Authors: Dilshad Mustafa
Over the next
few days Vinay and Himesh became closer to each other. They both started going
out for lunch and tea breaks. Himesh ensured they took only thirty minutes for
lunch and fifteen minutes for one tea break in the afternoon. They mostly went
to the office canteen. This way he said they would spend only forty five
minutes every day for lunch and tea break and could concentrate more on work.
Vinay liked that. He loved working on technically challenging things related to
software. He considered lunch and tea breaks as unnecessary time off from work.
They sometimes went for lunch at 5 PM and could find only snacks and ate it for
lunch. But then Vinay knew without food he would become weak and so he ate
something that was available.
Sometimes
Himesh took Vinay on a walk around the sprawling Holtezent campus. The Holtezent
campus was built on a twenty thousand acre area of land. The main building
formed an X shaped construction. The four blocks in the X were designated as
North, South, East and West blocks. Each block had four wings, two wings on
either side of the block. These wings were denoted as A, B, C and D. The main building
of each block was denoted as M. There were conference rooms, meeting rooms,
ODCs on both the main building of the block as well as the four wings in each
block. For example NB-A-4-ODC3 would refer to North block, A wing, fourth floor
and ODC3, whereas SB-M-9-ODC14 would refer to South block, main building, nineth
floor and ODC14.
Vinay had
attended his interview in EB-M-2-ODC4 and he had waited in the reception area
hall in EB-M-G-RH1 in East Block. Each block had ten floors. The terrace in
each block contained a cafeteria. There was a big library located in WB-M-G-LB1
in the West block. There was also a big food court located in SB-M-3-FC1 in
South block.
Vinay and
Himesh would always talk about many things related to computers, software,
latest researches in Science. They rarely talked anything about salary, taxes
and finances.
“You know I
have been working here for the last six months. Previously I worked in another
project and there was a ramp-down. And then I joined this project. I already
know quite a bit of how things are in this company and also a lot about the
people around here,” said Himesh.
“Please tell
me your story,” smiled Vinay.
Himesh went on
to tell the difficulties he faced in his previous project. He told how it took thirty
days for him to get door access for the ODC, how it took two months for him to
get all the software installed in his PC. He explained how Agile methodology
was used and how he ended up as the only working resource for that project. He
explained the unrealistic demands from the client and was asked to complete a
one year project in just six months in the name of Agile methodology. He said
he lost count of how many times he worked on Saturdays, Sundays and company
holidays. He told how many times he was blamed for somebody’s fault.
“It was
horrible man. It was very horrible,” said Himesh.
And then he
explained how he was released from the project with the feedback that his
performance was not up to the mark.
“I was in
bench for two weeks,” said Himesh.
“So Murali took
you in after that project ended? Do you know Murali before joining here and
other Project Managers?” asked Vinay.
“Murali is not
the Project Manager for this project. He is the Technical Team Lead for just
our team only. He and Satish just interviews people and report the results to
the PM. Raghu is the PM and he decides the people for each project team under
his portfolio,” said Himesh.
“But I thought
Murali is the Project Manager,” said Vinay.
“Murali is the
Technical Team Lead for our team. And Satish is the Technical Architect for our
team,” said Himesh.
“Both Murali
and Satish doesn’t get involved in anything related to technical work for this
project. And that fellow Satish, he is a namesake Architect. He has nothing to
do with creating the Architecture for this project,” said Himesh.
“And what
about Shanthi?” asked Vinay.
“She is just a
time pass. She barely does any work. She will pretend to be busy and avoid
work. She is a big time pass,” said Himesh.
“All these
guys come around 11.45 in the morning and usually leave by 6.45 in the evening.
They will spend around one hour for lunch and thirty minutes for tea break. Murali
works like a manager. And Satish will check our progress and ask questions just
like our client does in the weekly status meetings. He just oversees us. That’s
what he does. And you know that Shanthi. She pretends she doesn’t know anything
to avoid work. She will act blur. If you ask her anything about project work,
she will say mostly like, ‘I’m not sure ya. I don’t know ya. Check with him.
Check with her.’” said Himesh.
In the
afternoon, Murali came to their seats and started discussing the daily
progress.
He said, “This
client is a very big client. Client is aggressive in the project time lines.
This project is marked as high risk project and closely monitored by the higher
level management. Company wants this customer account at all costs. Make sure no
escalations are raised from the customer side. We will have a daily progress
meeting. If your work gets blocked for some reason, you have to be proactive
and take the initiative and reach out to the concerned people and get things
done. All tasks assigned every day by Satish should be completed on that day
itself. Stretch yourself and make sure to complete the assigned tasks on that
day itself.
Guys, you have
to sit in the front seat and drive the things. This is a highly visible
project. You will get lot of visibility to the management which will help you in
your promotion.
