Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 P3100 with Android Jelly Bean

For the last 3 weeks, I avoided reviewing my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 P3100. Mainly because there are thousands of reviews on the Web already. Mine would not have had anything different to say. That is, until today. Because today, Samsung upgraded me from Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to 4.1 Jelly Bean (over the air, without prompting for my permission - that was rude!). The file download took some time but once the upgrade started (involving a reboot and a cute animation of the Android robot getting his stomach operated), it was completed in less than 5 minutes. And the difference is to be seen to be believed. There has been an obvious improvement in the touch screen experience. Home pages scroll faster and "press to click" happens quicker. The notifications have moved from bottom right to top center. There is a permanent set of useful icons at the bottom - Phone, Contact, Messaging, Internet, Setting, Apps that remain when you scroll between home pages. The troublesome screen-shot button has disappeared from the bottom, leaving only the ones for navigation (and the small button for the mini apps quick launch bar). The weather app and the clock seem to have merged with each other, which looks great although it leaves me dependent on the mini apps bar to set an alarm. Another issue was that I lost all my painstakingly-arranged desktop shortcuts and had to redo all that hard work. But I'll gladly accept that as a payoff for a smoother-looking, smoother-feeling user interface. Android rocks!!!

P.S.: All you guys at Google should take note... coming from a recent convert from the Nokia ecosystem, that last phrase is a solid compliment!

Skype and Port 80

I was trying to start the Apache web server installed on my desktop, to test something in PHP. But I kept getting the error "Operation failed". Even re-installing Apache did not help. I was at my wit's end trying to figure out what had gone wrong because the web server was running fine a few days ago. Then I tried running httpd in debug mode (httpd.exe -e debug). This told me the reason for Apache not starting was that some other program was blocking port 80 on localhost. But common sense told me I had no such programs running on my machine. A quick Google search later, I realized that the villain was none other than Skype. Skype allows users who are behind firewalls to use port 80 and 443 as an alternatives for incoming connections. Disabling the use of these two ports for Skype will free them up for Apache. Now I'm able to do my PHP testing. Here's the link that helped me solve the problem:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/disable-skype-from-using-opening-and-listening-on-port-80-and-443-on-local-computer/

Digicam v/s DSLR

A neighbor who plans to buy a camera soon asked me, "What is the difference between a digital camera and a DSLR? Why should I prefer one over the other?" As someone who uses a 12 MP DSLR, a 12 MP mobile phone camera and a 14 MP digicam, I wouldn't have any hesitation in recommending a DSLR. But  I wasn't really confident about the right way to answer the question, and decided to do some online research

Two very good pages I found in this regard were  this one and  this one (disclaimer: I don't vouch for their content). Based on their analysis and my own experience, I decided that the best way to present my case would be to write down the strengths and weaknesses of the DSLR, and see how the digicam stacks up

DSLR Strengths

1. Image Quality: Clearer, more "zoomable" pictures. The best digicams can match DSLRs in good light conditions but cannot beat them. In low light situations, DSLRs win 11 times out of 10

2. Lenses: Various lenses can be used, along with different accessories like filters, extension tubes, external flashes, etc. as per the situation. The same DSLR can be used to capture the pollen grains on a bee's leg and to click the crowd at junior's birthday party. Even the best digicams cannot offer that kind of adaptability

3. Accurate Viewfinder: What you see in the DSLR's optical viewfinder is what you get. Period. In digicams, the viewfinder is unreliable but what you see on the LCD screen is close enough to the clicked image

4. Manual Mode: More control over the exposure but now many digicams have started offering this

We shall ignore some other strengths that are not of much use to a newbie, such as greater ISO range 

DSLR Weaknesses

1. Price: The number one deterrent. The camera body is costly. Good lenses are even costlier. Most digicams are reasonably priced. My advanced digicam cost about a third of my entry-level DSLR

2. Size and Weight: Entry-level DSLRs are not quite unwieldy but they do weigh you down. Not suitable for morning walks and treks. Most digicams are lightweight and would fit into your jeans pocket

