New Year : 2006 - Jan21

HowManyToGo

The new year has been a roller coster ride for me. It started with frantic/crazy hours of work ( whoever said that the offshoring model works). Well as an onsite project co-ordinator I had to shoulder responsiblity for the project and ensure that it see the light of day. So for starters was awake till 3 am UK time, just to catch folks coming into work at Bangalore. The team is a bit inexperienced so had to handle all their technical questions. My RBS project manager Jim Mallidine has been very cooperative with other project related issues and so has the project BA Brian Rodrigues. So the first week was all slog trying to get the software delivered in by the 3rd. The rest of the week was spent in trying to link up the Java world and the Mainframe components. Had issues with CICS regions not being up, this really put me in a spot of bother since folks at Bangalore weren't able to do any testing.

The link testing environment was finally ready , but was not in time for us to complete Link testing. So had to raise a CR to get this pushed to the 16th to which Jim was happy to oblige. So the next week too was spent in sorting out BLAPI issues and also some data related issues. Finally managed to get the link testing done by the 16th. The week 16-20 was to be spend in Handover testing. After some trouble with Group1 and Documents solutions ( the other components in my application) finally managed to get the handover testing through in flying colours. This means a lot to me as I was involved in the project right for conceptualising to final delivery of the project , doing this with all the difficulties I faced technically and managerially makes is very sweet. I think that my relationship with Jim has helped sometimes dilute a potentially explosive situation especailly with those CRs with no costs.

Well, the year to date has been very gratifying in every sense of the term. I am happy that I've sailed pass through probably the last few "challenges" the software world has to offer to me. This leads me very easily to my next topic of significance. My B-school applications. I've had some good resposes from some US B schools, but I feel that strategically India holds much promise. So I might be spending my next fews years in INDIA.

To break the suspense, I have been offered admission to ISB , class of 2007, which I have accepted ( incidentally I've just transferred my acceptance deposit a few hours ago). The prospect of being at ISB is very exciting. Have seen Bharani's blog and am very impressed with LIFE@ISB. I hope to be more regular with my blog henceforth.

Today being a saturday, none of my flat mates ( Akhil agrawal, Debarshi Das and Om Prakash Kesari ) are up. So am the early bird today. Intend to begin my shopping spree today. Need to get myself a Laptop, Camcorder, Digi Cam and some other gadgets. So lots of exciting things to write / discuss over the next months/years !

Wish you all have a very good saturday as I am hoping to have.

HMTG.