I will be reviewing
your performance every three months and provide you feedback.
Client has
informed they don’t want any of the resources to take leave till the end of this
project.
We will now
dial in to the weekly status call. Satish dial into the bridge now,” said
Murali.
Murali went
back to his cubicle.
Satish then
came to Vinay’s cubicle and used the phone there. He dialed into the bridge for
the conference call. He then waited for the customer to join. Everyone pulled
their chairs near to the phone.
Murali joined
the call from his cubicle.
“Hai, this is
Satish. May I know who has just joined?” asked Satish.
“Hi Satish, this
is Anna. How are you doing?” asked Anna Howard.
“Hai Anna. I’m
doing fine. We have Murali and the team in the call,” said Satish.
“Hai Anna,
this is Murali. How was your trip to Dublin?” asked Murali.
“Yes it went
great. I had to attend to lot of business there. How’s the progress there?” asked
Anna.
“Satish, can
you update on the progress?” asked Murali.
“Ya. We had
started working on the POC activities. Himesh and Vinay are working on that,”
said Satish.
“Murali you
were not in the call on Monday? Two months for POC is not acceptable. I cannot
afford to wait for that long. We have five resources in the team. It should be
completed in one month. It should not take more than that,” said Anna.
“Yes Anna we
will target to complete in a month. If we can complete by that time it’s well
and good,” said Murali.
“Are you
telling me we are in the first week of POC and nothing has been done? Perhaps
we should discuss and take a step back,” said Anna.
“Vinay and
Himesh are working on the POC. They will update you the progress regularly. We
will track the progress and see how it goes. I have to join another meeting
now. I will drop off now. Satish, please continue with the status updates,”
said Murali.
Himesh thought
Anna’s voice was so aggressive that even people who were confident of
completing work within timelines would lose their confidence if they work with
her.
Satish spent
the next ten minutes walking through the progress of each activity. He then
told Vinay and Himesh to update on the POC activities.
Himesh briefed
about the progress in POC. Vinay explained his initial design for the POC. The
call got over after another ten minutes.
Vinay and
Himesh both continued work on the POC. Vinay used to check the status of the IS
ticket for ODC door access everyday both morning and afternoon. The ticket was
pending with Jeetender from IS team. He tried to reach Jeetender many times in
the last ten days. He called his mobile and landline numbers but Jeetender
never picked up the call. He sent many emails but nothing happened. Satish told
him it will take time.
In the
afternoon when Vinay checked the status of IS ticket, he was shocked to see the
status as “Rejected”. The reason mentioned in the ticket for rejecting was “Web
security course version should be 4.2.1 and not 4.2”. He immediately accessed
the online course and found that only version 4.2.1 was available. He could not
find the version 4.2 which he completed two weeks back. Vinay sighed and went
on to complete the course for version 4.2.1.
Satish told
him to raise another ticket for door access as the rejected ticket cannot be
reopened. Vinay got the ODC door access exactly twenty days after he originally
raised the first ticket. He was finally relieved after he can access the door
without standing there for five to ten minutes every time.
Vinay and
Himesh focused on the POC.
He asked
Shanthi if she can take up work on building the Graphical User Interface aka GUI
part.
“I’m fully
loaded with creating the Use Case specification documents. Most of my time will
be gone there. Check with Satish,” she said.
When Vinay
asked Satish, he replied, “No. I’m busy with environment set up for the
different geographic regions required for this project. I’m also working on the
Architecture documents. You can divide the work between yourself and Himesh.”
Vinay and
Himesh worked between fourteen to fifteen hours every day. Himesh took up the
work on the GUI as well. They both worked full day on Saturdays and sometimes
half day on Sundays.
Himesh liked
working with Vinay. He was amazed at the speed Vinay picked up things. He was
astonished at the frantic pace Vinay worked. He found himself unable to match
him in any area.
Himesh
realized Vinay can just outmatch and outpace anyone if it’s anything related to
software work. Himesh was also concerned. He once asked Vinay, “What if we cannot
achieve two hundred TPS?”
“Don’t worry I
will find some way to do it,” was all Vinay replied.
“But will it
work?” asked Himesh.
“It will work,”
said Vinay with full of confidence.
Himesh
thought, “He is full of energy.”
He just wished
everyone around him worked like Vinay.
Each issue,
small or big, they discussed and researched together. They debated different
approaches and finalized ideas and everything was done in a matter of minutes.
They worked synergistically. Himesh pitched in where Vinay lagged behind. And
Vinay would directly work on Himesh’s PC to get him up to his speed.
Himesh got
stuck a few times as he was also new to Xorbiz, clueless and unable to proceed.
“I got stuck
here,” he would announce.
