Software Project Health: An Epic Retold

Software Project Health: An Epic Retold
Author: Paramu Kurumathur, PM Power Consulting
Publisher: Notion Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2018-08-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1643247719

Overall, “Software Project Health: An Epic Retold,” certainly fulfils its promise. The core sections on engineering and execution excellence are particularly outstanding… Ashok Soota, Executive Chairman, Happiest Minds Technologies This book is a valuable contribution to the software project management literature. It addresses the need to fill the gap left by using metrics alone to manage a project… Prof.S.Sadagopan, Director, IIIT, Bangalore The author has intelligently used the characters of the Mahabharata to lucidly narrate the concepts of Software Project Health. Integrating Customer Connect and Engaged Management is novel… Krishna Prasad, Director and Country Manager, AS&UX Segment, Aptiv India “Software Project Health – An Epic Retold” has great insights from a real practitioner’s on-the-ground experiences. A must- read in the era of digital disruption. L.Ravichandran, President and Chief Operating Officer, TechMahindra Complex concepts and recipes for lasting success in project management have been made very easy by this excellent compilation from PM Power practitioners. Ramakrishnan Sudarshanam, Divisional VP – IT, United Breweries Ltd An epic is retold. The actors are familiar, but the roles are different. Arjuna is tormented by doubts about his capability to deliver the Kurukshetra program in a competition against the Kauravas. Krishna coaches and mentors him, helping him overcome his self-doubt. To deliver his program, Arjuna aspires to ensure the sustained “health” of his projects as opposed to the Kauravas who are approaching the challenge ready to cut all corners for short-term success. Arjuna and Krishna, with a focus on means and not just the ends, together evolve a project health framework for effective delivery, assurance of outcomes and robust products. This is the story of their fascinating journey of discovery interacting with project teams and stakeholders to develop new perspectives in managing projects. The end result is a comprehensive set of project Vital Signs and their manifestations and a 360-degree assessment approach – a framework for early warning to address the not-uncommon syndrome of projects being “in the pink of health till yesterday, but in Intensive Care today.”

A Practitioner’s Guide to Enterprise Agility

A Practitioner’s Guide to Enterprise Agility
Author: Paramu Kurumathur, J. Veeraraaghavan, S. Sivaguru
Publisher: Notion Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2024-02-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

This book beautifully bridges theory and practice to provide a comprehensive roadmap for organizations seeking to embrace agility. Drawing on real-world case studies and examples, the authors provide tangible steps leaders can take to engage employees, satisfy customers and position their company for long-term success in a complex world. From leadership styles to team empowerment and everything in between, this book offers practical guidance for driving agility at all levels of an organization. Leaders, coaches, and change agents will find invaluable wisdom and actionable insights in this must-read playbook for enterprise transformation. Professor Bharat Bhasker, Director, IIM, Ahmedabad I loved the holistic view of Enterprise Agility - customer, employee, market, HR system, process, innovation, stakeholder focus, waste, vision, Leadership role etc. The best part of this book is about the focus on business outcomes. My five-star rating goes for connecting practices & tools with outcomes, with real-world examples! I learned new perspectives on Enterprise Agility that I will bring in my next transformation journey. The way it is written in a storytelling format is a big differentiator! Jayaprakash Prabhakar, Founder & CEO, Lean Wisdom This book is a must-have, quick-reference-bible for managers on their Agile implementation journey. This provides a well-structured, and well-thought-out framework that serves as an aid to identify areas to improve and problems to solve, and then suggests appropriate practices and tools for each type of challenge that we all face. The large appendix at the end of the book will serve as a good reference toolkit for both project level and organization level managers and can serve as an introspective perspective provider.

The Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility

The Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility
Author: Paramu Kurumathur
Publisher: Notion Press
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2020-09-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1648997686

This book has distilled the experience of working professionals involved in Agile transformation and has been written in an easy-to-read style. While the stories in the book make it a light reading experience, the values from the tales and their linkage to the five values of Enterprise Agility detailed in the book make it a great learning experience with tips on how one can implement these values within their own workplace or organization A highly recommended book for anyone contemplating on how to become Agile, and for others who are already on this path, how to stay Agile. Vinod Sood, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Hughes Systique The software community has, over the years, been adopting a series of process innovations in their quest for delivering predictable, high-quality software. Agile approaches are a recent innovation that are becoming widely adopted across the world. However, most organizations that have gone Agile, have realized that they are not getting the benefits they were expecting with Agile and are searching for answers. This book from PM Power could help them significantly as it provides the priceless wisdom of many of their coaches in helping organizations not only successfully transform at an enterprise level into an Agile way of working but in sustaining such initiatives over time. Dr. A L Rao - Board Member - Trianz, EX COO- Wipro. Never have businesses and organizations faced such challenges like understanding market opportunities, customer requirements and risks as they are in today’s world as we face a global pandemic, geopolitical uncertainties and inequalities. This situation requires organizations to be more flexible and responsive and yes, more Agile, than ever before. The Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility couldn’t have come at a better time to help business leaders implement Agile in their design and development process. I highly recommend investing the time to read the book and learn how you can improve your current Agile implementation or for implementing Agile as a new approach. Marc Zionts, Executive Chairman, Precision Nutrition, Inc. I read “The Five tantras of Enterprise Agility” and enjoyed every bit of it. Intended for managers, it is indeed a great guide for those planning to launch the Agile journey in their organization or their client organization The style is conversational, the skill of the author to tell a compelling story is remarkable and deep subject matter conveyed in a light-load form factor remarkably well! With Agile getting mainstream and software entering every aspect of human endeavor, this book will be a must-read for most managers & consultants across the spectrum of industries - much beyond the software services industry! It is very contextual too! Starts before Covid-19, gets ready through the difficult period, and will see the light of the day on a day when hopefully Covid-19 would have become history! Prof S Sadagopan, Director, IIIT-Bangalore

The First Aryan

The First Aryan
Author: Paramu Kurumathur
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2019-08-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9353056241

Will a series of brutal killings destroy the very foundation of Parsuvarta, an ancient kingdom? A series of murders have taken place in Parsupur, the capital city of Parsuvarta. Kasyapa and Agastya, two students training to become priests, are asked by their guru to investigate the deaths. Around the same time, there is great turmoil brewing in the city-a palace coup and a battle for supremacy between the traditional Indra worshipers and the new sect of Varuna followers. It is an age when Vedic gods are worshiped, religious sacrifices are performed regularly, commerce flourishes and kings are guided by their loyal head priests. But beneath this façade of order lie prejudices and political rivalries, jealousy and power games. This is why the murders, which at first seem to be unconnected, soon lead in the same direction. It is now up to Kasyapa and Agastya to find out the common thread and identify the killer. The First Aryan is a one-of-its-kind murder mystery set in the Vedic times.

The Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility

The Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility
Author: Paramu Kurumathur
Publisher: Notion Press
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2020-08-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9781648997679

This book has distilled the experience of working professionals involved in Agile transformation and has been written in an easy-to-read style. While the stories in the book make it a light reading experience, the values from the tales and their linkage to the five values of Enterprise Agility detailed in the book make it a great learning experience with tips on how one can implement these values within their own workplace or organization A highly recommended book for anyone contemplating on how to become Agile, and for others who are already on this path, how to stay Agile. Vinod Sood, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Hughes Systique The software community has, over the years, been adopting a series of process innovations in their quest for delivering predictable, high-quality software. Agile approaches are a recent innovation that are becoming widely adopted across the world. However, most organizations that have gone Agile, have realized that they are not getting the benefits they were expecting with Agile and are searching for answers. This book from PM Power could help them significantly as it provides the priceless wisdom of many of their coaches in helping organizations not only successfully transform at an enterprise level into an Agile way of working but in sustaining such initiatives over time. Dr. A L Rao - Board Member - Trianz, EX COO- Wipro.

