GEMS

Although I intended to blog on the experiences in Denmark I really want to write about GEMS.. Please bear...

GEMS
Why do I remember GEMS so much... well the reasons are more than one....the fact that it finds a mention in my blog which was solely meant for recording the experiences in Denmark
GEMS was my first project... fresh out of ITP... joined TCS Mumbai (TCS SEEPZ then)... the best TCS centre in the country.... and was allocated to the group GEMS..... the largest griup in GE which is the biggest client for TCS..... all over India around 2000+ consultants are working for this CMM level 5 company which knows IT like the back of their hand....

My first few days in GEMS were spent in the Borivali and SEEPZ libraries where we were made to sit n wait until we were absorbed in projects ... thankfully that happened soon and I was off to my Siebel internal training along with 4 more ITP batchmates... it notable to mention that all the people from my batch who landed in Mumbai were selected for GEMS....

The training, at Borivali, was for 10 days at the end of which I was a internally trained Siebel consultant .... only I know how much of Siebel I got to understand when the training concluded...Then off to SEEPZ, to meet Mr. Lij0 J@c0b Mann@raprayil (I admit having goofed up in pronouncing his last name the first time... but never again)...who was to be my account manager for a long time to come... He managed Services CoE, which was a new CoE added to GEMS specifically for the purpose of the Service Workbench Siebel implementation... Lijo was one of the most frank and open guys I have come across in the company… very very approachable.. he is one of the guys one wouldn’t forget easily… I hope I don’t… he entrusted me some responsibilities in the team and always showed confidence in my abilities..
He has had a lasting impression on me… although there do exist certain points on which our thoughts didn’t(rather don't) match and were source of constant arguments … overall I am quiet happy to have a manager like him early in my career…

The whole team there was new to the technology and the initial days were fun… subah se shaam tak fight marte the … everyday was a new learning experience… always discovering something or the other…filled with a zeal, common among the freshers, to learn and try out new things….

I met one of my greatest pals in this team. Altaf. He n I set off like a house on fire...Those work breaks in between the sutta/tea/coffee/TT breaks, the many evenings when we drowned our frustration at work @Maharaja Bar and many such memories would be incomplete without him. He is right now in Dubai setting up his own business.. the bureaucracy in the company got too much on his nerves.
Another worthy guy to mention is Nilendu… gem of a person… he as my module leader and together we cracked many a challenges and had some night outs in office and some more in pubs… He is right now in US as a lead configurator in a project
Ashish who was my PL is another extraordinary person.. cool clam and composed… Always. Whatever happened he was always there with a smile to answer your questions effortlessly…somehow he also had a solution to all the problems… he is also in US right now as the project manager for a project for 20th Century Fox… I have made a conscious effort to be in touch with these people…

Some of the other things I learnt at GEMS was … the need to follow processes… and the way they influence the final product…the need to be in harmony with all the people… the need to think about others also…

Some other very imp things I learnt are ….
The way one should tackle unwanted or unprecedented situations
The way one should stay awake during meetings
Use as much techno lingo and stuff, as u remember or can remotely associate with your work, while to your PL/PM/manager :-)
Learnt to use the following words/phrases as often as possible, preferably at least one in each sentence:-

RCA - Root Cause Analysis
FBA - Fish Bone Analysis
KPI - Key Process Indicator
CTQ - Critical To Quality
ROI - Return On Investment
SnS - Snags n Spikes
CSI - Client Satisfaction Index
best practice
benchmark
reverse engineering
retrofitting
repeatable process
quantifiable
lessons learnt
hightlights n lowlights
consistent
optimized
performance tuned
peer review
360 degree feedback
wholistic view
futuristic thinking
avoidable bottlenecks
congestion points
sigma level
ISO
CMM
pCMM
showstoppers
hotfixes
quality conscious
version control
customer satisfaction
quickwin
breakfix
staging environment

And kabhi bhi koi tedha question pooch le to do sentence yaad rakna:-

1 I will get back to you on this
2 Let's take this offline