Vinay would
then work on that in Himesh’s PC and helped him to move on while Himesh
continued with Vinay’s work in Vinay’s PC.
The first
build of EMG gave only twenty five TPS. The other build for SMX yielded forty TPS.
Murali told
everyone in the team to go to a nearby restaurant for lunch.
“Let’s have a
team lunch today. We will all go to Three C restaurant,” said Murali.
Three C was
just around the corner of the main road. It had a buffet lunch and cost two
hundred and fifty rupees a head. It was a five-minute walk from the office. Everyone
met at Three C.
They went for
the first round with the items laid out in the buffet. They chitchatted for a
while talking about cricket, finance and politics. The talk was mostly between
Murali, Satish and Shanthi.
Vinay and
Himesh spoke very little.
“Why it’s
called Three C restaurant?” asked Himesh.
“It’s for
Chilli Chicken Curry,” said Shanthi.
Murali said,
“What Vinay, Anna is asking how come another project is getting two hundred TPS
but Vinay is getting only forty TPS?”
Vinay had
heard that before from Himesh there was another project completed one year back
by another team. They got a TPS of two hundred. But Himesh had said the two projects
cannot be compared.
“It’s like
comparing Apples with Oranges,” Himesh had said.
Vinay
remembered Himesh telling him then, “The size of their transactions is very
small. And they have only two types of transactions, a query and an update.
That’s all. Their requirements are very different from what we have here. It’s
bullshit comparing these two projects. The people at the higher level, they
don’t try to understand anything. They just compare numbers. I can write
thousand records to a file and claim I have reached thousand TPS. We can’t
compare because those are very different types of transactions.”
Vinay replied
to Murali optimistically, “We will try with few different techniques.”
“You have to
be at the top of things man. This project is crucial for us. We don’t have much
time left. Put more efforts. If we don’t meet at least two hundred TPS we will
lose the project,” said Murali.
After the
lunch was over, everyone immediately returned to their seats.
After
sometime, Himesh saw Shanthi carrying a laptop bag.
Himesh asked,
“Oh you got a laptop.”
“Ya. Now I can
work from home. I can connect from home for three days a week. I can come to
office for two days a week. I already discussed this with Raghu,” said Shanthi.
Himesh
thought, “So now you have good reasons to avoid work and run away from work.
How convenient for you”
Every one
received an email from Satish with subject “Team lunch expenses”. He stated the
lunch expenses total and asked each team member to pay two hundred and fifty
rupees to him.
Sometime in
the evening, Murali started his usual work secretly. He right-clicked his mouse
on the Tamedview software icon in the Windows tray bar. A menu popup showed up
in the screen. He then clicked on “Connect To”. He typed in the IP address of
Himesh’s PC. IP stood for Internet Protocol and each PC had an IP address when
connected to the computer network.
Tamedview was
a tiny software application that was installed in each PC of Holtezent. It was
used for remote monitoring and controlling PCs connected to the network. It could
be identified by a small icon in the tray bar in Windows. The icon would be an
image of two solid-filled triangles intersecting somewhere in the middle. One triangle
would be green color and the other in red color. The IS team usually used Tamedview
to remotely connect to PCs and carry out software installations and in resolving
IS tickets raised by employees.
Using Tamedview,
Murali could remotely monitor and see another PC’s screen from his PC. Using Tamedview’s
monitoring mode, no one would be able to detect Murali was viewing their PC
screen remotely. He had got the user id and password to login to Tamedview from
his contact in IS team.
He usually
used it to peek into Himesh’s and Vinay’s PC screen to see what they were
doing. He did that once in the morning and sometime in the afternoon every day.
There were
only fifteen working days left to complete the POC. PicoEMG and TeraSMX had
lent their server hardware for this POC for exactly one month only. So after fifteen
days, that hardware would be gone.
In the daily
progress meeting, Murali asked, “Vinay, What’s going on? You still didn’t reach
two hundred TPS? You have to work it out. We have only fifteen days left man.
You have to go into the root of the problem and solve it.”
Satish said,
“Vinay, get in touch with the other project and see how they have reached two
hundred TPS. Check with them how they are handling things.”
“We got two
approaches. We have already implemented one approach,” said Vinay.
“We don’t have
time for experimentation and doing R&D. We have to understand the gravity
of the situation and work towards it. Talk with the other project team and get
the details,” said Murali.
“Sure we will
do that,” said Himesh.
Later that day
Vinay and Himesh discussed with the other project team how they had achieved two
hundred TPS. They went through their designs and found that none of it was
relevant to their current project.
“I told you.
It’s a waste of our time. It’s using something called ZubeXdo software and its
transactions are not even similar to ours. One simple query and one update,”
said Himesh.