions of campus hiring have been very holistic and translucent all these years and many aspiring careers have taken off through this program. However in my opinion we need to make small adjustments to this program as the volume requirements have gone up and the student fraternity looking more focused and assured what they want to do with their careers.

Though its institute which ties up with organizations for campus hiring, the students also need to have their homework in place and need to reassess themselves and the opportunities offered.

The students :

1. Need to overcome the temptation of lucrative packages and revisit their own liking and where do they see themselves in professional life in few years down the line.

2. Should be clear with the type of companies and technologies or domain with whom they want to make a career with.

3.  Make a statement for himself through the skills and not through the numbers.

4.  Not to go with the flow and start learning to say NO as well, as this will make them stay true to themselves.

5.  Not be part of ocean, instead focus more on making a place for himself in this competitive professional world.

Let it not be a number game deployment, instead let it be right fitment. Else, sooner or later we would end up having bunch of qualified professionals working in monotonous and thankless jobs and not to forget, education and professional qualifications would only be required for employee files and ECNR stamps.

Time to awake, time to plan roadmap, time to give justice to young talent. Ultimately nation is built through its youngsters. Let’s build them first, so they build us again but this time more compact, more robust and long term .

P.S : The blog is written in a personal capacity and has picked up a story from past observations. It has nothing to do with any individual or any specific organization. The blog also does not assume that all the placements are mismatch and talks about some instances wherein wrong mapping of the candidates lead to displeasure or abandoning of the career path chosen by choice or default.

Feel free to share the blog.

- Jayawant

A Temporary Endeavour called Project !

Project Definition per se is a temporary endeavour and a journey having a fixed start date and end date. These two dates ensure to make a bold letter statement for the teams, Project Managers , Management and the customer at the same time and any deviation of these dates normally end up in volatile meets and discussions for cost vs revenue, scope creep, delays in product launch, identifying the root cause bottlenecks and sometimes impacting the brand value of the service provider. However there is much beyond these two dates which in any case are pre-decided and mutually agreed and assumed and understood to be adhered to by relevant stakeholders.

This article (Blog) tries to look beyond the two magical dates and the factors impacting the project delivery and its life-cycle taking into consideration the human side of the teams.

Handshake :

One of the earliest but most critical step is partner’s handshake with the customer. The two hands when they meet should have the same strength, equality in power, stand at the same podium level, see an eye to eye with each other and have an aim to form a firm fist to achieve each other’s goal. If one of the hands have weaker agility and ability , the fist of hands can easily turn out in opening the fingers and pointing when the same dates in a beautiful journey called ‘Project’ come across the table for discussions.

Leader and Leadership :

A Leader by its role is a chosen one to drive the project to make sure the milestones on the road have its flags posted as required. Howsoever it might appear to be a very small thin line but the Leader has to notch up few extra miles to go beyond and establish himself in a Leadership role. This transition may not be a Himalayan but for sure is a Herculean task.

Leadership styles have changed over the years. It has neither remained autocratic nor become democratic but has in real sense become pragmatic. Leadership role is a gateway for building teams, trusts, deliverables and bring in that neutrality which forms the basis of any project ownership and holding the project stakeholders together.

As they say Leader without Leadership qualities is like heading a ship without a captain !

I, WE or US Project Teams

Basic thumb rule through which any project team operates is on a simple fundamental, “Whoever is in (the project) is the best”. To take out best out from that one source is the ultimate aim of any project. To make this happen, Leadership has to look and work upon 3 major compartments of any team, ‘I’, ‘WE’ and ‘US’.

The ‘I’s are a bunch of high potential Individual contributors who have the capability to be part of crucial ‘WE’(Independent and close knit teams of partner or customer) but lack capacity to overcome that extra obstacle which sometimes make them obsolete and can impact the project in overall perspective. Unless this ‘I’ and ‘WE’ collaborate to form ‘US’ (high collaboration between partner and customer teams) the project is never going to succeed.

Leadership role forms the crucial part of the ‘US’ initiative.

Communication:

Individual, Group or across the teams, communication is the key. Talking to contributors, sharing the positives, addressing the failures and revisiting milestones at periodic appropriate time keeps the project and those bold lettered dates under control.

Reviewing the scope, Raising an alarm, identifying the bottlenecks as ‘US’ is the most simplistic and ideal approach to keep project on track.

No day is equal and identifying those ‘LOWS’ is necessity for any Project. The ‘LOWS’ could be individual setbacks, technical glitches, funding or in an extreme situation solution failures too. 

However being alert on ‘Mitigation of Risk’ and proactive communication will help reassessing the progress of project in long run. 

Scope and its ‘Delta Ghost’:

Saying ‘NO’ is easier than accepting ‘YES’ and faltering. Scope unless and until documented is a virtual reality and make you traverse a path which was never a destination. When one looks at scope as project, the intensity of creep gets multi-fold with addition of each Delta. No Delta can take place until a thorough ‘Change Management’ process is evaluated and constraint on ‘D’ dates is adhered. Else the ‘Delta Ghost’ shall ensure big-time failure for any project.

