Cached dependancy...

During my interview for the next project, I was asked a question. How would you refresh the UI on a page or a cache as soon as the data in the back end database changes (seems to be a very common interview question these days). The best answer that I could come up with at the spur of the moment was the observer pattern.

Since there is no way that one could send back a signal from the database to an application saying "I have changed", the only thing I could think of at that moment was to implement the subject in the application itself. I thought at that moment that the subject would be something like a windows service that would keep an eye on the database and when the data changes, it would notify all the observers which in turn would either refresh the cache / UI or ask the right component to do so.

I was not convinced though that this is the best solution and did a little research. Well it seems that they have come up with a cleaner solution in ASP.Net 2.0. In fact Dr. Dobb's Jounal had an article about it. ASP.Net 2.0 supplies a class called the SQLCacheDependancy that inherits from the CacheDependancy. Check it out...

http://www.ddj.com/dept/database/191200217?cid=RSSfeed_DDJ_DataBase

Smart People

I have been thinking that it is kinda impossible to work on something intellectually challenging in a consulting company... There are no. of factors that work here. But mostly it is because they treat the product like someone else's product. Like you are driving someone else's car. You would take care of it because you don't want to damage it when you return it. But you wouldn't love it the way you would love your own car that was bought out of your own hard earned money. Usually the focus is on profitability and even though they understand at the higher level of management that quality is going to get them more deals, at the lower levels (tech lead, developer and manager) the focus is mostly on on-time delivery and profitability by faster returns.

Also there is always a dearth of people and so they recruit below par people and then the below par people stick around for so long that they eventually get promoted and since they are promoted and expensive the company wants them to work on high risk and responsible stuff like architectures and management. See where I am going with this...?

What happens in the process is that quality suffers. I have literally heard people ridicule writing test cases in code, saying, "Writing code to test my code is a waste of time. If I have that kind of bandwidth I should write more production code instead".

There is this great article that says that smart people hate non intellectual work. It is extremely difficult to get a smart person do a mundane job. And a smart person doing a stupid job actually makes him stupid. Smart people usually like to work with the best tools and technologies and they like to do something that is intellectually challenging.

For once I would like to work with really smart people on a project that is really intellectually challenging.

I wish I wouldn't test...

Have you ever noticed, as a software project comes to an end, you will see all the developers in the same state. You will see long beards, long faces and long groans... All the developers would be in the same state for one reason. They would be doing the thing that they hate the most. Testing. The QA team would be breathing down upon their necks, the client would bebreathing down upon the necks of the delivery guys / engagement manager, there would be a lot of fatigue because all the developers have been working on the same project for a year or so depending upon the complexity of the project. Defects keep appearing on modules that were developed over a year ago… Some of the developers are even new who are providing maintenance to code that has been written by someone else… And they complain that the guy who wrote the code was an imbecile… And eventually everyone just keeps praying as to how you can get over this project, get released and start off something new…

What do you do about it? I have been wondering… how do you make the last couple of months’ experience interesting? Well most of the last few months of any project are dependant on QA. Now that’s what the developers hate the most. And that’s what they are expected to do towards the end. Wouldn’t it be great if all the dirty testing would just go away…? Well it wouldn’t go away, but we could surely automate it… when I say automate, I do not mean the automated testing tools that are available… that’s the QA’s work to use automated testing tools to test the build. I am talking about automating the testing that the developer has to go through before releasing it to QA… One thing that developers do not mind doing is code. So why not do something in a good way so that the entire QA Experience in the end becomes pleasant.

Build an NUnit framework right from the beginning. Doing this from the beginning is a very good idea. Reasons? The energy level is high, the deadlines are not very tight and everyone has enough bandwidth to just do it. Once we have completed 1/3rd of the project, things start getting a little tight… this is the time when the team lead should kick in some discipline. A module shouldn’t be considered complete until the test cases are written. The leads should also consider the time to write test cases in their estimates.

By the time 2/3rd of the project is done, most of the unit test framework is ready. Now where this helps is that once you have changed some code or added some component, you can run the tests and make sure that nothing that has already been written and was previously working has not broken. That way we don’t have to test every little piece of code that has been written since God created the heaven’s and the earth… well 10 months into the same code and it does feel like that…

Last 1/3rd of the project, three things happen… one people will realize the merits of writing tests. Second people will get habituated to writing tests and third the frequency of new tests would decrease.

