First party in US....grand success

Many times I answered with a smile whenever my colleagues asked about a party for different occasions in my life like engagement, marriage etc. I made up my mind in two ways, one is either a party should be a remembrance to everyone or it should be remembered and asked about.

I took enough time and I felt responsible to start one when my family grew up. I have to think not only about me but also about my wife and the family while deciding about the party that I am going to organize. Initially I hesitated to start the party because of the time constraint ( I have to complete this on sunday itself as it was the 29th day after her birth). I didn't find any occassion which can be celebrated here in US in the coming 8 to 10 months. I have been working in this project for the past 3 1/2 years both at offshore and onsite and so also most of my other colleagues . It took nearly half a day to decide whom I have to invite for the party. Finally I ended up with almost all whoever is here, and it turned out around 75 people ( 95 including kids ). The happiest part for me was the response that I got from all. I have seen the responses for my invitation very quickly. This also could be because none of them had other plans during this weekend, but I was very happy the way my colleagues turned up to the party.

I was little bit worried about my daughter thinking whether she would cooperate or not, since she is hardly 28days old. I was not sure how she will respond to the new environment outside home. But she was very cooperative sleeping all the time during the party. As discussed with my father-in-law, mother-in-law, my mother and wife we planned what we should do as part of the CRADLE CEREMONY ( Though we included the naming ceremony too in it). I remember my mother and father doing different rituals for different occassions. I liked the way those rituals went with vedic mantras. I didn't want that to be too lengthy to bore the guests. We made it short by working together at home and chalked out what should be done. In very few occassions only I have seen the reflection of indian culture out of the occasions that I attended. I wanted to bring that feel to everybody and see this as different one.

Though it will take some time to know about the actual comments about this, but I have seen the good response from all and felt happy. Only thing that I didn't concentrated was on kids enjoyment, since I never experienced hosting a party with families I couldn't make anything special for them.Though I am not very happy with the decoration but I made an effort to decorate the hall ( main stage ) and I felt it is OK with the amount of time that I had. I realized later how better I can do it. This will be helpful as an experience for me.

Though the unhappiness from office environment carried into the party but while enjoying the party everyone enjoyed as a GROUP. I apologize for the delay that was there between appetizer and main coarse servings, I heard from most of the guests that they enjoyed that delay too because the food was very good and they loved to wait for sometime to take a break and to spend sometime chitchatting with friends. I thank each and everyone who attended and made this event successful. We ( me and my family ) enjoyed each and everyone's company there and we had a great time in meeting all friends along with their families and I hope they felt the same.

Few pictures....

http://picasaweb.google.com/thirumalaraon/CradleCeremonyAnanya?authkey=ASsODp1XCVw

Critical time at both ends...appraisee and appraiser ---- it is appraisal time

I would like to take some time to share about the function that happened yesterday... I thought of writing something on another burning topic ..... "Appraisals"

For the past two days we had several discussions on only one topic Appraisals... you can see different emotions, expressions, fundas, calculations from both appriasee and appraiser point of view. As an individual very few think about the one time task in a year "Appraisal" while performing their duties. Few of them only realize that they worked more than what they are supposed to only after comparing/looking their ratings with others ratings in a team.

Whoever rated well they try to defend for what they got if anybody raised it as a point or there will not be any conversations or there will not be any regular tea time meetings with other colleagues. It all depends on what kind of situation they are in emotionally or mentally. I heard from some matured (maturity in terms of understanding their situation in the company and team ) guys saying, "It quite common and I don't want to argue with my appraiser".

Whenever I try to think from appraiser point of view I don't end up with a balanced decision to appraise our own team members by satisfying the norms and company policies etc. Then realizes that it is hard time even for the appraiser too. But when you start a new assignment and new task or new company (could be the decision out of current company appraisals) again you don't remember exactly the situations that were there when you had the last appraisals. Again the journey begins towards the day of getting a call from your appraiser.....

I read some articles/blogs while surfing on the internet on appraisals and find out some interesting things on appraisals ( most awaited happening in our work journey) and tried to present here, I hope you also like them.....don't start this if you are pre-occupied with something else.

Few issues in management stir up more controversy than performance appraisal.

