As many of you would be aware, I was temporarily relocated from Melbourne to Bangalore just over 3 months ago, my primary goal being to help transfer Field product knowledge from Melbourne to the BSC engineering team while the team continues to deliver product features.
Beaches, buddies, bikes, bribes and bulls
On leaving Melbourne I felt it was important to both de-stress and to immerse myself into the Indian culture, so I spent a week in Goa with the Taylors and another friend!
Goa is a relaxing place with some quite nice beaches, which also sport many relaxing cows and bulls!
While in Goa, we hired Royal Enfield motorbikes to get around on.
One sunny afternoon when we were cruising around on our bikes, we were pulled over by the local police who proceeded to ask for our licences. Now, I do have a motorbike licence for Australia, however it turns out that is not accepted in India. Not a problem at all as it turns out; we simply enquired what the ‘fine’ was and explained that we could pay right now rather than having to go down to the police station (which they did offer). That was my first introduction to the bribery system in India (of course I would never participate in such illegal activity). :P
3 weeks for 3G
Some aspects of life in Bangalore are much easier than being in Melbourne; for example, I have never shown ID to get alcohol or to get into bars, in fact you can ring and get a box of longneck beers delivered to your house for a small fee. On the other hand India seems to have different expectations for service delivery than I am used to in Australia. When I first arrived in Bangalore, I requested a local SIM card for my mobile phone. The first one i got did not work, a week later I got a second one which could make calls however it took another 2 weeks to get 3G data and SMS working!
Living in Bangalore
Getting into life in Bangalore has been much easier than I thought it would be. I’ve been riding my mountain bike to work - it’s a great way to wake up in the morning! (I actually filmed my commute, in case any cyclists in Melbourne are interested, it’s a little hairy in parts but you get used to it; Morning: http://youtu.be/LX9z-DUkgu0 Night: http://youtu.be/kxBmDoMMJr8) I’ve also joined Bruce’s keen crew of mountain bikers (known as “Hungover Heroes”) for early morning rides each Sunday. My favourite spot is Nandi Hills, it is not strictly a mountain biking track but it is an enjoyable and challenging ride and even has such novelties as monkeys - everyone loves monkeys, cheeky little buggers!
video link: http://youtu.be/1swKdjXh8n4
On more of a social front, I have managed to make a few local and expat friends. A few weeks ago we were out at a FIFA World Cup party and managed to get snapped for the local Bangalore Times newspaper.
Those who worked with me in Melbourne know that I have a consistent diet of 2 bananas per day, so rest assured I have also found a good banana supplier. :)
Bangalore: the international city
I think one of my biggest surprises coming to Bangalore has been the breadth of what is has to offer in food and entertainment. I can go out and have a basic Paratha (bread) and vegetable curry lunch for 50 Rupees (approx. 90 Australian cents). On the other hand I can go out for fine dining and get amazing authentic Italian, Chinese or Japanese food for around 1,800 Rupees (approx. 32 Australian dollars). In fact when Craig Brown and Belinda Dal Lago were out here last week, we went out to a great Chinese restaurant (http://www.yauatcha.com) and had all you can eat dumplings and tea. So we tried one of each of the 24 varieties of dumpling and the 4 teas, then Bel and I went back for seconds of our favourites - what can i say, i love dumplings!
There are also many boutique micro breweries popping up, my favourites being Arbor Brewing Company and Toit.
Goals over tasks
When an engineering team first adopts agile delivery, it is great to look at the backlog to see what is coming up and to watch the cards (or user stories) move across the wall as you implement them. In the Field engineering team one of the first changes that we decided to make in my first few weeks was to set a goal or two for each sprint. Some are as simple as “release the latest mobile app”, some are more specific such as “be ready for US Beta clients”. We have continued this and found it very useful for use to keep focussed on a goal, not just on a string of cards.
Engineering @ Bangalore
One of my goals as a senior member of the Engineering team is to help raise the profile of Aconex in the Bangalore software engineering community. Since I have been helping to organise the MelbJS meetups at the Melbourne office for some time and have presented a few times, I thought it might be nice to present to the group at BangaloreJS. Bruce came out to the Microsoft tech park on a Saturday morning for moral support and to help recruit developers for the BSC. It was a great experience to be able to present internationally to a group of about 50 developers - i’m hoping I get a chance to present again before I head back to Melbourne.
Bruce also did a nice sketch of me while I was presenting:
Another goal I have is to spread general knowledge and experience that I have gained over the years as well as specific product knowledge. One of the bit gaps we identified early on was in the area of automated configuration management, or specifically at Aconex, Puppet. To address this I put together I basic slide deck to summarise available tools, Puppet generally and then how we use Puppet. It turned into a 20 minute presentation to anyone who was interested in the Engineering and Operations teams. I then followed up with pairing sessions with members of my team to apply the knowledge, based on product backlog items which we needed to get done. Although there is still more for us (including myself) to learn in this area, I am confident that a solid base has been created which can be built on, and most importantly, allow the Field team to do what needs to be done to deliver product features.
Comments