Last time I had an interaction with the government as a citizen ,it was with the RTO office and i was impressed by the use of technology in that small office of RTO.
My impression of the government would have stayed the same if I wouldn't have had to interact with the stamp duty office for the amnesty scheme 2008 paper work.
The government had put up stalls (literally stalls outside the MMRDA office bandra in one of their verandas).
I landed up at 9 am in the morning to realise that tokens will be issued only at 10 am. There were people waiting for the token from 6-7 am in the morning !!
As soon as tokens were issued crowd broke the line in order to collect the tokens .There was a lot of hue and cry for the tokens. Around 300 tokens were issued for the borivali area and my turn was around 175 .... My turn would be called around 5 , I realized at the pace at which the work progressed. Since I had to finish certain formalities of the document I hurried to bandra court to complete them.
Reaching MMRDA office back around 1 pm i realised the officers had taken a break for lunch .
My turn came around 4.30 pm and to my surprise there were only 2 staff managing the complete area of borivali and another 2 officers for the andheri area.
I did not see a single computer around and all our details were manually written in a Big register which actually got over by the time my turn came .
While the officer went to collect a new register , the papers started flying every where as it was an open air office !!! The security gaurds started running around to collect the papers.
The same security guard who was managing the crowd was made responsible to collect the files in lots and keep them in storage area. As soon as the guard used to go for keeping the files ,the agents and other applicants who did not believe in queue used to creep in with their files.
We had to wait for 15 minutes till some one could hunt for a new register to capture our details. There was no acknowledgement receipt . The photocopies were stamped and returned to us as acknowledgement receipt.
There was no consideration for senior citizens and I could see old uncles and aunties (Some with sticks in their hands , some with support for neck and back )waiting in queue in the heat whole day long. There were agents all around trying to break the line and were being shwed away by the crowd as they tried to creep in.
Not many people had the clue of what exact documents are required as proof and different officers were actually telling different things to different people.
Over and above I saw lights and bulbs being fitted in the verandah for work to progess during the night . I was completely spell bound by this act and the dedication to make the citizens wait even late in the night and also expect the staff to work over time !!!!
It was the best example of how lack of planning and thinking through the whole process of how the scheme will be handled can create so much inconvinience to the staff as well the citizens.
It actually looked like the intention was to create chaos so that some people can fill up their pockets and benefit from the plight of citizens. The only people enjoying this chaos were the lawyers , advocates ,notary and photocopiers . For them they are making merry while the amnesty scheme shines !!
I seriously wonder how can we become a developed country when basic access to information and convinience to submit documents cannot be provided by the government.The Stamp Duty Department showed complete lack of sensitivity towards the citizens as well as to the staff.
I am truly ashamed !!!!!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Identity and Violence
'Identity and Violence' is the award winning book written by Amartya Sen.
The book explains the deep rooted problems of terrorism connected to an individual's identity. This thought of identity itself has given me a new perspective of looking at myself. It was very early in my college days that I realised that I do not truely identify my self with any particular religion. But I never realised how for so many people religion is the biggest part of their identity. Also while introducing myself to people and seeking other people's introductions I observe that people mostly identify themselves to the profession and also to the organisations they work for. Very rarely do I find people talking about anything else . Have our identities been limited to the jobs we do ? I sometimes wonder. For me my Ego is inflated when I identify myself as some one seeking answers for bigger challenges in life. I am biased towards people who talk big challenges. That's my conditioning. 2 or 3 identities are dominant at any given time. This gives a person security that he /she is not alone in this world. So I think the biggest challenge to overcome for individuals would be to learn to deal with our own insecurity . Be comfortable with one self as being alone and only can we truly accept other people as they are with their dominant identities. I think it's the responsibility of every individual to find oneself in the inner journey . Unless every individual realises this responsibility we will be dealing with only symptoms of problems the humanity is facing be it the financial crisis ,war ,terror . Unless we gather courage and face ourselves , we ourselves are a threat to humanity. I have started my journey . Have you?
