Great Quote :How we Learn?

Via post “Learning, Doing and Teaching” on Life 2.0

We Learn…
    10%…of What We Read
    20%…of What We Hear
    30%…of What We See
    50%…of What We See and Hear
    70%…of What We Discuss With Others
    80%…of What We Experience Personally
    95%…of What We Teach Others

- William Glasser

Great Quotes – Getting Power

Power doesn’t come from forcing people to listen to you and coercing them to do what you say (because you have the right title). Nope, real power comes by spreading your passion, giving people a reason to climb your strategic mountaintops and given them permission to shine/grow and Lead Without Title. Be there for people and they’ll be there for you.

- Robin Sharma in post “How to Get Power“

Celebrating conflict

I was about to raise an issue against one of my peers for repeated miscommunications on project with client. I was creating a conflict here – and with an ongoing internal dialogue, I realized that I am not creating a conflict just for the sake of creating a conflict. I need to raise issues/conflicts when something I see can be improved, or something not going in the right direction. Conflicts are our opportunity to grow and improve upon. Conflicts expose weaknesses, conflicts bring out ideas. They enable us to grow one step further in our journey of improvement. Over years, I have seen so many good practices being introduced in the organization just because of conflicts – internal conflicts and even the ones with clients.

Just about the same time, I came across this nice and short piece of blog post from Robin Sharma – “Celebrate Conflict“

He writes -

“Here’s my take on conflict: “Conflict is nothing more than an opportunity for greater growth and a deeper connection.” Every conflict carries within it a chance to learn a powerful lesson and grow as a human being (in your understanding / awareness / perspective). And every conflict – whether with a loved one or a customer – is a gorgeous opportunity to forge an even deeper connection with them. By turning their dissatisfaction into a wow for them.

So don’t run from conflict. No, embrace it. Relish in the potential it carries. Celebrate it. Because, though it can feel messy, in truth it’s a gift.”

Conflicts can be dirty and messy – one of the best strategies to turn a conflict into an opportunity is to have a strong solutions perspective. Instead of blames and confrontations, try to identify the root causes of a conflict and how best they can be addressed. Thinking solutions by breaking the chain of descent into a conflict is perhaps the best way to resolve conflict.

So how do you get into the solutions space by breaking the chain of descent into a conflict ? Do read: “Descent into conflict” – at Clarrus Compedium. Also read a piece I wrote earlier on solutions perspective.

End note:
Blogosphere is magical. The moment you feel you have realized/learnt/explored something – someone out there in blogosphere is working to support your learning, in form of their ideas and posts. Its a great way to push the envelope and take any given topic to new unexplored depths. Long live blogging and long live bloggers!

Testing as an information service

Testing can control quality, but cannot assure it. Quality Assurance, as we know, is much more than just applying tests on the projects – its about choosing, customizing and applying a methodology that is best suited to the project considering  the project scope, complexity, technical risks and many other parameters involved. When we do QA, we think processes.

We associate testing with quality control – but when we do testing, are we really empowered to “control” the quality? After we report bugs, is it in our control to get them fixed? My experience states that the answer is “No”. Even when we do testing, we are not really contolling the quality – we are just reporting the state of application. This belief of mine found a strong support when I read similar views by Elisabeth Hendrickson who thinks of testing as an information service. Here is the snippet from her post Questions and Answers - 

” My new insight was the classic: Testing can tell us about the absence of quality, but cannot ensure it.  I still think that’s true, but that insight doesn’t guide what or how I should test.  It fails to inspire me.  It’s accurate, but not helpful.

My next realization was that Testing is an information service.  Testers provide information that decision makers can use to mitigate risk and make better decisions about software projects.  This insight explains why testers should not be the gatekeepers.  We provide information, not judgment.  We identify and explain risks.  We act as advisors.  We don’t make the news, we report it.  And we shouldn’t ever accept the role of quality police.”