There is more automation that can be brought into development. But this would involve writing utilities and using over the team… utilities which are custom… like to test a particular scenario you require a specific set of data in the database. And there are so many such “scenarios” that you need to test. We could broadly classify these scenarios, and write SQL Scripts to generate a set of data that would enable the testing. Write a simple crude utility that could give you a choice to choose a classification and create the required environment.

In fact I was thinking could I create a generic framework that would enable me to automate such mundane tasks across projects and make software development exciting… If work is exciting, quality would most definitely follow…

End of revolution...?

Last whole week I haven’t been doing anything much significant. The project status is pretty healthy. We have not had any slippages, all the modules have been delivered on time. There have been some small defects, but none of them have been major issues. We have quickly pinned the down and resolved them. I have set up a beautiful communication process between the onsite and offshore team and all the communication gaps have been filled. We have been successful in setting up the architecture at offshore and also the VSS connectivity. Previously the offshore team was sending in the source code in small modules and the integration was done onsite by me. But now they are working directly on the central code repository so the integration process has also been set up successfully and is efficiently operational.

I think I have displayed outstanding performance as an onsite coordinator. Initially we had some problems with resources. But I was successful in resolving them very quickly and efficiently too. Besides what’s a job without a couple of challenges.

But lately I have realized that my work as an onsite coordinator has been mostly accomplished. I am still involved in writing documents that are related to routine process compliance and code reviews and testing. But those are the things that are beyond my role as an onsite coordinator. Since the process has been set up so well, there is not much coordinating that I am required to do these days. But since I cannot sit around doing nothing, the engagement manager is keeping me busy by giving me this insignificant work, which even a fresher, would be able to do efficiently. In fact I think a fresher would be able to do this work much more efficiently than I can.

So I have started to think as to whether I am required here any more? Is there a point in sticking around doing nothing for another 4 and a half months or should I move? What are the options that I have in front of me? Wouldn’t it be better to get released from this project so I could be more productive somewhere else? Do something that is more significant than what I am doing? Well I could either join some other project in the US itself or I could move back to India.

Of course the down side is that if I move to India, I wouldn’t be able to save the money that I thought I would in the US… I would have to leave and I wouldn’t be paid in dollars. But is money that important that I linger around being managed by a junior just because he has more system knowledge? And for what? I do not mind doing it as long as I am doing something significant. But testing, code reviews and routine process compliance under a junior is not quite fascinating.

The up side is that I might not have to move back to India. After the Kanbay – Adjoined acquisition, there have been a lot of projects coming in and loads of onsite opportunities are there according to Henry (My manager). I had a talk with him and he was interested in keeping me here coordinating with off shore. But I haven’t talked formally about it. This just came up during a conversation I had with him once. He is pretty happy with my performance in my current project and the previous projects. It seems he has been monitoring me over the past few months.

As of now what I am thinking is that I am going to be a senior consultant very soon. And I should be doing things that designate me as a senior consultant. I went through an industry depression during the initial stages of my career and didn’t get enough significant work and every time I am wasting my time doing insignificant things, I remember how I wasted the initial stage of my career working on projects that either would never get implemented because of some reason like lack of funds or projects that didn’t have a good business model. I have to make up for that loss. And I think it is very important that I keep an eye on where I am going at all times.

Mens locker room...

I joined a gym here... the gym is pretty big... its expensive too... but I have to workout you know and that's the closest... Once I had a discussion with a friend and I was telling her about how I like to take a shower in Endurance (my gym in India) because it is so nice... that's when she told me that she doesn't like to take a shower there because she thinks that there is no privacy...

News Flash... people here take a shower in the open... There are no cabins... like we have them in Endurance... and they all take a shower in the nude... yeah in the nude... with there private parts hanging around... and it is disgusting... they roam around in the locker room in the nude with nothing on... I have even seen people covering their backs when they have a towel and leaving their penises hanging around in the open... I mean come on.. you have a towel at least tie it around the waste... they wouldn't do that... they would hang the towel on their back and leave their lower disgusting hairy parts hanging around in the open...

I have stopped taking showers in the gym here... and there is no point anyways because i go on the bicycle and sweat when i am coming back... so i would have to take a shower when i reach home anyways... so why bother... and besides who wants to see that sight out there.. I don't even enter the mens locker room here...

Microsoft...!

