Souvenirs on eWIT 6th Anniversary Event

President’s Address
When I talk to people outside of IT/ITES industry about eWIT, the first comment
from them is that they think women in the IT/ITES industry are already
empowered – they make good money, enjoy all the perks such as pick up / drop
service, 5 day work week, medical benefits, nice work environment, etc. In their
opinion, women in IT/ITES ‘have already arrived’. They feel that only the women
in other industries are those that need to be empowered.
I can appreciate why they feel this way. From the economic perspective, yes,
women in IT/ITES have a lot to be proud of. I don’t blame them for not knowing
about the challenges that we have. As a matter of fact, many girls study to get into
IT/ITES industry with a hope of getting a job that would give them the financial
freedom. Entering into IT/ITES workforce is one thing. Once there, how many of the women learn to cope
and survive the early years? How many women successfully plan and nurture a support system around them?
How many women know what kind of skills they need for a successful career and know where and how to get
them? How many women are confident and capable to move up the corporate ladder? How many women have
the desire to excel and advance and be the best? How many women are able to successfully tackle the ‘gender’
related issues at work – be it discrimination or sexual harassment? Unfortunately, very few have answers to these
questions! It is no secret that women in the industry at the Manager level and above are less than 15% despite
the fact that almost 50% of workforce at entry level is women. The reasons for this are aplenty.
To me being empowered means that women should be able to pursue their career just as well as men with
nothing more than the challenges that men face. This is a tall order. Total empowerment requires change of
mindsets of women, men, society at large, corporate, government and pretty much everyone. At eWIT, this is
what we are focused on. We work with all the entities in parallel with a hope that one day, there would be an
environment and eco system where as many women would be able to succeed in their career as men. A good
indicator of this would be to achieve 50-50 women men ratio at all levels of the industry.
I feel that it is extremely important for the women in IT/ITES to succeed in getting our share of the corporate pie
because we are the trail blazers. No other growing industry, be it telecom, banking, or airlines has shaken the
country like IT/ITES has. Our success would pave way for the women in other industries. This would further
empower women all over the country. When that happens, our country will succeed.
If you are already empowered, then please join eWIT so that you can take part along with so many women who are
already here to help other women achieve success. If you feel you need help, then, I urge you to join eWIT as your first
step to experience a new level of energy where you would meet and learn from so many women who are also dealing
with typical challenges in building a lasting career. As a company, if you believe in women empowerment, then I invite
you to join eWIT as corporate member. This would get you closer to achieving success in creating a gender inclusive
workplace.
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List of eWIT Governing Body
Office Bearers
Kalyani Narayanan, Principal Officer /
CEO – www.easyinsuranceindia.com
President
[email protected]
Rama Sivaraman – EVP, Global Head,
Performance Excellence – Polaris
Vice President
[email protected]
Sarada Ramani, CEO, CI.Com (P) Ltd.
General Secretary
[email protected]
Namagiri Ramesh, Delivery Manager –
Tech Mahindra
Jt. Secretary
[email protected]
G. Rajalakshmi, Sr. VP-Operations,
Cenza Technologies Limited
Treasurer
[email protected]
Executive Committee
V. P. Rajini Reddy, Managing Director,
Exemplarr Worldwide Limited
Member
[email protected]
Indira Jagan, Director, Value Software
Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Member
[email protected]
Jamuna Swamy,
Chief Information Security Officer,
Hexaware Technologies Ltd.
Member
[email protected]
Latha Ramesh – Consultant – e-Learning Member
Radhika Narayan, Delivery Manager,
Member
Ford Technology Services
[email protected]
[email protected]
Thenmozhi Sengodan,
AVP-Mahindra Satyam
Member
Thenmozhi_Sengodan@
mahindrasatyam.com
Jayalakshmi Thirugnanam, Director,
Ascenders Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Member
[email protected]
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Nadia Makhani,
Deputy Manager – Editorial,
Scope e Knowledge
Member
[email protected];
[email protected]
Biji Banu, Asst Manager-HR,
Client Network Services India Pvt. Ltd.
Member
[email protected];
[email protected]
Vijayalakshmi, Asst Manager-Talent
acquisition, Aspire Systems
Member
vijayalakshmi.suresh@aspiresys.
com
Fathima Farouk, VP-HR, Polaris
Member
[email protected]
P N Pramila, General Manager,
Administration & HRD, Rajsri Systems
Member
[email protected];
[email protected]
Radhika Chandrashekar |
Director, BCM & Internal Audit,
Global Outsourcing | RR Donnelley
Member
[email protected]
G. Bhuvaneswari, eWIT, Chennai
Admin Executive
[email protected]
Advisors
R. Rajalakshmi, Retd. Director – STPI,
Bangalore & ex-eWIT President
[email protected]
Sudha Gopal, Managing Director,
Systech Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
[email protected]
Usha Srinivasan, Director – USHAS
[email protected]
Vijayalakshmi Rao,
Mentor/Business Advisor
[email protected]
Advisory Board
Virginia Little John
CEO, Quantum Leaps
Ganesh Chella
Founder & CEO, Totus Consulting
About eWIT
Empowering Women in IT (eWIT) is a voluntary and not-for-profit forum that was formed in March 2006
with support provided by STPI, Chennai. The Executive Committee members of eWIT are senior women
professionals associated with the IT/ITES industry. eWIT was formed with the vision: “To be the preferred forum
for interchanging of ideas and for pioneering initiatives so as to unleash the potential of women and drive their
growth in the IT/ITES industry” with specific objectives of:
33 Expanding the women workforce at all management levels and sustain and flourish
33 Enabling women to tread the career path by equipping them with necessary skills
33 Facilitating women’s quest for a better ‘work – life’ balance in IT/ITES Sector
Over the last six years, towards achieving the above objectives, we have undertaken the following:
We have been conducting programs and workshops to train women on various topics apart from regular
networking events that enable women from the industry to interact for knowledge sharing and exchange of
ideas.
We undertake research studies to understand the expectations women have from companies with regard to
women-friendly policies, support infrastructure etc. We also study what companies have to offer and try to
knowledge-share for the larger benefit of all our member companies.
In recent times, eWIT is being invited by corporate to guide and initiate their women empowerment programs.
We not only present industry best practices but also do research and make recommendations on specific womenfriendly policy related issues like flexi-time etc.
The eWIT Excellence Award contest is held annually to encourage women to showcase their talent. Our
Anniversary events, held in April are a huge success and we are happy to say that today, every company
associated with eWIT is perceived as a women-friendly organization. We also provide consultancy services
through a network of women who have registered on our database.
eWIT gets its financial support mainly from corporate and individual membership fees, and sponsorships. eWIT
has large corporate members such as Polaris, Cognizant, and Mahindra Satyam, and several small companies
and individual members. We work with other not-for-profit organizations like Computer Society of India, SPIN,
TiE, etc. for conducting programs that are of specific interest to women in IT.
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Annual Membership Details
Classification of Members
Annual
membership fee
No. of Emp. eligible to
attend eWIT events
a. Corporations with > 1000
Employees
Rs. 15000
6 members
b. Corporations with > 500 and
< 1000 Employees
Rs. 7000
3 members
c. Corporations with > 100 and
< 500 employees
Rs. 5000
3 members
d. Corporations with up to 100
employees
Rs. 2500
2 members
e. Colleges
Rs. 2500
2 members
f. Individuals
Rs. 500
g. Life Time Patron Membership for
individuals
Rs. 5000
33 The membership would entitle the members to attend all the regular events free of charge. Some special
events may be charged depending on the trainer involved. Also, more number of women can be sent by
corporate members to attend by paying extra amount for the event.
33 Please draw the cheque in favor of ‘ Empowering Women in IT’ and mail to: No.6, Kalakshetra Avenue
2nd Street, Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai 600041. Ph: 044-42120706 along with company and contact
details.
The Corporate membership would make it eligible for ALL the women employees of the company to become
a member of eWIT for FREE. All the women employees of the corporate member need to do is just register in
eWIT’s website in order to activate the membership.
The corporate membership entitles the mentioned number of employees in the above table to attend all the
regular events FREE of charge. More number of women can be sent by corporate members to attend by paying
extra amount for the event. Though not often, sometimes, all the members may have to pay a nominal fee to
attend an event in order to defray the expenses.
eWIT’s Excellence Award 2012
eWIT conducted “eWIT’s Excellence Award-2012”, a Paper Presentation Contest, to unleash the potential of IT/
ITES woman professionals, to showcase their talent and expertise in their respective areas, and this opportunity
was extended to woman students too.
Candidates from various organizations and colleges had registered to take part in the contest and sent in their
papers from which the eminent panelists had evaluated the papers and short listed 4 papers each in Technology
and Human Resource, Quality and Student categories for oral presentation.
The oral presentation for all the categories was held on 17th March 2012 at Exemplarr’s office. The event had
a healthy and tough competition amongst the 4 short listed candidates each in all categories and the event was
teeming with ideas and conversation. The panelists gave suggestions and ideas to candidates for improvising
their presentation.
The following candidates emerged as winners taking away the first and second place respectively.
Category
Topics
Winners
Technology
Cloud Computing – the
Opportunities and Challenges in
adapting to new technology trends
1. Ms. Revathi Santhanam, Developer,
FTSI, Chennai
2. Ms. Sneha Sudir, Technical Information
Engineer, Computer Associates,
Hyderabad
Human
Resources
For the women in IT/ITES industry –
how to create the BRAND ME/I” that
will take them further in their career
1. Ms. Reeti Singh Parmar, Senior
Executive, Polaris Financial Technology
Limited, Chennai
2. Ms. Arthi V, Trainee Software Engineer,
Ford Technology Services India,
Chennai
Quality
Agile Development methodology &
quality – The merging of the QA
department with development –
Pros & cons
1. Ms. Sree Lakshmi JJ, Project Lead
Allianz Cornhill Information Services,
Trivandrum
2. Ms. Mageswari Dilip, Quality Assurance
Manager, Infosys Technologies,
Bangalore
Student
Pursuing IT education is only to
achieve economic independence and
nothing else – yes / No
1. Ms. Absala Pream Regin S,
Department of Management Studies,
Anna University, Chennai
2. Ms. Bindu Prasad, Thiagarajar college of
engineering, Nagarcoil
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The winners in each category will be rewarded with a cash prize of Rs.10000 and Rs.5000 for the first and
second place respectively in eWIT’s 6th Anniversary event scheduled during the last week of April 2012.
eWIT extends cordial appreciation for the support given by all the members, and participants in making this
event a grand success. Especially, eWIT thanks the panel of judges who had spent their invaluable time in
selecting the papers for the final presentation and also for chairing the event.