She hits the point when she states,

I now see testing as an information service that answers questions for project stakeholders.  Or, bumper-sticker style: Project stakeholders have questions; testers have answers.

Excellent!

Leadership thoughts..

…via a post on Lisa Haneberg’s blog “Management Craft” based on the book she is working on – “10 Steps to Better Management”. Thanks Lisa, for sharing those wonderful ideas.

Here is key takeaways/learning from the post “Leadership is not a job”

What is leadership? Management is a set of methods and practices – a regimen – that allows us to run a business or a piece of the business. Management is a job. Leadership is not a job; it’s the way we do our jobs.

We ought to be managers all the time and show leadership when it’s needed.

Following our Energies

In the post “In the bad days” Astha Parmar delivers a very strong message –

“Instead of fighting our energy and its direction, if we could learn how to follow it– we would not only discover more of who we are, but also get more done”

At the end of day, people who perform over a long period of time are the ones who have done what they liked - For doing what you like, you need to “know” what you like and what excites you.

Let your work bring out the best in you! Thanks Astha – for that wonderful thought.

Understanding Quality Cost

As we know, building quality into the software involves cost – I came across a detailed and useful article on “Quality Cost” at LogiGear Newsletter.

Author Rob Pirozzi classifies quality costs into four types: Prevention costs, Appraisal costs, Internal failure costs, and External failure costs. For software practitioners and quality professionals, it is very important to know these four categories of quality cost and decide where to invest most of the efforts to see that the other costs are balanced.

Rob also describes the activities that we typically do for each of these quality cost types. According to Rob,

Prevention costs represent everything a company spends to prevent software errors, documentation errors, and other product-related errors.

Appraisal costs include the money spent on the actual testing activity. Any and all activities associated with searching for errors in the software and associated product materials falls into this category.

Internal failure costs are the costs of coping with errors discovered during development and testing.

External failure costs are the costs of coping with errors discovered after the product is released.

Thanks Rob for a detailed article and analysis done.

Ask Right Questions

When working with project teams, it is very important for project managers

to gather information – about project status, about activities, showstoppers, constraints, risks, individual issues and a lot more that goes into project management.

Asking right questions becomes very crucial for a project manager to get the right information. Timing of asking these questions is also equally important. While questions are directed to gather information, it is important that they don’t cut a wrong impression on team members. I realized this when I was in process of asking questions to one of the team members to gather information which client demanded on immediate basis. While questions I asked were right (and helpful), the style of asking questions was slightly aggressive (because I quickly needed the info) - and this lead the team member to believe that I was doubting his work. I had to explicity clarify that the questions were intended to gather information quickly and not to doubt his work or abilities for that matter. I learnt a lesson here – it is important to ask right questions, at the right time and in the right manner to effectively get the other persons views and enable a positive conversation.

According to a post “Asking the right questions to facilitate teamwork” on Stronger Teams Blog:

Questions to ask

• Clarifying questions – those that help ensure a full understanding of topics; essential for all team members to be working with common knowledge for planning problem solving.
• Exploratory questions – emphasize possibilities that have not yet been discussed; enhance teams ability to find creative solutions.
• Why questions – these examine the underlying rationale for actions, processes, or circumstances; useful for problem solving, planning and several other purposes

Are you asking the right questions?

Adding Value through Project Management

I recently attended a small presentation from an executive on project management tools. During the presentation, he asked a question “What according to you is the goal of project management?” – meeting the agreed scope, time, cost, quality, schedules formed the part of answers.

He immediately responded “The goal of project management is to add value – to the organization, to your people and more importantly, to your clients. ” Can’t agree more. When we are customer focused, we continuously strive to add value to our clients business – and when we stop doing that, we are out of business! As project managers, we strive to add value to our people – bring them to a certain level in terms of their skill set and technical proficiency. And when we add value to our customers and value to our people, we automatically add value to the organizations we work for.

Any thoughts to take this further ?