3. Noise: They make a "clunk" noise, which can be trouble. Try photographing a butterfly with a DSLR, especially one of the sensitive species. You can always turn off the "click" sound of your digicam

4. Complexity: The first few days, I could only use the Automatic mode of my DSLR. Experiments with Manual mode would mostly end in disaster. But then, this could happen even with a digicam
5. Dust on Sensor: The mirror that creates the viewfinder image opens and shuts for every click. So you are likely to get dust on the sensor quite often. Cleaning it yourself, though possible, is not easy

So, at the end of the day, the digicam is more affordable and easier to carry around. But if you are serious about photography and want to capture the best possible images in a given situation, go for a DSLR. That is what I shall advise my neighbor, the next time we meet

Startups and Funding

The startup I have been assisting finds itself in a bit of a tight corner financially. On one hand, we don't have enough money to expand our team because we only have a few small projects in the pipeline. On the other hand, we can't get bigger projects till we expand our team, in terms of both headcount and skill sets. Despite all our efforts, we haven't been able to attract any VCs or angel investors. So I asked myself - what is it than an investor looks for in a startup?

First and foremost is a business plan. A good business plan shows your would-be investors the company's potential and convinces them to invest their hard-earned cash in a startup. It tells them what you would provide your target audience that is different from the offerings already in the market, attracting customers  towards your firm and growing its market share. After all, why would an investor put money into a company that doesn't promise good returns

Next comes a good core team. An entrepreneur (or set of partners) may have a great idea, which has the potential to be the next Facebook or Twitter. But do they have the right mix of skills to develop the idea and start earning money? If they have a good set of people to start off with, they may be able to gradually build a strong and successful organization around it. The core team should cover all aspects of the business, from technical work to management

Last but not the least, the entrepreneur must be clear about his goal and must remain focused on it. It is easy to get swayed by trends and deviate from your business plan. For instance, jumping on to a bandwagon like Android apps just because everyone else is doing it (just an example, no offence intended to Google). Angel investors especially would be very attentive to this aspect, since they generally remain invested for longer than Banks or VC firms

Today India has many firms that provide both capital and business advice to startups, especially those in the IT and telecom sectors. Any one with a business plan that leverages the power of the Internet, but in a way that is different from the competition, has a good shot at getting funds. The impact of the recession on this sector has been relatively mild. For a budding Indian entrepreneur who follows the above rules, this is as good a time as any to attract funding

Client-side Business Analysts

By definition, a Business Analyst is someone who analyzes the existing organization and design of systems (whether business processes or IT systems) and helps to define the improvements needed. In an IT project, the BA's role is to understand the high-level requirement statement(s) in the project charter, deep dive into the client's business processes and prepare the product scope and project scope. Generally this role is performed at the vendor's side, either by the Project Manager himself or by a specialist BA who has more likely than not worked his way up from a technical role

But sometimes, especially in international projects, one finds the Business Analyst role being played by someone at the client side. This may be an employee of the client organization, or a contractor appointed by the client management to speak to their employees and note down their detailed requirements. The intention is to save the additional time and effort of requirements gathering by the vendor, by giving them everything they need to know. But if you are the PM from the Vendor organization, this is not necessarily good for you. In fact, it can do more harm than good

Since the client's BA has already given you a detailed set of requirements, their management expects you to jump right into finalizing the scope (if not executing the project). This means you or your BA cannot try and find any crucial points that their BA may have missed. Hence you are more likely to face issues with scope approvals, or worse, with scope verification. Also you miss the chance to personally interact with the client employees and understand the power structures and political relationships within their organization, which would have helped you later in the project

