A good process is really like a well designed resilient network. No one really appreciates it when everything is working as it should. But when something does not work and suddenly ‘well designed individual elements’ fail miserably as a complete network while interacting with each other, all hell breaks loose. I noticed an interesting email the other day where a poster mentioned that he was running a ‘Session Border Controller’ (those ugly things that act as security gateways in a network). Obviously the maker of the SBC convinced the user that at most, he should not see more than 100 transactions per second in the network, even if the network had a total of 10,000 phones. And the vendor was correct, under normal conditions. Unfortunately, for the user, his network had a power failure and his backup power failed too – and all of a sudden, all the 10,000 phones rebooted and tried to contact the SBC at the same time to ‘re-register’. *BOOOM* the SBC crashed. Will the user ever go back to an SBC from a vendor who did not guard for exceptions (even if it is 20% cheaper) ? Once bitten, twice shy. A well defined process

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There is a saying that goes like this ‘Knowledge is a function of your intelligence, while Wisdom is a function of your experience, which itself is a function of time’ As we all grow older, our priorities morph, we get a bigger picture of what matters in life and we also get to reflect on our past. As we continue with the cycle of time, we also realize that the only way to understand these changes in priority is to experience it ourselves. After all, it is most likely that a few years ago, we ourselves would have shunned something a as ‘Whoa ! We will never give this more importance’ till we actually face it. There comes a time in life, when you stop thinking that you are the most intelligent being on the planet and learn to respect the thoughts and experiences shared by others. So, back to the topic of this post. What really is job satisfaction ? I guess it really is a factor of the stage in life that you are in. (click on thumbnail for a larger version) 1-2yrs: You start as a fresh young engineer, wanting to make big money. Your loyalty belongs

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Most of us in the Software field would have read ‘The World is Flat’ by Thomas Friedman. If you have not already, do pick up a copy. While re-reading it today, a paragraph by David Schelesinger, an employee of Reuters rang a bell in me (again). I thought his thoughts were especially succint in prompting people to stop asking “What will I tell my kids” and instead ask “What can I do to keep in the value chain“. The entire justification for outsourcing is often very personal and subjective, but I found this paragraph to focus on the real issue on ‘Where is your value in the value chain’. This paragraph is straight out of the book, due credit goes to David Schelesinger, Reuters and my source for this information, Thomas Friedman of ‘The World is Flat’ for reproducing it. Please click on the image to see the full text. Technology, VoIP, SIP, IMS, Marketing, Corporate Management