I think it is time that I start preparing for the next level... It has been 2 years and I have grown from the role of being a senior developer... (Development, design, unit tests kinda role) to Onsite coordinator (managing offshore team, requirement analysis, technology pioneering, process compliance)... I have had so many experiences… web services windows services, windows mobile, writing utilities that automate a lot of menial tasks, etc. I have hardly spent any time on the bench or doing nothing during the last few years. Come to think of it listing down all those experiences would take an entire separate blog…

It has been a fascinating journey… Kanbay is a great organization in so many different ways… I have realized this after I have come to the US… two main reasons… One is I have noticed many companies working here… and second reason is that I have encountered and had first hand experience with the acquisition of Adjoined. I have helped Kanbay in integrating Adjoined by being the onsite coordinator of the first Kanbay – Adjoined project.

I have learnt a lot working here… and truly realized how good the Kanbay culture is. It is quite difficult to maintain the culture when the environment is competitive and there are so many different people of different kind of mentalities involved… And I think Kanbay has done a commendable job in maintaining a good people culture.

But the question is? What next? Well I know that I would love to do something that is closely related to technology. And even after 10 years or 20 for that matter, I would want to see myself exploring new technologies, facing bigger challenges. I would love to work on a product based company on Microsoft Technology. In fact the best thing would be to hop on to the mother ship and make a bigger impact.

Entry for June 05 2006

The problems I am facing here… in the United States… the dream country for every other country in the world.

The company that was taken over by Kanbay has some funny people working here. A few days back the manager of the project made some funny comments about the Kanbay culture in public. The comments were so rude that he had some team members coming to me and asking me as to how really Kanbay was.

I had to take him into the “Kitchen”. Now a “kitchen” is a place where someone takes someone to give a thrashing. It is actually a kitchen here. And whenever someone wants to talk something personal, or give a thrashing of some kind one on one… he is taken to the “Kitchen”…

This manager has about 10 years of more experience that me and I had to take him to the kitchen to tell him not to pass rude and inappropriate comments in public.

The two days later I had another problem… Henry my manager told me that one of the good senior consultants offshore, Madhu is being released… Now resource was a problem right from the beginning… first we didn’t get enough resources… later we had then one of the guys had faked his resume and he was fired… and now Madhu… so that was a problem… Henry and I discussed and the resolution that was supposed to be suggested was that Madhu Stay and Prajyoth leave. The reason being Prajyoth is just billing half of his time and is not a technical guy… Prajyoth could shadow him for a couple of days while Madhu gets trained…

So the next day I talked to the manager… suggesting him regarding Prajyoth’s release… He sent out a mail to everyone making the same suggestion, and suggesting in the mail that it was his idea… and basically suggesting that the Kanbay management is slow and lousy with the resource management… Henry wrote a very simple single line mail to him telling him that this was already discussed and he didn’t understand where the confusion was…

Sunday I was coming back from a nice piano concert I switched on my cell phone and saw a voice mail… Kevin Moore had called me… Jonathan had written some really awful things about Kevin in the review that happens in Adjoined every year or so… awful and untrue… now Kevin asked some of the adjoined senior management guys to call me up and ask…

I called Henry to tell him the whole thing and ask for advice… well I didn’t get him… but left a very detailed voice mail…

All day I heard Jonathan talking with the senior management about stuff and nobody really called me up… I think Henry, Will Hardy and everyone in the senior management handled it and things didn’t come to me…

Damn I am facing some new problem every day… God knows what’s next…

Family...

I always complain that I don’t like this country (USA)… and people always ask me why… everyone loves this country why don’t I? They say there is everything here. Well my experiences since I came here are like this. You have a fantastic middle class or lower middle class life here. I don’t have a car. So there is a fantastic bus and train service here. All the public places are well maintained and clean. But I don’t have that kind of a life in India. I never had to travel by bus in India. So technically I had a better life in India.

Besides, there is more to life than just a standard of living. I was seeing this commercial on TV where they were advertising this device, that if you press the button, the emergency paramedics would come over to your house. So if you fall down and you are living alone and can’t reach the phone, you can press the button and the paramedics arrive. Now such a thing would never be sold in India. Not only that, it cannot be shown on TV. It would be considered bad culture. Because no matter what, people live in families out there and there is a lot more value given to elders out there.