Our sincere thanks to the following panelists and judges, for their support and guidance to us, to make this
event a great success. We look forward to your continued support for our future events.
Quality
1
Ms. Deborah Devadason
Principal consultant – Mahindra Satyam
2
Mr. Pradeep Chellakani
QA Head, Take solutions
3
Ms. Sudha Ramkumar
DGM – Quality-Birlasoft
Technology
1
Ms. Sai Chithra
Vice President – Technical, BharatMatrimony.com
2
Mr. Sanjay Dattatri
CTO, Factualz
3
Mr. Shyaam Sunder
Chief Knowledge Officer, Ramco Systems Limited
Human Resources
1
Ms. Vidhya Srinivasan
Principal consultant and CEO, Sarara Inc.
2
Ms. Supriya Padmanabhan
Director & Communications Consultant – MyPersona
Students
1
Ms. Sumithra Mathew
Vice President – HR, Polaris
2
Mr. Vijay Anand
Founder, The Startup Centre
3
Mr. B Anbuthambi
Deputy General Manager – Corporate & Govt. Initiatives, ICTACT
Ms. Jamuna Swamy, Head-Information Security Practice, Hexaware Technologies Ltd. substituted
Mr. Anbuthambi for Oral Presentation.
We would also like to convey our thanks to the volunteers from eWIT member companies who helped us in
conducting the Oral Presentation sessions smoothly.
Summary of Cloud Computing:
Challenges in adapting to this trend
Cloud Computing is becoming a well-known buzzword nowadays. Many
companies, such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft accelerate their paces in
developing Cloud Computing systems and enhancing their services to provide
for a larger amount of users. There are numerous issues that make cloud
computing a dare for an organization and its users. Security is the biggest
challenge to promote cloud computing currently. Trust has proved to be one
of the most important and effective alternative means to construct security in
distributed systems. Multi located data storage and services in the Cloud make
privacy issues even worse. For attaining and holding a greater and a better place
in the industry, these issues are to be addressed carefully and wisely. This paper
talks about few of these issues in brief. In order to efficiently and safely construct
entities trust relationship in cloud and cross-clouds environment, this paper
proposed a new cloud security framework. An Identity Management System is
proposed which will ensure Cloud Security to the organization that uses cloud
for data hosting/servicing. All the clients accessing the cloud [first/successive
time(s)] are authenticated twice {by third party auditor and cloud service provider} in this system to ensure Data
Protection and Application Security in the cloud. The basis for this authentication process is carried out using
a “Salt value”, which is a 12-bit number which is specific to each user’s Password.
Finally, I would like to say that there are many issues that need to be considered for improvising the cloud;
hence appropriate measures need to be taken if an organization has to have a stand in this ever blooming
market. Like they say: “Prevention is always better than Cure”.
Revathy Santhanam,
Winner – Technology Category – Excellence Award 2012.
Revathy is Software Engineer Trainee in Ford Technology Services India
For the Women in IT/ITES
Industry – How to Create the
‘Brand Me/I ’ that Will Take Them
Further in Their Career
Introduction
Women, who earlier stayed at home to attend to their domestic duties, have moved
away from this traditional role to social and business solutions, and now balance
both work-related and domestic duties efficiently. However, women, unlike men,
face many work-related issues that impediment their career growth. A few of such
issues are:
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Pressure to get married/ family obligations that come with marriage
Preference to seek employment that does not involve too much travel
Unwillingness to work late hours, possibly due to fear of personal safety
Physical discomfort and mental tension due to various factors such as late
working hours and work pressure
While many women succumb to pressures, a few make it to the top of the corporate ladder through sheer girth
and perseverance. The most important factors are:
3As – Authority, Attitude, and Adjustment
Authority
33 Step into the role completely and believe in yourself
33 Eliminate the discrimination between genders – it is easy to establish authority at outset
Attitude
33 Be capable and confident of your abilities – you already know all that is required to be known, you are
willing to learn what you do not know, and you have what it takes to build from scratch.
33 Adopting the right attitude without being arrogant is all that you need to be a successful women.
Adjustment
33 Change yourself according to the flow – do not constrict yourself to limited perceptions when the world
is changing, and competition is increasing
33 Be ready for change by anticipating it before it arrives and by being prepared for it when it does.
These qualities should boil down to every women’s effort to brand herself in her career.
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What Is Self-Branding?
Self-branding is about developing a personal strategy that positions you differently from others and formulating
the tactics that get you from A to B, all the way to Z. Branding is also about “soft power” – forging an appealing
image and visual identity and harnessing the power words, sound bites, and verbal identity. It is about building
visibility and reputation in some arena.
Recommendations
Research1, 2, 3 proves that the following efforts are necessary as the first step in creating ‘Brand Me’:
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Be proactive – Ask for what you want, do not be afraid to toot your own horn
Opportunity Knocks – Grab the opportunities if they are offered to you.
Choose the right career investments – Make sure that your skills are relevant
Build self-confidence – Be brave and step out of your comfort zone
Recognize your personal values and aspirations – Do it your way and be true to yourself
Take and offer help – Do not hesitate to ask for help from someone who sees the bigger picture
Balance work and family – Be a super woman
Take the journey – Look for variable experience
Examples of Successful Women
1.Neelam Dhawan (49), Managing Director, Hewlett Packard India
Working style: Follows the rule of exception. She has full confidence in her team. If there is a mistake, she
steps in.
Neelam’s Brand: Ambitious, Calm, Positive, Focused, Confident, Determined
2.Rekha Menon, Leads Accenture’s Corporate Functions In India and ASEAN
Working Style: Being extra careful while taking important decisions. Defining the core values and being true
to them.
Rekha’s Brand: Multitasking, Adaptive, Adventurous, Bold, Quiet
3.Safra Catz (50), President and Chief Financial Officer Oracle Corporation
Working Style: Maintaining low profile and creating high impact. Make no mistakes.
Safra’s Brand: Sharp, Inquisitive, Energetic, Charismatic
Conclusion
Women have to learn to be the marketing manager of their own brand campaign, that is, “Me Inc.” It is not an
easy task, but it can be done, and if they have the correct strategy and commitment, they can never let go.
Reeti Singh Parmar,
Winner – HR Category – Excellence Award 2012.
Reeti Singh Parmar works with Polaris Financial Technology Limited as a Senior Executive in Corporate Communications.
She has a graduate degree in Science and holds Masters Degree in Business Administration from XISS, Jharkhand
1 “Me, Inc: Become The CEO Of Your Career Using personal Branding for Alumni”,By Pomerantz Career Centre
2 Posted by Marcie Van Houten, “Safra Catz’s Top 10”, Talent Apps, May 12, 2010
3 Kaputa, Catherine, “How Smart Women Brand themselves For Business Success”, Thinking ALOUD, May 22, 2006
Agile Development
Methodology and Quality
Business is dynamic in nature and companies across the globe have an urge for
accelerated time-to-market for new product launches, adhering to regulatory
compliances and aligning to the latest technology trends. In order to cater to
this, IT Solution Providers need a software development methodology that helps
them in faster time-to-market, increase productivity and quality, reduce risk and
project costs, and improve project visibility for software delivery. This had led to
the rise in organizations adopting Agile for software development owing to the
ever-changing and dynamic nature of the business they cater to.
Agile development is driven by cross-functional teams empowered to make
decisions with a strong focus on rapid iteration involving development and quality
assurance, with continuous customer input along the way. The whole key to success for an organization going
for Agile adoption lies in how well the process is carefully managed by introducing and embedding development
and testing practices, otherwise the expected benefits might not be realized.
Early involvement and the flexibility to adjust to frequent changes are the keys to successful Quality Assurance
in an agile development environment. This emphasizes that in an agile team, there is no separate teams of
developers and testers, rather a group of people working together from start to finish to achieve what customer
wants.
With the merge of developers and testers in a single team, the right focus on test automation and independent
validation governance is relevant to ensure customer objectives are not compromised. At a ground level, we
need to enable an agile team encompassing developers and QA to work towards a common goal and help them
measure the success via metrics which are not single-dimension views, but they focus on what matters.
Sreelakshmi JJ,
Winner – Quality Category – Excellence Award 2012.
Sreelakshmi is a Project Lead at Allianz Techno Park, Trivandrum
Women in it – The Question of
Economic Independence
Pursuing IT education is only to achieve economic independence and nothing
else -Yes /No?
Summary
Gone are the days when women were confined to households. Today, women have
ventured into diverse fields and excelled remarkably with their knowledge and
skill. More women are getting educated and employed in prestigious institutions.
The advent and massive growth of the Information Technology (IT) field in India
has encouraged several women across the country to become software engineers.
The IT companies recruit young professionals irrespective of their engineering
streams. Not only do these companies offer substantial payment but also provide
vast opportunity for growth. The proportion of women in IT has increased
tremendously over the years; they constitute about 37% of the total workforce. Though there are several reasons
that can be attributed to the preference shown by women towards employment in the IT sector, one of the most
important is financial independence. This study aims at investigating whether women pursue IT education
only to achieve financial independence or if there are other influencing factors. An online questionnaire was
used for collecting data from women respondents currently employed in the IT sector. The questionnaire
consisted of simple questions inquiring about the respondent’s educational background, work experience and
reasons for pursuing IT education. The results indicate that 61% of the respondents agree that pursuing IT
education is for financial independence only. The other 39% believe IT to be a challenging field that gives
them valuable experience, exposure and confidence. However it was commonly accepted by both groups that
financial independence is “the” most important reason in their “early” stages (within 3 years) of employment. It
is therefore evident from this study that most women have regarded financial independence to be a prime factor
influencing their career choice. In order to attract and retain talented women in their workforce, it is essential
for IT organisations to have equality and equity in their compensation plans as well as an understanding of the
personal and work environmental factors that affect women’s career development.
Absala Pream Regin S,
Winner – Student Category – Excellence Award 2012.
