Sayali Kumbhar

Dashboarding with PowerBI

2017-09-06T01:23:00.000-07:00

My work involves a lot of data analysis and making that data accessible to a wider audience.
Through the years, I have used a lot of tools for data analysis and dashboarding like Excel, Tableau, BIRT etc. The new Microsoft product, PowerBI seems to combine the ease of Tableau and the power of BIRT to give very good looking, user friendly and low development effort dashboards.

The positives

Connects to all kinds of databases - excel, sql, web services etc
Good support for prototyping
Intuitive developer interface and quite a bit can be achieved by functional folks without the help of core technical expertise
Large variety of inbuilt visualizations/ graphical representations considering the business use cases
GUI is available for most business use cases
Drill downs are easy. Some visualizations give you on the spot drill downs
Exports to a powerpoint presentation
DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) can be used to customize and apply data processing. Low learning curve

The not-so-positive

It is still maturing so there are still some obvious reporting features which are getting added everyday. Like drill downs are there on limited visualizations
Linking of one report to another as a drill down is still not available
Formatting of charts like you are used to in Excel is limited, especially data label formatting
The more number of records, the more time it takes currently. I understand from their blogs that they are constantly optimizing so lot to look forward to on that front

You can download the PowerBI developer desktop tool for free and get started with your dashboards. Happy dashboarding!

The Art of taking Notes

2017-02-06T08:10:00.002-08:00

Or should I say the "dying" art of taking notes. At the risk of sounding a little cynical, I see lesser people taking down notes on pen and paper or even using pen and paper to scribble, think, ideate...

I agree that it is very convenient to quickly type out the minutes of a meeting or a few keywords in meetings on the laptop so that you can quickly shoot of a MoM after the meeting, but it is imperative that you segregate between the routine writing and the ideating.

Many studies have proven that writing reinforces the concepts that you learn, it helps you in thinking better and more creatively.

As per medical research, writing is the function of the frontal lobe of your brain which is also the part of the brain which is responsible for movement, reasoning, judgement and problem solving.

To start with, try writing down the important words you hear in discussions, terminologies that you want to read up on, any ideas that strike you when you are participating in a discussion. Refer to these ideas later when you want to read in detail about them or expand on them. Soon you will realize that you and your notebook are inseparable. I am in the habit of carrying around a small piece of paper or a small notebook wherever I go. It helps in ensuring that I don't forget those flashes of brilliance that you get when you are in your favorite coffee shop or hashing out ideas with friends.

So pick up a nice notebook and pen of your choice and happy scribbling!

For those of you who are more digitally inclined, try out a tool called XMind for mind mapping. I have found it very to be hassle-free and intuitive so that you don't end up figuring out the right clicks and left clicks when you are in the middle of a thought. And it is free! :)

Challenges in Productivity Measurement

2015-05-28T06:01:00.002-07:00

The classical definition of productivity is Productivity = Output/ Input where output can be number of parts, work items, documents, lines of code etc... and input is typically the effort in terms of number of hours, person days, resources etc... So unit for productivity will be something like work items per hour or line of code per day.

Now going by the definition, it sounds deceptively simple to measure productivity. All you need is a unit for the output and the input! But, productivity measurement is unfortunately very tricky business.

The main challenges that you should look out for are:

Clear Definitions

Work unit definitions form the crux of your measurement system. Every work item needs to have a clearly defined scope and size. Ideally, size is essential before you can begin with any kind of measurement. In reality, you will come across several challenges in sizing:

Sizing measures are either not available across projects or are so varied that it is difficult to process the data
Project members are not trained on a sizing technique and might not be feasible to train them in one shot to start sizing
If the resources are trained on sizing, there is also a chance that their understanding varies and hence when you dig deeper, the basis for their sizing turns out to be different

Now, some might argue that these challenges can be overcome or should not exist if the sizing program is implemented correctly but in a large organization, these challenges are often present at a ground level.

One way to get a quick start on the measurement is to at least have a very clear definition of your work item and preferably some complexity buckets to help you estimate better

Data Sanity (Measurement System Analysis)

In Six Sigma, before we begin analysing the data, we first validate the data sanity or the measurement system analysis. We check for any unknown variations, consistency in data collection method, whether people are able to identify the categorization of data correctly etc...

This exercise is extremely important when establishing productivity baselines as well. Productivity data will be used to measure a team's effectiveness and any measurement error in it gives an erroneous picture of the team. Also the basis of improvement actions will be wrong and will lead to wasted efforts.

