And the OSCAR goes to ...
Few months ago, I got the
invitation to attend session on productivity technique Mind-Map. It was to be
presented by a colleague in another department at STMicroelectronics Pvt Ltd, Greater Noida.
There it was – I have first
noticed ‘Jolt Award’ printed on the book cover. This book has won it and its author
Steve McConell had won it multiple times for various books.
I had been using this technique
successfully for 7 years for now. But a very useful translation of some Shloka relating
to 4-parts of learning just came to mind:
- ¼ of learning happens from Guru/teacher,
- ¼
from self-study,
- ¼ from practice and
- ¼ from peer discussion/experience sharing.
It was a rare chance of peer
sharing of rare technique.
During and after the sessions, I
went down my memory lane.
First clear memory came of a
time, when I shared this tool to a colleague who wanted to depict a
directed-graph to demonstrate workflow of a GUI SW he was documenting.
I had suggested ‘FreeMind’, a
tool capable of drawing mind-maps. Mind-maps match Graph data structure very
closely, so it naturally handles N-ary tree depiction. This pleased him and he
successfully depicted it.
Going further – I remembered I was
using it before joining ST. (its long 7 years)
And further – when and where did
I pick up this cool technique in first place?
Aha! The Oscar’s in Software –
JOLT awards.
After a recent switch to another SW development group, I dusted my book collection and pulled out “Code Complete” by Steve
McConnell. It’s known as reference guide to designing excellent quality SW.
There it was – I have first
noticed ‘Jolt Award’ printed on the book cover. This book has won it and its author
Steve McConell had won it multiple times for various books.
To introduce the importance of
Oscars in movies, it’s annually given for best - movie / direction / acting /
music etc. This award is prestigious and recognizes excellence exhibited in
various categories.
Jolt Awards are given in field
of Software Engineering, to the best judged – programming tool / book / utility
/ library. It marks excellence in SW engineering.
I have tracked these awards for
many years now and have learnt a lot. It helps me to track state-of-art.
When someone mentions popular
‘URGENT/IMPORTANT matrix’ (for managing and prioritizing Long-Term Important
tasks among Daily rain of urgent tasks), I always place tracking these awards
as – Not Urgent but Very Important J
I thought to share it for those who
like to pursue excellence in their work.
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