The Axis Technical Group Blog

So many brains have spent so many brain cycles on this very single puzzle- the right project metric. In simpler terms a measurement method that determines if the project is on track through the life of the project.  Each individual in the group of the ‘stake holders’ and a few outside it has keen interest in the value that this metric delivers. But what is the right metric? We can probably get a couple of hundred finalists and this can easily overwhelm an already burdened project manager. Leaving the right exact single solution to people from the world of academia we still need to find the right substitute as we await the golden answer.

Experience speaks that that there is one single metric which many high performing managers on the ground swear by and that is (thanks to Ron Jeffries) “Running Tested Features” or RTF. This is a simple common sense approach that tries to capture where the project is in terms of its ‘shipability’. Though using this metric in the polarized worlds of waterfalls, Agiles and others, can be a bit tricky, understanding the concept behind the metric often does the trick.

The focus on delivering “real software” is the gist. Right from the word go the team would need to focus on delivering the real features that the end users can actually use. As long as this number is steady in its growth it can be safely assumed that all is well with the project. Any “dead zone” would indicate trouble and would need immediate attention. The team will have to be consistent in the delivery throughout the project and not just at the end as with most of the projects.

What do you think about RTF?
Does it work? Is it possible to game it?

Please post your comments. We are eager to hear back from you.

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Enjoy another post in our series on India….

You cannot run away from it anymore. “Just for calculation sake” statements are just not acceptable now. Contrary to the popular usage, 20 US dollars is not equal to 1000 Indian rupees. Gone are the good old days when multiplying by 50 worked. The math is just not simple anymore. The rupee hits a 19-month high against dollar today. I get just 44 rupees and 95 paisa for 1 Good Dollar.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20100327/1238/tbs-rupee-hits-18-month-high-as-euro-wei.html

With more turbulence expected in the next few months, the lows and the highs are going to be a key concern for IT exporters with most of the revenue coming from the US.  By now the ups and downs have become a part of the game and most of the corporations are well versed with it. The real concern is with the individuals who spend and probably earn money in different currencies and thus have a higher “Risk Exposure”. How does it change the personal money equation?  The humble Purchasing Power Parity equations does not seem to work and considering the Big Mac index (http://www.economist.com/markets/bigmac/) things get even more convoluted. The Big Mac index interestingly measures the purchasing power with the fair value benchmark of price of a Big Mac.  In the multi currency world one is not sure where will the next Big Mac (Or Maharaja Mac in India) purchase (if ever) be!

Leaving all the mix aside, this sure means happy time to go shopping from India (if not shop for burgers online!).

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Today Axis continues its look at the home of our India Operations….

That’s India for you! A Land of Many Cultures

In a country as diverse and complex as India, it is not surprising to find that people here reflect the rich glories of the past, the culture, traditions and values relative to geographic locations and the numerous distinctive manners, habits and food that will always remain truly Indian. According to five thousand years of recorded history.

From the eternal snows of the Himalayas to the cultivated peninsula of far South, from the deserts of the West to the humid deltas of the East, from the dry heat and cold of the Central Plateau to the cool forest foothills, Indian lifestyles clearly glorify the geography. The food, clothing and habits of an Indian differ in accordance to the place of origin.

Indians believe in sharing happiness and sorrow. A festival or a celebration is never constrained to a family or a home. The whole community or neighborhood is involved in bringing liveliness to an occasion. A lot of festivals like Diwali, Holi, Id, Christmas, Mahaveer Jayanthi are all celebrated by sharing sweets and pleasantries with family, neighbors and friends. An Indian wedding is an occasion that calls for participation of the family and friends.

Ethnically Indians speak different languages, follow different religions, eat the most diverse varieties of food all of which add to the rich Indian culture. The beauty of the Indian people lies in the spirit of tolerance, give-and-take and a composition of cultures that can be compared to a garden of flowers of various colors and shades of which, while maintaining their own entity, lend harmony and beauty to the garden – India!

The land speaks in a myriad languages:

India is a land of a variety of linguistic communities, each of which share a common language and culture. Though there could be fifteen principal languages, there are hundreds of thousands dialects that add to the vividness of the country.

Eighteen (18) languages are officially recognized in India of which Sanskrit and Tamil share a long history of more than 5,000 and 3,000 years respectively. The population of people speaking each language varies drastically. For example Hindi has 250 million speakers, while Andamanese is spoken by relatively fewer people.

Tribal or Aboriginal language speaking population in India may be more than some of the European languages. For instance Bhili and Santali both tribal languages have more than 4 million speakers. The vividness can be ascertained by the fact that schools in India teach more than 50 different languages; there are Films in 15 languages, Newspapers in 90 or more languages and radio programs in 71 languages!

