Big Data Analytics at Harvard Extension School

Quest for upgrades in technologies and skills are indispensable traits in software field. Although it was my impulsive decision to join this course, fortunately everything worked out very well to start the studies at Harvard extension school in Boston, Massachusetts. Big data analytics subject that a friend had enrolled intrigued me as I have been thinking of learning about this subject for a long time. Big data also aligns very well with my existing knowledge of over 15 years of Business Intelligence, ETL and databases related experience.

I have been working on Healthcase analytics for over 3 years and it seemed like a best fit course coupled with the thirst to learn were all solved by this course.
Here is my project that i presented at the end of the course. It was one of the very few projects selected to be presented at Harvard to all our class.

This course instantly prepared me for the next logical shift in my career and as a result of all the curiosity, I ended up creating a BigData Technologies Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT3bqK2QL93j-IFYFYbvjWQ  to share my technical explorations.

Presentation Skills for corportate presentations - Download ppt

Presentation skill is one of the major must know trait for any higher role in the organization ladder. It also boosts your confidence in multiple areas.



My Presentation skills
The time that I have during business wait is very well used in sharpening some of my less confident skills. Presentation is one the major skill that I acquired during this period. Public speaking is an art which can be mastered only over a period of time. Before this my presentations (rather there was no formal presentation till this year) were fairly limited to my project team and contents were limited to the team/project only. Now this new unit exposed me to much larger audience (minimum of 80 employees) and i was the first one to cash the opportunity. I started organizing some regular presentations and there by i got an opportunity to address everyone for a small duration. It slowly built the confidence even to talk on some surprisingly new topic to fill the time gaps.

Presentation download
There are 101 things to talk about presentation. Find many of them neatly organized in the PowerPoint slide show. You can Download and use the following presentation if you would like to give a presentation on "Presentation skills".

Off track story
Presentation skills come naturally to teachers or should i say some teachers are very bad at presentation?? It reminds me of all my teachers of early childhood and their impression on me. Although I never thought I would ever write on one of them after nearly 20 years there was one very bad point that I would like to high light. One of my teachers constantly used to uplift his trouser at least once every minute (Fun apart; he was excellent in science experiments and use to make firecrackers himself with raw materials). Any presenter who is in the eyes of public should mind these small gestures; else they become a reason for imitation and laughter.

Conclusion:
Corporate presentation skills are a must for every manager or any one who faces clients. Your investment of time to acquire this skill will not go waste. It will take you a long way for the rest of your life.

PMP - A certification for Project Managers.

Its been a long time I sat down and studied something seriously. Its time to get certified again. PMI (Project Management Institute) is the de facto standard in Project Management methodologies.
PMP is a certification offered by PMI after a rigorous test of PM methodologies. So I am heading towards PMP certification. My time starts from 13th March 2008, Saturday. Target it to complete in 2 months that’s 13th May 2008.
In addition to MCSD and Six Sigma+ I am sure this certification will become another feather in my cap.

Henceforth a few blog posts will be dedicated to many topics related to project management methodologies. I am sure this will also serve as a quick reference.

I am refering PMBOK Guide by PMI, Project management Jump Start, and Head first PMP.
I will write a review of these books when i am done with them.

If you are interested in sharing your experiences of PMP feel free to post comments at the end of this post. I would love to share my experiences.

Glossary related to PMP

BAC= Budget at completion.
CPI= Cost Performance Index.
CV= Cost varience=EV-AC.
ETC= Estimate to completion.
EAC= Estimate At completion.
EV= Earned value - Budgeted amount of work actually completed on WBS.
PV= Planned value - Budgeted cost per WBS scheduled to be completed.
SPI= Schedule Performance Index

SV= Schedule varience=EV-PV.