From a software organizations’ perspective, given that there is a resource constraint, what should one do? My thoughts are as follows…

Software engineers are software engineers for a reason. Making money aside, a software engineer (a real one anyway) has the inate desire to use technology to solve a problem. They want to work on something cool, cutting edge and praise worthy. Stick them on a payroll project when they’re 5 years into the job and they will switch the first chance they get. It’s that simple. No really, it is! For routine work, you need to keep code monkeys around. Again, apologies for being blunt, but that’s how it is.

The solution?

First off, identify who you want? Do you want creative, problem solving people who can apply knowledge instead of just replicating code or do you want people who can just produce code? That basically depends on the kinds of projects you do and the products you develop. Keep one thing in mind, whoever you hire will remain with you till they feel satisfied at their jobs. The day they stop feeling satisfied, they will leave.

Netsol realized this difference early on when they were establishing NTI. Their idea was to create software ‘technicians’ and not software engineers for the routine work. These would be relatively low skilled/low paid employees, who would be starting off in the world of IT. Netsol would train them for 6 months, hire them for a couple of years and then let them go. They would be responsible for the day to day ‘boring’ work of writing routine code. Then they hired and trained software engineers to actually be creative and solve the really hard problems. I think that was a very well thought out strategy. A number of firms do that with interns actually, but gradually move them up to more interesting portions of the projects instead of letting them go.

The way netsol designed it, if a technician leaves, then they loose a low paid and low skilled employee, that they can easily replace. So that’s not a big problem, but if an engineer leaves, they lose a whole lot more. So for these people, netsol keeps starting up initiatives that’ll keep them happy and satisfies and also utilizes their work. I know of one person, for whom a whole new line of business was created, just so that he’d stay on with the company. It’s been 4-5 years, and the guy is still with them.

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Resource Constraint

The last couple of years, a lot of people running software houses as well as managing IT departments have had one compaint in common. Not enough manpower to deliver projects.While most of this is attributed to the academics side of the equation, i think the problem is actually two-pronged.

On the one had, academics do lag behind in terms of the demands of the industry. Kids graduating from universities and technical institutes around the country are not really capable to take on commercial projects because they are weak in concepts. Universities, on their end, have tried to incorporate various technical languages into their courseware, from teaching java to dotnet to it’s students in a bid to get them good jobs. While the students are also more eager to learn the latest ‘language’ out there, in this rush, many of them tend to forget the basics of what make up a programming language and the platforms on which these languages run. Without these basics, many of the graduating classes have only, in my opinion, ‘time-bounded’ skills, which decay at an exponential rate. A student who has learn how to program only in dotnet, without having a clear grasp of, lets say, object oriented programming will only be useful till s/he has to write using a framework that uses inheritance as a core principle. And as soon as new frameworks and concepts crops up, they pretty much require a steep re-learning curve.

This problem doesn’t stop here as teachers are pretty much to blame as well. While i’m slowly seeing teachers who can be termed visionaries, many of them are just followers without an original thought. I’m sorry to be sounding to blunt here, but that’s how i see it. Not having a background themselves of the concepts they teach, many are just shoving book content down their student’s throats.

So overall, a bleak picture, but thankfully, there are still quite a few students and teachers out there who want to excel and basically teach themselves to above and beyond the requirements of a particular course and get into the nitty gritty of the subject. And when such a student-teacher pair develops, the results are plainly obvious. These are termed superstars and are the only actively recruited.

The solution?

While i will not say that i have the perfect solution, i’ll present one which i think might work. It’s already in implementation at quite a few places and needs more attention. Instead of focusing solely on the students, the teachers are the one who need focusing on. We can’t get to a hundred thousand students all at once, but maybe we can get to a couple thousand teachers.

In order to develop these superstars, a relationship with a good teacher is essential. There are a few superstars in almost every class around the country, but without teachers there to nurture them, they miss out on their potential.Once we develop teacher skills in various IT concepts and languages, then the chances of developing superstars in universities increase manifold.