Absala is a MBA 2nd Year student in Department of Management Studies, Anna University, Chennai – 600025
ICTs and Gender Violence
ICTs are all or any forms of “technology and tools that people use to share,
distribute, gather information and to communicate with one another, one on
one, or in groups”1. This includes information technology that uses computers;
Telecommunications technology including telephones, facsimiles and satellite
broadcast of radio and television; and networking technologies including the
Internet and mobile phones.
There are several points of intersection between gender violence and ICTs. While
both men and women are equally vulnerable to several forms of fraud and identity theft, young women, children
and those who are gay or lesbian2 are also vulnerable to violence of other kinds. In some cases, this violence
can and has spilled over to the ‘offline’ world. For instance, harassment online or via mobile phones is often
an additional dimension of sexual harassment at the workplace. Relationships that are forged online through
dating sites are as susceptible to violence as any others. Increasingly, women face abuse and harassment online
from strangers and casual acquaintances as well as former partners.
Different kinds of ICT-related gender violence
33 Cybercrimes are all crimes committed against women in or via cyberspace, usually with the intention
to intimidate, coerce or humiliate. This includes hacking and taking over existing profiles on social
networking or micro blogging sites such as Orkut, Facebook or Twitter; creating and maintaining fake
profiles; sharing private contact details on public forums; and cyber-stalking and harassment (sending
repeated messages via several medium including social networks, chatrooms, emails etc).
33 SMS, MMS and phone stalking is harassment by making incessant calls and/or sending a stream of
SMS or MMS often at odd times of the day and night. The content of these messages and images is often
sexually explicit; the tone can be either flattering or threatening, depending on the context. In many
cases, young women themselves share their numbers with young men they know casually. In other
cases, men obtain contact details social networking sites.
33 Misuse and abuse of images as a consequence of the easy availability of camera technology. Women
are photographed, either casually or in vulnerable situations (bathing, swimming etc) by strangers
who proceed to either blackmail the women in question or use these images in pornographic contexts;
women sometimes permit men they are in a relationship with (boyfriends, fiancés, husbands etc) to
record images – often before, during or after sex. These images can become powerful weapons in the
hands of an aggrieved man, if the relationship subsequently dissolves. Sometimes, innocuous images
of women are also morphed (using software like Photoshop) and distributed on social networking sites
or by email.
There have been several instances when incidents of rape are recorded by perpetrators, thereby enhancing the
woman’s sense of shame and humiliation. These recordings also become powerful blackmail weapons and in
many cases, ensure that women do not report rapes or assaults to the police; and is in fact, subject to continued
assault and rape over a long period of time.
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Know the Law
India passed an Information Technology Act in 2000 and an amended version, now known as the Information
Technology (Amendment) Act or ITAA in 20083. The ITAA does address questions of privacy and confidentiality
but is primarily focused on questions of e-commerce and the interests of businesses.
The relevant provisions of the ITAA are:
33 66E which prohibits the capture, publishing or transmission of ‘the image of a private area of any
person without his or her consent, under circumstances violating the privacy of that person’. ‘Private
area’ is specifically defined as ‘the naked or undergarment clad genitals, public area, buttocks or female
breast’.
33 67 which prohibits the transmission of any material ‘which is lascivious or appeals to the prurient
interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons’.
33 67A which prohibits the electronic publishing of any sexually explicit acts, punishable by up to seven
years in prison.
33 67B which addresses, at some length, electronic abuse and sexual exploitation of children.
In addition, some cases are registered under IPC 509 (insulting or outraging the modesty of a woman), but this
is rare.
Cybercrimes are peculiar for another reason: very often, the perpetrators are not based in the same country as
their victims, and this raises the tricky issue of jurisdiction. There is as yet no globally recognised legislation
governing cybercrimes and prosecution is therefore often impossible. The same physical boundaries that are
rendered invisible in virtual and cyber relationships become obstacles to achieving justice in the offline world.
Fighting back with technology
Despite the potential dangers, ICTs do offer women a sense of agency4 – there are no restrictions on what to
wear, what to say or most of all, how not to talk to men. In addition, there is the thrill of anonymous flirting,
of being sexy. Exploratory research in India by the Association for Progressive Communications has revealed
that young women (in Mumbai) greatly value this sense of freedom but are aware of the dangers that come with
increased use of ICTs; they do not fear harassment from strangers online as much as harassment from friends or
family members that transcend the online and offline worlds.
ICTs therefore remain a double-edged sword. Organisations around the world are encouraging women to fight
back with technology; the best example is the takebackthetech campaign (www.takebackthetech.net). Websites
and chatrooms function as secure online spaces for women to share stories of violence and seek support from
those who’ve experienced similar trauma. In India, individuals have used SMS technology effectively to build
public outrage, as in the case of the campaign seeking justice for Jessica Lal.
Technology is no longer the purview of the rich, the educated, the literate or the tech-savvy. In the years to
come, more women will continue to log online, buy mobile phones and enter chat rooms; they will continue to
embrace technology and keep pace with its many advances. After all, minimising online activity or excluding
oneself from social networking is hardly the solution. The emphasis must therefore shift to prevention, to
equipping women with the right skills to use ICTs safely, without the fear of violence spilling into their offline
worlds.
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Do’s
Don’ts
Do make the most of your freedom online, but
discriminately.
Don’t, under any circumstances, reveal your address
or phone number in a public forum. If these details
are part of your profile, delete them NOW.
Don’t ‘friend’ people you do not know at all.
Do regularly check privacy settings on Facebook or
Orkut to ensure that only your friends can see your
personal information.
Do delete any offensive messages from strangers or
friends (unless you intend to take legal action, in
which case, save the evidence).
Do be considerate about other people’s privacy or
rights. Don’t post photos from private events or
parties without permission, for example.
Do use technology to fight back and say no to
violence.
Don’t post links indiscriminately (to websites with
sexually explicit images, for example).
Don’t tweet your phone number or address. You can
always send a Direct Message to someone privately.
Don’t forget to log out of all your accounts in a
publicly accessible terminal, such as a cyber café, a
shop or a hotel.
Anupama Srinivasan,
Programme Director,
Gender Violence Research and Information Taskforce,
The Prajnya Trust,
www.prajnya.in
This short article is excerpted and adapted from ‘Gender Violence in India: A Prajnya Report (2010)’. The full
document can be accessed at http://prajnya.in/gvr10.pdf
1 http://www.genderit.org/glossary/term/749
2 This short section specifically addresses the vulnerability of women to violence.
3 http://www.mit.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/downloads/itact2000/it_amendment_act2008.pdf
4 See http://www.genderit.org/content/%E2%80%98does-your-mother-know%E2%80%99-agency-risk-and-moralityonline-lives-young-women-mumbai
A Few Disciplinary Measures One Can
Follow When Opting for a Work from
Home Option
Increasingly companies these days are offering the ‘Work from home’ option
that provides a lot of flexibility for the employee and allows accommodating &
managing time more effectively. Since this is not a very prevalent trend in India,
it still does make eyebrows raise and one wonder if such an arrangement can
work effectively. Here are a few do’s & do not do’s that, if kept in mind, can help
one make the most of this option and ensure optimum productivity.
A few do’s:
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
1. Have a much disciplined approach towards the way your day begins. After
the daily household chores, start work like you would, if you were to get out
of home and get to work. Tidy up, have breakfast and then start working. It
could set a very lazy feel to work if you were to start working in your night
clothes, avoid it.
Always stick to a time schedule, preferably the regular office timing (on a normal day it would be 9am
to 6.30pm) as your work timings.
As far as possible have a room for yourself, preferably your study, for working. DO NOT start working
on your bed, on the dining table, in front of the TV or in your bedroom. The right kind of environment
is most important for a productive day to begin. Lock yourself in the room when you start work.
Have a table, a comfortable chair and proper lighting in your room and make that your workstation if
clutter free. Keep your room and workstation neat and tidy
Communicate to people at home and friends that you cannot be disturbed during office hours, even
though you work from home. Learn to say a ‘NO’ if someone is visiting you during your office hours
Avoid distractions like TV, answering the doorbell, answering phone calls, attending to household
chores. These activities can spoil your time management skills like none other.
Remember you opted for this option to save some time for yourself and utilize it in a better way. Make
best use of the time that you save, join a hobby class, take a walk, spend time with your family and most
importantly do things that keep you happy.
A few don’ts:
1. Never think that you have the whole day for completing your work and delay your deliverables. This
can plague your day and throw you in a ‘Never seem to end’ kind of a day. Stick to the timings and shut
down your system once work has been completed.
2. Do not keep going back to your computer to check for email responses. Unless there is a dire crisis
situation, keep away from emails till the next morning.
While the above mentioned points can differ on a case to case basis, it is always wise to make the best of it by
sticking to a disciplined time schedule and utilizing the time in hand.
Ashwini P Margad,
Ashwini is a Test Lead in Kripya Engineering Pvt Ltd, Chennai.
Are You a Coach?
I am an IT Program Manager turned Process Consultant. When I switched roles in 2005,
it seemed to be as though they are too different from each other. But, today, in 2012
when I look back and analyze the roles I played, they seem to merge at one point. Not
only me, many people who switched roles / jobs would have realized that irrespective of
their roles they need to coach people to their best to get the work done.
What does it take to coach someone? Is it same as delegating work or just giving feedback
to someone? Is it not a threat to my job if he/she scales up to mine? Is it a selfless,
altruistic act? Can I possibly do the job in one hour instead of coaching someone for 30 mins and then reviewing
the task for another 30 mins? These probably are the questions that arise when you think of coaching/grooming
someone – the list is not exhaustive anyway!!!
It is as much a selfish act as it is to help others. As a leader/manager you can free up a lot of time for yourself
so that you can concentrate on the tasks that will take you to the next level in the ladder; those you help/
groom would eventually become your followers. In any field, you need people who trust you and follow you!!!
Alongside, you would have groomed people who you can trust and delegate tasks. It is a win-win for both the
coach and coachee if done correctly.
Even when you do not have a lot of time, you can ask simple 5W questions about your coachee’s problem and
lead them to the solutions. Many times, it would be so very tempting to give the ‘How’ part of the tasks. Refrain
from the temptation unless the coachee’s skill level and willingness are too low at the time; even in that case,
you should come out of the ‘how’ part as soon as possible.
