Rahul Goyal rg

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Recent posts by Rahul Goyal rg

Monica. Shiralkar wrote:I am a software engineer in india with around 5 years of experience.My team leader has gone to US and has given me team leader task but i have no experience to be a team leader and managing a team of java developers.Can anyone advice me how to manage this small team of java developers as this is the first time i will do team leader job.I am nervous and tensed because of this.



Hi Monica,

First of all, congratulations! It's great that your manager has the belief that you can handle it, so clearly you have the capability. It's a great opportunity.

Some suggestions for you:
- Establish a sync-up mechanism with your manager in US. Perhaps every week 30 mins, or so. THis will help you re-caliberate and align as required.
- Most basic of lead tasks is MOnitoring and reporting. Get full understanding of the current processes and make sure the mechanisms are being adhered to.
- Keep in touch with whats happening around you and with other team members, so they feel comfortable coming to you just as they would to your manager. Be their Voice across the ocean.

Couple of don'ts:
- Don't Boss. Be humble.
- Allocate time for this extra work.

Hope this helps,
Rahul Goyal
11 years ago

Hi Jitendra,

A good set of questions, and you will find some guidance on many of these in the book. My responses:


>>As you know there are lot many new software engineers in India and most of them would want to become manager after gaining 8-12 years of experience. What you believe does India has potential to take those fresh engineers as managers in future?

Sure, we do. It's already demonstrated and Management development systems are only getting stronger in India. Global exposure is helping.

>>What you believe, how the interview process should be improved to understand the behavioral skills of a new candidate?

The technique being used is behavioral interviews. There's a lot of material available on this, and also touched upon in the book in the chapter on Hiring.


>>What is the change you would like to do in the Indian management style?

I'm not sure, if there's any one Indian Management style. However, if i have to pick one, i would say managers can treat folks more as Adults...empower each team member and let them have more of a free run.

>>Do you believe that subordinates should also be given equal chance to rate their managers?

Yes indeed. How to use that rating is a different issue. Skip level + 360 feedback is used already for this purpose in many organizations. This may include qualitative feedback as well as rating on various parameters. The manager's manager then consolidates and may share the same.

>>While going through the chapter-8-Performance-Eval. I thought that performance eval should be done in 3 months, but actual appraisal+increment should be done yearly. Why 3 months? because this gives manager as well as candidate an idea about the status of the current year goals and one can remember what has been done in last 3 months instead of a year. What's your opinion on this?

I agree with you. 3 months is a good time to review. Besides being fresh to the details, this is a good checkpoint to re-caliberate the path where needed.

>>Some times quality and quantity of work of a candidate gets affected at the time of Attrition. How the manager should handle this?

Yes indeed, this happens fairly often and there are many lever available to a manager which include, cutting the scope, re-distribution of work, borrowing resources, extending timelines or doubling down.
A manager can also analyze the attrition risk associated at the start of the project and manage the same.

>>Manager is a bridge between the subordinates and upper management. I believe this book covers how to manage subordinates, but not covers how to keep upper management happy. Upper management periodically needs the project status in terms of the statistics/reports. Please correct me if I am wrong.

The book focuses on How to Manage and I think, if you manage well, upper management will be happy.

Appreciate your insightful questions!

Thanks,
Rahul.


11 years ago

arulk pillai wrote:I like the first 2. How do you draw the line between being patient and making things happen by changing jobs?



Arul,

A role change can sometime take a while. Besides preparedness of the individual and the opportunity/role needs to exist. Hence the point about patience. Even when one switches a job, it isn't usually easy to get a manager position in the new organization if you aren't already one.

This wait can be frustrating at times and may lead to loss of motivation, which is never a good thing.

Thanks
Rahul
11 years ago

Hi Vijay,

Great Questions! and tough ones to answer.

Vijay Kalkundri wrote:

1) What is that changes that should be brought in the mindset/working way of these 2 community ppl so that each one thinks from anothers anagle and the management of the project/product is a smooth one ?


Some of things that may help: Vision of a common goal & clarity in roles & responsibilities.

If someone can articulate and lay down the 'outcome', what success looks like and how it will be achieved by contributions from each community.
Another is the 'incentives' managers place on collaboration, so engineers and managers are encouraged to collaborate.

Vijay Kalkundri wrote:
2) What should be the quality bechmark for the management before the product goes to market ?



This is very situational and varies highly based on what the purpose of the product is and also the market characteristics where product is to be launched.
For example, Mobile phone apps are fairly easy to build, however, the consumer expectation is very high on initial usage experience. Any application that doesn't work well in first of second try will loose traction very quickly.

Compare that to an online time-reporting tool vs embedded software...

What is perhaps most important is to SET a quality bar at the start of the program that is clearly understood by the development & quality team.

Thanks
Rahul


11 years ago

arulk pillai wrote:If you were to give 3 tips to an experienced developer who would like to get into management, what would that be?



Hi Arul,

Here's an attempt:

1. It's a journey. Invest in developing the skills and warming up to the challenges.
2. Find some role model(s) that you can observe & learn from.
3. Be patient.

Thanks
Rahul
11 years ago

Michael Swierczek wrote:Rahul Goyal,

Thank you for your response. You answered most of the last part of my question. I just personally have a hard time viewing a manager role as more interesting than a developer role. I'm not saying it is easier or less challenging - I believe being a good manager is exceedingly difficult. But while I view the work of a good manager as very valuable and worthwhile, I do not find it to be interesting at all. I view learning these skills as a necessary annoyance. I do my company, myself, and especially my team members a disservice if I am a poor team leader. So it is essential for me to become skilled at it. I just don't enjoy it.