There is another commercial I was watching where this woman comes and asks her daughter what she is eating. She tells her mom that she is eating some sandwich that saves a lot of money and the mother says, “If you are saving so much money, why are you living with me?” parents literally throw their children out of their houses. They wait for their children to leave. This is absolutely unimaginable in India.

Parents kick their children out of their house and then they stay alone and weak when they grow old. Isn’t that funny? There is so much importance given to independence here that families have lost its value. I mean that’s what families are right, Interdependence? Parents take care of their children when they grow and children take care of their parents when they are old. If there is no interdependence, what’s the point in having human society in the first place?

The bum...

Well the biknig experience is pretty good... I am going to the gym every day on the bike...
luckily I have memorized my way back now... I also go shopping and everything on the bike... sometimes parking is a problem...

yesterday a bum was standing near my bike and asked for money saying that he protected my bike... damn he was stinking... gross.. I have seen beggars in India too... and technically it is warmer in India... So they should stink worse... but these guys stink worse... I mean i had heard about bums stinking... but this is the worse stink i have ever smelt... I quickly gave him a couple of quarters and ran...

First when i got the stink, I thought it was the meat... (that I had bought)... i thought it was kinda rotten... didn't realize that it was the guy standing behind me... He was stinking like rotten meat... I was so pukish...

Well the biknig experience is pretty good... I am going to the gym every day on the bike...
luckily I have memorized my way back now... I also go shopping and everything on the bike... sometimes parking is a problem...

yesterday a bum was standing near my bike and asked for money saying that he protected my bike... damn he was stinking... gross.. I have seen beggars in India too... and technically it is warmer in India... So they should stink worse... but these guys stink worse... I mean i had heard about bums stinking... but this is the worse stink i have ever smelt... I quickly gave him a couple of quarters and ran...

First when i got the stink, I thought it was the meat... (that I had bought)... i thought it was kinda rotten... didn't realize that it was the guy standing behind me... He was stinking like rotten meat... I was so pukish...

Weekend...

ok some weekend...

mostly boring... entire saturday... i cooked, cleaned, went to the laundromat, watched a little tv and studied...

Sunday cooked, cleaned again, prepared the Migration strategy to Visual Studio 2005 Team System, mailed it to Jonathan, mailed Henry regarding how long Prajyoth's engagement is with GP, my engagement, salary raise issue and also about Banco... later in the evening went out to look for a bar...

I forgot the cigarettes and took a stop at a place to buy cigarettes... found out that if i buy 2 camels, i would get a zippo free... well what do you know i have a zippo now...

I had researched on the net looking for bars nearby and went and found out that they all suck... so i walked down to the bar near my place... called flannegan... pretty cool place... it is just a bar... you don't get food there... it is a sports bar... pretty cool... had a couple of beers... then packed pasta... now that cost me $10... i thought it was a bit too much... but when i saw the quantity when i opened it up.. man.. this thing is going to last me at least 2 days...

so all in all the weekend ended up pretty ok...

More Business

As far as I can thin I don't think there is going to be any value addition to this project... The team is good and I have guaged that Jonathan has a good business knowledge regarding the project. I would have to understand the business behind the application. The best thing that I can do to add value is to try and understand the business better and understand the processes better.

Then later on probably when I have a better relationship with the client, I could find out ways to get more business. This definitely shouldn't be the last thing that kanbay does for Georgia Pacific.

Another big news is that Banco Popular is giving more business to Kanbay and there is nobody else to take care of the business and development... and so they might call me... I am a little confused as to what to do I have settled in here and now i don't really want to move to Chicago for the Banco business... But if it is doing good for my career i don't mind as long as i am able to move back to India around September or October...

Calm before the storm

Ok i had posted quite a lot of blogs after i moved in here but i can't see them... i guess i would have to republish the entire blog...

anyways nothing much to write today except that I have to stop watching everybody loves raymond and get a little more disciplined...

work pressure has reduced a bit and things are going pretty ok right now... but that is because this is the time between the initial set up and the actual project management... this is the time when the onsite team is answering queries and the offshore team is studying the project and asking questions...

I don't know what else i am supposed to be doing here except providing a decent environment to the onsite team and the offshore team...

Moved in and settled...