Project Closure

One of the projects I am managing is near its end, and though we are facing some last minute scope creep because of a weak SOW and the lack of an SRS document, I have already started working on a template for the Project Closure document. During this process, I browsed through many websites on the Web and observed what others had to say on the subject of project closure. Some define it as "a process, with deliverables, to successfully conclude your project". Other consider it the last phase in the project life cycle, "in which you will formally close your project and then report its overall level of success to your sponsor"; this "involves handing over the deliverables to your customer, passing the documentation to the business, cancelling supplier contracts, releasing staff and equipment, and informing stakeholders of the closure of the project". Whether you see it as a project phase or just a process, the fact remains that closure is a very crucial part of the project life cycle, which should not be taken lightly. There are many ways in which a project can end, which can be positive (inclusion, addition, integration, etc.) or negative (extinction, collapse, starvation, etc.). The most important management documents related to project closure are the Project Closure report and the Post Implementation Review document. As the names suggest, the first document is created as part of the project closure process while the second is created some time after the formal closure of the project, as part of the project manager's analysis of the success or failure of the project

Nokia Pureview 808

Ever since the Nokia Pureview 808 was launched in India last month, I've been researching the pros and cons of this not-so-smartphone with the powerhouse camera, trying to figure out if it can replace my almost-2-years-old Nokia N8, which doubles as a decent point-and-shoot camera whenever and wherever I don't have my DSLR handy. I say not-so-smart because unlike the N8, which was quite advanced for its time with three home screens, online widgets and social media integration, the Belle-powered 808 does not offer any new features that are not seen in other Belle phones (other than perhaps NFC)

So essentially it comes down to the monster camera, with its 41  megapixel  sensor, and whether it is worth spending Rs 34,000 (minus whatever I would get for turning in my N8). But is the camera of the 808 really going to give me gigantic 41 MP images, and what would I do with them anyway? Not really - the default image size is only 5 MP, though theoretically the camera can be used to record images as large as 38 MP. So why use a 41 MP sensor to produce 5 or 8 MP images? The answer lies in the Pureview technology that Nokia has developed over five years, to provide lossless zoom up to 3x and better performance in low-light conditions (the latter being a major weakness of the otherwise solid N8)

Pureview as I understand it works by combining details from all the extra pixels captured by the sensor to create sharper 5 or 8 MP images (when compared to the other camera phones, not digicams). This approach helps the phone's image processor to discard visual noise in low light photographs. Also, since the phone has so many pixels to play with, what it actually does when you zoom in is to select the relevant area of the image, rather than scale up the whole image as other camera phones such as the N8 do. In other words, Pureview technology can put out of business not just rival phones but even basic digicams without optical zoom (Wow! Can't wait for a chance to test such an awesome camera)

But that brings us back to the question of whether the phone is worth buying at this point of time. Let us consider the cons:- heavy and bulky body, single core processor, low RAM, low resolution screen, outdated OS, fewer apps than iPhone or Android, high price tag. Tempted as I am by the single but crucial pro of the camera, I think I shall hold off till the market price comes down a bit. Given the cons and the lack of any other "game changer" features, I believe the Pureview 808 should have been priced around Rs 25,000 to be really competitive in the Indian market. For Nokia's sake, I hope that they choose a more realistic pricing when they come out with a Windows phone using Pureview technology

Importance of Innovation

In a hard-hitting article in today's (3rd July 2012) issue of The Economic Times, former NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik makes a strong case for promoting innovation among Indians. Karnik says that the three 'i's of innovation, invention and ideas are essential for any individual, organization, society or country to gain a decisive edge in today's competitive, globalized world. He bemoans the fact that India today is dominated by political elements that seek homogenization at the cost of the immense diversity that has traditionally defined our country, and which along with adversity is the prime driver of innovation. Other roadblocks for innovation in today's India are censorship, moral policing and the feudalistic mindset symbolized by the beacons on VIP cars