Indian languages come from four distinct families, which are: Indo-European, Dravidian, Mon-Khmer, and Sino-Tibetan. Majority of Indian population uses Indo-European and Dravidian languages. The language families divide India geographically too.

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Axis Technical Group is a global company with offices in the US, Mexico and India. Starting today, we are going to share some blog posts introducing the city of Pune, India, where our office is located. So sit back and and enjoy reading our first post, “Pune – A Melting Pot of Cultures.”

Pune - A Melting Pot of Cultures

Pune city is well known as the ‘Queen of Deccan’ due to its scenic beauty and rich natural resources, and famous for its religious and historical places. It is known on the world map for its educational, research and development institutions. The district also has an importance as an important military base and famous IT hub in the country. Pune’s proximity to Mumbai, the financial capital of India, makes it an attractive destination for many a corporates.

Culture:

Pune exemplifies an indigenous Marathi culture and ethos, in which education, arts and crafts, and theatre are given due prominence. It is the home of great freedom fighters like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Agarkar and Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Jayant Narlikar, the famous contemporary scientist, is from Pune.

Pune is the seat of North Indian Classical music. Annually, in the month of December, it hosts a three nightlong cultural program of vocal and instrumental classical music, called “Savai-Gandharva”. Pune has been an example for the blending of the culture and heritage with modernisation. With the Pune festival, Osho Commune International and other cultural festivals, Pune is indeed the cultural capital of the Maharashtra.

Today, Pune is known for its educational facilities, having more than a hundred educational institutes and nine universities. Additionally, Pune is known for various cultural activities like Classical Music, Spirituality, Drama, Sports, Literature, Foreign language learning and Administrative, Economics, Social Science studies. The city is an educational hub and a corporate haven, attracting talent across the globe.

Economy:

As one of the largest cities in India, and as a result of its many colleges and universities, Pune has emerged as a prominent location for Information Technology (IT) and manufacturing companies. Pune has the sixth largest metropolitan economy and the highest per capita income in the country.

The automotive sector is prominent in Pune. It is home to the Automotive Research Association of India, which is responsible for the homologation of all vehicles available in India. Several automotive component manufacturers like TATA Autocomp Systems Limited, Robert Bosch GmbH, Visteon, and Continental Corporation are also located here. Other automotive companies including General Motors, Volkswagen and Fiat have set up greenfield facilities near Pune, citing it as India’s “Motor City”.

The Hinjawadi IT Park (officially called as the Rajeev Gandhi IT Park), is a project undertaken by MIDC to promote the IT sector in Pune. Major software companies in Pune include Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, TCS, Cognizant, Tech Mahindra, IBM and the likes.

Check back soon for the next blog post about India, titled “Rupee High”

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Many people attribute rising costs in any industry, and especially healthcare, to technology. But in reality, technology in healthcare seems to be driving healthcare costs UP. Is that really the case?

In nearly every sector of the economy, technology drives costs down – just as your digital camera gets cheaper and better every year, so technology drives down the cost of manufacturing, the cost of retailing, the cost of research. But for some reason, in healthcare, technology has the opposite effect; it doesn’t cut costs, it raises them. In fact, medical technologies – from CT scans to stents to biologics – are a significant factor in the 10% annual growth rate of healthcare spending, a rate that’s nearly triple the pace of inflation. (Overall, the US is now estimated to spend a stunning $2.7 trillion on healthcare in 2010.)

When you look closer however, some healthcare companies (including insurance companies) are using technology to improve care and service, while driving costs down.

In the world of insurance and care providers, some folks already understand this, and are way ahead of Washington policy makers in tapping cheap technologies to improve healthcare. In Hawaii, Kaiser Permanente has started a pilot project that churn through its database of patient data to predict which patients might need which tests – and then sends individuals email alerts suggesting they come in for a test or checkup. It’s the same sort of technology that Netflix uses to recommend movies. And the Cleveland Clinic has teamed up with Microsoft to bring self-monitoring tools to patients managing chronic diseases, successfully engaging them in better health behaviors without expensive visits to the hospital.

Axis Technical Group is working closely with its clients in the healthcare sectors designing, developing and implementing solutions that ultimately will push costs down, while more importantly, providing better, quicker and more interaction with primary and secondary care givers. From patient and doctor portals, to systems that predict the kinds of tests and precautionary measures individuals need, healthcare technology is leading the way to true reform in the industry.

Click here to read the entire article about technology and costs in healthcare.

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The following is an excerpt from Axis Technical Group’s free report titled, “Outsourcing – Critical Factors for Success”. The entire report can be downloaded for free by clicking here.

