Koshish Karne Walon Ki Haar Nahin Hoti …

An inspirational poem from Harivansh Rai Bachchan. Thanks to Vishva for the lyrics


Lehron se Darkar nauka par nahin hoti,
koshish karne walon ki haar nahin hoti

Nanhi cheenti jab daana lekar chalti hai,
chadhti deewaron par,
sau bar phisalti hai.
Man ka vishwas ragon mein saahas bharta hai,
chadhkar girna,
girkar chadhna na akharta hai.

Akhir uski mehnat bekar nahin hoti,
koshish karne walon ki haar nahin hoti.

Dubkiyan sindhu mein gotakhor lagata hai,
ja ja kar khali haath lautkar aata hai
Milte nahi sahaj hi moti gehre paani mein,
badhta dugna utsah isi hairani mein.

Muthi uski khali har bar nahin hoti,
koshish karne walon ki haar nahi hoti.

Asaflta ek chunauti hai,
ise sweekar karo,
kya kami reh gayi,
dekho aur sudhar karo.
Jab tak na safal ho,
neend chain ko tyago tum,
Sangharsh ka maidan chhodkar mat bhago tum.

Kuch kiye bina hi jai jaikar nahin hoti,
koshish karne walon ki haar nahin hoti.


- Harivansh Rai Bacchan

लहरों से डर कर नौका पार नहीं होती ,
कोशिश करने वालों  की हार नहीं होती।

नन्ही चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है,
चढ़ती दीवारों पर,
सौ बार फिसलती है।
मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है,
चढ़कर गिरना,
गिरकर चढ़ना ना अखरता है. 

आखिर उसकी मेहनत बेकार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती।

डुबकियाँ  सिन्धु में गोताखोर लगाता है,
जा जा कर खाली हाथ लौटकर आता है 
मिलते नहीं सहज ही मोती गहरे पानी में,
बढ़ता दुगना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में।

मुट्ठी उसकी खाली हर बार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों  की हार नहीं होती।

असफलता एक चुनौती है,
इसे स्वीकार करो,
क्या कमी रह गई,
देखो और सुधार करो।
जब तक ना सफल हो,
नींद चैन को त्यागो तुम,
संघर्ष का मैदान छोड़कर मत भागो तुम।

कुछ किए बिना ही जय जयकार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती।

- हरिवंश राय बच्चन 

Think Big, Start Small

This is my second post in the series where I will go through a real life MDM (Master Data Management) implementation. The problem at hand and in fact generic to all MDM implementations is the presence of multiple operational and transactional systems. In this case however, it gets worse. As the cases progress from one system to another they are manually entered in the next system in the chain and hence all the problems. In our case there are four systems in all, w, x, y and z. Cases progress from w through z in that order. In each system cases are entered manually and these systems are as distinct and disconnected from each other as North and South Pole.

When starting any MDM initiative in such scenarios it would be tempting to put all the systems in project scope. But, that would have disaster written all over it. It is heartening to know that scope of this phase of MDM implementation has been scaled down to system y. This also doesn't mean that our vision would get so narrow that we would not even look at other systems. The right balance is to start the implementation from one system but the design should be flexible enough to accommodate remaining systems in coming phases.

Right now we are looking at data elements that are going to be part of the Gold Copy in this phase. In addition to that we are looking at data elements from other systems, so that we keep them in the back of our mind when we are working on the design and model.

Of all the problems in Enterprise Information Management MDM is one where taking it one piece at a time would be highly beneficial and effective.

Real World Master Data Management (MDM) Implementation

Okay! So you have been to conferences and attended the webinars. But how many real world MDM implementations you have come across. One or may be none. MDM is such a hot buzz word these days that every possible vendor out there has started offering a solution based on technologies that were stacked together in a hurry to cash in on the concept.

Just a few weeks ago we started a project for Master Data Management. When I was starting this project I started googling for any real world case studies on Master Data Management implementations. What I found was way less than my expectations. I thought it may not be a bad idea if I blog through the whole implementation process. I would share as much detail as possible on the implementation piece, keeping some of the less interesting details about the organization and the data hidden. Keep reading …

Success Factors in the Implementation of a KM System

Below I present a set of factors required to exist for a successful implementation of a KM system, compiled from.