You also need to give simple feedback focusing on examples and emphasizing on the result. There used to be
a practice of giving positive feedback first followed by constructive/negative feedback or vice versa. The only
difficulty I felt was, once your team members get used to this style, every time you appreciate them, they always
look for ‘. . . but then . . .’ statements. Be watchful not to get into any pattern like this. I found it simpler to keep
the positives and negatives separate unless the situation warrants for combining them.
Favoritism could be the next trap you want to be careful with. Drona, the great teacher, was said to have made
mistakes due to his favoritism towards Arjuna; during the ‘War’ he had shown his favoritism towards Kauravas
and started the first violation of the War Rules. Even such great teachers, who are trained to be coaches, could
get caught in this trap it is too easy for us fall thru unless we are careful.
As a coach, you have the responsibility to excite them about the task or push them into the task mercilessly at
the same time not overdoing any of these things. You may or may not have any authority over the people you
coach; Influencing without manipulating is another art you would want learn. You need to remember that you
are only a coach and not a psychologist though you would use many aspects of psychology  Above all this,
you need to know your own strengths & weaknesses and use your strengths to groom a stronger team!!
This article is an attempt to share the lessons learnt from my coaching journey. Hope it helps you too!!!
Geetha Paulmani,
Geetha Paulmani is a Process Consultant in Ford Technology Services India.
Baffling English
Having worked in the field of technical writing for over 11 years, I should say
I am glad I chose this profession. It is because I have a flair for writing, and
my job demands this. It is, in fact, a blend of technology and writing. I convey
technology to the user in a simple, clear, understandable, and friendly manner.
I have worked with audiences who hail from different geographic locations.
Sometime back I was allocated to a UK-based project. This happened immediately
after I completed a long-term US-based project. The manager, who is a native
English speaker, identified only one correction in the user manual that I delivered
to him for review – the spelling of “colour”. I had written it as “color”. He told
me that I missed to include “u”. Little did I realize that, in English, some usages, pronunciations, and spellings
are different in different parts of the world!!! I always had this feeling that technical writing is a field that is
well-suited for women because it involves lot of patience when you interact with various audiences and subject
matter experts. This thought prevailed until I realized how I stumbled and stuttered to answer the questions of
my little daughter Keerthana.
Keerthana, who is in grade II, asked me this question when I was trying to teach her phonetics, “Mom, if the
spelling of fish is f-i-s-h, why is my friend Philip’s name spelled as P-h-i-l-i-p instead of F-i-l-i-p?” I tenderly
explained that the speech sounds of ‘F’ and ‘Ph’ are usually the same. “If ‘Ph’ is going to do the job, why should
we have ‘F’ at all?” she asked with a flabbergasted look. I was surprised at her question. She didn’t stop there.
With a smiling face she said, “I like to use ‘F’ all the time because it is simple and easy”. I was wondering if she
was talking about “writing it crisp” or “avoiding lengthiness”!!!
A few days back, I had bought Keerthana this storybook “Thomas-The Disciple”. I read out the story aloud for her.
She stopped me when I read the words “doubting Thomas”. “Mom”, she squeaked, “I think they’ve spelt it wrong”.
I exactly knew why she told this. I didn’t wait for her to ask the question. I just told her that, in English, there are
certain letters that are silent in some words. So, while reading words like ‘doubt’, she must imagine that the letter
‘b’ is not there at all. “But, if it silent, why should it be there at all”? She continued. “You are right dear. But, it is
already there . . . and we must just accept it.” I tried to sound polite. “O . . . K.” She nodded unconvincingly!
Recently, in her school skit, Keerthana played the role of the female tiger that entered the Noah’s ark. She was
excited to watch herself and her friends play the roles of different animals. That evening she came home and
asked me “Did you like tigers, rabbits, sheeps, and elephants?” Instantly, the editor in me corrected her, “The
plural of “sheep” is “sheep” and not “sheeps”. I noticed that bizarre expression on her face. It was like “mom, are
you crazy?” I taught her plurals. I told her that ‘plurals’ are easy and all that she had to do was to include the letter
“S” at the end of the word. “But how is that possible? The plural of sheep has to be sheeps!” she exclaimed in a
deep tone. I had to answer her judicious question. “There are a few words in English that have plurals that are
different from the normal plurals. And ‘sheep’ is one among them.” I explained. Her next question was “why?” in
a deeper tone. I confessed I didn’t know why and it is just that we need to follow the rules. “Plurals! I still have
words like tooth, fish, man, child, and many more to explain. Phew... how am I going to do that?” I mulled.
But, amidst all these thoughts, I must say that I love this English language for its ubiquity and supremacy in
global communication. I find it so comfortable speaking this language! It makes me know the world better and
helps me to communicate with different types of people all over the world!!! But for this beautiful language, I
wouldn’t have been in this position today, and most of all I wouldn’t have been a part of eWIT!
Jabashree Amudha,
Jabashree Amudha is an Associate Manager – Technical Writing working in
Client Network Services India Pvt. Limited.
Carving an “Unreasonable”
Way to Success. . .
As little girls, many of us grew up with a sense of tolerance as against our male counterparts
who were aggressive for most part. We were obedient, good friends and confidants, had a
unique way of expressing our feelings and were gifted problem solvers. Whilst the boys
grew up racing cars with their friends, fighting their rivals, teasing girls and delegating
their assignment workloads to their sisters who were for some reason obedient and
tolerant to all their tantrums. At some point of time in our lives we were all conditioned
to be patient and conciliatory. We Women learnt to be reasonable even to people who
were unreasonable to us.
This inherent difference in the way men and women grow up might be one of the reasons
as to why women hesitate to take up the leadership ladder. In the words of George Bernard Shaw –
“Reasonable people adapt to the world. Unreasonable people persist in trying to adapt the world to themselves.
Therefore, all progress depends on unreasonable people.”
We are faced with a multitude of challenges at both personal and professional front. We find valid reasons for
giving into these challenges by virtue of being REASONABLE. It comes so naturally and easily for us women.
The dogma of women being the weaker sex dominates the mind not only of our male counterparts but also
folks of our very own sex. For us to get a grip of what we are capable of, it is important for us to realize, to
understand, to fight this dogma. Being UNREASONABLE is a crucial piece of puzzle to beat this dogma.
As women, we are inherently averse to the idea of being unreasonable. Whereas getting things done these days
demands us to be unreasonable for our own good. Being unreasonable gives us the much needed push to break
our own glass ceilings. In this new future – being “Unreasonable” will definitely be a hammer that will help us
break our own Glass Ceiling.
Breakthroughs and extra-ordinary accomplishments begin with the realization of our potential and the strength
to test our own potential. For this, it is essential for us to be “Unreasonable” starting with ourselves and then
extend it to the world. It is easy to be at the whims of the situations around us. What will differentiate us is
turning things around to be a Leader instead of a Follower.
Let us carve our own way into the future and make it a brand new one for the Generations to come!!!
Rhummya Rajamanickam,
Associate Consultant,
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.
Dazzling Tiny Leaders
Children are a great source of management learning. They are natural
leaders and can dazzle you with their quiet wisdom hidden behind the
fitful giggles and raucous mischief. Think about it: once they decide to
concentrate on something, it is near impossible to get them away from
their source of attention (I say ‘near’ impossible, as it is possible to lure
them away with something more attractive like the elusive chocolate bar
or the mysterious DVD that holds the key to magical faraway lands). But
then, that could well be part of their original strategy of getting what they
want, right?
Their ability to multitask is phenomenal. My two year old toddler balances
painting with one hand while kicking her teddy rhythmically with her
foot, watching ‘Tangled’ wide-eyed yet keeping a strong watch on her
storybook that is not supposed to be packed away. She is reading it, you see.
And they have mastered karma yoga. They do something because they want to do it, they feel like doing it. No
expectation of rewards or acknowledgement. And therefore no disappointment. No one can coerce them. They
are driven by their free will and enjoy every moment of it. They will say ‘hello’ when ‘they want’ to say it. And if
they say it but do not receive a response from the other person, they don’t care. They simply hop and skip their
way to the next exciting activity seamlessly, with a big knowing smile on their face.
Tune into the adult world – we try to concentrate and work hard to focus our energies as we navigate home,
career, aspirations, relatives, friends, missing maids, truant nannies, rising bills, elusive weekends. . . .
We are racked by conflicting priorities, our minds abuzz with project plans and to do lists that vie for attention.
We want to prioritize and so work on two-by-twos and planners to neatly pack and box in items. And then
figure out that it could have been done differently.
We worry ourselves ragged about what others think about us. And somewhere down the line, we forget to be us.
We become a higgledy-piggledy of what others want, or so we think. And then in our twilight years, we wake
up and want to re-live our life, if we still have one. Hmmm..sounds like doomsday, doesn’t it?
What am I arriving at? Well, the greatest leadership lessons on emotional maturity and successful execution
is right around us. Move over, management gurus. Push away those expensive business blah books. Take a
backseat, fancy workshops.
The tiny tots are here to show ‘how’. Get the work done. Enjoy every moment. Don’t worry about what others
think. Do what feels right. It’s your life.
Oh, and did I tell you? My little one taught me to look beyond the Chennai heat. You can actually catch the
sunbeams in your palms!
Smita Venkataraman,
Associate Director, AGS Health.
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ANISHA FRANCIS
DC|CHENNAI
May 2: Sexual harassment at the workplace, bullying bosses, gender
discrimination and inflexible timings –– these are just a few of the issues
discussed vociferously by women working in the IT industry at the
weekly meetings of ‘eWIT’ (Empowering women in IT) a voluntary
forum based out of Chennai.
With over 50 corporate members, and 200 individual entrepreneurs as
part of the forum, eWIT works towards making the industry a ‘womanfriendly’ place.
EMPOWERING WOMEN IN IT
Lecture on Indian women in global business by Marcy Klevorn,
Did You Know?
1883: Chandramukhi Basu and Kadambini Ganguly were the first
Indian female graduates of India and the British Empire.
1919: Pandita Ramabai was the first Indian woman to be awarded the
Kaiser-i-Hind by the British Raj for her distinguished social service.
1930: Homai Vyarawalla was India’s first woman photojournalist.
1951: Prem Mathur was the first Indian women commercial pilot of
the Deccan Airways.
1959: Anna Chandy was the first Indian woman judge of a High Court
(Kerala High Court).
1966: Captain Durga Banerjee was the first Indian woman pilot of the
state airline, Indian Airlines.
