BY CHANDRESH THAKAR

Project Management And Spirituality Copyright © 2019 by Chandresh Thakar

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Printed in the India First Printing, 2019 ISBN : 978-1-64546-126-5

Table of Contents Acknowledgments .............................................................. 1 Prologue ............................................................................. 7 Chapter 1. Project Manager............................................... 10 Chapter 2. Time Management ........................................... 23 Chapter 3. Communication ............................................... 30 Chapter 4. People ............................................................. 39 Chapter 5. Processes ......................................................... 48 Chapter 6. Blames and Mistakes ........................................ 58 Chapter 7. Change request .............................................. 69 Chapter 8. Respecting Vendors ......................................... 75 Chapter 9. Relaxed and happy Project Manager ................ 87 Epilogue ........................................................................... 96

Acknowledgments I did not go ahead and ask for any support from anyone on this but by conceptually my wife always supports a new idea. She does understand that poets think differently and hence need to acknowledge her unsaid support and the time she scarified by keeping me out of daily routines and therapies for my autistic son Deeptanshu. There are loads of relatives, team members, piers, bosses, vendors and friends who unknowingly taught me what humans are, they might not even know how their behavior or action, positive or negative helped me in thinking it over and use it as a concept. And last but not the least, the great masters of Hindustan and some from other countries who had given us so much to learn about the human mind and simplicity of life. I always thought this can relate, but never thought how before this day. I mean, who in the world would like to see, especially in the IT 1

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industry, that Project Management can be related to spirituality. Being a poet, Yog Teacher ("a" is intentionally avoided) and being in the IT industry for over 25 years, some different things coming to the mind are unavoidable. You can call it an occupational hazard. So what I am planning to do here is take some of the fundamentals of spirituality present in human beings. Many in IT industry might not agree but may be every human being is spiritual in nature. Although my prime focus will be on Project Management and spirituality in the IT industry, it is an extended model to other industries too. The fundamentals here are taken mostly from philosophies of Hindustan using the teachings of Patangali Yoga sutra. There may be no psychologist who has explained the nature of mind so simply. I have also used the preaching of OSHO, modern philosophy of H. H. Sri Sri 2

Ravishankar, concepts from Bhagvad Gita, some of the references are also from Gor Krishna Das. Lao Tzu was another fascinating philosopher whose concepts are very profound. It's very difficult to merge the philosophies of the great minds into modern age IT Project Management which is loaded with jargons like PMP, Agile, Scrum..The list is endless. Why these gurus are chosen with their gyaan? (Gyaan is a much powerful word than knowledge. I always thought the word knowledge cannot do the justice), Well, they just talk simplicity, their teaching is digestible, implementable and for the masses. Yet I believe that the IT industry or any other modern industry is failing to use the concepts or even open to listen to it. Its the price we pay for being intellectuals where everything is why . a very complex job to decode things in todays modern thinking IT industry. All these great 3

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thinkers are "BABA " for us who are good for nothing. In fact many people ended up calling OSHO as a Sex Guru. Enough said about this. In the IT industry, project management takes a very specific path to begin with and then starts diversifying as the project progresses. Although there is a specific process chartered for implementation or support, there is still no perfect formula found for success. I wondered why, but then realized, that it is only because we are dealing with humans.Everyone out there knows but this simple fact is always ignored. I myself ignored this so many times but then,one day I started wondering about human mind and how you can relate it to process. From concept to project management to how do we relate the fundamentals of spirituality, is what I will showcase here and I hope this gyaan helps all the PMs to make their life simple. When we hit the core of any human beings nature, we get great projects. We will explore soon. 4

How this book will be categorized With the start of each chapter, a small sutra will be given which will have the entire gist of the chapter. Sutra means a thread which holds the meaning woven into it. For eg, the four chapters of freedom by Patanjali, the man who gave Yog to the world wrote 196 concise sutras or threads which can be elaborated in volumes of books. Mostly PMs and delivery managers from IT industry talk very much about pressure and the magnanimity of their work as though the entire world is resting on their shoulders. But actually, the pressure and work load is not much as they think and that is also one of the aspect explored here using the concepts of Yog and spirituality. It is both funny and sad when you see these PMs and DMs takes out their laptop or at airports while waiting and instead of enjoying the journey they only invite neck pain. 5

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As if the world has stopped and only their 14 inch screen can to save it! If you want to know pressure, responsibility or dynamism, you need to be in the shoes of a soldier who gives away his for the country.

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Prologue IT WAS A TYPICAL 4 PM HOT EVENING of Mumbai and I was smoking my usual cigarette with Chai. My mind was completely occupied with the thought of this third project pushed down under my throat by my seniors. One project was in red, one was okay and this new one had a typical client with an unstructured team, tough but less knowledgeable users and a horrible workplace. 7

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My thoughts were jumping so much that I did not even realize, I had lit my next cigarette. When will I get some time, How will I take this, wify screaming for vacation, son does not even talk to me for his rebellious teen reasons, and boss over talks. voice, Bala was handling a huge work load like me but surprisingly he could smile and had time to spend his money, unlike me. It always felt good to have him around, he made me laugh or smile on any stupid topic, his gossip was an ultimate treat.

that he once got a chance to work under a guy named Delivery Lead of his project. Bala, taught me so many things which were not related to any project or any process at but still helped me in managing the project and also

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Being an Agile and Scrum master and at the same time PMP certified, I gave a blank smile to indicate I know everything. Bala, ek baar jake mil usko, vo tereko husna introduction with Girdhar almost a six month back in one of the events. He was dressed in a pair of Jeans and a T shirt in an event and with his attitude and talks, I was surprised that he manages projects. Because he did not talk anything about delivery in that event which was for delivery model. As my work, life balance was off the track, I decided to go and meet him at his home because I called him, and surprisingly he knew me and invited me home. Least I knew that my fundamentals of looking at things and projects were going to be shaken and that ,smoke break with Kaushik was going to be a game changing experience.

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Chapter 1. Project Manager WITH A SKEPTICAL MIND AND JUST TO KILL TIME, Bala was on his way to Malad to meet Girdhar. He did a quick search of to satisfy his curiosity about what Kaushik had said. He was in between jobs, 25 yrs. of career but no significant designation. He was a Yoga teacher and a Poet but hardly any endorsement 10