In the meantime, I turned down two-three offers from companies thinking that today or tomorrow I will be getting the call from Microsoft, but that hadn’t to happen.

But there is always sunshine after the blackout, and even I had one. I will write about that in my next blog.

       This has to be it. Finally I was able to taste the smell of success. I have yearned for this moment for so long.

          Recession came and that too globally affecting everyone. And when the situation was so grim that whole global economy was experiencing its impact, then how could you be saved from it. It was like tsunami for me, devastating all my dreams that I had built over two years of my MBA life. I didn’t get the campus placement and life was like hell with only few companies turning up for campus recruitment. MBA over and I was thinking what to do next. I didn’t felt like talking to anyone, afraid of being confronted with the question. “Hey Sandy, How are you? Where did you get placed?” And you feel like “Please leave me alone and go away”?

           Sometimes you look at your college and curse it for not providing you placement and other side you look at the market situation and you curse your own destiny. But somewhere it was there in mind that WHATEVER HAPPENS, HAPPENS FOR GOOD. I lived my life on this fundamental principle only and nonetheless I wasn’t disappointed.

       But nothing stays longer, be it sorrow or happiness. Same here, my sorrowful days vanished  when Igot the offer letter from Microsoft. I couldn’t believe it; I would be joining the No. 1 software    company in the world, which was Dream Company of some of my classmates (Dhruva to be      precise). 

          I don’t know what it is. Is it a euphoria which is going to vanish away or I am living in reality?       There were too many questions that were gushing through my mind. Anyways, whatever it is, I     am enjoying each and every moment of this second. 

      Today, in class of software configuration management, I asked my lecturer, what is the difference between configuration management and change management? He gave the answer but I wasn’t satisfied with the answer he gave. So, I decided to search for this on net. And here is synopsis that I got on internet.

Configuration Management:

     It provides for visibility, control, traceability and monitoring of software components and systems and of documentation. It is a necessary function for successful project management and the implementation of “planned” system architecture.

      It identifies the functional and physical attributes of software at various points in time, and performs systematic control of changes to the identified attributes for the purpose of maintaining software integrity and traceability throughout the software development life cycle.

The SCM process further defines the need to trace changes, and the ability to verify that the final delivered software has all of the planned enhancements that are supposed to be included in the release. 

      It identifies four procedures that must be defined for each software project to ensure that a sound SCM process is implemented. They are:

·         Configuration identification

·         Configuration control

·         Configuration status accounting

·         Configuration authentication

      When to do configuration management: Version control is instituted for software systems after development is complete, so that baselined units can be employed in system integration and validation testing. Version control is then repeated with new versions for those items as changes are introduced to those baselined items.

Tools used: WinCVS, subversion etc.

Change Management:

     Software change management is the process of selecting which changes to encourage, which to allow, and which to prevent, according to project criteria such as schedule and cost. The process identifies the changes’ origin, defines critical project decision points, and establishes project roles and responsibilities. You need to define a change management process and policy within your company’s business structure and your team’s development process. Change management is not an isolated process. The project team must be clear on what, when, how, and why to carry it out.

      Often users report bugs or desire new functionality from their software programs, which leads to a change request. The product software company then looks into the technical and economical feasibility of implementing this change and consequently it decides whether the change will actually be realized. If that indeed is the case, the change has to be planned, for example through the usage of function points.
      
      The actual execution of the change leads to the creation and/or alteration of software code and when this change is propagated it probably causes other code fragments to change as well. After the initial test results seem satisfactory, the documentation can be brought up to date and be released, together with the software. Finally, the project manager verifies the change and closes this entry in the change log.

Tools used: JIRA [website]

In nutshell the difference comes in at

• Configuration management deals at the versioning and sees whether the requirements have been specified in a given version or not.
• In change management, it assigns the roles and responsibilities too after approval of change

        There are three approaches that can be followed for RUP (Rational Unified Process) : 

·    Iterative: Increase understanding of problem through successive refinements & multiple cycles.         

·    Architecture-Centric Approach

·    Use-Case Driven Approach: Build the system based on how will it be used.     

        In the Use-Case Driven Approach, Use cases and actors are identified and briefly outlined during the early inception phase. These use-cases are further described in detail during the elaboration phase. They are further enhanced/edited during the construction phase.

         To download the presentation on Use-Case Driven approach for RUP click here

                                       Hello mortals, Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!

          Last year was amazing for me. And i hope and still hoping that this year would bring some good twist and turns in my life. To write, I was expecting an auspicious start but turned out the other way round. Friends only know what tragedy happened with me on new year day……… 

          Anyways, I am looking through the placements to happen right now, so got to work harder can’t sit on the laurels right now. 

            It’s an auspicious day (according to me atleast). A company named THOROGOOD is coming to our campus for placement. Don’t ponder much over the company name, I am sure you might not have heard this name before. J  

            The company was offering a package of 7.8 lacs. The package is good but the thing is how many will they take it. Its a MNC and has only one centre in India in Bangalore. The company was offering a profile of Business Intelligence consultant. Neverthless, the wait got over and finally the process got started with the aptitude test. After the aptitude paper was done, we didn’t even wait for the result to be declared because we had confidence in the way we attempted the paper. 

            The result was declared after 3 hours, at 3:30 to be precise and not to our amazement we weren’t selected. They selected 3 out of 190 students to be interviewed tommorrow i.e. on sunday.

            The 3 interviewee were Mandar, KD and Kaushik. They took only KD for the further interviews. So, this was the first jolt which didn’t hurt much. But there are lot to come. Lets see what can we do.

        Most of the people I know are invariably confused with the term sales and marketing. It looks like there is a feud going on between these two terms. Its ascertained that marketing includes several things like:

1. Discovering what product, service or idea customers want.
2. Producing a product with the appropriate features and quality.
3. Pricing the product correctly.
4. Promoting the product; spreading the word about why customers should buy it.
5. Selling and delivering the product into the hands of the customer.

         Selling is one part of the entire process of marketing. It is the act of persuading or influencing a customer to buy a product or service.

         Marketing generally endorses the sales effort and marketing (like the production of marketing materials and catchy packaging) is done before the sale can be made. they sometimes follow the sale as well, to pave the way for future sales and referrals.

         At the heart of the sales concept is the desire to sell a product that the business has made as quickly as possible to fulfil sales volume objectives. When viewed through the marketing concept lens, however, businesses must first and foremost fulfil consumers’ wants and needs. The belief is that when those wants and needs are fulfilled, a profit will be made.

        So the essence is: the selling concept, instead of focusing on meeting consumer demand, tries to make consumer demand match the products it has produced, whereas marketing encompasses many research and promotional activities to discover what products are wanted and to make potential customers aware of them.