Beating Kids

I used to think and dream that I would be a mom who would never beat my children.But it is not happening. I am very guilty that I beat my elder kid to the maximum extent. She also triggers my anger someway or the other. But after all she is small and I ought to show some maturity.

I really admire my mother, who has not beaten me anytime. I do not remember me getting beaten at any point of time. Was I such a good girl or was it my mother who was so tolerant and good.

I have taken the practice to just not notice the things that my kid does and try to divert my attention when she is upto something. But somehow I land up beating her.

Everyday I pray god that I should not beat my kid that day. Hope someday I achieve that and grow more tolerant. I am sure it is not my kid but it is my mistake. I should become more matured and earn a good name from my children. What ever I may become in life, if I do not get a " Good Mother" Certificate from my kids, I feel I do not pass in the exam-Life.

Admiring Women who have made it to the top

Making to the top is a challenge for anyone. It involves lot of hardwork, dedication and so many other things. But for women there is more to it. They need to struggle against all odds pitted against them. First comes the family hurdle. Somehow if you have a support system, you manage to make it. But again in the work, you need to be really considered serious. Women need to work extra to make others accept her and get confidence in her. Again the people above and below are predominantly males, though I see a constant increase in female numbers as well.

Again as you move higher, the number of females tend to drop out. This will mean, you will have reduced friends, with whom you can share your girly thoughts. And how ever you be friendly with a guy, many things cannot be shared with them.

Again not many males accept the ideas and suggestions given by female counter-parts immediately, unless they have that confidence in you.To create that confidence and to make them believe that you are also serious about work as they are, is a challenge. I will have to blame many females also for this, as they tend to take job as a second priority and openly talk that they will quit anytime.

Anyway with so many hurdles and so many barriers, I have always admired the women who made it to the top. Great going ladies...You are an inspiration to all of us..

Risk Explained

Risk is an event that might occur during the course of a project. This event might have a positive or a negative impact.

So for a risk one should analyze:

1) Probability of the risk occuring.

2) Impact of the risk will cause if it occurs.

3) Frequency of risk occuring.

4) When the risk might happen.

Risk can be categorized in many ways - Business risk, Technical Risk, External Risk, Unforeseen risk etc.Risks need to be identified first. Then the risks need to be anlaysed both qualitatively - Probability and Impact matrix, Risk categorization etc and quantitatively- Monte Carlo analysis, Determining the probability and impact etc.

Then the risk response needs to be planned.

1) Avoiding the occurance of risk

2) Decrease/Increase the probability of occurance/impact of risk - Mitigation.

3) Transfer the risk to someone else.

4) What to do if it occurs - Contigency Plan.

5) what to do if contigency fails/not effective - fallback plan.

Triple Constraints

A project should always be watched out for the three major constraints - Scope, Schedule and Cost. The other three constraints that also need equal attention are - Quality, Risk and Customer satisfaction. Any modification to one of the constraints whould have some or other effect on the other two constraints. If you increase the scope, automatically the schedule and cost will be impacted. So a manager has to watch the triple constraint and balance it through out the life cycle of the project.

Quality Assurance Vs Quality Control

Quality Assurance - Determines if a project follows the proper standards, procedures and processes as required. This is done by means of conducting audits and process analysis. During the audits people determine whether the project is following the process as defined by the quality plan. Process analysis determines whether the process itself is good enough etc.

 

Quality Control - This takes specific metrics and analyses to find whether the project is in control. Determines whether the schedule variance, cost variance etc is within the acceptable limits. Tools like parto diagrams, run charts, control charts, fish bone diagrams are used as quality control tools.

Gross margin Vs Net Margin

Gross margin - A company make a product worth 20Rs. This 20Rs of worth includes all costs spent by the company including the resource cost, raw material cost, infra structure cost etc. Then the company sells the product for 40Rs. So it makes a profit of 20Rs. This 20Rs is the Gross Margin on the product which the company makes.

 

Net Margin - Now the company after getting a 20Rs profit has to pay a tax of 5Rs, repays a loan amount of 5Rs. So the balance 10Rs is the Net Margin on the product for the Company.

EVM Explained

A project manager can track the project and ensure that the project is completed within the given schedule. But unknowingly he might have over run on the cost to achieve the same. So always it is good to track a project based on EVM so that you can ensure that the project cost is also as per the initial estimate only.

 

You estimate a project A can be completed in 10 days by using 5 resources with a cost of 50Rs. This is the planned value of the project. On the 10th day you find that you have not completed 100% of the work, but only 80% of the work. So the estimate to complete 80% of work is 40Rs. So on the 10th day the earned value is 40Rs. In case you have used the same resource loading- the 5 resources and have not spent any extra cost then the actual cost incurred would be 40 Rs. In case you have added more resources in between , then to get the 80% of work done itself you would have incurred an actual cost of say 80 Rs.

 

So now getting the value for keys terms.

PV - Planned value on the 10th day to complete the project = 50Rs.

EV - Earned value on the 10th day when only 80% of work done = 40Rs.

AC - Actual cost incurred by deploying extra resource but still completing only 80% of work = 80Rs.

So EV < PV which means EV-PV is negative so we are behind schedule.

EV< AC EV-AC is negative which means we are overshooting on the cost as well.

SPI = Schedule Performance Index = EV/PV

CPI= Cost Performance Index = EV/AC

SPI > 1 is better

CPI > 1 is better.