1970: Kamaljit Sandhu was the first Indian woman to win a Gold
medal in the Asian Games.
1972: Kiran Bedi was the first female recruit to join the Indian Police Service.
1979: Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Indian female citizen to do so.
1984: On May 23, Bachendri Pal was the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest.
1989: Justice M. Fathima Beevi was the first woman judge of the Supreme Court of India.
1997: Kalpana Chawla was the first India-born woman to go into space.
1992: Priya Jhingan was the first lady cadet to join the Indian Army.
2000: Karnam Malleswari was the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal.
2002: Lakshmi Sahgal was the first Indian woman to run for the post of President of India.
2007: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak was the first Indian woman to be appointed as University Professor at an
Ivy League university (Columbia University).
2007: Pratibha Patil is the first woman President of India.
2008: Renu Khator was the first India born woman to lead a major American university, the University of
Houston.
Yuvarani, Sheela Devi, Azmayin Shafa,
Yuvarani, Sheela Devi, Azmayin Shafa are from Indiumsoft.
Work Life Balancing
There is always a perception that work life balancing (WLB) is for WOMEN more
so for the married ones holding key positions. I used to wonder why so? Women
leaders are able to naturally master the Work Life Balancing act effortlessly. As Women
succeed in their careers, they become role models for many both in the personal and
professional life.
However WLB applies to all humans irrespective of the gender and status. It has to be
practiced by those who are making their entry into the professional life. As the young
professionals enter the corporate, they tend to more focus on the corporate life, thus
leaving back the sweet memories of their college days and school days. This makes
many of them feel mundane at work in a short span of time.
There are two factors which makes each one of us be successful in balancing our work and life. They are
“Commitment” and “Contentment”. While commitment pertains to being successful in what we are demanded
for both at home and at office, contentment is what we have discovered in ourselves to keep ourselves happy
and energized.
Based on the phase of life, we need to prioritize on these two factors, not let go of our own self energizers will
make each one of a successful practitioners in balancing our professional and personal aspects.
Sowmya Suresh,
General Manager,
HCL Technologies Ltd.
Eves of Today
Work & Life, they beautifully balance; such
Women, wow me at a glance.
Words cannot state their plight; I
Wonder how they take it light.
IT and ITeS – blessing for women;
It made them equal to men.
It is required to stretch late; but
It doesn’t deter our mates.
Turning obstacle to opportunity;
They fight against adversity.
This is a tribute to such women,
To achieve many accolades as this one!
Lavanya L,
Assistant Professor – MBA,
National Institute of Management Studies,
Karapakkam, Chennai – 97.
An Omnipotent Dream!!!
At 5.30 am there comes a sudden voice “its time Nikil. Get up.” No mom it’s too early. I’ll
manage myself. “You go and do your work” was the reply. After hearing this the mom became
angry and sat on her couch which was put in the drawing room. She started thinking about
her earlier days when she used to tell lame excuses to her mother. She (Neha) belonged to
a poor family. Her father was the sole earner for her family. She was brought up with great
difficulties. She didn’t have a good dress to wear and didn’t have good food to eat. Many
days she used to sleep after filling her stomach with water. She is the last child of her family.
But Neha used to excel in her studies always. While she was facing her public exams her
father passed away in an accident. The only hope of the family too was taken back. But she
continued her perseverance to study and scored more than 95% in tenth. In that vacation
she went for work to match stick industry and gained 5000 Rs. with which she continued her studies for 12th
as expected she came first in xii standard and got a seat in IIT. But she faced many hardships in college initially
because her background was different from others. But she continued her will to study. She managed her fees
through scholarships. she kept telling this to herself “whatever happens life has to move on”. Successfully she
completed her degree and managed to get a job in one of the top MNC’s. Money started pouring in. she used
to work for more than 15 hours a day. Within a short span her family became rich. Her mom stayed with her.
Neha attained a great position in the company. But tragedy struck her again. One day on the way back from her
office she met with an accident that paralyzed her legs fully. Her earnings were spent for her treatment. Once
again her dreams were shattered. But her determination never stopped. After undergoing treatment for more
than year she began her journey again. But suddenly her mother fell ill and died. Gripped in the custody of
sorrows she continued her journey. She used crutches to walk. She was living alone and medicines were her
sole companion. Many doubted her ability to continue, but she didn’t give up at any instant. At last one day
came when she became the CEO of that company. Imagine how she would have achieved even after facing such
hardships. She had an omnipotent dream that chased her all through her life. Many came forward to marry her
seeing her wealth. She rejected everything and kept telling herself “look Neha there was no one to help you
when you faced difficulties. So continue your life alone. The god who showed the path still will take you to the
rest of your life”. The dream which she had came true at last. She adopted a child named Nikhil. He was born
without a leg. Yes she wished to sacrifice her life for the one who was born with sufferings. Even though she had
money, fame she dedicated her life to that boy. Her determination to continue never stopped!!!
(Yeah today many face hardships in their life. This article is dedicated to those who still continue their determination
to live their life even after facing hardships. particularly women in it field are sacrificing a lot in their life. hats off
to all the women professionals and take this story as a moral support whenever you feel low. Thank you)
C. Bindu Prasad,
Final Year B.E Student in Thiagarajar College of Engineering,
Madurai ( Placed in IBM, TCS).
How Good Are Your Leadership Skills?
What’s your key area for improvement?
Who do you consider to be a good leader? Maybe it’s a politician, a famous
businessperson, or a religious figure. Or maybe it’s someone you know personally –
like your boss, a teacher, or a friend.
You can find people in leadership roles almost everywhere you look. However,
simply having the responsibilities of a leader doesn’t necessarily make a person
an effective leader. This is a shame because, with a little study, humility and hard
work, all of us can learn how to lead effectively.
So, how can you bring your leadership skills to tip-top condition?
You can start by analyzing your performance in specific areas of leadership. Complete the quiz below to help
you identify where you already lead effectively, and where your skills need further development. In the analysis
sections underneath, we’ll direct you to the resources you need for exceptional leadership.
How Good Are Your Leadership Skills?
Instructions: For each statement, tick in the column that best describes you. Please answer questions as you
actually are (rather than how you think you should be).
S.
No. Statement
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
When assigning tasks, I consider people’s
skills and interests.
I doubt myself and my ability to succeed.
I expect nothing less than top-notch results
from people.
I expect higher quality work from my
people than I sometimes deliver myself.
When someone is upset, I try to understand
how he or she is feeling.
When circumstances change, I can struggle
to know what to do.
I think that personal feelings shouldn’t be
allowed to get in the way of performance
and productivity.
I am highly motivated because I know I
have what it takes to be successful.
Time spent worrying about team morale is
time that’s wasted.
Not
at all Rarely
Some
times Often
Very
Often
2012
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
29
I get upset and worried quite often in the
workplace.
My actions show people what I want from
them.
When working with a team, I encourage
everyone to work toward the same goal.
I make exceptions to my rules and
expectations – it’s easier than being the
enforcer all the time!
I enjoy planning for the future.
I feel threatened when someone criticizes me.
I take time to learn what people need from
me so they can be successful.
I’m optimistic about life, and I can see
beyond temporary setbacks and problems.
I think that teams perform best when
individuals keep doing the same tasks and
perfecting them, instead of learning new
skills and challenging themselves.
Total = 0
Please see below table for calculating total and interpreting the results.
Statement
Number
Not at all
Rarely
Sometimes
Often
Very
Often
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
1
5
1
5
1
5
5
1
5
5
1
1
5
1
5
1
1
5
2
4
2
4
2
4
4
2
4
4
2
2
4
2
4
2
2
4
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
4
2
4
2
4
2
2
4
2
2
4
4
2
4
2
4
4
2
5
1
5
1
5
1
1
5
1
1
5
5
1
5
1
5
5
1
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2012
Based on the answer you picked, use the number given and total it up. For example, if you answered ‘Often’ for
statement number 9, you would give 2 points, answering ‘Rarely’ for statement 15 would give 5 points.
Once you calculated the total, interpret as below.
Score Interpretation
Score
Comment
18-34
You need to work hard on your leadership skills. The good news is that if you use more
of these skills at work, at home, and in the community, you’ll be a real asset to the people
around you. You can do it – and now is a great time to start! (Read below to start.)
You’re doing OK as a leader, but you have the potential to do much better. While you’ve
built the foundation of effective leadership, this is your opportunity to improve your skills,
and become the best you can be. Examine the areas where you lost points below, and
determine what you can do to develop skills in these areas.
Excellent! You’re well on your way to becoming a good leader. However, you can never be
too good at leadership or too experienced – so look at the areas belowwhere you didn’t score
maximum points, and figure out what you can do to improve your performance.
35-52
53-90
There are many leadership skills and competencies that, when combined and applied, go toward making you
an effective leader. You have the ability to develop each of these skills within yourself.
The above self assessment test was taken from www.mindtools.com. Visit the site to get more information for
specific ideas on how you can improve your leadership skills!
Ms Kalyani Narayanan,
CEO, www.easyinsuranceindia.com
Mid-life Careers for Techies
It is never too late to do the right thing, says a cheerful Rajeshwari Victor – the
Chennai-based author of My Life My Choice (http://bit.ly/F4TRVictor) – during
a recent interaction with Business Line. “All my book respondents (two women
and eight men) made career changes at 40-plus years of age. They have shifted
from corporates to politics, teaching, social sector, entrepreneurship, childhood
passion, and such...”
She cites examples such as that of R. K. Misra, who moved from an IT career as a
software entrepreneur to politics, and of Badri Seshadri, the founder of cricinfo.
com (a Web portal disseminating cricket information) who moved to setting up
a publishing house.
Reminding that technology is an enabler, Rajeshwari’s message to techies is to
view the IT industry as a stepping stone with potential to enable things in other
sectors. Our conversation continues over the email, on the theme, ‘Mid-life career choices by IT professionals.’
Excerpts from the interview:
Are there factors peculiar to the IT industry that drive professionals to make mid-life career choices
differently than in other industries?
The IT industry in India is on a steep growth path. Hence, the industry dynamics are quite different. There are
factors – like long hours at work, work-family imbalance, sedentary nature of the job, need to stay continuously
ahead of the learning curve in one’s domain – that make it quite stress-prone.
Of course, the positives include a fairly lucrative pay (which means that you can achieve your lifestyle goals
faster), and a learning environment (grey cells are constantly active).