Mike,

You have a great perspective...and I hope you'll start to find the necessary evils less of an annoyance overtime.

Thanks
Rahul
11 years ago

qunfeng wang wrote:I'm a software engineer in China. I think India and China have something in common. I have work experiences both in the company runs by the government and foreign company. The management does work differently. But it's hard to say which is better. The same rule may not work well in different countries. Does your book cover such things?



Hi Wang,

The book does not deal in management styles between 'Govt Vs Private enterprise'.

It would be an interesting topic though.

Thanks
Rahul
11 years ago

Chintan Sanghavi wrote:Thanks Rahul for a wonderful reply.

Just had a further query, I guess perhaps you are the right person to answer :

How do you feel about some sort of "Executive Management" kind of courses conducted by top B-schools in India ?

How much are those courses effective (in terms of those traits you just mentioned in the book), after having substantial years of experience ?
OR do you feel that the theory of - "experience teaches everything" is correct which is typically followed by most of the managers in India, who basically started
their journey from a technical/developer background ?



Hi Chintan,

I think there is great value in understanding the management frameworks and years of research that a B-school teaches. The case studies are particularly interesting.
Personal experiences are fairly limited and any way to expand the management understanding (via education, books, mentoring etc) would be beneficial.

Thanks
Rahul


11 years ago

Hi Arul,

Yes, much of the concepts & paradigms are applicable globally. The book attempts to bring in India specific nuances in that context.

Thanks
Rahul Goyal
11 years ago

Hi Sumeet,

There is always scope to learn management, even in really small teams.

The future is always full of possibilities, and if you wish to be a technical consultant you may work towards it by building the required skills & experience.

Thanks
Rahul Goyal
11 years ago

Hi Erivando,

Interesting question. I'm afraid, i don't know the answer. I have not heard much about about it though.

In general, Home office is not very popular in India, although most IT companies tend to provide the ability to work from home for it;s employees that people use once in a while.

Thanks
Rahul Goyal
11 years ago

Hi Venkat,

I may not be competent to provide the data you are looking for.

I believe, Many global organizations tend to follow the same levels across the globe.

Thanks
Rahul Goyal
11 years ago

Michael Swierczek wrote:Rahul Goyal,

Thank you for taking part in the Java Ranch book giveaway contests.

My main question is, how specific is the advice in your book to India? I looked through the table of contents, and it appears that only the last section of chapter 11 is specific to India. Is that correct? The rest of the book appears to have advice that is globally applicable.



Hi Mike,

Happy to be here!

Much of the concepts/insights are applicable universally too. The book tries to capture India specific nuances for the same and some processes like Campus hiring may be very specific as well.

Michael Swierczek wrote:
I know very little about management, and as someone in a senior developer role ( but not a formal management position ), it is something I should learn. I am very pleased by many of the book's section headings - "Myth: fast moving managers - in a tearing hurry", "Good communications skills - especially listening", "Myth: every problem is my problem to solve", "Team spirit is created by the team and not the manager", "Managers can damage team spirit", "An environment of trust and respect", etc... etc... It matches my own attitude towards managing others, although I am certain you have much more expertise and nuance in your ideas than I have with my general ideas.



I'm glad that you liked these and found common ground.

Michael Swierczek wrote:
I also have a personal question, if you don't mind. I find managing others, even people I trust and respect, to be less enjoyable than tackling technical tasks directly. I would rather be writing a new feature on our software than trying to delegate the work to someone else, even if that person is totally suited to the task. What made you decide to move from a primarily developer role into a management position? Do you get to write code or do system or network administration tasks as part of your job? If not, do you miss that? I like to understand how the writer of a technical book thinks versus the way I think, because I think it helps me approach the subject from their angle.

Thanks for your time,
-Mike



It's great that you know what excites you and what doesn't. You may find Chapter 3. Basic Skills, Traits, and Competencies of a Manager , relevant in this context.
It's also wonderful that the IT industry has a great career path for folks who wish to focus on technical skills more.

Personally, i was always inclined to take on manager-like tasks, even when i was coding full time and chose to work in companies that allowed technical skills to be exercised.

If you step back and look at the following:
- What is the 'best' use of my time & skills for the organization benefit? Is it coding? designing? delegating & monitoring work? ...
Whatever is the answer, it would be the right answer for the organization.

Follow up question would be: Do i enjoy doing that? or am i willing to give it a try? (experiment)

You may find the answer.

PS: I'm not sure i answered the last part of your question. Perhaps you could rephrase and i'll make another attempt.
Thanks
Rahul Goyal








11 years ago

Rogerio Kioshi wrote:



I'm afraid not. It's more about managing people in IT/knowlege industry.

Thanks
Rahul
11 years ago

Chintan Sanghavi wrote:Hi Rahul,

Well, there are so many books, concepts and theories floating around the word "Management".
What do you feel, that makes this book different than the others ?

Looking at the contents, it seems that it's specific to IT.
So, would you please give a short message that how a "coder" or "programmer" can climb the management ladder faster ?



Hi Chintan,

Agree with you about the number of books & theories on Management, there are quite a few out there and i'm sure there's a good reason for these books to be around.
This one is focused on folks in IT industry, on new or soon to be managers in the hope that the readers will find a connect with the theories and fundamentals. Perhaps that's what makes it a little different.

A simple message for aspiring managers: It's a journey! Prepare yourself for it. Continue investing into skills building that help you get there and take initiative to sign up for work that help you build those skills. For example, if you are programmer you may join an initiative around agile adoption in the organization.

If you don't enjoy this kind of work...introspect. The Chapter 3 : Skills, Traits & competencies may be an interesting read in this context.

Thanks
Rahul







11 years ago