Agile Project Management For Dummies

Agile Project Management For Dummies
Author: Mark C. Layton
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2017-09-05
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1119405696

Flex your project management muscle Agile project management is a fast and flexible approach to managing all projects, not just software development. By learning the principles and techniques in this book, you'll be able to create a product roadmap, schedule projects, and prepare for product launches with the ease of Agile software developers. You'll discover how to manage scope, time, and cost, as well as team dynamics, quality, and risk of every project. As mobile and web technologies continue to evolve rapidly, there is added pressure to develop and implement software projects in weeks instead of months—and Agile Project Management For Dummies can help you do just that. Providing a simple, step-by-step guide to Agile project management approaches, tools, and techniques, it shows product and project managers how to complete and implement projects more quickly than ever. Complete projects in weeks instead of months Reduce risk and leverage core benefits for projects Turn Agile theory into practice for all industries Effectively create an Agile environment Get ready to grasp and apply Agile principles for faster, more accurate development.

Black Klansman

Black Klansman
Author: Ron Stallworth
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2018-06-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1250299039

The #1 New York Times Bestseller! The extraordinary true story and basis for the Academy Award winning film BlacKkKlansman, written and directed by Spike Lee, produced by Jordan Peele, and starring John David Washington and Adam Driver. When detective Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, comes across a classified ad in the local paper asking for all those interested in joining the Ku Klux Klan to contact a P.O. box, Detective Stallworth does his job and responds with interest, using his real name while posing as a white man. He figures he’ll receive a few brochures in the mail, maybe even a magazine, and learn more about a growing terrorist threat in his community. A few weeks later the office phone rings, and the caller asks Ron a question he thought he’d never have to answer, “Would you like to join our cause?” This is 1978, and the KKK is on the rise in the United States. Its Grand Wizard, David Duke, has made a name for himself, appearing on talk shows, and major magazine interviews preaching a “kinder” Klan that wants nothing more than to preserve a heritage, and to restore a nation to its former glory. Ron answers the caller’s question that night with a yes, launching what is surely one of the most audacious, and incredible undercover investigations in history. Ron recruits his partner Chuck to play the "white" Ron Stallworth, while Stallworth himself conducts all subsequent phone conversations. During the months-long investigation, Stallworth sabotages cross burnings, exposes white supremacists in the military, and even befriends David Duke himself. Black Klansman is an amazing true story that reads like a crime thriller, and a searing portrait of a divided America and the extraordinary heroes who dare to fight back.

Star Wars Epic Yarns: Return of the Jedi

Star Wars Epic Yarns: Return of the Jedi
Author: Jack Wang
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 27
Release: 2015-04-14
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1452147051

Jedi apprentices and little princesses will delight in this (heart)felt retelling of the Star Wars saga. And so will Star Wars fans of any age! The series launches with the original trilogy, and every word counts in these small but perfectly formed yarns. That's because each volume features 12 iconic scenes, handcrafted in felt and pithily summarized in just a single word. The attention to detail is eye-opening; the proportions are just-right for small hands; the fun is guaranteed. In Return of the Jedi, The monster Jabba is encountered, C-3PO conducts story time, and there is a happy ending. © and TM Lucasfilm Ltd. Used Under Authorization

Good to Great

Good to Great
Author: Jim Collins
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2001-10-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0066620996

The Challenge Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning. But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? The Study For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great? The Standards Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck. The Comparisons The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good? Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't. The Findings The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include: Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness. The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence. A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap. “Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.” Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh
Author: David Ferry
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2014-11-11
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1466885025

A new verse rendering of the great epic of ancient Mesopotamia, one of the oldest works in Western Literature. Ferry makes Gilgamesh available in the kind of energetic and readable translation that Robert Fitzgerald and Richard Lattimore have provided for readers in their translations of Homer and Virgil.