A combination of these may push IT professionals to move out of their first IT careers faster, especially if they
had not chosen the field based on their passion. After having achieved their lifestyle goals, they may want to try
other careers at a fairly younger age.
Would you like to list a few telltale signs of an IT professional going through the pangs of the mid-life
career phase?
Fatigue at work, job hopping, falling ill frequently could be some. These are particularly
specific to the IT industry as they are direct outcomes of the factors stated in the previous
answer.
While in the initial stages, these may not be apparent, as time goes by, these do become
acute. Especially around mid-life, if these signs appear, then it is most definitely a signal
that the person needs a shift. The problem they will, however, face is that they will
hardly find an option that would match their pay/lifestyle needs. So, exiting around
mid-life may also become a challenge for an IT professional if one goes by just salaries
and pay.
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2012
What can IT companies do to help employees manage the mid-life career phase?
Nothing much, except to be aware that such a thing can happen, and plan for attrition and replacement
accordingly. Also, having a mentor internally may help as they can recognise the signs early and talk the
employee through this crisis. The HR department plays a crucial role in all this – as training and developing a
new employee is always more difficult than retaining an existing one.
Do women professionals in IT tend to handle the mid-life career phase differently than the men do?
Well, women, if married, may not be the only breadwinner in the family; that takes off a lot of pressure from
them in terms of providing financial stability to the family. In such cases, they may take a break from their
career.
If they are not married, given the specific dynamics of the industry, they may decide to stay single for a longer
time – till such time their career goals are met.
Also, women are tuned to multitasking more than men are, which would enable them to deal with the stress at
workplace better.
Considering the demand for domain expertise in the IT industry, do you see people shifting to IT from
other sectors, as a mid-life career choice?
IT is a tough one to break into, during mid-life, as domain expertise is needed. Also, around mid-life people
tend to get back to their first love in terms of career choices. And if IT has not featured in your interest area
before, then it is too competitive an industry for a novice to start off at mid-life. Hence, it is quite unlikely that
demand for IT as a first-time mid-life career option will emerge.
Your suggestions to IT professionals in their mid-life phase on the steps they can follow when making
their next career choice?
First of all, enter any industry after understanding your passions and strengths as much as possible. And this
applies to IT as well. In IT, given the high salary and perks, people tend to overlook their own fitment into the
industry. And this catches up with them later, during mid-life.
Second, be aware of such a trend. Talk to seniors in your own company, especially those who exit, to understand
why they are doing so. This will give you some pointers on how to handle your career in the light of the
challenges you may face later.
In case you are evaluating a career change, you may want to do the following:
Make a list of things you always wanted to do; and act on them to understand them better. Acting is important
as it gives you a real-life flavour of what may or may not work for you as an individual. Only by experiencing
it, you can get a feel of whether it can be a career option for you. For instance, if you have always wanted to be
a teacher, enrol in a nearby school or college for taking part-time classes. You will get exposed to aspects in the
job other than just ‘teaching’.
Study your parents and their hobbies. Many times, our parents’ unfulfilled /latent interests happen to be our
predominant passion areas. For example, one of my friends took up writing as her second career only to realise
that she was taking forward her father’s unrealised ambition of becoming a writer himself.
Look at your own childhood for any deep-impact areas. These are definitely indicative of where your heart
may be. Another friend of mine, for instance, was always taken in by sports during school, but was never
allowed to pursue it full-time due to academic pressures. But now that he is independent, he has started a sports
academy to train schoolchildren.
List aspects of your jobs till date that you have really enjoyed doing. This is very doable. All of us have areas
that we have really enjoyed at work, and these need to be taken forward in our next careers. For example, if
communication is something you enjoy, then your next career needs to have several doses of that.
2012
33
Overall, view all of this with a sportsman spirit. After all, our career journey is supposed to give us an idea of
who we are as individuals.
InterviewsInsights.blogspot.com
Fatigue at work, job hopping, falling ill frequently ... around mid-life, if these signs appear, then it is most
definitely a signal that the person needs a shift ... however, they will hardly find an option that would match
their pay/lifestyle needs.
(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated June 13, 2011)
Ms. Rajeshwari,
Head of Marketing,
Retail and International Business Management,
Chennai Business School.
Calendar of eWIT Events for
the year 2011–2012
eWIT Fifth Anniversary – May 3, 2011
eWIT conducted its 5th Anniversary event on May 3, 2011 at Hotel Savera between 5pm and 8pm. The theme
of the event was ‘Women in IT – Men’s Perspective’.
Mr. Raju Venkatraman, Managing Director & CEO, MEDall Health Care Pvt. Ltd., the first speaker, spoke about
the women who have played a role in his life – mother, teacher and manager. These were the people who had
groomed him and influenced him. According to Mr Raju Venkataraman, women are born leaders. They excel
in decision making. Despite being emotional, their decision making is well grounded. At the top positions,
the number of women is very small whereas the number steadily increases down the pyramid. A key reason
for this, in Raju’s opinion is that women do not want to apply themselves in roles of greater responsibility as
they are hesitant to come out of their comfort zones and do not express themselves adequately, due to fear of
being perceived as too aggressive or rigid. Mr Raju gave some examples from his experience, which led to the
formation of this opinion.
The five most important traits/skills that a woman should possess to be successful are – Courage, Honesty,
Energy, Clarity and having an edge over others.
After this Dr. Santosh Babu, MD of ELCOT released the souvenir. Representatives from sponsor companies –
Excelacom Technologies and Mahindra Satyam – received the first copies of the souvenir. Ms. Rajini Reddy,
General Secretary, eWIT thanked the sponsors of the souvenir.
Mr Sanjay Kalra, Entrepreneur at large, had shared opinions from social media users on the women workforce
and shared some of the responses in the forum. Some responses about how men perceive working women
indicated that women are generally perceived to be nurturing, possessing inner strength, good multitaskers
and placing attention to detail. Women leaders are perceived to possess a keen eye for customer satisfaction
and delivery timeliness, besides being diligent, sincere, intuitive and hardworking, which makes them good
leaders in execution. He also feels that both masculine and feminine approaches to leadership are expected at
such high positions and men and women, respectively, must learn to balance these qualities as they ascend the
corporate ladder.
Mr Ravishankar, Sr. Vice President Human Resources, HCL Technologies, shared some of his experiences with
respect to the challenges he faced in recruiting women workforce. He stated that stereotyping of the working
woman was done mostly by women rather than men. He shared the example of recruiting a woman executive
in the HR department of one of his former companies in the manufacturing sector, amidst much apprehension
from his senior management. He acknowledged that, contrary to general belief, the presence of this woman
executive in meeting actually begot very responsible and courteous behavior from generally unruly union
leaders. He spoke about the policy of reasonable accommodation introduced in his company, which allowed
certain flexibilities for women, which were necessary due to legitimate reasons such as pregnancy or child care.
For the rest of the cases, Ravishankar advocated the adoption of gender neutral policies in organizations. In his
opinion, policies must be equitable and it is important not to send out a wrong message that women employees
always need more favorable treatment than men employees, to the extent that the benefits are misused.
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Mr David Nallathambi, Sr. Vice President & Head HR, Scope International, expressed delight over the fact that
the cause of women empowerment has over the years transcended beyond fundamental issues facing women.
He was happy to address a group that was already empowered to a large extent. He reiterated that while many
organizations have made significant headway in addressing issues related to employing women, it is important
to be cognizant of the fact that in several organizations, these are still pressing issues including safety, sexual
harassment and work-life balance. He was optimistic that today, there is a greater level of acceptance of women
working, and men, especially of the younger generation, are getting more comfortable with working with and
reporting to women colleagues. Acknowledging that as an extremely positive trend, Nallathambi believes that
the day is not far off when men in the families too start extending significant support to women’s aspirations
and share the responsibility of excellence in careers. Nallathambi foresees that very soon, gender issues afflicting
women will become a thing of the past.
The talks were followed by a very interesting Q & A session in which many women and men from the audience
raised questions and also commented on the views expressed by the speakers.
Ms. Namagiri, Executive Committee, eWIT, called upon the eWIT Excellence Award 2011 winners to receive
the awards. A representative from CTS, Ms. Meera Vijayaraghavan, Director – Process & Tools Group, sponsors
of the eWIT Excellence award 2011, distributed the prizes to the winners of the competition.
In recognition of the service to the IT/ITES industry Ms. Rajalakshmi was presented a citation. It was read
out to the audience and handed over to Ms. Rajalakshmi by Ms. Sarada, Jt. Secretary, eWIT. Ms Rajalakshmi
thanked eWIT and also spoke briefly about the challenges she faced while working in STPI and also gave some
tips to women on how to empower themselves better.
Representatives from partner organizations of eWIT viz, CSI, SPIN, Prajnya, ICTACT, NASSCOM, STPI were
given mementoes in recognition of their support and help.
Press Meet on releasing research report jointly prepared by eWIT and CSI on ‘Role of Stakeholders in
Increasing the Share and Sustainability of Women from Tier-2, Tier-3 Cities and Rural Areas in IT/ITES’
held on May 10, 2011 at Hotel Benz Park
On 10th May, 2011, a report on ‘Role of Stakeholders in Increasing the Share and Sustainability of Women from
Tier-2, Tier-3 Cities and Rural Areas in IT/ITES’ prepared jointly by Empowering Women in IT (eWIT) and
Computer Society of India (CSI) was released by Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice Chairman of CTS.
Ms Vijayalakshmi Rao, President, eWIT welcomed the audience and explained the need and the basis for
the preparation of the report. She and Wng Cmdr Murugesan, Director-Education, together released the report.
Copies were handed over to Mr Lakshmi Narayanan, Mr Sivakumar, CEO, ICTACT as key representatives
from the industry and academia respectively. Ms Rajalakshmi, ex-Director, STPI was also present.
When Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan spoke he pointed out the following:
33 In today’s scenario, be it departmental stores or any other business, the back office operation is completely
isolated and away from the vicinity of the actual business place. Which means people working on the
supply chain management need not be tied down to a specific location. The drive is more towards
managing back office systems in low cost locations
33 We are in an industry where there are no gender preferences. The placements are driven more on merit
criteria. However, the number in the industry is not equal. The share of women is only about 30% in
ITES industry as against the desired greater proportion.