The book explains the deep rooted problems of terrorism connected to an individual's identity. This thought of identity itself has given me a new perspective of looking at myself. It was very early in my college days that I realised that I do not truely identify my self with any particular religion. But I never realised how for so many people religion is the biggest part of their identity. Also while introducing myself to people and seeking other people's introductions I observe that people mostly identify themselves to the profession and also to the organisations they work for. Very rarely do I find people talking about anything else . Have our identities been limited to the jobs we do ? I sometimes wonder. For me my Ego is inflated when I identify myself as some one seeking answers for bigger challenges in life. I am biased towards people who talk big challenges. That's my conditioning. 2 or 3 identities are dominant at any given time. This gives a person security that he /she is not alone in this world. So I think the biggest challenge to overcome for individuals would be to learn to deal with our own insecurity . Be comfortable with one self as being alone and only can we truly accept other people as they are with their dominant identities. I think it's the responsibility of every individual to find oneself in the inner journey . Unless every individual realises this responsibility we will be dealing with only symptoms of problems the humanity is facing be it the financial crisis ,war ,terror . Unless we gather courage and face ourselves , we ourselves are a threat to humanity. I have started my journey . Have you?
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
When was the Last time you did something for the first time ?
It's been quite some time that I added anything to my blog. There wasn't much stuff to write about I thought , and then I came across this phrase 'When was the last time you did something for the first time ?' and I am inspired to write again .
Actually to answer this question , there are quite a few new things I have learnt in these few months and I thought would be a nice idea to pen down the learnings ... so here they go....
1) Vipassana Meditation technique : I attended the vipassana meditation camp in the month of august and what an awesome experience it was to keep silent for 10 days and have control on the diet. The learnings were
a) The clear distinction of how my mind functions.
b) The ability to detach myself from my thoughts and observe.
c) The ability to really medidate deep.
And of course the art of sleeping while sitting in meditation !!!! ...just kidding !!
2) Hands on Enterprise Architect Tool : Worked on a complete slice of work related to Model Driven Architecture (MDA). The learnings were
a) Business Process Model got developed to understand the domain
thoroughly.
b) The Domain Model gets sharply defined if the Business
Processes are deeply thought through.
c) The definition of entity and relationship.An entity has
its own data and behaviour. The behaviour is something the
entity is completely responsible for . To know the
behavior ,it's important to ask the question 'What the entity
is responsible for ?'
d) How to create Transformation templates and generate Code
automatically?
e) How to identify patterns in code to abstract for Automatic
Code generation?
f) How to pick up any domain quickly?
3) Public Speaking : Have joined Toast Masters Club Mumbai which helps me improve my public speaking skills
a) How to organise thoughts for a presentation?
b) How to deliver a speech keeping the purpose in the centre ?
c) How to evaluate a speech ? How to judge a speech?
It's about time to pick up something new again !!
Actually to answer this question , there are quite a few new things I have learnt in these few months and I thought would be a nice idea to pen down the learnings ... so here they go....
1) Vipassana Meditation technique : I attended the vipassana meditation camp in the month of august and what an awesome experience it was to keep silent for 10 days and have control on the diet. The learnings were
a) The clear distinction of how my mind functions.
b) The ability to detach myself from my thoughts and observe.
c) The ability to really medidate deep.
And of course the art of sleeping while sitting in meditation !!!! ...just kidding !!
2) Hands on Enterprise Architect Tool : Worked on a complete slice of work related to Model Driven Architecture (MDA). The learnings were
a) Business Process Model got developed to understand the domain
thoroughly.
b) The Domain Model gets sharply defined if the Business
Processes are deeply thought through.
c) The definition of entity and relationship.An entity has
its own data and behaviour. The behaviour is something the
entity is completely responsible for . To know the
behavior ,it's important to ask the question 'What the entity
is responsible for ?'
d) How to create Transformation templates and generate Code
automatically?
e) How to identify patterns in code to abstract for Automatic
Code generation?
f) How to pick up any domain quickly?
3) Public Speaking : Have joined Toast Masters Club Mumbai which helps me improve my public speaking skills
a) How to organise thoughts for a presentation?
b) How to deliver a speech keeping the purpose in the centre ?
c) How to evaluate a speech ? How to judge a speech?
