Robins Anup - IT Speaks: A Brief Interaction with the IT Services Industry

Notion Press

Old No. 38, New No. 6

McNichols Road, Chetpet

Chennai - 600 031

First Published by Notion Press 2016

Copyright Anup Robins, Kumar Vivek, Shiva Kumar 2016

All Rights Reserved.

ISBN 978-93-5206-737-4

This book has been published in good faith that the work of the author is original. All efforts have been taken to make the material error-free. However, the author and the publisher disclaim the responsibility.

No part of this book may be used, reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Dedication

Anup RobinsDedicated to my wife, without whose care and affection, this would not have been possible

Kumar VivekDedicated to the pioneers of the IT Service Industry

Shiva KumarDedicated to my parents

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following people without whom this book would not have been possible:

Reviewers

1. Ranjan Arora, Senior Project Manager, Infosys
2. Dibya Bhadra, Consultant, TCS
3. Arockiaraj Chinnappan, Group Project Manager, Infosys
4. Subroto Mallick, Senior Project Manager, CTS
5. Anuja Shrivastava, Project Lead, RBS
6. Vipin Kallayil, Senior Project Manager, Infosys
7. Satish Gopalakrishnan, Project Manager, Infosys

In addition, we have received valuable inputs fromRamkumar Akilen, Delivery Manager, Infosys; Krishnakumar C, Group Project Manager, Infosys; Shouvik Chandak, Project Manager, CTS; Feroz Abdul Wahab, Technology Architect, Infosys; Shivakumar Hiremath, Technology Lead, Infosys.

We would also like to thank Sunil S, Saravanan Thirunavakarasu, Mayank Sharma, Vaibhav Kelkar, Vipin Gopan, Abhay George and Ayan Bhatnagar from Infosys for their insights.

Preface

IT Speaks! intends to be a window to the world of IT Services. It covers all the major aspects of IT Services Companies and the way they do business. The various career options for beginners within the IT industry are also covered. It also gives a fair view to the reader of what to expect when he or she begins a career in an IT Company, and what are the expectations from him or her. The aim of the book is to plug the gap between the classroom and the production floor.

This is not a technical text book and does not intend to be one. For one, it does not dwell on theories and gives an asis view of the work which happens within an IT Services Company. Secondly, and more importantly, this book tries to present the processes and practices of the IT industry in the simplest form possible. It avoids complex business and technical jargon as far as possible. The numerous examples given in each chapter help in an effective understanding of the topics covered.

The authors have made a sincere effort that the content can be understood and enjoyed by anybody who is interested in Indian IT Service Industry, and not just IT professionals.

Contents

This book has a total of eleven chapters. The first four chapters cover the history and landscape of the Indian IT industry, the structure of a typical IT Services Company, and how IT Companies get business (IT Sales). The next five chapters take the reader to the floor of a typical IT behemoth and explore the various services provided by it. In this part, it covers the practical Software Development Lifecycle (chapter 5), Software Testing (chapter 7), Support and Maintenance (chapter 8) and IT Consulting (chapter 9).Effort has been taken to emphasize on the importance of each service and, thus, dispel common myths and concerns. The last two chapters cover the appraisal system, and the career options in the IT industry which a professional can look forward to.

The chapters are in the form of conversations between people in different situations trying to figure out a method in the madness. The authors have consciously chosen this format to make the book simple, as well as interesting, to the target audience.

Who will benefit from this book?

• Aspiring College Students: This book will help the college students get an insight on what their work and career would look like once they join the IT industry.
• IT professionals: It is often observed that IT professionals overlook the big picture for short term gains, and make career choices which are sub-optimal. This book will help them with valuable insights on the different facets of the IT Service Industry. This will help them plan early, and ultimately build a satisfying career in the IT industry. This book will also clear a number of myths which IT professionals have and increase their overall level of maturity and understanding of this industry.
• Industry: This book will help the industry as a whole in more than one way.
• It is a well-known fact that attrition at lower levels is a big cause of concern for IT Services Companies. A major reason for the same is that employees in IT companies are rarely aware or thinking about career planning at the beginning of their professional life. This book intends to be of help to them in this area.
• Typically it takes quite some time to get a fresh trainee up and running within a project. This is due to the fact that trainees are not aware of the key stakeholders, hierarchy, processes and the best practices within the company and the project. They are also not aware of the expectations from them. This book intends to save the time and efforts put in by Managers to make their resources productive, as they will have a better understanding of the work and expectations through this book.

The book tries to present a general view across the industry and avoids any specific reference to any company.

The authors wish to express their gratitude to everyone who has helped them in this endeavor.

ITSI - My Story

Hello!

Let me introduce myself to you. I am the IT Services Industry. You can call me ITSI.

I am here to introduce this book which will describe some aspects of my personality to you. This book is addressed to all those who are interested in knowing more about me. You can be a student preparing for an upcoming campus interview and eager to work with me. You can be a new IT professional trying to make sense of where you are, and what you should do to be successful. Or you can even be a successful professional in some other field, wanting to know what this hype about me is all about. This book will give you a birds eye view of almost every aspect of my life. And the authors will try their best to explain the complex concepts in the simplest possible language for you to understand.

As an introduction to this book, I would like to tell you the story of my life. I am sure you will find it interesting.