There are many reputable sources - researchers, management commentators, psychometricians - who have expressed doubts about the validity and reliability of the performance appraisal process. Some have even suggested that the process is so inherently flawed that it may be impossible to perfect it.

At the other extreme, there are many strong advocates of performance appraisal. Some view it as potentially "... the most crucial aspect of organizational life".

Between these two extremes lie various schools of belief. While all endorse the use of performance appraisal, there are many different opinions on how and when to apply it.

There are those, for instance, who believe that performance appraisal has many important employee development uses, but scorn any attempt to link the process to reward outcomes - such as pay rises and promotions.

This group believes that the linkage to reward outcomes reduces or eliminates the developmental value of appraisals. Rather than an opportunity for constructive review and encouragement, the reward-linked process is perceived as judgmental, punitive and harrowing.

For example, how many people would gladly admit their work problems if, at the same time, they knew that their next pay rise or a much-wanted promotion was riding on an appraisal result? Very likely, in that situation, many people would deny or downplay their weaknesses.
Nor is the desire to distort or deny the truth confined to the person being appraised. Many appraisers feel uncomfortable with the combined role of judge and executioner.

Such reluctance is not difficult to understand. Appraisers often know their appraisees well, and are typically in a direct subordinate-supervisor relationship. They work together on a daily basis and may, at times, mix socially. Suggesting that a subordinate needs to brush up on certain work skills is one thing; giving an appraisal result that has the direct effect of negating a promotion is another.

The result can be resentment and serious morale damage, leading to workplace disruption, soured relationships and productivity declines.

On the other hand, there is a strong rival argument which claims that performance appraisal must unequivocally be linked to reward outcomes.

The advocates of this approach say that organizations must have a process by which rewards - which are not an unlimited resource - may be openly and fairly distributed to those most deserving on the basis of merit, effort and results.

There is a critical need for remunerative justice in organizations. Performance appraisal - whatever its practical flaws - is the only process available to help achieve fair, decent and consistent reward outcomes.

It has also been claimed that appraisees themselves are inclined to believe that appraisal results should be linked directly to reward outcomes - and are suspicious and disappointed when told this is not the case. Rather than feeling relieved, appraisees may suspect that they are not being told the whole truth, or that the appraisal process is a sham and waste of time.

The Link to Rewards - Research has reported that appraisees seem to have greater acceptance of the appraisal process, and feel more satisfied with it, when the process is directly linked to rewards. Such findings are a serious challenge to those who feel that appraisal results and reward outcomes must be strictly isolated from each other.

There is also a group who argues that the evaluation of employees for reward purposes, and frank communication with them about their performance, are part of the basic responsibilities of management. The practice of not discussing reward issues while appraising performance is, say critics, based on inconsistent and muddled ideas of motivation.

In many organizations, this inconsistency is aggravated by the practice of having separate wage and salary reviews, in which merit rises and bonuses are decided arbitrarily, and often secretly, by supervisors and managers.

Basics of Conducting Employee Performance Appraisals

Yearly performance reviews are critical. Organization's are hard pressed to find good reasons why they can't dedicate an hour-long meeting once a year to ensure the mutual needs of the employee and organization are being met. Performance reviews help supervisors feel more honest in their relationships with their subordinates and feel better about themselves in their supervisoral roles. Subordinates are assured clear understanding of what's expected from them, their own personal strengths and areas for development and a solid sense of their relationship with their supervisor. Avoiding performance issues ultimately decreases morale, decreases credibility of management, decreases the organization's overall effectiveness and wastes more of management's time to do what isn't being done properly. Conduct the following activities.

1. Design a legally valid performance review process - The law requires that performance appraisals be: job-related and valid; based on a thorough analysis of the job; standardized for all employees; not biased against any race, color, sex, religion, or nationality; and performed by people who have adequate knowledge of the person or job. Be sure to build in the process, a route for recourse if an employee feels he or she has been dealt with unfairly in an appraisal process, e.g., that the employee can go to his or her supervisor's supervisor. The process should be clearly described in a personnel policy.