What Karnik says about India as a country is also valid for organizations. Every company tends to have dictatorial leaders or cliques that seek to impose a particular culture on the entire organization, while muzzling any independent voices in the name of hierarchy and respect for authority. What they don't realize is that such lack of diversity ultimately results in total absence of innovation, leaving them with a complacent workforce that is happy to maintain the status quo, without ever thinking out of the box or coming up with more efficient and effective solutions. Also, while many companies have started allocating a significant proportion of their budget to draw out new ideas from their staff, they don't usually put in as much time and effort to develop those ideas to fruition. A good manager has to not only inculcate the spirit of innovation in his employees but also nurture it and ensure that it produces tangible results that add value to the entire organization

Managing Scope Creep

However well defined your SOW document, however detailed your SRS document, some amount of scope creep is inevitable during the development phase of a software project. When a customer previews the system that is being developed, they are bound to come up with new ideas on how a particular module, report or web page should look. Of course, a strong project manager or project sponsor would try and negotiate a corresponding increase in either the budget or schedule or both, in which case, the increase in scope would be treated as an acceptable change request. But if the customer is a VIP client, or if your initial project documents were not specific enough about the scope, you end up having to accept the changes and work them into your schedule and budget. Your best best in such a case is to try and minimize the impact of the scope creep, especially on the confidence of the development team. You could do this by asking the customer to prioritize the changes and ask your team to target only the high priority items at first. At the same time, you would have to negotiate with the customer and set reasonable and realistic expectations about the timely completion of the changes. Most customers would be willing to concede some extra days for low priority changes, beyond the implementation date of the project. Of course, keeping the team engaged for longer on one project could affect the schedules of other future engagements. But, as a project manager, you would still end up having made the best of a bad situation

Virtual Employees

An article in yesterday's (1st June 2012) issue of The Economic Times exhorts organizations to find ways to connect with their virtual employees. The author Abhijit Bhaduri, the chief learning officer at Wipro, stresses that virtual workers do not only mean employees working in another country or city and in fact could be people working in an office just across the road. The plight of such employees typify the saying "out of sight, out of mind". There is no emotional connect with the leader, the team and even the organization. This results in a major drop in employee engagement, which may ultimately result in higher attrition levels

Having seen this first-hand in my last company, I cannot help but agree with Mr. Bhaduri. The top bosses of our Business Unit were based in Bangalore and rarely visited Mumbai. Obviously they would interact more often with Bangalore team members, in the hallways and cafeterias, than with employees at other centers. As a result, even the most minor achievements of Bangalore staff got recognized at the highest levels in the organization, whereas their Mumbai counterparts would slave away all year only to receive "average" ratings and infrequent promotions. This resulted in many Mumbai team members attempting to leave the BU, and when that did not work out due to headcount politics, opting to leave the organization itself

The lesson here for all leaders having virtual employees is to try and personally interact with them as often as possible, even if they work at multiple offices across various locations. Making employees feel wanted and appreciated is the best way to keep them engaged. Bhaduri reminds organizations to use technology, process guidelines and informal rewards to ensure that virtual workers have what he calls "a share of mind, voice and wallet"

Long Distance Project Management

Managing an offshore project from an onshore (or near-shore location) is always a challenge. Though the project manager has the advantage of being close to the client, which is great for requirements gathering and later for UAT support, he/she could struggle to make the remote team stick to the schedule. Not only do you as a PM have no control over attendance and timings, you cannot stop the team leads or coordinators from making minor changes to your project plan as per their own judgement. If you allow them a free hand, you run the risk of losing control over the project. But if you complain or interfere too often, you are seen as playing power games and trying to micromanage. So you need to constantly walk a tightrope between being a dictator and being totally hands-off, while ensuring that the offshore team completes the project on schedule, at (or better still slightly below) budget and most importantly, to the satisfaction of the client

Project Documents - SRS

To continue the discussion from the previous post, the "high-level" requirements stated in the SOW are further elaborated in the System Requirements Specification, also known as the SRS document (or SyRS document, since the first acronym is sometimes interpreted as Software Requirements Specification). This document explains the business requirements in a more technical language, though without resorting to geek-speak, making it an ideal reference point both for the client and the development team