Measurement Unit

The measurement unit can be any unit which will give you an appropriate representation of the work done and it's complexity. For example, if we were to measure a Developer's productivity, the number of function points per day or per month would be appropriate. Some people even measure the lines of code per day.

The measurement needs to accurately reflect the quantity and the quality of work delivered. So if lines of code is a measure, it will definitely tell you the quantity but LOC cannot help you with the quality. I can write one function really well and finish it in 40 lines and a badly written code can go up to 100 lines. So it is necessary to ensure that the measure reflects quantity and quality/ complexity.

Another ambigous measure is "number of tickets per day" which is typically measured for the service industry. Just the number will not be sufficient so we will also need to know complexity like "simple", "medium", "complex", "highly complex" etc... Each of these categories should also have a very clear definition. For example, a simple ticket will not include modification of any code or will not exceed 5 hours, etc...

The definition, data sanity and measurement unit are the three main challenge areas that need to be addressed before beginning any productivity measurement program.

Understanding I-MR Charts for Process Improvements

2013-09-16T02:41:00.002-07:00

Ever since my first exposure to statistics, I-MR charts have been my absolute favorite. It is a simple yet powerful tool for understanding process performance and identify opportunities for process improvement.

This is an I-MR chart for training feedback. The Individual value plot at the top plots every value separately against a time range whereas the Moving Range plots the difference between two points

I-MR chart gives us the following facts about our process:

Plot the Individual data points against time
Derive the control limits of the process (Max and Min performance)

Mean performance of the process (Typical performance of my process)

Variations in process (in Moving Range chart which is difference between the consecutive data points) explains how much the process performance fluctuates in the given scenario. More the fluctuation, less predictable my process is.

When has my process behaved abnormally and hence I should do a root cause analysis on those instances (Outliers)

I-MR charts are a powerful tool for process improvement and can be used as follows:

Understand process behavior and baseline the same
Identify opportunities to improve process performance by

Identifying special causes behind the outliers
Comparing the control limits against the specification limits or expected performance values

Identifying causes behind the variation in process by identifying data points when substantial variation has occurred

Post improvement, re-baseline the process behavior and compare the performance improvement by comparing the old and new mean as well as variation

Data summary options - COUNTIFS/ SUMIFS

2012-08-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

This function was a life saver for me recently!
I have some data with 30 columns and nearly 2000 rows which needs to be regularly summed up based on a host of criteria. Add to that I need to run several slicing and dicing operations to derive different conclusions.
Now doing this with a simple SUMIF or PIVOT is difficult enough and considering the time crunch, its a nightmare!!

What I would do earlier is to get a sum of the criteria individually and then add them up together. Consider this example of some Sales data where we would need some basic data analysis.

Region wise PLANNED sales where previous CSAT was below 3.5
Region wise ACTUAL sales where previous CSAT was below 3.5
Similarly summation with current CSAT

And where reports can be created as:

Now doing this with Pivot tables would mean that I would probably have to consolidate it in different pivots and then get the data in a third table for deriving the region wise sales where CSAT is above a certain value. And changing these pivots to get a new set of conclusions would have been extremely time consuming.

Now let's look at how to use the function ->

Function Description:
SUMIFS ( Sum Range, Criteria Range1, Criteria1, Criteria Range2, Criteria2, ...., Criteria RangeN, CriteriaN)

Sum Range: C3:C8 - Range of values to be summed
Criteria Range: B3:B8 - Range of values where region is stored
Criteria - "US" for summing up only US related sales values

You can quickly add any more criteria like previous CSAT > 3.5 but current CSAT > 4 etc...

Note: Please note that you will need to ensure data sanctity before using these functions as it will only pick values with "US" and something with "USA" would be missed out

TortoiseSVN - The Starter Pack - Basic Concepts

2012-03-04T20:57:00.000-08:00

I have delved into a lot of aspects of SVN but somehow missed on writing on the basics of usage. Though the TortoiseSVN help is quite self sufficient, I feel there still needs to be some basic start-up kit to give a walkthrough of the features and a step by step guide to start using TortoiseSVN from a purely non-technical perspective.

So here goes -> We will start with some basic concepts and then go on to the usage part.

TortoiseSVN acts as a client to access the repositories stored on the SVN server.