Knowledge friendly culture – The organization values learning and innovation, and establishes appropriate incentives and reward systems. People collaborate and have a positive attitude towards knowledge. When there is free flow of knowledge from other employees, individuals tend to respond in the same manner.

Opportunities – Employees must be placed in an environment where they have opportunities to use their capabilities to the fullest.

Motivation – Employees must be motivated to share their knowledge with other people in the organization. They must be convinced that their sharing of knowledge will be valuable to the organization and, most importantly, to themselves.

Concrete shared objectives – Develop a broadly shared understanding of the enterprise’s mission, current direction, and the role of the individual in support of the enterprise and of the individual’s own interests.

Knowledge base – The knowledge base should be managed the same way as physical assets. Time and effort should be invested in designing, building and maintaining its content.

Technical infrastructure – All knowledge management systems should be linked to other information systems, providing necessary security features.

Effective governance for the KM practices – Continuous monitoring, evaluation, and guidance of the KM activities and their plans, results and opportunities.

Interdisciplinary problem solving working groups – Create problem-solving groups comprised of people from a variety of disciplines. This will transfer the knowledge from one discipline to another, as well as provide solutions to interdisciplinary problems in decreased time.

Multiple channels for knowledge transfer - A variety of channels for knowledge transfer are desirable, as each adds value in a different way. It is particularly important to provide opportunities for face-to-face contact, as well as electronic forms of communication.

Measurement - Measuring the usage of the KM system and its efficiency is essential to the accurate assessment and improvement of knowledge management programs in order to be able to increase the value or prolong the duration of the sustainable competitive advantage.

Empowerment – Employees must be given permission to innovate, improvise and stretch enterprise policies and practices beyond the predetermined scopes.

Source: Knowledge Management in Software Engineering

Fundamental Questions Related to Storing and Sharing Knowledge Items

Any approach that intends to capture, store, and disseminate knowledge items must address some fundamental questions:

1. Assuming that individuals have personal knowledge repositories, how can these repositories be shared? One approach would be to change the corporate culture and allow co-workers to search each other’s personal repositories. While this might be a viable solution in some cases, especially where one employee is a back up for another employee, it is not a generally viable solution due to other problems. One such problem is that personal repositories often contain items that are not of general interest. Another issue is that some kind of information filtering would be needed. In some cases, filtering might not be sufficient and some kind of packaging would be necessary so that the content becomes useful for a third party.

2. How can the common repository be populated? One answer is to enable employees to contribute from their personal repositories. This is a relatively simple problem from a technology point of view, because employees are asked to share something they already have. However, it might raise a psychological issue if people do not want to give away their personal knowledge. Moreover, if employees are asked first to capture their own knowledge and then to share it, the request is likely to encounter resistance. An example is asking employees to share their lessons learned, which would not be hard to do had they already collected these lessons.

3. How must the common (organizational) repository be organized so that it provides easy search and retrieval of knowledge items? There are many different approaches for organizing knowledge items. Some are based on AI techniques (such as case-based reasoning), some are based on advanced probabilistic indexing techniques, and others are based on a combination of manual and automatic generation of taxonomies.

4. How can people be persuaded to use the repository? In many cases this is more a cultural problem than a technological one. Software reuse, for example, is a cultural problem because software engineers do not trust code developed by others. Another issue is that in many organizational settings it is easier to find someone to ask for a solution instead of searching in repositories for answers. A third problem is having empty repositories. Inherently, any repository is nearly empty when first introduced, which gives potential users the perception that the repository and the whole initiative of sharing are worthless. This, in turn, prevents them from adding to the repository, because nobody wants to add items to something that is perceived as worthless.

5. How are contributions from users collected so that the repository evolves? Feedback from users is essential for improving the repository and the process.

6. How are usage and content of the repository analyzed and how can new knowledge be synthesized, based on this analysis? The initial seed of a repository is likely to be relatively raw material. Raw material would be lessons learned, incident reports, defect reports, project post-mortems, frequently asked questions with answers, results from projects, etc. While this raw material is useful by itself, it is also desirable to analyze and synthesize it into more refined knowledge items.

Source: Knowledge Management in Software Engineering

How blogs and wikis can help knowledge management

The e-consultancy site offers advice on many e-business topics. In a recent post Wayne Robinson discusses how blogs and wikis can help knowledge management. Wayne writes, “From my window, I can see the great cathedral of York Minster,” which certainly makes me envious. He goes on to link the building of this cathedral to how knowledge is gained, including the socialization, externalization, and then the concept of combination.