33 Policies or quota systems imposed on organizations are not going to bring about the desired balanced
state. If the growth has to be sustainable it has to be natural.
33 There have been real case scenarios that provide enough evidences of discrimination in the industry.
For Eg. The Interviewing processes. The panel that visits the collegesare predominantly men.
33 Industry must strive to make the work place non-discriminatory and ensure the environment is
conducive for all groups to work in.
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33 It is purely by elimination of discrimination and creating a conducive environment visibly, that
organizations can put in place a sustainable model. However, if there are certain gender specific issues
like maternity because of which certain policies are warranted, then they need to be taken care of.
He closed the speech by congratulating eWIT and CSI on bringing out the report.
Mr. Shivkumar of ICTACT congratulated eWIT and CSI and mentioned that statistics showed that in the last
decade the number of graduating women engineers have doubled but this is not reflected in the number of
women seeking employment or continuing their careers in industry. NASSCOM’s data says – the bottom of the
pyramid has 46% of diversity but the numbers come down substantially while we move up the pyramid. It is
in addressing these gaps that reports such as the eWIT-CSI report will come in handy. He offered to help in
disseminating the inform
Ms. Rajalakshmi generally spoke about the prevalent issues for women and how these issues need to be
addressed at every level starting from the individuals at home.
Copies of the report were then distributed to representatives from the press. The report was also mailed to all the IT
Secretaries throughout India. Those who would like to get a copy of the report may approach eWIT.
Role Model Series – 24th June 2011 – Ms. Rajeshwari Victor
Hosted by Exemplarr, Ms. Rajeshwari started with her family background where she was brought up like a boy
rather than a girl and talked about her schoolings and college where she was a consistent topper in academics.
Then she went on to talk about her successful and rich career in Sales for 15 years.
When she talked about her career she explained how she managed home and work. She felt that one should not
let the ambition take over when managing home or vice versa and should balance both home and career well.
Also women should start making choices/prioritize while balancing home.
When she briefed how she shifted her career from Sales to Teaching, she said she went and met people who
shifted their career from corporate to entrepreneurship, politics, childhood passion, sports, social service,
teaching, etc. which triggered her to write a book called ‘My Life My Choice’. She said while choosing career
it is good to look at the aspect of field in which we will fit in. She said she took up a self assessment test by
Marcus Buckingham before shifting her career which guided her to teaching line. She also said she had reasons
for taking up teaching i.e., to utilize her strengths in academics & communication & sufficient time she can
spend at home as well.
She suggested women should not give up after a road block and think positively about what they are good at.
She said women should believe that they can have both family and career and it is good to network with people
of both genders.
She concluded saying ‘It’s Your Life and It’s Your Choice’.
The speech was well received and the audience took part actively in the Q&A section of the session.
The evening was called to an end by Ms. Rajalakshmi of Cenza after presenting a Vote of Thanks.
Knowledge Sharing event with Medall –
9th July 2011 – ‘How to say no’
The event was conducted at eWIT at Madras Boat Club from 9am to 12nn. This was a half-day program
with Medall Behavioral Health Services which serves and solves the health related challenges of its customers.
Dr. Raja Roy Choudhury, Sr. Vice President (Behavioral Health & Corporate Services) conducted the program.
The program started with Ms. Vijayalakshmi Rao, President, eWIT giving an intro of eWIT. She further introduced
Medall and Dr. Raja to the audience.
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Dr. Raja brought out many anecdotes from his real life experiences to make the audience understand how
the work and family could be balanced. He stressed Understanding and Communication aas the biggest tools
while managing the work and family. He gave a brief presentation on how to say NO in different situations. He
pointed out that saying ‘No’ is only making the others understand and not to be used as a tool for hurting. In
his presentation he showcased different situations of life faced by some people and asked the audience to come
up with a solution as a person, as an employer, as a persons relative, etc. The session was interactive and well
received.
The program concluded with a thank you note by Ms. Latha Ramesh.
Networking event – August 23, 2011 –
‘Bring out the Entrepreneur in You’
The event was conducted in ISTE Professional Centre, Gandhi Mandapam Road, Chennai 600025. The speakers
of the event were Ms. Hemu Ramaiah, Managing Director, Shop4Solutions Pvt. Ltd. and Dr L.S.Ganesh, Head,
Dept of Management Studies, IIT, Madras.
Ms Hemu Ramaiah insisted on the value that we provide to the customers for sustainable business. She also
elaborated on the risk taking ability that is required in every entrepreneur. The other important aspects that are
required included functional capability or knowledge and understanding of the business problem for which
we are providing the solution. According to her, the 6Es that are critical are: Energy, Expertise, Enthusiasm,
Effort, Empowerment, and Endurance. She also helps new and upcoming entrepreneurs with the necessary
guidance at the relevant check points. She suggested that eWIT can also provide such a platform for women
entrepreneurs as a matter of encouragement and support.
Dr. L S Ganesh focused on cultivating the entrepreneurship in the minds of students from the college days itself.
He also gave the message that networking is important and entrepreneurs need to keep them updated with the
happenings around always. He also believes that there is life beyond all these and we have to look at it in a
holistic manner, especially with the rich culture prevailing in our country. He shared his involvement with few
organizations which offers employment to differently abled people.
Role Model Series – 29th September 2011 – Ms. Chitra Murali, Internal Auditor at Banca Sella, Vice President
of ISACA Chennai Chapter
Hosted by Exemplarr, in this session, Ms Murali gave tips to the younger audience to strike a balance between
home and work. According to her the best way of working parents handling children is to make the children
part of everything at home and talk to them regularly and explain what parents are doing.
She stated that by doing what one likes the most is the greatest stress reliever!. And her stress buster is
ISACA!!
She also gave tips on time management and relationship management. She concluded saying women should
make use of their multi-tasking ability to achieve in any field.
Knowledge Sharing event – 10th December, 2011 – visit to
ExNoRa Founder Mr. Nirmal’s Flat at Koyambedu
eWIT, this time, organized an unique event on growing plants in flats and offices. It took its members to Mr. M
B Nirmal’s flat at Koyambedu where he has developed State of Art City Farming.
He gave a brief presentation on how the kitchen wastes are transformed into composite and used as manure
for plants. In his PPT he showed the plants, grassland, trees that ExNoRa developed and is maintaining around
Vellore Mahalakshmi Temple. He also explained how the house hold wastes are segregated into papers, plastics,
glasses, vegetable wastes and non-veg wastes and disposed suitably. He also showed the different types of
38
2012
planting in different format like, hanging plants, Terrace Garden, Gate Garden, Compound Wall Garden, Balcony
Garden, Sky farming, Vertical farming, Rack method, etc.
He took the visitors around his flat and showed the plants that are being grown. He also took the visitors to a
garden that is being developed and maintained by him and his people. He also said ExNoRa is ready to help
people/organizations who are interested in getting advice on planting trees, waste management, garbage removal,
etc. The session was very interactive and visitors raised many questions which were cheerfully answered by Mr.
Nirmal.
Role Model Series – 3rd February, 2012 – Ms. Jennifer
McIntyre, Consul General, US Consulate, Chennai
Ms. Radhika Chandrashekar, senior leader of RR Donnelley was the host interacting with Ms. McIntyre. Her
informal yet well-versed questions covered a gamut which included her subject’s early career, distinctive cultural
experiences and her unique India perspective. The Consul gladly shared details from her personal life and career
experience. Amongst the more memorable anecdotes of the session was Ms.MacIntyre telling of her very first
diplomatic post in Azerbaijan as Vice-Consul, where even after introducing herself and saying that she had an
appointment with this local leader, the staff told her that they were waiting for someone ‘important’ from the US
to meet the leader and the she had to wait without even realizing that it was her that the leader has been waiting
to see. Obviously, they were expecting a male diplomat. Other accounts from the Consul General included both
humorous accounts of her childhood growing up with several siblings and her almost karmically intentioned
foray into the Foreign Service.
Far from being gendered, both Ms. McIntyre and Ms. Chandrashekar discussed how it was important to deal
with work with equanimity and efficiency, on a case to case basis, as opposed to approaching any problems,
both in the capacity of a supervisor and an individual contributor, without pre-conceived notions. Posed with
the question of many women facing the proverbial glass ceiling at the workplace, the Consul explained how
even the US Foreign Service’s inclusion of women was a consequence of a lawsuit and touched on the issue
of ‘reservation’ in India. The hard work and extensive travel that Ms McIntyre has put in to her career shone
through. Her words of wisdom for the women managers were to (1) Network in various forums that are not
only set up for women but also where men participate and (2) Make sure that people around you know that
you mean business and set their expectations of you early on.
Networking event – 17th February 2012 –
Flight or Fight – Should I hang on?
The event was hosted by Ford Technology Services. This packed Event had representatives from Cognizant,
Infosys, Polaris, Scope e Knowledge, Exemplarr Worldwide in addition to many from Ford.
The First speaker – Ms. Smita Venkatraman enacted real life scenarios about how a young mother feels when
caught between work and family. She explained how she manages her work and maintains good relations with
in-laws, which leads to forming a support system for her child while she is away at work. She also said that she
balances between her maternal & paternal so that they get equal time with their grandchild and at the same time
neither feel they are being take advantage of.
Ms. Indira Jagan spoke about her marriage and the challenges she faced after marriage, in India & the US to
continue her career. She related how the feelings could create a vacuum, especially when you are in another
country on a dependant visa. The steps she took to combat boredom and her journey to becoming a partner in
her husband’s IT firm. Perseverance was the key taking up a career despite the constraints faced.
Ms. Sabita spoke what it takes to fight and climb up the ladder. She enlightened the audience on the need to
express and voice out our thoughts, make others see the point and climb on. She stated that about how women
make excellent managers, only they need to be aware of their potential and stop feeling guilty about time spent
2012
39
away from family. She also insisted that women should forget that they are women when they approach career
challenges.
Common points:
33 Be sure to build support system around you in order for you excel
33 Don’t give up, continue working whatever happens
33 Learn to say no rather than struggle under a pile of work in an attempt to oblige people
The event was well received by all attendees and they actively participated in Q&A.
Ms. Ramya from Ford related her experiences. Her tale was very touching as she related events of her first child’s
death, and loss of her her mother before second twins were born. She spoke about how she learned to gain the
support of her mother-in-law and successful able to pursue her work also. Above all, she was extremely grateful
and recognized how helpful Ford had been during the person strains that she faced. Her message was fight
whatever problems that come in your way & you will be a stronger person.