2. Design a standard form for performance appraisals - Include the name of the employee, date the performance form was completed, dates specifying the time interval over which the employee is being evaluated, performance dimensions (include responsibilities from the job description, any assigned goals from the strategic plan, along with needed skills, such as communications, administration, etc.), a rating system (e.g., poor, average, good, excellent), space for commentary for each dimension, a final section for overall commentary, a final section for action plans to address improvements, and lines for signatures of the supervisor and employee. Signatures may either specify that the employee accepts the appraisal or has seen it, depending on wording on the form.

3. Schedule the first performance review for six months after the employee starts employment - Schedule another six months later, and then every year on the employee's anniversary date.

4. Initiate the performance review process and upcoming meeting - Tell the employee that you're initiating a scheduled performance review. Remind them of what's involved in the process. Schedule a meeting about two weeks out.

5. Have the employee suggest any updates to the job description and provide written input to the appraisal - Have them record their input concurrent to the your recording theirs. Have them record their input on their own sheets (their feedback will be combined on the official form later on in the process). You and the employee can exchange each of your written feedback in the upcoming review meeting. (Note that by now, employees should have received the job descriptions and goals well in advance of the review, i.e., a year before. The employee should also be familiar with the performance appraisal procedure and form.)

6. Document your input -- reference the job description and performance goalsBe sure you are familiar with the job requirements and have sufficient contact with the employee to be making valid judgments. Don't comment on the employee's race, sex, religion, nationality, or a handicap or veteran status. Record major accomplishments, exhibited strengths and weaknesses according to the dimensions on the appraisal form, and suggest actions and training or development to improve performance. Use examples of behaviors wherever you can in the appraisal to help avoid counting on hearsay. Always address behaviors, not characteristics of personalities. The best way to follow this guideline is to consider what you saw with your eyes. Be sure to address only the behaviors of that employee, rather than behaviors of other employees.

7. Hold the performance appraisal meeting - State the meeting's goals of exchanging feedback and coming to action plans, where necessary. In the meeting, let the employee speak first and give their input. Respond with your own input. Then discuss areas where you disagree. Attempt to avoid defensiveness; admitting how you feel at the present time, helps a great deal. Discuss behaviors, not personalities. Avoid final terms such as "always," "never," etc. Encourage participation and be supportive. Come to terms on actions, where possible. Try to end the meeting on a positive note.

8. Update and finalize the performance appraisal form - Add agreed-to commentary on to the form. Note that if the employee wants to add attach written input to the final form, he or she should be able to do so. The supervisor signs the form and asks the employee to sign it. The form and its action plans are reviewed every few months, usually during one-on-one meetings with the employee.

9. Nothing should be surprising to the employee during the appraisal meeting - Any performance issues should have been addressed as soon as those issues occurred. So nothing should be a surprise to the employee later on in the actual performance appraisal meeting. Surprises will appear to the employee as if the supervisor has not been doing his/her job and/or that the supervisor is not being fair. It is OK to mention the issues in the meeting, but the employee should have heard about them before.

Get together after a long time.....enjoyed a lot

We had a very nice get together on saturday, evening i.e., on 10th at one of our colleagues house. Though we named it as "PotLuck" party, we had fun of playing, singing and ofcourse fun too...

Our intention was just to bring our families together to know each other and to make our family memebers aware of whom we were refering to in our daily conversations at home. It was successful, we were able to know each other by name and were able to know what the individuals talent was. Especially housewives and kids enjoyed nicely and they didn't let the chance of enjoyment slip from their time.

Since the team is with all departments, HR team made the event best by making use of their regular event organization skill. The participation was also good with talented singers and even few of them tried to build the talent by taking this as the good opportunity...that was very nice and encouraging.

For the first time I was in the middle of group asking some riddles and it went around 30 min and most of them enjoyed this. I am happy that the amount of time that I spent to collect these riddles doesn't go in vein. As per my Wife's suggestion If I would have prepared with some funny clues for the riddles then they would have enjoyed a lot... any how I started something which was encouraging and different...

Thanks to the host who allowed us to be there in his house and made this a memorable event in our lives....and thanks to everybody whoever participated and took the pain in preparing all the stuff to make this as grand success...

Before I forget...let me share few of the riddles...

