Reliving Thumbs Up Integration

Thumbs up-- Well thats the name of the project that I have been
stuck with for almost a year now. The funny thing about thumbs up is that the development phase comprised of 4 months and the support phase went on for around 8 months. About the challenges in the project... well.. its pretty difficult for me to put in words.. But the biggest challenge so far has been to act like you are busy, cus hardly any work comes up. Work apart, thumbs up was an unforgettable experience cus I got to meet a few wonderful characters, each unique in their own way. The team comprised of 19 members at offshore and here I go citing my funny experiences with a few of themJ

Character 1: The Lion: Lion is one of those funny charcaters that I have ever met. Even the most serious of things, he puts it across in such a way that u wonder whether u r expected to smile or hold a serious expression.

Lion: innum evlo naal dhaan inda mokka vela panradhu?

Me: hmmm....

Lion: hey, Himesh Dramatikkal chance e illa da... romba nalla PM.. namakku evlo nalla role kuduthrukaar paren...

Me: Semma strategy da he has. Step 1: Accept to be the PM of a big project.Step 2: Pick three foolish ppl from the team. Step 3: tell them that their performance is splendid and that the whole project is in their hand. Apram, giv a 200 bucks worth
useless passport folder as a gift and get all the work done!Plus make onsite promises! Super la.. If ever I become a PM, naanum inda strategy dhaan follow pannuven...

Lion: hmm... correct dhaan nee solradhu.. nambala paatha ilicha vaai maadri irukku pola...

Character 2: Jay:Well about Jay, he is a very simple straight forward person with an amiable character.

Me: hi!I jus reviewed ur design. Konjam changes irukku.Inda logic use panna mudiaathu.naa solra changes panneedreengla?
Jay: Its ok...
Me( confused).. seri...ungalukku terium la enna pannanum nu? appo changes paneedunga
Jay: Its ok....
Me: mail me once u r done...
Jay: Its ok

I was so frustrated that I went to the lion and said:

Me:Lion, enna da ivaru enna ketaalum its ok nu solraaru? ok illadha naala dhaane naan pesitu irukken.Its wrong nu sonna its ok nu solraaru...

Lion: ha haa! comedy da avroda... verum thanks nu solla maaturu.. eppome thanks indeed dhaan. enga dhaan pudichaaro adha..:)

Jay was a nice man... but it took me a while to decipher that 'its ok' was jay's way of saying 'ok I will do it...'


Character 3: The next funny person am gonna introduce is CVS Kumar. He was the QC/ BA for our project. A guy who lives a life by his own set of self defined principles no matter what others think bout him.

CVS Kumar: Hi! GM ! I have come up with a new checklist. The objective is to keep track of the life cycle of deliverables. Can u fill it up right away and upload it into CVS.
Me(wondering of wat use its gonna be of..): Fine... I will do tht ASAP....

CVS Kumar buzzes after 10 sec...

CVS Kumar: Hey are u done????

Me: errr..... wait....

CVS Kumar: u r pretty slow.... what about the potential problem tracker?

Me... Yeah... doing it.....

CVS Kumar: quick man! Btw can you pls come over to my place and give me the weekly status updates?

Me: Right now?

CVS Kumar: ASAP is the only world in my dictionary!

I give him the updates and get bac to my place.
Hardly 5 secs after I hav settled down at my place.... His name starts blinking on my PC..

CVS Kumar :hi! is the tracker thing done? if yes, can you pls circulate it to the rest of the team?

huh!!!! Thank god he was not a PM! Can u imagine the plight of his subordinates.!!!! :)


Adam: Character 4 is the one and only Adam, my onsite manager... Its highly motivatin to work with him actually...If u want to get somethin done from him, u will have to keep remindin him for a month and finally look for options as to how best you can get it done without his help...

Me: Hi Adam! GM! I guess there is some problem with the PDMR. It shows very high figures for effort and schedule deviation.Can you please tell me how to address this issue?
Adam:ok...
I sit there waiting for his reply...
This is followed by a long pause.
Wondering if he is still on the call, I ask hesitantly
Me: Adam,u still there?
Adam: well... do u hav a solution for this prob...
Me....: ????????

Character 5:

Chinmoy joined our team as a fresher.A nice guy, pretty talkative... A pretty difficult character...

Me: I am seriously pissed off man! see u cannot call this a bug.. This is a documentation error.

Chinmoy: can you justify?

So I go on trying to explain the problem in the best possible way for around 20 mins...And then...

Chinmoy: so wat r u trying to say?

Me:?????? fine... jus leave it!... huh!!!! Thanks anyways!

Sorry Chinmoy! no offences meant!!!Work apart, u r a great buddy!!!:D

Character 6:

Abhiran.. when i say Abhiran.., a smile pops up on my face... funny guy that he is....