There is no fixed template as such for an SRS document, since the size and complexity of a project would determine the amount of information needed and hence the order in which it is arranged. For simple software development projects, this is the template I like to follow:

1  Introduction

2  High Level Scope

 2.1  Included In Project Scope

 2.2  Excluded From Project Scope

3  Overall Requirements Description

 3.1  System Overview Diagram

 3.2  Functional Requirements Specification

  3.2.1  Use Case 1: <transaction 1>

  3.2.2  Use Case 2: <transaction 2>

  3.2.3  Use Case 3: <transaction 3>

  3.2.4  Use Case 4: Master Data Entry

  3.2.5  Use Case 5: Legacy Data Entry

  3.2.6  Use Case 6: Reports

 3.3  Forms Overview

  3.3.1  Master Data Entry Forms

  3.3.2  Transactional Data Entry Forms

 3.4  Reports Overview

 3.5  High Level Database Design

4  Glossary Of Terms

5  Approvals

The Glossary or Definitions section is optional but good to have, as it explains business-specific terms to the development team and coding-specific terms to the client. All the other sections are essential since they establish exactly what the development team needs to deliver in order to meet the client's business requirements and thus make the project successful

Project Documents - SOW

Wikipedia defines the Statement Of Work (SOW) as "a formal document that captures and defines the work activities, deliverables, and timeline a vendor must execute in performance of specified work for a client". However, this definition misses out a very crucial phrase - "high-level"

An SOW is usually signed at the beginning of a project, when the IT vendor does not have a clear idea of the client's requirements, beyond what their Sales team has captured. And since most IT Sales folks are non-technical, what they state in the SOW are purely business requirements

When these get translated into technical requirements, we may end up with a completely different picture of the task complexity and practical timeline. However, having already signed off on an SOW with ambigously worded requirements, the IT vendor is unable to dispute any scope creep

Therefore an SOW needs to clearly state that the deliverables and timeline mentioned are at a high-level and subject to change during the system analysis & design phase. Ambiguous requirements should be highlighted as such, so that the client cannot interpret them to suit their own interest

Thus an SOW is an agreement to start a project, comprising of some high-level requirements, and to complete it by providing some high-level deliverables in some high-level timeline. The elaboration of these should be left to another project management document, namely the SRS document

The Three Mistakes of Nokia's (OS) Life

Last week, Samsung officially ovetook Nokia as the world's leading handset manufacturer. Though this was foreseen many months back, it is still hard to believe that the company that was an undisputed market leader across the mobile phone space just a few years ago has slipped so badly. The very economy of Finland, Nokia's birthplace, is at risk due to this fall from grace

It is easy to attribute Nokia's downfall to the quality of the competition (Samsung's Galaxy series of Android phones and tablets have won over Nokia users) or argue that their rivals moved the goalposts (Apple's iPhone revolutionized the smarphone business and knocked the wind from Nokia's sails, pun intended). But the fact is that Nokia had enough resources available, both in terms of technology and finances, to counter the iPhone/Android onslaught and hold on to their market leadership position. It was sheer lack of focus on their part, and the inability to convert brilliant ideas into best-selling products, that cost Nokia their crown. Here's a look at some of the occasions when Nokia missed the bus, at least as far as mobile Operating Systems are concerned:

1. Maemo = The OS based on Debian GNU/Linux, introduced in 2005, won praise from geeks but was never developed further

2. Meego = The partnership with Intel on this Linux-based OS, which was cancelled in 2011 in favour of Tizen, was a non-starter

3. Symbian = Even as Nokia's flagship OS showed signs of changing with the times (Belle), it was replaced by Windows Phone

Other than the Windows Phone 8, which is anyway not expected to be a game-changer, Nokia is now said to be betting on a successor to Meego called the Meltemi. This OS will potentially replace both the Symbian smartphone OS and the S40 feature phone OS. Meltemi is the Greek name for a summer wind that blows across the Aegean Sea. Will this be another OS mistake by Nokia, or will the Meltemi bring winds of change that will sweep away rivals like iOS and Android from the mobile phone market? Only time will tell