Woke up in the morning and went for a walk to find out where the bus station is. There was not a single human being around, only cars swishing by. So I decided to come back because I couldn’t ask for directions and I didn’t want to get lost. Then I also realized that I was not carrying money enough to catch a bus and I can’t ask the bus driver to stop by an ATM so I could pay. So I decided to take a cab. I called for a cab and left for office. I reached office way before anyone else. I was thinking that I would get late because I don’t know the bus routes. I reached one hour before time. I went down stairs to the café and had breakfast. Went up for a smoke and was back in the office at 8:15…

Funny there was nobody around… waited and then people started coming in… Jonathan called me and Kevin into the kitchen asking for status. Then he said that we have to work separately because the team was complaining that there was too much noise at the back… so I knew that nobody in the team would complain about me… I asked him who complained and he didn’t have an answer to that…

Later we went to Boston Market and had lunch… later in the evening there was another meeting with Jonathan, Kevin and I… he asked me the status on the installations offshore… I told him that I haven’t received any status yet… he said if required he can be on a call… and he said that he stays awake till late in the night… So I set up a call for 12:10… later on Jonathan said that I should set up a call so late so I told him that if he wants a call at such a short notice… it has to be late…

Left from office around 6:30 or so… Kevin Moore offered me to drop me home… on the way we decided to go to Walmart. We did a lot of shopping and the shopping list is as follows:

Microwave
Iron Board
Rice Cooker
Hefty CS (Microwave Bowl)
Eggs
Iron
crispy semi cooked chicken
Ice cream (Vanilla flavor)
Hershey chocolate syrup
chicken fry
rice
chicken noodles
Pringles
split peas
chicken strips
sour cream
bread
Butter
cheddar cheese
4 glasses
food plates
forks spoons and knives

Came home set up everything in the refrigerator and attended the call that was set up at 12:10. today it is just a list of all the events that happened through the day tomorrow reflections.

Moving...

Moved to a new appartment... This is how it went... took a cab from the hotel at 10:30 on Saturday morning... came over to the new apartment... But the person who was already living there had not moved out yet and had not given the key to the landlord's wife yet... The landlord has gone out for some business trip and so his wife is taking care of things here...

So I thought I would take my laptop and go to some cafe... spend some time there and then when his wife gets the key she would call me... on my way there I called Binoy and he said he is in New Jersey and hasn't gone to Virginia this weekend... He also said that we should meet up at Manhattan... But then he is going to leave for Manhattan a little late...

So I called Kiran and he said that he is in Manhattan and that I should come over immediately... So I left immediately... reached at his office around 1.00... we had lunch... then we were leaving for edisson when I called Binoy to update him of my status... that's when he told me that he is also at Penn Station and that we should meet up... he made us walk up and down the 7th Avenue and broadway and bored us to death... It was raining heavily... So I had bought an umbrella before I met Binoy... I had my laptop which was very heavy... I carried it along with me in one hand and an umbrella in the other and basically it was not a very pleasant experience... Binoy was there with Pratiksha and that was the only good thing about the whole thing... Nice girl...

finally we decided that we are not walking any more and going for a movie... Kiran and I went for Scary Movie 4...

I called up my landlord after the move to inquire whether he has the keys or not and he said that his wife does and I also inquired whether she could spare a mattress or not and he said she could... after that we came home... walk to the Penn Station, train journey back to Hicksville and a cab home...

Picked up the mattress from her came in.. we didn't have anything to sleep inside... and it was very cold... the heater I think wasn't working... so wore our jackets and went off to sleep...

Kiran was basically planning to stay with me for 3 months or so... and he wanted to guage how much time it takes for him to reach office from here...

Sunday morning we decided that we go to manhattan then we decided that I don't... then we decided that we both do... after a lot of confusion we finally decided that we both go to Manhattan... from there we went to Pritesh's place... We did our shopping had a couple of beers and then these guys dropped me at the bus stop...

I caught a bus back to manhattan and then a train ride back to Hicksville... and finally cab back to home... came home and un packed... I hadn't un packed until now... i took a bath and freshened up and now I am writing this... don't have any money in my pocket and don't feel like going out... so didn't have any dinner... pretty hungry actually...

I will have to inform Jonathan that I would be late tomorrow because I have to figure out the public transportation out here... I have to shop for food stuff so I don't have to go hungry again...

I also have to figure out where the laundromat is... Lots of work... times are going to be tough... but I have my independance...