Working Copy
It is a local copy meant to sync with the server. It is a ordinary folder on your machine which contains SVN metadata to differentiate it from other folders. The metadata tells TortoiseSVN about the repository that it should connect to for updates

Checkout
It is the first step towards using SVN. Checkout allows you to create a working copy of a particular path in the repository. This is a one time activity.

Update
Get latest copy of data from SVN server. Once you have created a working copy, you will want to get the latest data from the server before you start making your changes

Commit
Once your changes are done and you want to save the changes to the server, you "commit" that data.

Delete
SVN gives default delete rights to all users as it is just a soft delete. You can still retrieve that data from earlier revisions [refer earlier posts "Retrieving Deleted Data"]

Cleanup
Cleans the corruption caused due to conflicts in working copy or file
corruption

2012-03-04T07:25:00.000-08:00

When a friend recently suggested Bazaar as an alternative to Subversion, It got me to think that would be those parameters that would cause me to move to something other than SVN.

Subversion gives me a lot of convenience
Environment:
1. Can be hosted on a almost any environment - Linux, Unix, Windows etc...
2. Can be hosted over the internet and comes with the most updated security settings
3. Can be integrated with LDAP for enterprise use

Usage Features:
1. Server setup and configuration are very easy - less than 10minutes
2. Works with multitude of clients -Command line (SlikSVN), GUI Based (TortoiseSVN), Web based (WebSVN), Different OS (RapidSVN for Unix & Linux)
3. Integrates with Build tools - Ant, Maven, Jenkins, Hudson, Cruise Control
4. Integrates with Developer IDEs - VisualSVN (AnkhSVN) & Subclipse (Eclipse)
5. Multiple online forums and support available - SVNForum, Collabnet being most popular
6. Easy administration

Something to be desired from SVN would be:
1. Role base access levels
2. Project level administration roles
3. More out of the box reporting tools/ features
4. Better branching and branch histories for parallel development scenarios

Saving the Filter Criterias in Excel - Custom Views

2011-08-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

Recently I got a large amount of data in excel which keeps growing and based on some scenarios I need to apply different filters to it. I had been looking for some way to save these filters as a custom view or the typical IE "Favorites" kind of view.

So for example, If I have a sheet with some sales data in it and I keep filtering on the Country and Total Sales>1Million. I also sort and filter on the Country and Sales Person sometimes to get a second view. Now to do this each time is going to be tedious especially when the number of filters increase.

Almir suggested a great way to do it using Custom Views, which basically help you save your filters and toggle between them when required. To create a Custom View,

1. Clear all filters
2. Go to "Views" and Click "Custom Views"
3. Click on "Add", give the view a name "No Filters" and say "OK"

4. Now apply the required filters and Repeat steps 1 to 3 by giving the view the desired name, say "Applicable Filter"

To toggle between multiple views, go to "Custom Views" where you will be able to see and apply all the views that you have created earlier.

To make life a little easier for novice excel users, you can also write a macro which does this and attach it to a button or drop down list on the sheet. So that they just have to choose the filter name from the drop down and it would get applied. But for a individual user, Custom Views are the best option!

Restoring Deleted Files/ Folders - with history

2011-07-21T06:35:00.000-07:00

Most often people find it a drawback that SVN offers delete rights to all users. And the common concern being that anybody might accidentally delete some data and then the history might be lost.
But this is just a misconception and the data can be retrieved with history. Just follow these steps using TortoiseSVN:

1. Right click the parent folder that contains the deleted files/folder
2. Select "Show Log"
3. Select and right click on the version before which the file was deleted
4. Select the "Browse Repository"
5. Select the file/folder which needs to be restored and right click
6. Select "copy to" which will copy the files/folders to the head revision

Same results can also be achieved by using the svn copy command.

2011-06-28T22:57:00.001-07:00

Recently my tailor and my shoe shop both have been delivering poor quality on their products. Their quality has been consistently good over a period of more than 20 years and I haven't had many chances to complain.
I was surprised to see the quality deteriorate over the last few times that I have availed their services. When I dug a little deeper, the reason turned out to be attrition!!

Their earlier skilled workers had moved to some other shop or retired. That's when it struck me that Knowledge Management isn't just a concept to be used in large corporates or particular industries only. It's applicable in every enterprise, irrespective of the size and nature of their services! People are bound to move on and they have accumulated a huge mass of knowledge about the products and processes that is going to be lost if we don't capture it in time. Knowledge that has translated into happy customers and in turn revenue for your enterprise.