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The good news is, there is word on Phase II of PSEB’s certification scheme coming along, with a whopping fifty (50) companies for CMMI level 2, thirty (30) companies CMMI level 3 and fifteen (15) companies CMMI level 5. Also, this time PSEB will fund twenty (20) for ISO27001 Information Security Management System and twenty (20) for ISO20000 IT Service Management System certifications for member companies across the country. These come at a hefty Rs. 460 million price tag to the national exchequer, but will definitely help put a lot more Pakistani companies on the world map.

For the uninitiated, PSEB’s past certification schemes (since 2002) have so far led to 120 companies being ISO9001 Certified, and 21 companies assessed at various maturity levels of CMMI, with 4 currently undergoing assessment. PSEB subsidizes the consultancy fee and the audit/assessment fee for selected organizations at different rates. Uptil now, it’s been either 80-20, 75-25 or 70-30 subsidies where PSEB bears the larger amount and the company bears the smaller. E.g. for 80-20, 80% cost will be borne by PSEB and 20% by the selected organization. This reduces the certification costs drastically, and allows the selected company to compete head to head with bigger business in the international market.

Also, we have word on new IT parks being setup at Karachi & Lahore Airports at a cost of Rs. 50 million, which should help in subsidizing start up costs for various companies.Why choose airports for IT parks you ask? I have no idea either.

Overall, the government has earmarked Rs. 2.3 billion for IT in this years’ Public Sector Development Plan (or 0.42%) through 65 projects.

As for the bad news, since we (the IT industry as a whole) come under the Services category, there’s the question of imposition of 16% GST. Quite plainly, it means that whatever we earn (locally and internationally), gets taxed. This will come as a devastating blow to all of us, simply because it means that our prices (or margins) for the next year will expand (or shrink) dramatically. So far, i’ve only seen Netsol’s Salim Ghauri’s views on the subject. Why is PASHA quiet here, i’d like to know!

So there you have it. Comments and questions are welcome!

Update: So i hear that PASHA is not quiet at all, just not publicizing their stance much. I’ve been informed that they’ve sent a letter of recommendations for the revival of the IT industry, which does contain some very good points mind you, and are very pushing hard for it.

Image Credit: Dailytimes.com.pk

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So it’s quite a surprise that it came so late as a VAS over a telecom network.  Ufone launched it’s RishtaPoint service recently which quite simply allows you to setup a small profile and record a little intro. People can then search over the network for prospective partners, listen to their profiles and if you like it have confidential first conversations. Ofcourse, the prospect is sent an sms of the callers profile first and asked to confirm. It’s confidential, because ufone doesn’t give out the phone number for the first call, which is quite a big concern for users and i’m glad they thought of it.

Since many in our part of the world are so involved in the shadi business, i’m sensing a big business opportunity here. However, the question of whether it will actually be successful, depends on how much users are educated in it’s use. I’ve checked the IVR instructions and the possible options, and it does get quite complicated.

The campaign for this VAS is simple, and so far i’ve heard it only on the radio and no other media. I love that they’ve actually incorporate their own slogan into the product. The ad ends with “kya pata koi aap ko kehna chahye… tum hee tou ho (the last four words sung in ufone’s own tagline format)” from their own “ufone.. tum hee tou ho” slogan.

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In his latest book, Strategy and the Fat Smoker, David Maister writes that just by knowing what is good for you or bad for you will not help people choose the better path. If that was so, he argues, everyone would be exercising and not indulging in the habits of smoking or drinking. After all, everyone knows that is the path to a healthy and better life. Humans are inherently self serving and looking out for number one, i.e. themselves. And they are not rational creatures, but creatures of emotion. At most, they create circles around themselves and include people whose needs they might also serve, but for many, that circle includes only one. When thinking about management, especially management of people, this is one of the basic truths or facts of life one must embrace if they want any chance at moving forward.

People management has always been a very interesting subject for experts around the world. They recognize the need for having a structured environment for people to work in, to have a schedule of tasks to complete and a clear and concise goal to achieve. The funny thing is, most people who have to be managed also recognize this need. Yet, often quite a big disconnect keeps on appearing in organizations around the country (and the world) and a lot of productivity (read: money) is lost in the process. In order to bridge this disconnect, we increasing find the need to satisfy a employee’s personal needs and align them to the company’s need in order for the big money to start rolling in.