There was a VPN connectivity related meeting in the morning. Somehow this guy Nitin Arora who was supposed to be testing the connectivity from offshore thought that the issue was resolved and he actually had the balls to call the meeting off. I raised the meeting request and he had the guts to fire me a mail that the issue has been resolved and the meeting is not required any more and left for the day. Well of course he is not on the project and he was just helping me out... But then when you take a responsibility on yourself... you have to finish it properly... Of course I can't scold him or anything... because he was just helping me out and officially it is not his responsibility... well what the hell I wouldn't have been able to scold him even if he was responsible... But things like these go into the performance appraisal you know...

In the meeting there was another issue raised... Prajyoth said that the IT team told him that they have to know who is going to pay for the licenses... He actually found out the prices of the licenses and sent across the budget and quotation... If you are aware of the Kanbay way of doing things... Kanbay has a corporate MSDN subscription which means that we have the licenses and we can just go ahead and reuse it... of course they are on a per seat basis but then who uses the Visual Studio 2002 these days... I am sure we have not run out of the licenses... Under no circumstances do we need to go out and buy a license per seat... I told them that the licenses would have to be billed to the project... but that is just an accounting issue... there would definitely be no extra cost for using them... except for the out of the league license for Component one... that does require approval from the project manager which has been taken care of...

I fired a mail to Prajyoth regarding the new people who are joining the project so that their paperwork can be started off... new ids would be created for these new people and GP needed the exact names of the people joining so that the paperwork and the id creation process can be initiated... Prajyoth mailed me back the names and the process got kicked off...

I called up the new land lord Raj Chakraborty and I confirmed with him about whether he could get the money or not... I also confirmed with him whether I could move in this saturday or not and he said I could...

I left office early today at 6:00 and came to the hotel room... I watched back to back episodes of Seinfeld, Everybody loves raymond and friends. After that I took a shower and now I am writing...

Later in the night when these guys come online, I have a plan to talk to them regarding the set up issues and the license and installation of software issues... I have to schedule another session of the VPN Connectivity issue... This has been delayed way too much... This needs to be taken care of as quickly as possible... I boast to people that Kanbay is very swift in these activities and is very efficient in delivery... I have to back it up... otherwise it would be quite embarrasing...

Didn't feel like having dinner today so had some pringles... that's that for the day... it was quite a hectic day though...

Adjoined Issues...

Two of the associates that were going to join come onboard yesterday... Madhu and GV Naga not joining. Identified new candidate, Rajlakshmi. called her for interview. She didn't take the technical interview will take tomorrow.

Set up a call at 9:30 tomorrow morning for the VPN Connectivity issue with Vinod More, Martin Miranda and Aasif Ulla on the call. Now these are the networking guys... we have been going on back and forth about the connectivity issue since the last whole week and couldn't get the network connectivity between offshore and onsite going... the sole reason being the communication was not direct between the networking guys onsite and offshore....

Worked on Some use cases... Some issues with reviewing the data model we are writing.
There was some power play... and some dirty politics... there is a struggle for authority going on between these two guys at work and they are really making one hell of a ruckus...

Now this guy Kevin... He is pretty good... I mean ethical... Honest and nice... but honestly... He shouldn't be working for a consulting company... he shoudl rather be working for a product based company... focussing completely on quality of product he is delivering and the code structure... because everything that he has learnt in his life is right and whenever he says something he is right... But sometimes it is too right to be true... at least in a consulting company...

Consider the scenario... We are working on the project... I know the code that has already been written sucks... the code was written by a german company called Info Systems... and the basic principles are not followed... Incredibly complex requirements but some basic flaws:
1. No structured exception handling
2. Only 2 layers UI and database
3. Hard coding everywhere
4. Database being called from the IU layer directly
5. Code has absolutely no structure and no standards are being followed
and so on and so forth. But the point here to be noted is that the adjoined team is not to be blamed. This project was started by the german company and there was lack of initiative and nobody tried took the risk of re-structure the already existing code running code... which was running and not a problem then... but as we all know the requirements change and defects creep in...

So the code was not structured and the defaults creeped in. Complexity of requirements were increasing by the day and the code was becoming more and more difficult to manage by the day... Basically a developer nightmare...

Now the situation is we have written 75% of the code already... which is already a nightmare and out of the 25% of the code that is left out only half is being shipped out to offshore... and to do that much it is going to take the next 6 months... for which I am responsible...

I understand that the code is crappy and everything but what am i supposed to do in a situation like this... I just have to deliver... crappy or otherwise... I cannot change the architecture or the structure of the code at this point and if i have to i would actually have to scrap the entire thing and start afresh... which doesn't make business sense... for me this is a beast... I have to just cage it and deliver it and then it is not my problem...