It's about time to pick up something new again !!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Point of Views for Software development
I had a single point of view for software development (in Indian IT projects)that was software is built by gathering requirements ,designing ,developing ,testing and deployment.A few days back in one of our design sessions , I realised that such a linear logical way of my thinking has made me misunderstand software development completely.What I realised that software can be looked at from various point of views which are mutually exclusive but collectively exhaustive. These point of views being 'Data', 'Domain','Application' and 'User Interface'.
Data : What is the flow of data ? What data getting generated and what data needs to be persisted ?
In traditional schools of software we are mostly taught this point of view and are some what biased by this Data View. This bias leads us to thinking about software as some sort of the record keeping ,persisting and retrieval tool.
Domain: This view is the Business view of the software. What is business context in which the project being developed ? What are the relevant entities ? What is the relationship between these entities ?
Here normally the tendency is to bring in concerns which are not relevant to Domain view like , What are the persisting mechanisms for these entities ? Which entities can be classes ? Which entities will be tables? Which entities are attributes ?
If you closely observe your thought process some where we mess this view with the Application View
Application : Here we purely think about applying the entities in different forms to create a design for result. Concerns like how to relate entities ? How would they talk ? and the above concerns of What are the persisting mechanisms for these entities ? Which entities can be classes ? Which entities will be tables? Which entities are attributes ? are a part of the Application view.
User Interface: This is the most important but completely taken for granted view of software development.
This view is mostly concerned with how do I present the data for achieving the purpose for which it is being made ? Here again the tendency is look at UI from the perspective of displaying entities and persisting changes to entities.
The beauty of software development is that all these views work simultaneously. It may start with Domain view but gradually everything becomes and emergent process ,one affecting the other.
The concern that I have is that if these views generate software then do we have a development model to cater to such a process of software development ? Water fall and agile are not quite there. Have worked on the both ways of development but not sure whether they can do justice to all the point of view simultaneously.
Data : What is the flow of data ? What data getting generated and what data needs to be persisted ?
In traditional schools of software we are mostly taught this point of view and are some what biased by this Data View. This bias leads us to thinking about software as some sort of the record keeping ,persisting and retrieval tool.
Domain: This view is the Business view of the software. What is business context in which the project being developed ? What are the relevant entities ? What is the relationship between these entities ?
Here normally the tendency is to bring in concerns which are not relevant to Domain view like , What are the persisting mechanisms for these entities ? Which entities can be classes ? Which entities will be tables? Which entities are attributes ?
If you closely observe your thought process some where we mess this view with the Application View
Application : Here we purely think about applying the entities in different forms to create a design for result. Concerns like how to relate entities ? How would they talk ? and the above concerns of What are the persisting mechanisms for these entities ? Which entities can be classes ? Which entities will be tables? Which entities are attributes ? are a part of the Application view.
User Interface: This is the most important but completely taken for granted view of software development.
This view is mostly concerned with how do I present the data for achieving the purpose for which it is being made ? Here again the tendency is look at UI from the perspective of displaying entities and persisting changes to entities.
The beauty of software development is that all these views work simultaneously. It may start with Domain view but gradually everything becomes and emergent process ,one affecting the other.
The concern that I have is that if these views generate software then do we have a development model to cater to such a process of software development ? Water fall and agile are not quite there. Have worked on the both ways of development but not sure whether they can do justice to all the point of view simultaneously.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Programming is NOT Logical !!
wooowwww..... This is one of the biggest realisations for me as software developer...Programming is NOT Logical !!
If it is not logical, then what is it ?
Programming is all about structuring the complexity . When you structure the program you realise that complexity gets concentrated only in a particular part which needs to be dealt patiently.Rest you realise that everything is pretty simple and straight forward. In structuring, the complexity completely disappears ...For me while learning programming there are 2 complexities.. 1) Picking up the language and 2) Picking up the way to program using structuring ...
If it is not logical, then what is it ?
