Sujoy Sen

Every time I call up any customer support and hear the familiar 'all our representatives are busy dealing with other customers,' that my call is very important to them and from the more technologically advanced ones that I am 'fourth in the queue and my approximate wait time is 23 minutes,' I wonder why can't they simply call me back when they are free? They already have my contact number. Some of them actually play some music while I wait - which is still better than those who actually take that opportunity to inform me about their new products. Have you realized that you might be flying an airline, staying in particular hotel chain or visiting a retailer for ages but unless you sign-up for their rewards / loyalty program you're actually invisible to them? I know there are customer privacy issues at play and a customer might be using different payment options ever... (more)

Struggling to Scale Agile? | @DevOpsSummit #DevOps #Agile #DigitalTransformation

From slow and rigid to fast and flexible. That was the promise of Agile to IT. What it meant was that ideas coming from business would be converted into working software rapidly. It meant that IT will be more responsive to what business wants and needs and will not spend an eternity analysing the requirements, writing detailed specifications and then sending them back to business to review. Some of that has happened. Product backlogs are more informal and easier to maintain and update than formal specifications. IT pushes business to prioritize and tries to break the requirement... (more)

Digital - Design Thinking = Status Quo | @ThingsExpo #IoT #DigitalTransformation

Today organizations are spending millions on digital transformation initiatives - integrating advanced analytics, AI and platforms. While this is the best portfolio for them to invest on, they need to periodically step back and evaluate the end objectives. As I look back at my own experiences as a customer to my multiple 'digitally enabled' service providers I realize that there is a lot of ground to be covered in terms of meeting customer expectations even with their present digital arsenal. Application of design thinking approaches to better map customer experiences and journey... (more)

DevOps Managers? | @DevOpsSummit #DevOps #IoT #ContinuousIntegration

My personal view is NO. It needs DevOps for sure, but not DevOps managers. There is a simple explanation and a more well defined, elaborate explanation to this question though. The simple explanation first. A Manager's role needs to be associated with some outcome. A Project Manager - is responsible for the outcome of successful project, a Business Manager - is responsible for the outcome of a growing and profitable business, a Service Manager - is responsible for delivering improved service, etc. Devops is not an outcome. It's a means to an end - that end being continuous deliv... (more)

Setting rules of engagement for scaling Agile

I like the daily stand-up meeting in scrum. The rules are clearly laid out.  Each team member is supposed to speak just on 3 things - what they did yesterday, what they plan to do today and impediments, if any, in their way. Team members are encouraged to be brief and to the point. The entire meeting is not supposed to go beyond 15 minutes.  World over though, managers are moving away from a "command and control' approach to management to a more hands-off, goal oriented, decentralized and empowered way of management. They talk less about "how" and more about "what". One of the 12 p... (more)