Site Update - Blogroll and subscribe to comments functionality

Posted By Pankaj on December 10, 2007
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I have been working on few things towards improving this blog for last couple of days. Just for records, here are the details…

1. Added the list of blogs (blogroll) which I read. The ’simple listing’ can be viewed at the right most column under the heading called “Blogs I read…” and detailed one along with my reviews can be accessed by following the read reviews link at end of the list.

2. Added the list of podcasts I listen to. The ’simple listing’ can be viewed in the right most column under the heading called “Podcasts I listen to…” and detailed one along with my reviews can be accessed by following the read reviews link at end of the list.

3. I have included the two new links at the top of the page (navigational links in the header) for Blogroll and Podcasts links. I thought it might be useful

The review page functionality was made possible by a plugin called ZoC powerblogroll though I had to hack the code a bit to suite my likings.

4. Installed the plugin called subscribe to comment to provide the readers an option of subscribing to comments notification for a particular post. I have configured this plugin to have the checkbox “subscribe to comments” unchecked by default. This will ensure that only interested readers subscribe to comments. This was suggested by Lorelle in her post WordPress Plugins for Comments and I agree with Lorelle completely.

Ethnocentrism… Do you know what it means?

Posted By Pankaj on December 8, 2007
Filed Under Project Management | 1 Comment

Well, I have a bit of history with that word. I got to know about that word when I was preparing for my PMP exam back in October 2007. While I was solving some of the samle questions available on the web for my PMP preparation, I saw a question on this particular topic. Neither I remember the exact question nor where I actually saw it now (and I am really sorry for not being able to provide you the link). Anyway as you might have guessed, I had absoultely no clue about the question and I got it wrong. But as a good student, I did some research later on and found out what it meant. Here are couple of defintions associated with the word ethnocentrism

According to wikipedia

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one’s own culture. It is defined as the viewpoint that “one’s own group is the center of everything (better than all other cultures), against which all other groups are judged. Ethnocentrism often entails the belief that one’s own race or ethnic group is the most important and/or that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other groups.

and according to encyclopedia

ethnocentrism the feeling that one’s group has a mode of living, values, and patterns of adaptation that are superior to those of other groups. It is coupled with a generalized contempt for members of other groups. Ethnocentrism may manifest itself in attitudes of superiority or sometimes hostility. Violence, discrimination, proselytizing, and verbal aggressiveness are other means whereby ethnocentrism may be expressed.

Now you know what it means (if you already didn’t) and might have guessed as well guess that its not good to be ethnocentric as this can lead to premature judgment, racism, troubled time in managing people from different cultures and opportunity loss of acquiring more knowledge on various things.

Ok, coming back to the history part of this post. While I was writing my PMP exam, (and honestly I wasn’t feeling too positive during the exam) when I saw a question on this very topic. God! it felt so good just to see a question which I was sure of. That gave me a lot of confidence and you know that a confident man always does well everywhere.

So crux of the story, I see this in two ways. Learn not to be ethnocentric and two you feel confident in your transactions if you have good knowledge about it. Keep looking for more information, keep reading, and keep improving your skills which will make you feel more confident also it helps in broadening your horizon.

Remember both these help in becoming a good project manager  :-)

Lastly I would like to say one thing in which I totally believe in and that would be … “Knowledge acquired, may not necessarily be useful today but it will come handy someday for sure”.

PS: There is an interesting podcast by on Ron Holohan titled as Engagin China. In this podcast, Ron shares his experiences and tips while working with people in China. 

…I am sure you will do well as project manager too.

Posted By Pankaj on December 7, 2007
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This is what “Halo Effect”  is all about. I have seen this happening in my career and I assume it is kind of common in the IT industry.

Let’s say there is person who is extremely good in programming (technical stuff in general) and his boss knows it too. He has good regards towards him on his contributions in the project / company. One fine day, he promotes him as a Project Manager and says to him “You have done good in the technical area but now I want you to manage a project as I am sure you will do your best here too”. Unfortunately, this person doesn’t have the required leadership skills, soft skills, team management skills etc etc to become a successful project manager. Matters get worse, when that person t had no intentions to become a leader. He in fact was quite happy with what he was doing. The so called manager ( THE boss) , didn’t consider any of these aspects but using his subjective bias, he assumed that a good programmer will be a good project manager as well.

End result, company has lost his best programmer and gained a lousy manager. Who looses? I think everyone involved … what do you say?

Don’t delay the communication to customers

Posted By Pankaj on December 7, 2007
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Or to anyone for that matter as it can, and actually it will hurt you, in many ways that you can’t possibly imagine. Delay in communication could lead the customer to start loosing his trust in you (if it becomes the habit), it can lead the customer to press the panic button and a panic customer gets really difficult handle… isn’t? Anyway some of the top reasons, which I can think of why and when we delay the required communications…

Personally I used to have this tendency of delaying the response if I am not sure about the accuracy of my response or I feel there is a better solution then I just drop of the radar of the customer.

Over the time, I have learnt that there is absolutely no reason to disappear of the customer’s radar. If I am not ready to communicate my best response yet, I will still communicate which could be just acknowledging the customer’s communication and ask for more time to prepare for my best response or do the required work.

Remember to be honest with your customer…

A Video on Tech Bubble … Entertaining

Posted By Pankaj on December 6, 2007
Filed Under Technology | Leave a Comment

From “The Richter Scales”, titled as Here Comes Another Bubble
Enjoy …


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