So think about KM as one of the most critical strategies for your business and not just something that should be done if time permits.

Code Review Automation - A little underestimated!

2011-05-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

By now, code review automation is a pretty established practice and more of a norm than a value add. There still exists the debate whether code review automation really brings much value to the table in case of
1. Applications which might not demand a high quality code where every coding standard has been considered or
2. In a case where the tool throws up too many observations which might not be feasible to fix in the already tight delivery schedules.

In spite of all the apprehensions, the code review tools definitely help in a few aspects at least to maintain some hygiene in the code being spewed out. Namely,
1. Maintaining some coding standards and styling, making the code much more readable and maintainable
2. In case of certain Java related tools like Findbugs, which also point out possible null pointer exceptions and performance bottle necks.
3. Extremely useful to get the newbies at a decent standard of coding without much efforts on mentoring, since most tools come with a explanation to fix the reported finding
4. Saves a lot of precious peer review time of detecting empty catch blocks, wrongly declared data types, initializations within loops and the like...

2011-03-02T00:26:00.000-08:00

Mind Mapping is a excellent visual method of representing & classifying ideas and a structured approach to brainstorming. Mind mapping involves identifying a central idea and then drilling down on various aspects related to that idea.

For example, If I were to plan for my vacation and analyze my options. Here my central idea would be "Vacation Plan" or "Vacation Places". Then I would try and drill down to the immediate sub categories which is type of vacation and then to the places available to me.

So the drill down would depend on your target for the breakdown structure. In the example mentioned above, I also have the option of drilling down based on the duration of the trip (short, long, weekend break etc...) or budget (>25k, < 10k,>50k etc...)

Why should you mind map?

It takes you away from trying to prioritize the idea as you would do in a list
Enables a free yet focused discussion on ideas and allows drill down to all possible options
Visual representation allows you to recall better.
Effective way to study, understand and explain complex concepts in a concise format

Tool:

There are a large variety of tools available for mind mapping. One of my personal favorites is XMind, a free and open source mind mapping tool. It has a great, intuitive GUI along with options to convert your mind maps to tree structure graphs and fishbone diagrams. Additionally, it allows you to export the diagrams to image, word, PPT and a host of other export options.

"I do" or "I don't"??

2010-12-18T09:08:00.000-08:00

Some how "marriage" and "death" are things that happen to other people.. It's really not something that you expect to happen to you (especially at 25!)

403 Forbidden!

2010-12-08T02:42:00.001-08:00

"403 Forbidden" error is the one of the most ambiguous errors of SVN and the most frequently occurring too!

My earlier understanding was that it would typically occur only when the user did not have appropriate access rights to the svn path that he was trying to access.

But that's not the only reason. It could also occur due to a incorrect path.
It's kind of strange that we can checkout and browse the repository using this path but cannot commit to it!

You have to ensure that the letter casing is exactly the same as the repository name on SVN server.

For example, your working copy may work with the URL "https://server:8443/svn/Project/Trunk" whereas the server side URL would be "https://server:8443/svn/Project/trunk".
In this case, you need to use the relocate option of TortoiseSVN and relocate your working copy to the correct URL. You can also checkout the folder again if you have no uncommitted local modifications on your working copy.

So the next time you come across a 403, remember to check the letter cases of the SVN repository name!

Defect & Code Traceability

2010-12-02T01:42:00.000-08:00

In large projects, it becomes exceptionally difficult to maintain traceability between the code changes and the defects and features. This traceability enables us to easily switch between code changes, revert to earlier repository state, review & tracking of changes made with respect to a particular defect number or feature number.

There are several defect tracker & CM tool integrations available. SVN in particular is integrable with most of the popular defect trackers like

Being slightly partial to the user friendly Redmine, the tortoisesvn - redmine plugin is very very easy to start with.
Once you configure the plugin to work with Redmine, you can see all the Redmine tasks in Tortoise SVN.
If you want to see the changesets in Redmine, you will need to click on the Repositories tab and then Redmine refreshes the changesets (Bug has been reported)
Or you can write a refresh script which can refresh repositories whenever a commit is made in SVN.

Locked File Reports from your working copy

2010-11-27T21:46:00.000-08:00

In my effort to find a easier way to get the locked file list, stumbled on the "svn status" command.
What you essentially need to do is run this command with a verbose (-v) and get changes from repository (-u) options. This is similar to the TortoiseSVN "Check for modifications" option.