So how do we bridge this gap? Any idea’s?

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Recently, Zong set up an MNP campaign which aired all over the place. The campaign was centered around the following group of TVCs.

Now this ad may have been very informative to the customer on what MNP is all about (namely, you get to keep the complete number, including the network code when you switch) it wasn’t very pleasing to other operators seeing that their customers were being targeted.So Ufone came up with a campaign of it’s own. Only they didn’t release it to any of the traditional media streams, they kept it viral. It’s been making rounds on facebook, youtube and other sites and has been viewed more than 10,000 times on youtube only, facebook is another story. (more…)

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But did you ever expect that Pakistan would follow in it’s footsteps as well? Well, apparently we have!

The first signs of web 2.0 have appeared, in what is the most critical government departments of all, the ministry of finance!

I present, The Finance Ministry Blog! Hosted off their main finance.gov.pk website nonetheless!

It comes complete with comments, tags and RSS goodness! And has been operating since March 2009 with the first post appearing on 30th March 09. So far they’ve been updating it with all little tidbits of news regarding the minister and the budget.

I congratulate the powers that be behind the finance ministry on this brilliant step into the future! And hope to see similar initiatives by other area’s both within the government and the private sector of this country.

One thing is for sure, Blogging is definitely here to stay in Pakistan!

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A brief analysis of the participation in Startup Insiders event confirms that it is pretty much the same here. Its mostly college graduates or those with a couple of years of experience that are attending these events (and by extension, more interested in starting up their own business). Common sense says, the older you get, the less risk you might want to be exposed to.. right?

WRONG!

Finally, we have data (at least from the states) that the most active age group starting up their own businesses are between the ages of 55 to 64! Yes, read that again… fifty five to sixty four! ‘young’ people (aged 22-34) were least likely to start their own company! The data was gathered by the Kauffman Foundation and can be found here.

So my message to all you ‘old timers’ who feel like they’ve been left out of the race is… it’s time to make your own race! Open up a business and be your own boss! Afterall… the ‘americans’ are doing it

P.S.
Observations around my own person reveal that quite a few businesses (and i’m including non-IT as well) are actually setup by people in their late 30s or early 50s. These include shops, boutiques, beauty parlors and even gymnasiums.

P.P.S.
Hope you realize, start ups are not just IT, they do tend to exist in other domains too.

Source: GigaOM

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On the morning of 27th May the day there was bomb blast near the ISI Building and Rescue office, at the time I heard a slight vibration thinking of an earthquake as I had just logged in to my PC I posted on twitter asking if there was an earthquake in Lahore. I am not a regular twitter user, there are people like teethmaestro who fully utilize the service, how ever my turninng to twitter for my query was simple, I was sure that even if it was an earthquake our news channels web sites (which bye the way have improved alot on the breaking news coverage ) will still take some time, and 10 am is not a time to call any one at home to check the news channel. So I posted my query on twitter hoping some one would reply and within in few minutes of my posting this query , i received a reply from Jehan Ara telling me about the blast and that she has learned this from a tweet by Dr Awab (teethmaestro).

So here are some of the reasons twitter is picking up now in Pakistan, even with the flooding of news channels the first person reference is some thing always more powerfull, if the news is reporting a complete shutter down strike in a city (hostorically we will always doubt the accuracy of news channels), some one tweeting from there will actually give you a more real picture, reason that some one has no hidden interest in spreading false news, how it validates is also a very interesting phenomena, if you were lying some one would pick up and point you out and at a channel so wide and visibility so great you can’t risk your creditbility by lying about some thing. What this guarentees is a first person account is the community pressure to tell the truth and an audit in real time by the community it self.

I am still not a twitter fan i tweet a lot less then a lot of my friends who i follow, how ever for me the best source of news has become twitter channels like #lahore, #karach, #islamabad and #idp

For me the trend started with the long march, because a lot of people like us were in the long march some of them did an excellent job of keeping the twittter channel for long march updated. For me that provided the most accurate upto the minute account for the most historic movement of our times. after that i became hooked up.

So next time you are looking for breaking news, some real comments on a political or social scandal try out twitter and see if your experience is same as mine.

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