Gender inclusivity event – March 8, 2012 – Women
Leaders in a Gender Just Workplace
This event was conducted at Cognizant for their employees of CTS where CTS gave opportunity to eWIT to
identify appropriate leaders to talk on this event. eWIT identified all the external speakers for the event. The
speakers of the event were Ms. Sheela Rani who spoke on ‘Why do we need Women Leaders?’; Ms. Preeta Reddy
spoke on ‘How can women empower themselves by improving their personality and wellness quotient’, Ms.
Hemu Ramaiah, ‘How can women be more innovative, do things differently and yet be effective leaders’, Ms.
Abigail Aronson from the US Consulate spoke on ‘How can women become global leaders?’.
Knowledge Sharing event – March 22, 2012 – Meeting with
Dr. Sandhya Shekhar, Chief Executive Officer of IIT Madras
Research Park
The meeting was conducted at the conference hall of IITM Research Park in Taramani.
Dr. Sadhya Shekhar explained with passion on how IIT’s dream came into life with the setting up of this
research park. The complex is located very near Tidel Park on about 10 acres and has over 5 lakhs sq ft of office
space. The research park was mainly started to create the ecosystem for R&D, where companies can get the
deep knowledge and research experience of the IIT faculty and the enthusiasm of the IIT students and quickly
bring out their ideas into market. Sectors like IT, Automobile, Bio Medical, Engineering, etc. have set up their
R&D centre in the park. There are also small incubation centers for the smaller startups/entrepreneurs. The
Research Park gives space to these companies with a research focus in the park and helps these entrepreneurs
by providing assistance through the expertise available at IIT Madras.
Disclaimer: The articles provided in this souvenir represent the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of eWIT. eWIT, its members,
or staff shall not be held liable for any damages, claims, liabilities, or any costs that may arise from the use or misuse of the material contained
in this souvenir.
Software Productivity Metrics
IT Industry is matured over last forty years. In recent years IT budget cuts for
industries across the globe combined with business agility compels organizations
(Clients as well as Suppliers) to opt for technical and economically viable solution.
This in turn compels them to use software sizing metrics to measure size of the
system being developed and the efforts invested and hence productivity. Though
there are twenty odd metrics prevalent in software world for sizing, most of those
are experimental and lack historical data. Some of the popular ones are Use Case
points, Object Points and Story Points.
Function point metric (developed by International Function Points User GroupIFPUG) is probably the most widely accepted metric across industries and
approved by organizations like ISO.
There are variants of function point metrics like feature points, full function
points, 3D function points, COSMIC function points etc., but most widely accepted metric is IFPUG function
points, because it takes into account almost all phases in typical software development. IFPUG function points
proves technique for computing large database availability on trend analysis enhances its adoptability.
Quality of system being developed is closely linked to the productivity in IT industry (like any other industry).
If quality improves (e.g. defect density decreases per unit of measure of sizing metric say function points) then
number of function points delivered to customer will be more for same amount of efforts invested by project
OR less efforts will be required to deliver desired number of function points hence productivity ratio i.e. Output
(deliverables in terms of FP) divided by Input (Efforts in time unit) will look better and hence productivity will
be improved. Productivity measure is useful for determining range of delivered function points based on domain,
technology, platform for various systems delivered in past by an organization. It can be also used for analyzing
and comparing productivity among project teams, departments, delivery units etc., within an organization. This
further can be used to take corrective action in respective areas for productivity improvement in future. It helps
in predicting coding defects, number of test cases (for all types of testing including unit testing, system testing,
acceptance testing), defect potential and re-plan accordingly.
Sizing using IFPUG function points helps to compute efforts required for the project, elapsed project duration
and hence predicting size of project team. This helps to develop schedule for the project. In addition to this
it helps determine user documentation, defects per FP in individual phases of development. It also helps
predicting possible bad fixes and team size required for maintenance projects. Below are few metrics which can
be derived based on IFPUG Function Points:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Defect Potential, # Test Cases
Volume of Project and User Documentation
Rate of Delivery (# Hours required to develop Function Point)
Quality (Defects per 100 Function Points)
Productivity ( #FP per unit time period)
Cost per Function Point
Platform/Technology based productivity
Benchmarking (Internal/External)
2012
41
Advanced software metrics like function points takes into account all aspects of software development including
project management and can be predicted from requirements phase; (unlike earlier LOC-Lines of Code metric
which can be measured only after ‘coding phase’). Function Points – guesstimate can be used to give rough
costing to customer for economical viability before signing contractual terms and conditions. This helps
easier administration of the contract. The terms of contract may need inclusion for higher rate for ‘prospective
requirements’ resulting into additional function points in future. The software metrics can be applied to projects
for any business sectors ranging from commercial, MIS, Military to System projects. If the contract with customer
is Fixed Price estimating software size using IFPUG function points helps project manager to decide team size
and optimize it further with increase in productivity with usage of tools and skilled resources.
Though balanced scorecard was not initially developed for software, customer Organizations (including
organizations having their own IT departments) have started using software balanced scorecard for measuring
performance using 4 attributes: Financial, Customer, Business Process and Learning & Growth (Employee) for
measures detailed below:
A. Financial Perspective:
1. Development cost per function point
2. Annual maintenance cost per function point
3. Termination or Cancellation cost per function point for retired projects
B. Customer Perspective:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Number of function points delivered
Number of function points used by role/job title
Customer support cost per function point
Customer reported defects per function point
C. Business Process Perspective:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Application and portfolio size in function points
Rate of requirements creep during development
Volume of development defects per function point
Ratios of purchased function points to custom-developed function points
Ratios of reused function points to custom-developed function points
Annual rates of change of applications or portfolios in function points
Productivity (work hours per function point or function points per staff month)
D. Learning and Growth Perspective:
1. Rate at which users can learn to use software
2. Tutorial and training material volumes
Hence it is necessary for IT consulting firms to predict size and monitor deliverables for continual productivity
improvement using software sizing metric like IFPUG function points.
To summarize IFPUG function points metric if applied appropriately for software sizing will help to analyze and
perform better on key metrics for an organization – Productivity, Quality, Delivery and Cost.
Shrikant Chaphekar,
Principal Quality Consultant, Techmahindra.
Shrikant Chaphekar is currently working as Principal Quality Consultant with Techmahindra. An ITIL and SFIA
certified professional with total 22+ years of experience especially in Programme Management, Business Operations in
reputed IT companies in India and abroad. For last few years led initiatives for major customer account and contributed
in organisationwide training on subjects like Software Productivity, Agile methodology.
Need more Women as Future
Information Security Leaders
It is a clear fact from recent survey findingsthat among the IT specializations,
there are very few women who opt for Information Security. Though there are
no specific reasons cited for this low representation, it is time that the younger
generation would certainly like to explore the abundant opportunities in this fast
growing and challenging IT specialization.
Changing role of Information Security
professional
Information Security industry is very dynamic, challenging and in fact, it takes a
constant effort to stay on top of the changes. Today, manyIT Security professionals
are fixed to the tasks at hand that they fail tocatch up withthe changes in the way organizations are re-defining
Information Security roles. Earlier the role of a Security Engineer was almost always looking for someone with
a focus on Network Security and Security Administration. Basically if someone had a strong understanding of
Network Protocols, OS Hardening, worked with Firewalls and knew how to scan for vulnerabilities (how to
use AVs) – it was good enough. Well those days are over, now the role of Security Engineer is much complex
with numerous areas of specialization like SIEM, Identity and Access Management, Vulnerability Management
and Application Security to name a few. Now organizations are looking for people who have in-depth technical
skillsmatched with appropriate levels of knowledge in risk management. The next generation of security engineers
could be termed as hybrids of hard core “geeks” and business analysts.
We can see a similar change in the role of a Security Architects as well. Earlier, security architects were responsible
for designing security infrastructure and developing the policies and procedures. Though these are still the core
functions, with the introduction of new regulatory and compliance requirements, security architects must ensure
that their solutions are designed to work both from a technical standpoint and also meet regulatory/compliance
objectives. This pretty much implies that security architects have to update their knowledge in specific business
domains. Security architects require the interpersonal and project management skills necessary to be effective
internal consultants. This is especially true when more and more companies are promoting a culture in which
security is not allowed to say no to the business. Security architects have to understand all of the risks of a given
project as well as the risk tolerance of their internal client and then develop solutions which bridge that gap.
A similar trend is evolving in just about every other position or title such as CISOs, Business Continuity
professionals in the InfoSec industry. Today, Information Security is made of three major components – people,
process and technology. In the past, it was easy to focus heavily on one of these three areas. This isn’t the case
anymore. As a career minded security professional it’s more important than ever to develop capabilities that
span the trinity of people, process and technology.
The Information Security field continues to be male-dominated and C-level executives are still men especially in
technology firms. Though we do see women as general managers, vice presidents and middle level positions,more
and more women need to take up leadership role in this field. There arean increasing number of women as CXOs
in India and world over who have demonstrated their capabilities in shouldering responsibilities and delivering
results. This can also be a near term reality in the Information Security field as well.
Many top notch training organizations and certifying bodies have announced women’s scholarships to encourage
women to join this ever growing information security field. An exclusive US-based forum named Executive
Women’s Forum (similar to eWIT) is a home to several prominent executives from Information Security, Privacy
and Risk Management industries. We certainly need to have a similar platform in India as well.
Satish Narayanan,
Satish Narayanan is President & CEO of ForceOne Software Solutions [P] Ltd.
2012
43
6th Anniversary Event
27th April 2012, Hotel Le Royal Meridian, Chennai
The Theme for this Year
‘Women in Leadership-Are we there yet?’
Panel Speakers
Ms. Nirmala Gopalakrishnan,
Head-Training Operations and Process consulting
Hexaware Technologies
Mr. Mohan Narayanaswamy,
Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer
iNautix Technologies India Pvt Ltd.
Ms. Srimathi Shivshankar,
AVP – Diversity and Sustainability
HCL Technologies, Chennai
Mr. Uppili Srinivasan,
Partner & Head Intellect Global Transaction Banking
Polaris Software, Chennai
Moderator
Mr. Sanjay Pinto,
Exec. Director NDTV-Hindu