WHAT MATTERS IS.....................

What matters is not your Role but your Goal

What matters is not your Designation but whether you’re an Inspiration

What matters is not your wage Hiked but by how many you’re Liked

What matters is not your individual Brilliance but your team’s Resilience

To single out an incident, a project or an event over the past 18 months would neither give a precise reasoning of the effort nor will it be rational but YES

We did slog and stretch beyond the call of our duty during deployment, release, throughout critical phases and also when some of our team members were missing , just that every time it was given a new name  as optimization , production issue, severity and priority, deadlines etc….

The above mentioned catastrophe is what most of us in TCS do and is probably also expected out of every TCSer. From design to deployment it asks for commitment at various levels and by performing all the assigned tasks we anyhow not only make a difference to the team’s objective but also to our respective bank balance on the last working day of the month but the real difference is when it brings a transformation in an individual, gives that kick to come back next day morning to complete the task and to take that so called ownership.

 In my opinion Ownership is when one feels like:

 “It’s my Application.

  It is my Module.

  It is my Test case.

  It is my Design.”

Since last year I actively participated in development, unit testing, manual testing, automation, performance optimization, documentation, excel reporting, delegating, research, analysis, build, competencies and many more. Never did we say NO nor did we ever gave an excuse, from a complex domain dependent change request to unit testing of UI, from verification to validation, from compatibility of browsers to automation of the entire application. We were flexible and we made huge difference in being good enough to adapt, perform and excel in whatever was thrown at us.

It was very much like the game of chess while in chess a pawn can only be pawn and a king can only be a king BUT we played the pawn, the queen, and the king. We delivered everything that client asked and expected out of us; we worked like a horse, served like a pawn and felt like a king. Our biggest strength of the team and the greatest difference we made together was in being flexible by placing project needs ahead of personal preferences.

There have also been times when we did fight our ego

I am a Developer, Why on earth I have to do this?

I am this, how can I excel at that?

Why am I being treated the way I am?

They got everything for nothing and nothing for everything I am?

All the above questions were answered the moment I dropped I AM from it, before I realized that I AM being troubled by these questions , all of sudden found that it’s a grand and fantastic release, there was sense of achievement everywhere . I did not enjoy the victory as much as others only did then I learnt the culprit was “I AM”.  For a seed to be a plant it can’t be all on its own, the contribution of the soil, environment and most importantly the persistence of the seed to stand against all odds will eventually make the difference it needs to be a plant, it is needless to mention who is the seed and what is the environment.

Seldom do we take wisdom from technology to character, in being able to adapt to different tasks it made a difference to our attitude and helped in our corresponding personal lives, I started thinking where else can I contribute , how else can I make a difference to my family. I confess this with lot of pride and honesty that while technical capabilities and proficiency in adeptness made a difference to this project; coincidentally working in this project has brought and made a difference in my own life.

Every day we contributed in some or the other way, it never mattered how big or small it is, how good or bad it is, what always counted is our sincerity and loyalty towards team’s goal. The biggest reward or the greatest honor is in the process of making the difference to the project we learnt so much that it actually made a difference to us.

I am elated and fortunate for making a difference until today.

I hope and wish to make a difference tomorrow.