Pune-Deccan Chapter

In September, practitioners took part in two such events. V. S. Mantrala, who has over 20 years of experience and is currently working on an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation at Tetra Pak, was the main speaker on ‘Project Management Through Early Equipment Management (EEM)’. EEM is an important element of Total Productive Management (TPM) that originated in Japan. It is all about doing things right in the first place. EEM helps one to follow a step-wise approach to avoid last-minute surprises. 

The second event was a ‘Project Leadership Workshop’ which was conducted by Swati. Swati, with over 20 years of experience in software, is a local partner of Palatine Group USA. The four-day workshop was a hands-on exercise designed to develop project leadership competencies. Participants were asked to execute a six-month project using computer-simulated project environment. The workshop design was based on the experiences and principles of accelerated learning.

In October, Anuraag Gupta, who works with Laymen Consultants as financial trainer and speaker on finance, held a workshop on ‘Chanakya’s Project Management Ideas’. The workshop put into practice age-old principles used by Chanakya and illustrated in his book, Kautilya’s Arthashastra. He covered all facets of project management from planning of projects, to understanding a project in detail, execution of projects and successful completion of projects.

Shrikant, who currently heads Test Automation Center of Excellence in SQS India, spoke about test automation. His presentation covered topics like a quick introduction to regression test automation, regression test automation methodology and setting correct expectations around test automation. 

A Musical Journey: The chapter also organized a fund-raising event on 23 October. It was a musical evening of Hindi film songs from the black and white era. The evening traced the golden era of Hindi music from 1945 to 1968, when melody ruled the silver screen.