Abhiran..: hey... I want to be Adam........thts my biggest ambition...
Me: he heee.. now why is that?
Abhiran.. Are.... kitna kush hai woh... sotaa rehta hai hamesha..tht too with onsite salary...I want to be Adam! I want to be Adam!!!
me: ha haaaa
Abhiran.. cool he is.... when the project was in a critical state... he went off for a month's vacation.. remember?
Me: hmmm... true... am sure he doesnt even know who all are there in the project..
Abhiran.. yaad hai, a few days bac, he sent an important mail to all the ppl who had already left the project?selective amnesia,eh?
Me::)
Abhiran.. Adam! Adam! Adam! I want to be uuuuuuuuu!!!!


Character 7 and 8: An experienced resource called ayini.. Btw Himesh Dramatikkal happens to be my offshore project manager.

Himesh Dramatikkal: well... I guess we should take up the aspect of quality very seriously. I do not want any bugs during the UAT.
the whole team blinks
Ayini: Himesh, I have a checklist that I used to use in my previous project.. can we use that n see if its effective?
Himesh Dramatikkal :Sure ayini. Its always a good idea to reuse ideas from the past. ok team, we will take help from ayini for this. CVS Kumar, btw.. can u jot this down?
CVS Kumar nods and hyper actively starts taking the MOM..
Himesh Dramatikkal continues: well, we should also do something about checkin if all our docs are in sync. does anybody have an idea?
Ayini (loudly): yes Himesh!!!
Thanks to her, the whole team is wide awake now!
Ayini: Himesh, we used to have something like this in my previous project. I will faaarwaard it to u..
Himesh Dramatikkal: Sure ayini. Its gr8 to hav an experienced resource like u in thumbs up...

Character 9 and 10: Teena ... Teena was one of my closest buddies in the team.. Always active, she is that types who can do an effective code review even at 12 in the night. never seen anybody so energetic like her.Himonsho -- well I could speak volumes about this guy.. but in short, he is a hard workin and at the same time mast kinda person. All in all, a nice colleague!

Teena: Are u done with the documents? Can I review it?
Himonsho: We still have time na. I will give it tomorrow
Teena: no.. no... see.... If we do it right away we will get enough time for review na....
Himonsho: yeah... but...
Teena: see.... I will be on leave day after yaar.. isiliye bol rahi hoon....
Himonsho: kitne review comments deti ho yaar.... ek chote module mein pachaas comments?
Teena: Dekho.... we will do our best... fix all the comments.. I will giv u some more....
Himonsho: woh document dus baar review ho chuka tha... kahaan se pakadti ho comments...
Teena: see... humein process follow karna hai.....
Himonsho: Aur Pichle dus baar bhi tumne hi tho review kiya thaaa....
Teena: ab mein kyaa boloon.... its the process na.....


Character 11: Lolitha: Lolitha-- A girl with a ton of attitude. Ms. take it easy policy..One female who has the guts of watching movies in the office in spite of the fact that she shares her cubicle with a big shot. Well, watching movies is still ok, but lolitha has this funny habit of laughin her head off while watchin movies in office.:) funny she is... :)

Me: Lolitha, code fix overaa?
Lolitha: Doda..... po.. po.. poi polappa paaru
Me: edho pannu...wat doin?
Lolitha: chumma... watchin movie
Me: he heee.... seri.. keep a watch!
Lolitha: yen?
Me: Kurjith paatha unakku sangu dhaan!
Lolitha:avan kadakraan! anda aalu ku oru decency ye kadaiyadhu... naa enna panna avanukku enna
Me: he heeeee
Lolitha: Anda subbu paaru.. evlo decent... anda aal paatukku ppt potutu irukkaaru.. edaachu kandukraara..
Me: enakku terium unakku avar mela oru kannu nu... suthi suthi angaye vara paathiya
Lolitha: yabbbaaaa

Character 12: Question Kumar: Well he is as funny as his name sounds. A guy who has this great talent of deriving a hundred questions out of a single question that is put across to him.
Me: Hey, Question Kumar, did u fully understand the functionality of the module that I was talking about?
Question Kumar: wh...wh..which ff..ffunctionality?
Me: well, that XYZ module….
Question Kumar: But what is X….
Me: X is something like this …. Remember?
Question Kumar: ok ok… well… Y….. is….?
Me: Y ….. bla bla… this is wat u r expected to do….
Question Kumar: ok…. Z? wat should we do with it?..
Me: Forget it!!!! I will take care of that…

Congrats!!!! U have reached the end of my write up!!! pat urself!!Ur patience is incredible. Sorry couldn’t find a suitable conclusion line! Anyways it feels great to have worked with u guys. btw, no offences meant!!