Big Data or Big Brother

According to an Australian blog, Facebook's $1 billion purchase of Instagram was less for the application itself and more for the data (including personal data) of the 30 million members of the photo sharing service. Of course, this is just a minor addition to the 900 million users active on Facebook, whose data is already within the reach of Mark Zuckerberg. Frightening as this sounds, the Facebook founder is not the only one who can analyze this kind of "Big Data" to know exactly who you are, where you live, what you do, etc. Every time we upload data to the Web - post photos, play games, update our status/location or make blog posts - we open up our lives for potential scrutiny by not just Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft but also many smaller players who may not be as scrupulous about what they do with our personal details. Of course, some loss of privacy is a natural corollary of being active on the Web, which is why some people refuse to get on Facebook, Twitter or other social media websites. But the growing adoption of Web and Cloud services by individuals and businesses, generating 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day (as per IBM), raises concerns about how all this data is going to be used and by whom. If large corporations or government agencies can keep tabs on everything I do, as long as I remain online, it won't take long for the dystopian vision of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" to come true

Business and Networking

Earlier this week, I attended a BNI meeting for the first time. Their website describes BNI as "a business and professional referral organization that allows only ONE person from each profession to join a chapter. This is a unique platform that integrates face to face networking with an online social network spanning 45 countries and thousands of business people". Although I had heard about the benefits of networking to improve business results, this was the first time I actually saw it in action

The claim about having only ONE person from each profession is not exactly true because BNI India admits members whose cater to different niche markets within the same larger profession. For example, the chapter whose meeting I attended had 4 members from the software field - 1 web design company, 1 social media marketing consultancy, 1 e-business company and 1 company providing customized software solutions. Anyway, there's not much point in arguing over fine print, I guess

The typical meeting works like this - after a brief introduction of BNI, all members present (absence for 3 meetings invites suspension) give a 30 second talk about their own business. This may sound repetitive, yet it is done every week for the benefit of new members or visitors (each one invited by a member, with prior intimation, at a cost of Rs 500). At the end of the 30 second spiel, each member briefly mentions their recent successes and what kind of referrals they are looking for that week

Next, two selected members give a detailed 8 minute presentation on their business. Then all members hand over referrals to anyone else whom they can help, based on the requirements they had mentioned during the 30 second talk (as I understand, the business owner is supposed to talk to the prospective clients only after the referrer has given the latter a personal heads-up). They also pass thank you notes to those fellow members whose previous referrals helped them win new business

The meeting ends with a meal (breakfast in my case, since that chapter holds its meetings every Tuesday morning) where the members do some one-on-one networking and understand each other's referral requirements more clearly. Referrals can also happen offline and not necessarily during the meeting only. BNI also has a concept of power teams within each chapter. These bring together people from related businesses who can help each other with referrals, more than other members

BNI also offers trainings that help members develop key business skills like communication, presentation, management and leadership skills, to stay ahead of the competition. Training sessions also give members from different chapters an opportunity to meet and extend their network. All in all, BNI was an interesting concept and one that seems to work, since I heard some profitable referrals being quoted. If I had something more  tangible to "sell", I would surely have thought about signing up

Nokia N8 and Belle - The Power of Cool

At the time of its worldwide release on 1st October 2010, the Nokia N8 was by far the best piece of hardware in the smartphone market. Sure, its design was not quite as cool as the iPhone's. But it had a powerful 680 MHz processor and 3D Graphics GPU along with 16 MB of on-board memory and a long lasting battery. Most importantly, it had a 12 MP main camera with Carl Zeiss optics that still remains unmatched in terms of picture quality

But in spite of all this, the Nokia N8 failed to set the smartphone market on fire due to its operating system - the dated and unintuitive Symbian S3, which even in 2010 was considered old-fashioned and uncool. Even the much-touted Symbian Anna update failed to enthuse smartphone owners, as it did not live up to the standards set by iOS and Android. But the new Symbian Belle update may change things around, at least for committed Nokia owners

The process of upgrading from Anna to Belle took me more than 1 hour and consumed about 300 MB of bandwidth. But boy was it worth the effort! The first change I noticed was the look and feel. The 6 home screens (up from the earlier 3) look hyper cool, with neat widgets in up to 5 different sizes, along with the tried and trusted app shortcuts. The new wallpapers provided by Nokia are very good. The default Clock and Calendar widgets rock!