“Combination is the process of creating more complex and systematic sets of explicit knowledge - it is combined, edited or processed to create new knowledge. Blogs can aid in this process firstly by making the explicit knowledge available in the first place, and then making it possible to add to what exists through linking, quoting or commenting. A wiki enables rapid creation of explicit knowledge, but also makes it incredibly easy to edit and combine. And both provide a readily-accessible store of the new knowledge.”

He then goes on to discuss how knowledge is externalized and adds:

“By providing a way of creating explicit knowledge from the store of tacit knowledge around the organisation, blogs and wikis can aid the internalisation process. Reading the progress of a project through a blog archive, or following a procedure that’s been documented in a wiki enables an individual to convert this into the tacit knowledge that will allow them to be effective in their roles. But having internalised the explicit knowledge, this can then lead to a new spiral of knowledge creation - tacit knowledge accumulated by the individual can be the trigger for new knowledge creation when it is shared with others.”

There is more and further suggested readings including Managing Knowledge: An Essential Reader, published by the Open University and Sage Publications.

Twelve key features for your business portal

TechTarget has compiled a basic list of Twelve key features for your business portal. I say basic because today's intranet or extranet portals have grown beyond these basic features. To really get the employees, partners and customers into the portal and retain them, portal would need to have some extra savvy features. Next post on this blog will go into detail on those. For now, TechTarget says;

Features for the extranet

There is no one answer to which features are mandatory and which are optional in portal design. Despite the lack of agreement on a single list, everyone agrees that there are several important features that you should consider when setting your extranet portal strategy. Those features include:

* Search: Your search functionality should be able to query both structured and unstructured content by keywords. Structured data are the databases and transactional systems, such as an ERP system. Unstructured content includes all of the office documents, proposals, and other information that cannot be easily entered into a database.
* Consistent, easy-to-use interface: Portals typically have a consistent interface which flows from the home page down through every area of the portal. The interface is typically designed specifically to make using the portal very easy. This may include breadcrumbing to link to higher levels in the hierarchy; and hovering menus, which allow for an expanded list of links.
* Minimal client deployment: Portals typically do not require that the users install new software. This generally means that portals are Web-based.
* Discussions: Some portals provide discussion forums where users can interact with one another and with the portal host. These forums are designed to strengthen the relationship between users and the host organization.
* Aggregation: Pulling links and content together into a single place helps users know where to go if they are looking for information. Aggregation allows a user to interact with several systems from one single user interface.
* Alerts: Users can sign up for e-mail notification when the information that they are interested in changes. This can include both key performance indicator changes and changes in information within documents. Alerts shift the model of user interaction from a pull model, where users must go check the portal, to a push model, where they will be informed when something of interest on the portal changes.
* Self service: Portals can be a home for a variety of self-service applications, which allow customers, employees, and others to take care of their own needs.

With the features listed above you can create an interactive environment where clients and other partners can find what they are looking for and interact in an easy-to-use way that should increase users of your extranet.

Features for the intranet

In addition to the features that you should consider for an extranet there are special considerations for intranet deployments. You should consider additional features for your intranet, because intranet users typically stay connected for longer periods of time than extranet users. The additional features include:

* Digital dashboard: A dashboard lets you display key status indicators for several business processes and systems on a single screen, giving the user a quick overview of overall status and allowing rapid identification of problems. Digital dashboards offer an opportunity for executives to get a complete view of the overall landscape of the organization, including portions of the organization that cannot be reduced to a set of key performance indicators.
* Personalization: The ability for groups and individual users to customize the way that the information is displayed. Filtering content to the information that a group is interested in and being able to change the location of the information on the screen is considered an important way in which portals create a user-friendly experience.
* Knowledge management:Your employees hold the keys to most of the information in your organization. Portals provide a repository for the information that employees have developed through experience. Portals help to broaden the usefulness or leverage of the knowledge that the organization already possesses.
* Collaboration:Some portals provide tools necessary to facilitate better collaboration. This might include the presence of information to help identify when coworkers are available, or lists to help organize tasks, events, and announcements.
* Distributed control:One of the challenges that many IT organizations face is trying to maintain their existing intranet systems. Distributed control via a content management system allows individual owners to manage the content aspects of the portal in their areas.