Around sunset, a building architect was walking among workmen. Many were cutting stones. But one person caught his attention as he whistling and doing his job. It wasn't much time before he understood that he is breaking stones since morning. Out of curiosity, he went closer and asked him "what are you doing?". without blinking he said "Can't you see that I am cutting stones that is will build a great citadel. It isn't difficult to see that if we can help our team members to see the larger goals, mindset can be influenced.

Story telling is powerful. Why? It works holistically on the brain. Across age groups, people respond to stories. For a well told story, recipients empathetically respond. From a developer to a leader, stories help them communicate effectively. When one carefully see, all stories follow the same pattern "Selection, Connection & Relation" This talk will demystify the art of storytelling, its impact on mind of hearers and how could one can construct and practice story telling for driving change

42% of start-up failures are attributed to one reason - "They developed something that is not a need". Over the last few decades many organizations have spent billions in digital transformation. However, few years back Forrester estimated that $900 billion worth of spend in digital transformation will miss the mark. Be it startups or organizations that transform digitally, they both find their digital journey tough. In the user centric world, digital transformations are still plagued with traditional mindset. If we see from hindsight, these organizations could never ascertain value of their solution upfront from an end user angle. We need a value foresight to deal with this existential challenge and there is no crystal ball to predict it. So, the questions CIOs ask is – Can Value be defined and how can it be engineered into the solution? If value can be engineered in, can every team member be an innovator? Anything that is definable can be qualified, improved upon and dealt upfront.

This talk will help define value and provide a set of aspects on how successful products in the industry have engineered value upfront. Talk will also draw experiences of digital transformation initiatives where the research from successful products have been implemented – CODEX, a project management platform that transforms the governance of engagements for customers & OnTheGo, mobile intranet in the hands of employees for their daily needs

In a nutshell, this talk will drive home the point of value engineering every aspect of the product for best in class user experience and adoption.

42% of start-up failures are attributed to one reason - "They developed something that is not a need". Over the last few decades many organizations have spent billions in digital transformation. However, few years back Forrester estimated that $900 billion worth of spend in digital transformation will miss the mark. Be it startups or organizations that transform digitally, they both find their digital journey tough. In the user centric world, digital transformations are still plagued with traditional mindset. If we see from hindsight, these organizations could never ascertain value of their solution upfront from an end user angle. We need a value foresight to deal with this existential challenge and there is no crystal ball to predict it. So, the questions CIOs ask is – Can Value be defined and how can it be engineered into the solution? If value can be engineered in, can every team member be an innovator? Anything that is definable can be qualified, improved upon and dealt upfront.

This talk will help define value and provide a set of aspects on how successful products in the industry have engineered value upfront. Talk will also draw experiences of digital transformation initiatives where the research from successful products have been implemented – CODEX, a project management platform that transforms the governance of engagements for customers & OnTheGo, mobile intranet in the hands of employees for their daily needs

In a nutshell, this talk will drive home the point of value engineering every aspect of the product for best in class user experience and adoption.

Agile methodology adoption is galloping in adoption in the industry. It is almost a fad in many ways with most software practitioners wanting to have a personal certification. However, the question remains - Is agile methodology resulting in better agility? Yes? No? Is there an Achilles’ heel? We shall ponder in this talk. This is based on my observations with multiple of our customer where agile methodology has not brought in agility and how we are moving towards a transformational journey

If we look at industry at large, we will not be surprised to see that something that works well to one doesn’t work the same.   A careful analysis in most cases would show that there was something fundamental that was an essential ingredient is getting missed. Way back in early 1900s, Ford had a small lab where all new things were tried and brought into the shop floor. This lab was a place which very few had access to. However, this generated enough to drive their line manufacturing concept and new models. Henry Ford himself spent a significant time thinking how they can make a difference to customers. Few years from then, R&D team became a norm that every organization had and industry started measuring innovativeness of an organization based on R&D spend. However, many R&D functions became hub of inventions that would never be used and lost the sting that was before. Today traditional R&D functions are being shut in many places and R&D cost is being scrutinized heavily. Why? Many became too distant from their customers or they took the eyes of competition.

Can a similar Achilles heel exist for agile methodology? Sadly, the answer seems yes.

The talk will flow as below

1. What is so unique in agile that waterfall or RUP did not have? Let us try and answer this? Did TDD originate with agile? Did user centric requirements originate with agile? Did acceptance criteria originate with agile? Answer is No for all of these. If so, what is the new thing in agile that makes the difference?   Talk with bring out the fundamental uniqueness of agile and why it is an imperative from business, developer
2. Some samples of classic non-agile setup but still considered agile
   1. Reflection from an agile setup that has been in force for last 5+ years
   2. Reflection from an agile setup of a new transformational product is being developed
   3. Reflection from a production implementation setup that touted themselves of fast delivery to customers
3. Where does agility start & how should we approach agility in the industry?

Motivation - Culture over years got passed through stories.  Patriarchs communicated timeless truths through stories.  Jesus Christ told the Kingdom principles through stories.  Great orators today tell a story to drive home their points.  Can we leverage this better to drive our delivery culture..

What is story?

Stories are every day instances or an instance in history.  It typically has a message that the teller could drive to an audience.   story is not an abstract concept but in essence it is real or closer to reality.

Basics of a story telling?

Story is all about selection and connection.  Same story told by two people could lead to an altogether different outcome.  This is where the art becomes science.  One could tweak a situation to his own convenience to drive home the point.  But it still is an art as there is joy, pathos, emotions, style etc. that are attached to it while delivering 

What would the session be about?

First part of the session would be to motivate the listeners to show how stories changed the world. 

Following this motivation, it would be to show how a story could be constructed out of normal every day situation (for example - the bridge in domlur signal tool at Bangalore almost 5 years to complete whilst a much longer 9 km electronics city bridge took just 2.5 years.  In this example - similar team members, similar engineers, similar investers, same bureaucracy but entirely different outcomes. How? - Methodology was different and tools were different).  as you can see, it is all about a set of instances and connecting them to drive the point that we want the hearers to realize.  Another person could use them same example to drive component based development.  However, as a science it can be taught to construct a story to suit the point the story teller wants to drive.

Then the session would indulge in various constructs of stories - Many types exist 1. Two instances of contrast and drive a point 2. One instance of success/failure 3. Story with a twist that leads to a question  and so on..

Then the session would go on as to how to get a story started, how to build it up and how to construct it and so on..

Would like to get feedback from the reviewers. If we can get about 60 minutes, we can also get a couple of them to share a 3 minute story with an instance that they had in their teams recently.

Hopefully this session would help the change agents. I have been using stories in driving excellence across client engagements and motivating teams.