Ownership, Closures and Lessons learnt:

‘US’, ’WE’ and ‘I’ sometimes need to be in reverse order as unless ‘I’ am successful ‘WE’ will not succeed and it will be a collective failure for ‘US’. Each individual needs to understand his/her responsibility in the project and work on specifics to ensure timely closure of the milestones attached with each sundry task.

Each phase of the project teaches lessons, good or bad ones. Documentation and mutual acceptance on a formal note is a must to close the milestone which helps look forward for the next achievement of the project.

All in all, any temporary endeavour thy name is ‘PROJECT’ in professional life is a journey wherein group of people come together to achieve certain personal and professional goals, work with a purpose to serve a common cause and enable an organization to be more transparent, robust and Future Ready ! If one understands the purpose of the project, it can turn out to extremely challenging and the same time most fulfilling temporary phase for any individual.

Keep the cause ! Keep the principles ! Keep Delivering Projects !

Feel Free to share the article (blog).

P.S. The article (blog) is written in a personal capacity based on the author’s perception having been part of various projects in different capacities and does not point towards any specific project or individual.

Jayawant

Tribute to Atalji !! Lessons for a Corporate Leader !

“अंधेरा छटेगा, सूरज निकलेगा, कमल खिलेगा”. 

आज अंधेरा छटा है, सूरज निकला है और देशमे कमल खिला है लेकिन जिस महान व्यक्तीने ये कहा आज हमारे बीच नही है

Atalaji, you made a difference to our lives, made us believe in politicians and most importantly gave us a trust that the country was run by a Prime Minister who was extremely ground to the mother nation and one whom we felt emotionally attached to.

As the legendary Statesman embarks  his final journey, the nation bids a tearful adieu to its favorite son, each individual amongst us has a feeling of losing someone whom we considered like a family patriarch who was hugely respected. Atalji a great poet, a leader , a gentleman, patriot and when it mattered most, one of the toughest to come across is no more with us .

No words of grief could describe Atalji’s loss  and for a  person like me who spent his entire childhood in admiring and being in awe of the greatness of Vajapayeeji, it was  a big challenge to put feelings in words on this very sad day but my mind was telling me otherwise and made me pen down my thoughts one last time for my favorite politician Shri. Atalbihari Vajpayee.

As Vajpayee was above politics , talking about it would not be a right thing to do, and having spent most of my career in management, as mark of respect , I have tried looking at Vajapayeeji from corporate perspective (partially based on few guiding principles of Project Management).

There are few who stick to their ethics and principles instead of opting for quick results , Atalji could have easily moved out of his struggles rather than establishing his own party and could have chosen an easier path to get into any government and comfort zone , but he did not and instead he chose and rode a path full of hard times, loneliness, failures but never short of assurance in his own conviction. It was a tough challenge but the Risk (Management) was worth taking it for betterment of the society and the nation. It’s extremely difficult to find such leaders in today’s era.

A leader is lonely at the top unless he is surrounded by a trustworthy team to execute his plans and roadmap for the future. We may call them Ram-Laxman ki Jodi but the fact of the matter is one always needs someone known as GoTo Man for all seasons and that’s what Vajapayeeji and Advanii were. Come what may, their chemistry, trust and integrity towards each other and the nation and this is a sort of role model for everyone amongst us irrespective of any own ups and downs .

The election results of 1984 were too humiliating and any party would have wound up itself, but the leader in Vajapyee along with his own Laxman and the people who trusted them took a phoenix rise believing in their ideology. That’s how an organization needs to establish itself. There would be failures in results, people would leave but if there is conviction in what you do, end story would always be a success story.(People Management).

Accepting strengths of the opposition is a toughest job for any leader and only Atalji could call the late Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi as ‘DURGA’. It takes a huge heart to understand, appreciate and be open about strength of your rivals and if one can imbibe these qualities in our lives, it would be much simpler and at the same time competitive.

Running a party and coalition government are miles apart an activity but Vajapyeeji did with so much of ease. As party, he was ‘The Supremo’ but as a Prime Minister it was  completely a different ballgame. Having a team from across states, cultures and different expectations and requirements and then serve the nation in bests of its interests showed Vajapayeeji’s command in ‘Stakeholder Management’ and at the same time end of the day letting everyone know who is (was) the Leader. These are the qualities which are extremely crucial for any leader to make sure his organization is progressing, giving results without compromising the policies and hurting the people (Integration Management)

A soft personality and mild mannered attitude didn’t deter Atalji from turning into no-nonsense tough leader when it mattered for his country. Pokhran-2 and Kargil wars are huge testimony for how a Leader has to act when the role he is in demands a tough action.    

Some statements are legendary and the great man once said and I quote “मैं राजनीति छोड़ना चाहता हूं लेकिन राजनीति मुझे नहीं छोड़ती” but the visionary Leader knew where to stop and almost got into oblivion post 2004. This is a big learning for anyone who keeps prolonging his stint and does not know where to stop.

Losing Atalji is a biggest loss of the nation in recent times. Hope, we as a nation keep following his principles and reach the pinnacle what Atalji had dreamt for !