The catch here is, it needs to be run from the folder on which you need the report. So I partially checked out the root folder and ran this command! Works perfectly!

In the output, the files which are marked "O" are the locked one's.

So your command should be looking some thing like this:

working_dir_path> svn status -u -v>locklist.txt

Getting list of Locked Files

2010-10-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

From a Project manager or Configuration Manager's perspective, getting a report on all the locked files is quite a necessity. I did not come across any utility which could give me this functionality. Probably cause it needs to be run on the server side.
Anyways, what you can do is, pass on the following command to your SVN admin guy and ask ask him to send you a report. The default format is pretty messy, so it needs some excel programming to put the text report in a better format.

svnlook lock path_in_repository >D:\locklist.txt

Above command, needs the repository path for which to find the locked files and it will give you the report in a text file at D:

RapidSVN Error: Error while updating filelist (Can't create tunnel: Invalid argument)

2010-09-02T05:36:00.000-07:00

For some people in my team, I was getting this error in spite of having done all the configurations right (as mentioned in the earlier post ) - environment variable & config file changes
So I tried to retrace my steps by removing the variables (user name and password) from the environment variables and checking for the connectivity.
And it worked!
It was probably having some problem in creating the tunnel for the first time.
Once it created the tunnel and prompted me for the password for the first time, going forward it had no problems in taking the credentials from the environment variable.
So if you face somethings similar, I would suggest that you check for establishing the basic connectivity first.

2010-09-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

I went back to web development after a long time... this time to put up a anniversary gift for my friend...

Check it out - Funrobics - Towards a Healthy & Fitter Life

Funrobics, run by Dr.Archana Upadhyaya is a really fun way to get yourself exercising!
Typically mundane exercise routines are made more engaging through a combination of Pilates, Yoga, Power Yoga and Aerobics.
Not only do you lose the boredom of going trhough the same old gym routine but also get to try out new routines all the time, specially designed for you by Archana.
Archana is a Reebok certified Aerobics, Step & Pilates trainer . She has also done certifications in Power Yoga, High Performance Core Training & is a certified ABS Fitness Trainer specializing in training Female Clients!
With all those certification, you are assured that you are in really good hands! :)

For more details, check out the site!

Configuring RapidSVN over SVN+SSH

2010-08-15T07:26:00.000-07:00

I spent a lot of time in trying to setup RapidSVN to work over SSH. Each time I would try to open a repository, it would throw up an error of "Cannot create tunnel: The system cannot find the file specified." The problem is that RapidSVN does not know how to handle SSH...

After searching a lot, I chanced upon Diogo Gomes's blog on Using svn+ssh with RapidSVN
Diogo suggests using Plink.exe but the Putty session started hanging and there was the problem of the Plink window opening up, each time RapidSVN would try to connect to the repository.

A simpler solution worked for me, using TortoisePlink.exe. This solution also takes care of the password caching by passing the username and password directly to the TortoisePlink through a environment variable. If you do not want to pass the credentials, simply avoid passing the parameters in the environment variable.

So here goes...

Step 1 : Add TortoisePlink.exe path to the Environment Variable

Variable: SVN_SSH
Value: C:\\TortoisePlink.exe -l [username]-pw [password]

* Please note the "\\" in the path and the parameter for username is a small "el".

Step 2 :The same path needs to be added to the Subversion config file. You can locate this file in Application Data/Subversion/config

# ssh = $SVN_SSH C:/TortoisePlink.exe

* Please note the "/" in the path.

Two simple configurations and you are set!

When to Branch and Tag?

2010-07-14T01:50:00.000-07:00

Very often there is a confusion as to when we should branch and tag. This confusion mainly arises from the fact that SVN treats "Branch" and "Tag" in the same way in the back end. The difference lies in how the user treats that branch or tag.

Tag

A tag is just a "snapshot" of a project in time.
Tags are similar to the concept of a “label” in VSS
Tags are commonly used to label or mark a particular released code
Tagged code should not be modified
If modifications are required, it should be done by creating a branch

Difference between branch & tag

SVN treats a branch & a tag as a copy of the code
Internally there is no difference between a tag & branch
Difference lies in usage of branch & tag
Branches are meant for development of a new line of code
Changes should not be made to tags

Space utilization

Direct copies are not made
SVN uses concept of “cheap copies”
The new files are links from the old files
Hence branching & Tagging are time & space efficient

Branching in Subversion

2010-03-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

Subversion has a very powerful branching and merging facility with recursive merges, feature branches, and tree merges. But before starting with the actual branching & merging, you need to fix on the branching & merging strategy.