What goes up and down stairs without moving?

Give it food and it will live; give it water and it will die.

What can you catch but not throw?

Remove the outside, cook the inside, eat the outside, throw away the inside.

What goes around the world and stays in a corner?

The more there is, the less you see.

What kind of room has no windows or doors?

I have holes on the top and bottom. I have holes on my left and on my right. And I have holes in the middle, yet I still hold water. What am I?

It has no top or bottom but it can hold flesh, bones, and blood all at the same time. What is this object?

The more you take the more you leave behind.

Light as a feather, there is nothing in it; the strongest man can't hold it for much more than a minute.

What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?

Why don't lobsters share?

What can go up and come down on stairs without moving?

What has to be broken before it can be used?

I'm light as a feather, yet the strongest man can't hold me for much more than a minute. What am I?

With a little training, we can recognize other races as well as our own

http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2008/04/with_a_little_training_we_can.php

The begining...US life

October, 2006 was the time that made me to start life in US. That was really an exciting moment in my life that followed with so many changes. After a dilemma of around 3 weeks, one fine day I came to know that I have to travel to US (I was single then) on an assignment that will be there for around 3 to 6 months....it is good that still I am continuing here in the same project moving into different developments .... ofcourse I am now with my wife Mohana and baby girl Ananya who is only few weeks old.

I realized why people from India like this place only after looking at well organized and cool life without worrying about water, power and most of the domestic problems that we usually find in India.

I was excited by looking at the nice roads (compared with Indian roads), well organized traffic, nice people around, pleasant weather (that is what I felt then, don't remember me the last winter which was told as the most worst ever).

Lot of changes came in my life as fast as US lifestyle in year 2007....A month trip to India in April, 2007 ended up with Engagement, Marriage and quick trips in India. Month of May brought my wife here to start her long waited and excited journey to US(though she was there alone only 22 days after I came here).

ABAP History

History of SAP

In 1972, five systems analysts began working nights and weekends to create standard software with realtime data processing. Twenty-five years later their vision is a reality: SAP is the world’s market and technology leader in business application software.

On April 1, 1972 five former IBM employees founded SAP as Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung (“Systems Analysis and Program Development”) in Mannheim, Germany. Their vision was to develop and market standard enterprise software which would integrate all business processes. The idea came to them through their work as systems consultants for IBM when they noticed that client after client was developing the same, or very similar, computer programs. The second part of their vision was that data should be processed interactively in realtime, and the computer screen should become the focal point of data processing...

ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) is a high level programming language created by the German software company SAP. It is currently positioned, alongside the more recently introduced Java, as the language for programming SAP's Web Application Server, part of its NetWeaver platform for building business applications. Its syntax is somewhat similar to COBOL.

History

ABAP originated from an assembler macro language for reporting purposes in the seventies.ABAP evolved to an interpreted language for reporting and dialog programming in the mid-eighties, with compiler and VM implemented in mainframe assembler as part of the SAP R/2 system.In the early and mid-nineties it was known as ABAP/4 and it became the programming language for all SAP R/3 applications with the compiler and VM implemented in C as part of the SAP R/3 kernel.

ABAP is one of the many application-specific fourth-generation languages (4GLs) first developed in the 1980s. It was originally the report language for SAP R/2, a platform that enabled large corporations to build mainframe business applications for materials management and financial and management accounting. ABAP used to be an abbreviation of Allgemeiner Berichtsaufbereitungsprozessor, the German meaning of "generic report preparation processor", but was later renamed to Advanced Business Application Programming. ABAP was one of the first languages to include the concept of Logical Databases (LDBs), which provides a high level of abstraction from the basic database level.

The ABAP programming language was originally used by developers to develop the SAP R/3 platform. It was also intended to be used by SAP customers to enhance SAP applications – customers can develop custom reports and interfaces with ABAP programming. The language is fairly easy to learn for programmers but it is not a tool for direct use by non-programmers. Good programming skills, including knowledge of relational database design and preferably also of object-oriented concepts, are required to create ABAP programs.