RIP Atalji , you will be missed forever by all of us .

P.S. The blog is written in individual capacity and has tried to look at Atalji and his approach in governing a complex country like ours. The thoughts mentioned are fully personal and are penned down as a tribute and mark of respect to one of the greatest sons this soil has been blessed with ! 

Please feel free to share this blog.

- Jayawant

Automation : A Simplified Approach

“No Vacancy” used to be a NORMAL long time back on gates of the Industrial units which was wisely depicted by our filmy hero who used to struggle for a job and keep wandering on the streets of Mumbai singing songs looking at the sunset on the beaches of scenic Juhu. The times transformed, country emerged, the Hero became dynamic and India saw a sea change with the IT revolution.

Information Technology (IT) was looked upon as the New IN thing for development, globalization and boost to the economy. Knowledge and the Industry ruled over other professions for a long run. With its own challenges, ups and downs in intervals, whatsoever , there never was an iota of doubt that the IT needs a talent and what IT can do would always need large number of people for execution in order to have satisfied customers. The run had fairy tale grandeur and this ‘All is well!’ All is well!’ Saga continued for a long time. However, anything and everything on the globe has a shelf life and if one doesn’t change in Time, the time can change anyone.

The new buzzword known as ‘AUTOMATION’ arrived and then started the big picture. This terminology has been one of the most talked about path breaking phenomenon in recent times. The buzz is for reduction of new jobs in the IT and how would IT cope up with this new surge? Forecast says IT would face a huge challenge in terms of hiring and the very old hero has again started and perceiving the ‘No Vacancy’ board and this is an alarming sign for the IT hopefuls. This needs to be addressed swiftly but with a structured plan. Automation will have a high utility impact on the customers as well as partners. The situation to an extent is in catch 22 mode as one can neither do automation freely nor live with the existing monotony.

‘AUTOMATION’ per se is not just a technical approach to improve the efficiency and accuracy or to reduce the human intervention but it encompasses few of the basic pillars of any organization such as employees who need a revamp and if the structured approach is followed, automation can withstand the test of time as well as improve the overall performance of an individual and the organization. The key factors for ensuring the smooth transition towards automation are enlisted below:

1. Cultural Change :

The very purpose of brining in automation is to improve accuracy and efficiency and reduce human intervention. It also ensures that the repetitive and monotonous tasks are handled by the robot and humans are left to own the qualitative deliverables.

However, when it comes to inception, the automation could be perceived as having an impact on the job security and could face resistance or halfhearted support and none of it would result in the expected outcome of automation.

Before any of the Automation implementation, the first and foremost activity is to incorporate confidence building measures and to make sure that the cultural change is addressed and accepted through caution and not pushed upon.

Organization needs to –

   i.Come out with a vision transparently highlighting the goals and the purpose of Automation.

 ii.Conduct motivational workshops as part of the buildup for automation activity.

 iii.Identify key leaders within a group who can drive cultural change through self-examples and can act as a bridge for transition towards automation.

2. Employee Competence and Trust Building :

Automation would always have an impact on the direct role of an employee whether the automation is done for the customer or for the partner.

This could lead to a situation of self-distrust in the employees and the organization has to make sure the transition is seamless through –

i. Making the employee aware of organizational needs

ii.Ensure the employees are made aware of the change and how it would bring a positive outlook to the organization’s growth plan which ultimately would benefit the employee albeit in different or the same improvised profile

 iii. Come out with roadmap and clarity of future for the impacted party with future role/assignments

iv. Identify the training needs of the impacted employees with a new skillsets which require human skills wherever possible.

3. Execution and Evaluation of Automation:

Execution agenda needs to take place only after the above critical factors are addressed and are in sync within the organization and its own people. It needs to be implemented in a structured manner through -

i. A project/program based approach with clear demarcation of DO’s and DON’T’s.

ii.Identify the key stakeholders from beneficiary as well as benefactor.

iii.The stakeholders need to come out with the right business case with budget justification.

iv. A phase based solution for churning out and putting the right skills in right profiles post implementation.

v. A right infrastructure is built and in place for the implementation activity.

vi. Constant monitoring and evaluation of the Cost versus Benefits ensuring not to grab the low hanging fruits as on the broader scale they would make a minuscule impact but may affect the soft side of the people matrix.

vii. Drop the plan/activity at the initiation phase if the execution is not going to be a game changer.

Overall, Automation is here to stay and all the bricks and walls of the organization have to accept it as a reality. The automation is bound to improvise the accuracy and efficiency of the organization. More quickly we understand the importance of it, earlier is the benefits receival. The skills which were niche yesterday have changed its course to a ‘New Normal’ of today. Penetration of Digitalisation in the daily lifestyle is bound to happen.

IT can adapt ‘Automation’ for its own simplified way of working and also streamline its customers’ way of running the businesses. This is the opportune time for IT goers to understand the impact of Automation, choose right skills for themselves, and make a conscious call to improvise and get aligned to the need of the hour and look beyond the myth of fear of AUTOMATION.

The above article is published on LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/automation-simplified-approach-jayawant-gokhale-pmp-itil/

- Jayawant