The realities of today’s economy demand that companies large and small “do more with less”. This rallying cry is familiar to everyone in the business world, and in many cases, the recent stability in the marketplace is in large part because organizations have successfully found ways to make every dollar they spend truly count. However, technology executives are continuously faced with new challenges to ensure that their company’s critical systems can keep up with the objectives of the business.

Dramatic shifts in revenue streams over the last couple of years have forced management to cut costs by becoming more efficient and productive. Huge demands have been placed on Information Technology departments and vendors to provide solutions that streamline process and demonstrate extreme cost effectiveness. Whatever the solution is for a particular or industry, the demand to reduce cost through automation is extremely high on the to-do list of most organizational leaders in every industry. Given the financial impact on a business by failing at this, the urgency to accomplish key technology objectives as quickly as possible places additional pressure on what is usually already an understaffed IT department.

These challenges combined with shrinking IT budgets, are leaving technology leaders with very few options. Generally, their choices boil down to just two: use fewer resources, or do more with the current resources they have. One way many IT leaders have found they can get more done within their current budget constraints is to outsource a portion of their work to a near shore or offshore IT partner. Outsourcing vendors provide a wide range of services from custom software development and maintenance of existing enterprise applications to Business Analysis, software Quality Assurance, and Documentation, all the while being sensitive to organizational budgets.

Click here to download the entire free report or email us and we will reply with a copy.

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Recently, a bill was introduced to the US Senate that proposes a new type of visa for immigrants who create start up companies and as such, create jobs. (Click to read more about the bill). While a similar bill had previously been introduced in the House of Representatives as part of an immigration reform bill, this new bill, brought to the Senate by Democrat John Kerry and Republican Richard Lugar has already stirred a contentious debate.

On one side of the carpet, anti-immigration supporters are loudly protesting such a bill saying it is taking away opportunities for Americans, while many supporters of the Bill feel that if such immigrants start businesses that create American jobs and help the economy, then they should be welcome with open arms.

The Visa issue as a whole has been and continues to be a very important topic for the IT Industry in particular, as it is a key component (or at least a key topic of discussion) for every company’s IT strategy.

What side of the debate are you on? Axis Technical wants to hear from you, so please post your comments below and help be a part of a valuable discussion on the subject.

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There is a new home for the Axis Technical Group Blog in cyberspace: www.axistechnical.com/blog.

Hosting our own blog will allow for greater flexibility and access to our team of global professionals. We will be experimenting with different themes & skins for the blog in the coming weeks, so we welcome your comments and suggestions.

Be sure to mark the Axis Blog a favorite in your feed, and check back often. We are planning new streams of content in topics ranging from technology trends and breakthroughs, to our take on the market (in parts and whole), and will continue to provide tips to professionals seeking work in the IT industry.

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As the State of California continues to face choking financial pressure with a huge budget deficit, new ideas are constantly being floated around Sacramento. The latest however would not only affect California’s blue-collar resources, but would hit home hard in the service industry, from Lawyers to CPA’s to IT Professionals.

According to this article in the Ventura County Star, politicians in the Capital are,

“advocating tax withholding on payments to independent contractors (1099) as a way to boost state revenues by $1.7 billion.”

What do you think about about Sacramento’s proposal and will it really help close the state’s budget crisis? Share your thoughts here, or by email.

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If you are looking for a new job, or have in the last few years, then you surely have been to countless job sites. A couple of the biggest, Monster.com and Yahoo! Hot Jobs are now one in the same, according to this article from TechCrunch.com.

Yahoo has been trying to unload HotJobs for a while, and it finally came to a deal with Monster, which will take the site off of Yahoo’s hands for $225 million in cash. As part of the deal, Monster will continue to power Yahoo’s job listings for three years.

What does this mean for job seekers? The answer to that question will likely take some time to be fully realized. As an IT consulting firm, Axis Technical Group regularly provides advice to job seekers, including not to put all of their job-seeking-eggs in one basket. Other than Dice.com, the other job boards have become overrun by various staffing firms, headhunters and the like acting on behalf of companies seeking employees, with the same position often posted by several different firms with a variety of language. This does a disservice to not only the end-employer, but to the job seeker as well. Furthermore, the mentality of the job boards leads to a cattle-round-up mentality, with hundreds of resumes being submitted for each job, and with most of those from people who are unqualified for a particular position.

This commentary is not to say all job sites are bad or worthless. Quite the contrary… some sites like Indeed.com and TheLadders are making strong inroads in this space which will help job seekers. But this is a reminder to all job seekers to diversify your search. Use the job boards, but don’t rely on them. Instead, use your network, whether it be LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter or others to have your friends, family and colleagues get the word out that someone great, you, are seeking a job.

What have your experiences with the various job boards resulted in? Axis would love to hear your feedback. Post a comment below, or Email us here to tell your story.

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