ABAP remains the language for creating programs for the client-server R/3 system, which SAP first released in 1992. As computer hardware evolved through the 1990s, more and more of SAP's applications and systems were written in ABAP. By 2001, all but the most basic functions were written in ABAP. In 1999, SAP released an object-oriented extension to ABAP called ABAP Objects, along with R/3 release 4.6.

SAP's most recent development platform, NetWeaver, supports both ABAP and Java.

SAP BI Accelerator

SAP BI accelerator presents itself like an appliance because it combines in one package software and hardware. It’s important to note that organizations looking to deploy the SAP BI accelerator will still need to deploy an instance of the SAP NetWeaver with its own associated software and hardware. To create the BI accelerator appliance, SAP has partnered with Intel, which provides the processors, and HP and IBM, which provide their respective server and storage technologies.

In essence, the BI accelerator is a highly scalable analytic server that processes queries initiated by users of SAP NetWeaver BI. Its uniqueness and the features that make BI accelerator highly scalable is the use of SAP’s TREX search technology in conjunction with blade server architecture provided by its hardware partners.

SAP BI accelerator includes indexes that are vertically inverted reproductions of all the data included in InfoCubes (i.e., fact and dimension tables as well as master data). Note that there is no relational or other database management systems in BI accelerator. There is only a file system, and indexes are essentially held as flat files.

The second primary component of SAP BI accelerator is the engine that processes the queries in memory. The software is running on an expandable rack of blade servers. The operating system used for BI Accelerator is 64-bit Linux, so in addition to having no database license cost, there is also no OS license cost.

SAP BI Accelerator at Work


1. Data is loaded from source systems into an SAP InfoCube.
2. An index is built for this InfoCube and stored inside the BI accelerator appliance.
These are search engine indexes built using SAP’s TREX search technology.
They are stored in a file system (not a database system) using vertical decomposition (a column-based approach as opposed to the row-based approach that requires more read time). This results in highly compressed data sets that further contribute to fast processing speeds.
3. BI accelerator indexes are loaded into memory where the query is processed. In memory, joins and aggregations are done at run time. Loading of indexes into memory happens automatically at first query request, or it can be set for preloading whenever new data is loaded.
4. At run time, query requests are sent to the analytic engine, which reroutes the query to the BI accelerator.
5. Query results are returned to the end-user application.
Note: Steps 1 through 3 above typically are performed offline, (e.g., during less critical times). Steps 4 and 5 below are executed at actual query time.


SAP BI Accelerator Query Processing Steps


To describe how queries are processed by SAP BI accelerator, it is first worthwhile to describe how they are processed within the traditional SAP NetWeaver BI architecture. The left side of Figure 1 depicts this SAP NetWeaver BI architecture. In this case, the steps are:
1. Query is launched from SAP Business Explorer (BEX) or a third-party BI tool.
2. Query evaluates whether there is a precalculated data set (usually calculated during off-hours). If one exists, the query retrieves data from that data set.
3. If a precalculated template does not exist, the query checks the OLAP Cache for the necessary data. The OLAP Cache doesn’t benefit the first person launching the query, but will benefit all subsequent requests for that same query.
4. If the required data does not exist in the OLAP Cache, then the query looks for aggregate tables or materialized views that may exist. These preaggregated views are not as fast as processing the query against precalculated data sets or OLAP Cache, but they are still faster than going against the final layer, the InfoProvider.
5. The final option to execute the query is to run it against the InfoProvider, in this case the SAP InfoCube. This results in the slowest processing times as compared to the other three choices listed above.


Executing the same query with SAP BI accelerator results in a somewhat different set
of steps:
1. The first three steps remain the same (i.e., the query first checks if there is a precalculated data set and then checks the OLAP Cache). These two sources still result in the best processing performance.
2. However, if neither of these options exists, the query checks if the BI accelerator option is available. In this case, the slowest options of using aggregates or the InfoCube itself are eliminated. Instead, the BI accelerator processing as described above kicks in.


Note that early tests by SAP suggest that the query-processing speed with BI accelerator is approximately the same as that with the OLAP Cache. However, the BI accelerator also provides additional flexibility and scalability. This suggests that even the planning and maintenance associated with OLAP Cache could disappear in deployments with the BI accelerator appliance. Although SAP itself does not make this recommendation at this time, if the processing times are indeed going to be proved to be the same, it seems that using the OLAP Cache loses its value.


