Management Lessons from Valluvars ThirukkuralPosted on September 14, 2008 | Leave a comment

Six years back, I revisited an ancient Tamil literary work (circa 500 BC 200 BC) with a view to seeing if it retained any relevance today.

Considering this work is reputed to be 2000+ years old, I was surprised (and humbled) to see that some verses retained relevance in todays modern context. References to business case, risk analysis, project planning, delegation, errors of commission and omission, training, communication skills etc. continue to be relevant even today.

How many of our works will be relevant 2000 years hence Insurance policy admin systems? claims processing systems? retail banking systems, may be?

Then again, this just goes to show that, at a fundamental level, some things never change.

Six years back there were no blogs. Hence I had to keep my thoughts to myself. Today, thanks to blogging technology I can try to hook an audience.

I have organized these post as a series of pages linked with wizard-style Previous Next links. You can always jump to a specific page using the Pages list on the right.

To make these posts readable for non-Tamil readers, each verse that I quote is accompanied by a pithy, poetic English translation (by Rev. G. U. Pope). I am indebted to the Acharya project of IIT Madras for the original Tamil text and the English translation.

Business Case

Many software projects today are funded, initiated and executed without a valid, well articulated business case.

Here is what Valluvar has to say about a business case: Expenditure, return and profit of the deed In time to come, weigh these, then to the act proceed.

- Original Tamil text and English translation (by Rev. G. U. Pope) courtesy the Acharya project, IIT Madras

In 2004, I was called upon to start a new engagement with a customer.

The budget (expenditure) was explained to me in quantitative terms USD 21 Million over 12 months (I fell off the chair when I heard that number)!

The benefits (return) was explained to me in qualitative terms single source of truth for all customer information, better customer satisfaction because our customer service reps will not ask the same questions to our customers again and again, reduced data entry cost because data is entered only once, etc.

When I asked Have you quantified the ROI (profit of the deed)? the answer was a resounding No.

After six months, management realized the business case was a big ball of fluff. The project was aborted. By then, the customer had spent USD 10 million.

Risk AssessmentThere are at least two verses in the Thirukkural which advocate proper assessment of risks before embarking on a new project. In both of these, Thiruvalluvar sounds rather risk averse, old school and downright anti-entrepreneurial!The first one is: Think, and then dare the deed. Who cry, Deed dared, well think, disgraced shall be.- Original Tamil text and English translation (by Rev. G. U Pope) courtesy the Acharya project, IIT MadrasNow, consider Infosys twenty years back. They started at a time when there was no software industry per se. Offshoring was unheard of. They essentially cried Deed dared, well think but they are far from disgraced!This verse prohibits all software startups, even today!The second one goes as follows: A work of which the issue is not clear, Begin not they who reproachful scorn fear.- Original Tamil text and English translation (by Rev. G. U Pope) courtesy the Acharya project, IIT Madras

There are many instances in our context when the issue is not clear. Most of the RFPs we receive do not give sufficient information to accurately estimate effort and timelines. Yet, we are forced to submit fixed price bids because a) the customer demands it and b) if we do not, our competitors will.

This verse too kills all startup enterprises (since most startups expose themselves to reproachful scorn).Did Thiruvalluvar get this wrong? Has his wisdom grown stale with the passage of time? You decide.Project Planning2000 years back, project managers operated in imperial courts. They assisted emperors in managing sprawling, vast, complicated empires.

Some things never change.

Here is the original take on project planning from the Kural: Treasure and instrument and time and deed and place of act - these five, till every doubt remove, think oer with care exact

- Original Tamil text and English translation (by Rev. G. U. Pope) courtesy the Acharya project, IIT Madras

Nice translation by the Reverend, but it lacks context. Here is my take in the context of our industry:

Budget and resources and schedule and WBS and place of act - these five, till every doubt remove, think oer with care exact

What does place of act mean in our context? Onsite, offshore and near-shore, of course. You also have to deal with low cost locations now (China and Coimbatore)!

Like I said, some things never change.

Commission and OmissionErrors of commission are well know (I did something wrong). Errors of omission are less well know and far less acknowledged (I did not do this-and-this. That was a mistake). Most beginner project managers will be at their defensive best when faced with errors of omission.Here is a clear elucidation of the concept of errors of commission and omission: Its ruin if man do an unbefitting thing. Fit things to leave undone will equal ruin bring.- Original Tamil text and English translation (by Rev. G. U. Pope) courtesy the Acharya project, IIT MadrasHow many projects do you know that got into trouble because the project manager did not do the right things? Come to think of it, rarely do projects go bad because a project manager did the wrong things. It is more likely that the project manager failed to do the right things.Here is a list of things that beginner project managers fail to do:Not estimating project effort correctly (or succumbing to sales pressures)Not re-estimating at the end of the requirements phaseNot staffing the project with the right resources (skills as well as numbers)Not enforcing NFR considerations in the designNot enforcing programming standardsNot enforcing effective unit testingNot enforcing requirements change controlNot reviewing progress carefullyNot taking corrective action when things go wrongNot informing the customer when things go wrongNot testing for NFRsNot Not Not

To be or not to be? asked Hamlet and all the project managers replied enthusiastically Not!If project managers make so many errors of omission, is it even reasonable to call them project managers?Knock KnockWhos there?KnottKnott who?Not the project manager!

DelegationDelegation is the cornerstone of good management. A project manager can, by himself, achieve only so much. The multiplier effect of delegation is what makes projects successful.Here is what Thiruvalluvar has to say about delegation: This man this work shall thus work out, let thoughtful king command. Then leave the matter wholly in his servants hand.- Original Tamil text and English translation courtesy the Acharya project, IIT MadrasWhile the translation by the Reverend is very poetic in nature, he has taken liberties and does not capture the full flavor of the original verse. Nor is the translation appropriate to our current context (what with its reference to kings and servants, which by the way are not present in the original Tamil text).Here is my take:The first three words of the verse refer to three key items in the project planning process:The tasks being delegatedThe resources needed to perform those tasksThe person to whom the tasks are being delegatedNow think of a module in your project. If you, as a project manager, have to figure out how to delegate the responsibility of that module to someone else, how should you proceed?Decide first the list of functionalities that fall within the purview of that module. Also the list of activities will it be design, programming and unit testing, or just programming and unit testing, or just programming with no unit testing? This is nothing but the WBS of that module.Make a judgment as to the number of people needed to implement these activities and their skills pyramid. This is resource loading. This implies you should already have estimated the effort and defined the desired timelines.Now look for the person to whom you can delegate the module (i.e. the person who will be at the top of this pyramid).This is the approach recommended by the first three words of this verse.Then comes the act of delegation itself (the second line). No micro-managing. No doubting (if you doubted the individual then why choose him in the first place?). Just let go.