In a situation like this... I feel the best thing to do is maintain the quality of the code as much as you can hence forth and deliver... deliver like a maniac... don't think about the best practices and architecture and stuff that could have been done or should have been done...

And when i say deliver what i basically mean is get a sign off... At a time like this if you talk idealistic stuff like Kevin does... even though I agree to what he is saying and I know he is right... I listen to him... but he would definitely piss someone off... and such arguments and battles are bound to happen...

Code is not the only thing that is a problem with this project... People are another problem... there are people who are fighting for power... other are scared shit as to what is going to happen with them after the Kanbay - Adjoined Acquisition... some have an attitude not to work... others depend totally on others... there is the hero mentality and there is the quitter mentality... Loads of problems i am dealing with and until the time I am done with this project... I am sure I would be learning a lot...

One thing I discovered today is that the best thing about the onsite business model like Adjoined is that there is not much maintainance cost on the infrastructure... which means the costs are down.. which means they can quote real low prices without making their developers slog.. and without compromising on the profit margin... If adjoined still has tight deadlines... I think there is seriously something wrong somewhere... Of course there is a negative side to it... If the client doesn't provide you with a good working environment... which includes stuff like heating, air conditioning, ventilated rooms, chairs, desks, good machines and software licenses... you have to deal with it...

There is nothing much otherwise... came home late... had a beer... smoked some cigarettes... talked to mom on google talk...

Kiran has come here... and he is probably planning to come over and stay at my place... If he does that.. we would save a load of money and it would be pretty ok... I mean the next 6 months would be bearable...

Of course I would still miss home like hell and I would be dying to get back... But what the hell... at least i wouldn't be drinking the beer alone here... like i did today...

Dinner with Adjoined manager

Well mostly a boring day... just that at the end of the day we had dinner with this big manager from adjoined...

The one new thing is that i got a call from Viraj... she called me twice once during lunch and once during dinner...

well i tried to call her when i came back from dinner... but i guess it got a little late... she wrote a couple of mails to me and i wrote back... and she invited me to meet her in Chicago... which is quite unlikely... I know I am not going there for sure...

Met Binoy

Met binoy today. Binoy said I should consider going taking management as a career. well he said it very carefully and was telling me that it is not that i am technically not sound enough, it is just that i have a natural knack of dealing with people...

Well now i am thinking... even if i am a little good with people... that's not really what i want to do...

Last couple of days were quite the same… I went out for Mexican for lunch and Mexican for dinner and I ate chicken for breakfast, chicken for lunch and chicken for dinner. I went out with Kevin a couple of times.

One significant thing that happened is that I found an apartment. Not only that I went out to Manhattan twice once with Kevin and once with Binoy…

That’s about it… nothing much happening…

As far as work is concerned… I have made friends with almost all the team… the actual work has started… we have formed a team… it is recruited and the team lead taken care of… now we need to identify the quality lead, and the project management software that we are going to be using… we are thinking about the Clarity Tool…

The major challenges are going to be explaining the job to the offshore team, making them do the work on time… since the architecture of the application is quite crappy and there is no structure to the code, Kanbay dudes are going to have a tough time figuring out what to do and do it on time…

Need to finish the first package in 6 weeks.

Time to start charting my career

I think i really need to start thinking about my next step now. The main reason being the change in the profile that i am going through. I haven't seen the face of Visual studio .Net since the last 3 weeks. I don't remember doing that ever in the last 3 years. And it is not that I am not working. In fact I am working my ass off. The main reason being what is the next thing I am going to be doing could be something that is remotely connected to anything technical and I don’t want to be doing anything that is not closely related to technology. All I have been doing lately is writing use cases and managing resources. Resources like setting up environment to set up environment and setting up conference calls.

Of course it is a bit too early to decide though. I am sure I wouldn’t be able to do anything that is related to technology in this project because the structure and the code in the project sucks. The code was initially written by a Russian company and the programmers didn’t have any idea regarding good code structure. There are only two tiers, no exception management, no separate data access layer, lots of hard coding, very tightly coupled code.

The only thing that we are going to be doing in this project is fire fighting and delivering on time to save our face. This is not a very extensible code and the quality of the deliverables are going to suck.

But what the hell I just need to focus on delivery, and get myself a promotion.