Deployment


SAP BI accelerator is optionally deployed in conjunction with SAP NetWeaver BI. In other words, it is not a required component of the overall SAP NetWeaver BI solution. Rather, it is a scalable analytic processor that can be deployed where appropriate, depending on the specific end-user concurrency and data volumes within each organization.


In that case, the BI accelerator appliance is shipped directly from one of SAP’s preferred hardware vendors (currently these include IBM or HP), with the BI accelerator software preloaded. There is a requirement that the software has been licensed directly from SAP (as part of SAP NetWeaver).




C o m p e t i t i o n


SAP BI accelerator appliance includes innovative use of existing, albeit not new technology. For example, search vendors such as FAST Search & Transfer, ClearForest, and Endeca, among others, are increasingly putting emphasis on using their technology in a business intelligence context.


On the appliance side of the market, companies such as Netezza, Datallegro, and Calpont have introduced true data warehousing appliances that combine software and hardware components and are specialized for analytic processes. The column-based or vertical decomposition approach used by SAP for data compression within BI accelerator is also not new, it has been employed by Sand Technologies and Sybase for some time and more recently by Clareos.


Other high-performance analytic servers come from companies such as Greenplum and Kognitio that bill their offerings as virtual appliances, which means that their software components are similar to those of Netezza and Datallegro, but are not prepackaged with the hardware. Finally, two companies that take yet another approach to data management and have provided evidence of high-performance analytic engines and high data-compression rates are QlikTech and ClearPace.




B e n e f i t s a n d S h o r t c o m i n g s o f S A P B I
A c c e l e r a t o r


Benefits


! Faster query processing and response time
! Faster load times, as aggregate change runs due to master data changes are
handled by the BI accelerator rather than on top of InfoCubes
! Lower maintenance costs:
# BI accelerator eliminates the need to create relational aggregates.
# BI accelerator may eliminate the need to deal with an OLAP Cache.
# BI accelerator may decrease the need for logical partitioning on the
NetWeaver BI side. However, there are other benefits beyond improving
query processing speeds to having logical partitions.
# BI Accelerator results in less planning and tuning on the part of DBAs.
! Attractive packaging as an appliance that is preconfigured for analytic processing
using SAP software and partners’ hardware, which allows nonintrusive
implementation
! High potential scalability . as demands grow, system scales up by adding
blades


Shortcomings


! Currently the data source for BI accelerator can only be an SAP InfoCube. It
does not work with other SAP data sources such as ODS.
! There’s currently a one-to-one relationship between an instance of SAP
NetWeaver BI and a BI accelerator. Sharing of multiple SAP NetWeaver BI
instances with a single BI accelerator is not yet supported.

! There is currently no failover mechanism for BI accelerator (i.e., if the system goes down, the indexes will have to be rebuilt from beginning). However, this is unlikely to be a very time-consuming task due to the search paradigm involved.

! SAP BI accelerator is still in fairly early stages of delivery and will require further
proof points and more precise published metrics on the actual performance
improvements. Having said this, as of today, SAP claims that already over 50
million query tests have been performed over the last six months, including
several pilot projects with actual customers.


FUTURE OUTLOOK


Although specific technologies employed by SAP in BI accelerator, such as search
indexes, column-based (or vertically inverted) data structures, and blade server
architecture, are not new, SAP has brought them all together into a cohesive solution
that has the potential to make a significant impact on the business analytics market.
Large companies, whether in IT or other industries, are rarely "bleeding edge"
innovators when it comes to new technology. However, they are unquestionably
innovators in the deployment and processes improvements around such
technologies.


With BI accelerator, SAP has the opportunity to extend the scalability of its
NetWeaver BI offering that is already deployed broadly, especially within its vast user
base. This step in turn will increase the adoption of and satisfaction level with
business analytics solutions and set yet another roadblock in the way of SAP’s
competitors in attracting business analytics market share away from the company.
In this scenario, in the highly competitive market for business analytics, it is the end
users who will benefit from SAP raising the bar with its new BI accelerator solution.