Programming is all about structuring the complexity . When you structure the program you realise that complexity gets concentrated only in a particular part which needs to be dealt patiently.Rest you realise that everything is pretty simple and straight forward. In structuring, the complexity completely disappears ...For me while learning programming there are 2 complexities.. 1) Picking up the language and 2) Picking up the way to program using structuring ...
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Clutter of the Mind
We recently had house renovation done at my place. It was an amazing experience. I was more of a spectator than actual doing the dirtying of hands work. I had an extremely strong realisation of the amount of clutter we had created in the house. We are just 4 of us living ,but the clutter was definitely more than 4 people can create together. There was so much junk in the house.We collectively decided to discard everything that we dont NEED at this point in time. Anything 'useful' from the future perspective or anything that was kept as a 'fondness' of the past was removed.I realised the attachment to comforts , the attachment to memories ,attachment to things ,attachment to future.
The more my mind is cluttered with attachment ,the more it shows in the physical space around me .I became aware of my habit of dumping things to be thrown later ,which is also the case when dealing with my thoughts. I just dump thoughts aside to be able to deal with them later.This has made my memory filled with a lot of junk.
Unfortunately any conversations like these are termed as 'philosophical' ,but for me I realised that if i really want to deliver solutions as a Business Analyst I need to get rid of the clutter of my memory.At the same time it does not mean to not have luxuries of life or all the pleasures of life. What it means for me is to enjoy the pleasures without getting attached to the enjoyment as well as the sadness of pleasure.
I am really really thankful to God for giving me such an awesome space.A physical space as well as the space of my mind !!
The more my mind is cluttered with attachment ,the more it shows in the physical space around me .I became aware of my habit of dumping things to be thrown later ,which is also the case when dealing with my thoughts. I just dump thoughts aside to be able to deal with them later.This has made my memory filled with a lot of junk.
Unfortunately any conversations like these are termed as 'philosophical' ,but for me I realised that if i really want to deliver solutions as a Business Analyst I need to get rid of the clutter of my memory.At the same time it does not mean to not have luxuries of life or all the pleasures of life. What it means for me is to enjoy the pleasures without getting attached to the enjoyment as well as the sadness of pleasure.
I am really really thankful to God for giving me such an awesome space.A physical space as well as the space of my mind !!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Use of tools as a Business Analyst
I am working on Enterprise Architect ( a tool from Sparx systems) . This is my first ever tool to be used as a Business Analyst in my profession . Earlier tools that I have used are pen,paper and microsoft word and excel.
I am asking a lot of people in my field their palliness with tools like these.
I must admit the general awareness as well as enthusiasm to use these tools is very limited. I see a general tendency (including myself to switch back to word and excel to express thoughts. I am worse ..I switch back to using pencil and paper :-)
A few thoughts as to why we Business Analysts are not tool friendly ..
1) We see tools like EA,rational as storage mechanisms and not something which can
help us design our thoughts better.
2) The tools in use demand so much of our thinking and in depth enquiry into
scenario that by our sheer laziness we refuse to use these tools.
They challenge us to think beyond our percieved limits.
3) The freedom that other tools give ,that kind of freedom is not available for
expression in these tools .It is but natural as they are made for a specific
purpose
For me EA has become a good learning tool as it is not only telling me the scenarios to be thought through but also how well I can represent and communicate them.
Ofcourse it is also forcing me to give up my Laziness !!
I am asking a lot of people in my field their palliness with tools like these.
I must admit the general awareness as well as enthusiasm to use these tools is very limited. I see a general tendency (including myself to switch back to word and excel to express thoughts. I am worse ..I switch back to using pencil and paper :-)
A few thoughts as to why we Business Analysts are not tool friendly ..
1) We see tools like EA,rational as storage mechanisms and not something which can
help us design our thoughts better.
2) The tools in use demand so much of our thinking and in depth enquiry into
scenario that by our sheer laziness we refuse to use these tools.
They challenge us to think beyond our percieved limits.
3) The freedom that other tools give ,that kind of freedom is not available for
expression in these tools .It is but natural as they are made for a specific
purpose
For me EA has become a good learning tool as it is not only telling me the scenarios to be thought through but also how well I can represent and communicate them.
Ofcourse it is also forcing me to give up my Laziness !!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)