Of Pictures, Big and Small

John was always the worrying type, but the other day when I met him, the furrows on his forehead were deeper than usual.

"What happened, young man ? You look like Jimmy Carter" I inquired with genuine concern.
"There are two more resignations in my team. This month's toll is seven."
"Must be Ganesh and Suresh, I guess ?"
"It is Naresh and Suresh".

"Oh, yes. Naresh was also attending interviews at the rate of three every day. Must have got some juicy offer from Infosys."
"Hey, wait a minute. Are you saying that Ganesh too is looking out for a change ? He is the only Oracle DBA in the team !"
"Yes, he is" I said calmly.
"How do you know ?"
"I heard him complain that the canteen chappathis* taste like buffalo skin these days."

"All my delivery schedule will go for a toss" lamented John.
"May be, if you start hiring immediately, you can still deliver it by December. The slippage will be just over four months".

There was deathly silence for several seconds.

John, in his typical impulsive style, burst out : "Why do they do this to me ? Why do they leave the company like rats from a burning ship ? What exactly do they want ? I gave them all the exorbitant salaries they asked for, I gave them top-of-the-line lap tops, let gallons of lager beer flow in their TGIF parties,.. still you say they are an unhappy lot ?"

"John, They are happy with their salary and all your little gestures. But they are unhappy about their job content".
"What do you mean, job content ?"
"Suresh has been complaining he has been writing only Java Scripts since last year. Pretty bored with it. You have heard him often".
"But he is working on Zeus !"

Zeus is our flag ship project. We started it when the whole company was not doing well financially. Zeus was so successful, it single handedly turned the company around.

"Yes, he is working on Zeus" I acknowledged.
"Then what the hell is his complaint ? Does he mean to say that Zeus is a dull, boring and useless project ?"
"No. He is saying that writing Java Scripts is dull, boring and not at all challenging work".

"Come on man, he is not writing some isolated silly script, he is working on Zeus ! You must teach your guys how to look at the big picture. They should relate to the business. They should have a mission and vision in whatever they are doing".

Now it was my turn to observe long silence. I have, of course, had this discussion with the team several times in the past, but made no progress convincing them to draw any inspiration from the big picture. Once Suresh had even sarcastically commented : 'If you are a fly sitting on a pile of crap, it does not matter which animal the crap belongs to - a pig or an elephant. The fact remains, you are just a fly sitting on a pile of crap !'

"John, try to understand this : What magnificent project my Java Script fits in to, is no consolation for me. I hate Java Scripts. Period".
"Why can't you put it in Zeus perspective ?'

"Your Zeus is a six billion dollar project. I agree. Zeus has a ten million strong customer base, and growing. I agree again. It is also true that without Zeus, the competitors would have mowed us down by now".
"Then why do you say it is not a challenging project ? What part of it do you find dull and boring ?"
"All if it !"

John did not reply to this verbally, but his gesture was more eloquent than words.

I only spoke again. "You people in the US tend to get carried away by the business successes of programs like Zeus. These are very good projects in a business sense; but, to an engineer working on a particular module of the project, Zeus may be no more than a bunch of 10 JSP pages and 20 Java Scripts. For a bored engineer, only the immediate work content matters; the big picture does not matter".

"Are you saying, explicitly or implicitly, that the business is unimportant ? Is all that matters to you is the programming language or tool ?"

"Yes. There is good reason behind it. I consider myself primarily a Java or Dot Net programmer; I am not a business analyst or solution provider. Give me 40 dollars, I key in sixty lines of good Java code. It is up to you to figure out how to use it in your Zeus or Jesus project. That is none of my concern".
"But when will you grow up beyond your half trousers and lollipop candy ?"

"Modern India is a young country, John. Indian IT industry is still in its infancy. The average age of a software engineer is 23 something. Ten years down the line, they will surely understand the business compulsions behind Zeus. Save your big picture rhetoric till then. All they want to do at the moment is, learn C-sharp or Web Services".

"But how can they provide good solutions, if they don't care for my business ?"
"Providing solutions to business problems is your job, John. Please don't try to push it down the pyramid and expect any output from the bottom".
"Can you please explain that statement for me ?"

"To start with, you need to be clear about your role and their roles. You need to learn at least the basics of project management; and actually follow some of it".

"What is project management, please educate me" John was visibly angry.

"Understand your business problem, analyze it and find a business solution. Then carefully convert it to an engineering solution. You must decide - at least roughly - what web pages, data bases and processing logic you will need. You have to do your home work first. Then, only then, start engaging the off shore team for the implementation. Don't throw a raw business problem to a bunch of young graduates and expect them to come out with a miracle cure".

"I never wanted to hire these guys in the first place. I wanted top quality, experienced professionals for my team. Not garden-fresh college graduates".
"Well, you tried that earlier. You know what happened".
"Yes, it was a disaster. But I want to know why that approach failed".
"That is the topic of another blog. Good night for now".
"Good night" sighed John.

I must talk to Ganesh urgently; try to retain him for at least two more months. After all, John is such a nice guy.

---

*Jargon file :
chappathi : Pan cake made of wheat flour; staple food of some 700 million people.

---