The bottom of the screen has 3 buttons instead of 2 (Menu in addition to Options and Call). This is not useful on the N8 but would help on other phones without a Menu button. To scroll between homescreens, you need to flick your finger sideways, as the screen change button has disappeared. At the top is a thin panel showing the service provider name and a tiny digital time display, along with icons for battery, signal strength, 3G or  Wi-Fi connection, etc.

Touch this top panel and flick your finger downwards to reach a new screen where you can turn on/off your mobile data , Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections, and also switch to Silent mode with a single touch. All those who have struggled to reach the Connection Manager in Symbian S3, to turn off 3G connections, would agree that this new facility is a life-saver. But one problem is that this screen tends to open up whenever the phone touches your ear during a call

That's just a small glitch but a major one with Belle is that it is much, much heavier than the Symbian S3 for which the Nokia N8 was designed. As soon as you complete the OS upgrade (which by the way can only be done using the latest version of the Nokia Suite), you see a visible drop in the UI's performance due to the lack of free phone memory. The quick fix for this is to uninstall any bloated applications that you can live without (Social being a prime culprit)

Some other minor issues include slow playback of multimedia content and problems with some kinds of .flv files. While the former is understandable, considering most new smartphones have powerful dual or even quad core processors, the latter is something Nokia needs to look at. But all things considered, the Belle update has given a new lease of life to my ageing N8. Now I may be less easily tempted by the new Sony Experia S and its 12 MP snapper

Micromanagement

Micromanagers are the bane of any IT project (or any project for that matter). These are typically individuals who rise to leadership roles prematurely, for reasons other than their management skills. In some cases, the best techie in the team is made the manager while in others, someone having cordial relations with the Client or with Senior Management is given the top job

Managers in the first category know that their team members are not as good technically as they are. This makes them believe the Limp Bizkit song that goes "if you want something done right, you just do it yourself". Of course, if they can stretch themselves to handle the extra load, this would not be a problem. But even if they do manage it for some time, they tend to burn out

The second category of managers are inherently insecure and always keep looking over their shoulder. Their idea behind micromanaging is to ensure that no alternate power centers develop within the team. If any team lead or senior team member shows some initiative or takes some independent decisions, this category of manager moves swiftly to cut them down to size

Whatever the reason for micromanagement, it is a fact that no team member enjoys working under such conditions. A tightly controlled team can never produce future leaders. Team leads who are used to being micromanaged would naturally try and practice the same style when they themselves become managers. And thus, this unsavory and undesirable system continues

Priorities of an IT Manager

The way I see it, an IT Manager's primary tasks are managing People and managing Processes. If he/she does a good job of both, the People and the Processes would take care of managing the Technology. Of course the Manager should have, or should acquire, a basic understanding the concerned Technology. But the team's success does not depend on his/her being a Technical Expert

But most IT companies seem to believe that an IT Manager's primary task is managing Technology - in other words, being "technically hands-on". If he/she is skilled at managing Processes, that is an added benefit, provided he/she practices it outside regular work hours. And managing People is considered about as valuable as a cricketer's computer engineering degree would be to his IPL team

So if you go to office every other Saturday and write/fix/test code along with your team, saving them from the ignominy of failed deployments, you qualify for accolades and awards. But if you don't have to go to office on Saturdays because you have worked hard to build a strong team, and empowered that team to follow efficient delivery processes, you are judged as only Meeting Expectations