Branching
A branching strategy should first focus on deciding what a branch represents. Common approaches to branching are:

Release based - every release is a new branch.

Branching by Project Phase - Development/ Test/ Production

Branching by Variant - Some products are built for various technology platforms. The branching strategy could hence depend on the architecture of the product.

The above mentioned strategies can be used in a combination, based on the project requirement. For example, a complex product built for Windows and Linux platforms could have a branching strategy as shown below.

Using Tortoise SVN for Branching
Tortoise SVN has an excellent help document on the branching and merging. You can also refer the SVN book for the same. While branching, you simply have to right click on the root folder from where you want to create branch and provide the branch path and name.

Best Practices:

Baseline code should be in "trunk" folder
All Branches should be created in a "Branch" folder
Branching and merging strategy should be decided before hand to avoid chaos later.

References:

http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.1/ch04.html#svn-ch-4-sect-1

Snaps from my cell

2010-02-16T03:42:00.000-08:00

These days, I have become addicted to clicking away with my cell camera... Considering that it's the most convenient way to capture all those special moments that you witness, each day of your life...

Aaaaaaaah! Trapped! ;) A very interesting pic of the lift in my building...

Rise and shine! The morning sun peeping out from the mountains...

"Festival of Lights" is here!!

2008-10-18T00:19:00.000-07:00

The very cliched "festival of lights" is here! Cliched but true, diwali inherently brings to us a feeling of hope, goodness and well being. It fills us up with hope, happiness and enthusiasm.

Considering the current market situation, the firing spree that companies are at and the increasing terrorism, diwali comes as a savior... A reason to celebrate our meagre savings, employment and the fact that we are still alive to celebrate it...

In this situation of despair and bankruptcy, diwali is just what we needed to boost our spirits and to renew our faith in a better tomorrow... So here's wishing everybody a very happy diwali and may this diwali bring light to your life!

why are BPOs portrayed as youth centric?!

2008-04-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

Every day, on my way to work, when I see these huge, luring BPO hoardings with bright young faces smiling at you with a phone to their ears, I cant help but wonder that why would BPOs be portrayed as a youth centric job! Is it because the late working hours? Or is it because a certain brand image of being the 'in thing' has been built by BPO companies?
By 'youth' I don't just mean young by age, I am referring here to the indomitable spirit of a young person, the will power, the fierce determination of the young-at-age to achieve their goals, their aims in life. Youth, as per the Webster dictionary, is
a: the period between childhood and maturity
b: the early period of existence, growth, or development
Looking at both the meaning we realise that this is by far the most critical period of one's life.
It is the time when opinions are formed, a thought process is formed and the person is evolving to become a responsible and important part of the society.
Now, by far I don't understand that how can a work culture like that of a BPO be associated with this process. I might be sounding cynical, but the truth lies in the fact that BPOs have always been known for their obscenely late working hours, making a substantial amount of money in a short time and an extremely stressful work environment.
I accept that not all BPO jobs fit this category but most of them do. The easy money and the hype about the 'youth-centric' work culture often draw college students towards jobs in BPOs. All they are looking for is a quick buck to take care of the 'upar ka kharcha' but this often ends up becoming the a part of their necessary expenditure. The more the dependence on this extra money increases, the more that person is drawn into taking it up as a full time proffession.
Often at the cost of dropping out of college or compromising on the academics.
Here I see unbounded talent being wasted in answering calls in a fake accent. It makes them lose their identity and all the extra money drives them into a completely frivolous lifestyle.
The work stress drives them into depression and in turn leads to addictions of all sorts. And here begins the vicious cycle. Their addictions don't allow them to leave their jobs and the job in turn drives them into getting more addicted.
This might come across as a cynical view of the BPO work culture but this is what I have seen in front of me everyday. I agree that they have also been a boon for the people who could not geta job elsewhere because of lack of education. But at the same time there has been a large chunk of people who have got into this profession for all the wrong reasons.
Criticising the BPOs for this reason or criticising the youth is not the solution. The only solution is to have a strong moral sense driven into the youth right from an early age so as to turn them into socially and morally responsible citizens. Then for such a person the job or the stress will never affect the inherent character of that person.