| BIO
- DATA |
Name |
: |
Dr. N. J. RAJARAM.
|
| Address / Contact |
: |
B-2, Central Railway Officers Flats,
Nirmal Park, Byculla, Mumbai :- 400 027.
Ph. 91-22-23738904 (Res.)+919820023573 (Cell). |
Date of Birth |
: |
24-July-1961 |
| Current Location |
: |
Mumbai |
| Email |
: |
njrajaram@hotmail.com |
| Qualifications |
: |
• |
Ph.D. in the area
of Software Quality Assurance, from Indian Institute of Technology,
Bombay, India, class of 1993. Secured C.P.I. of 9.4 out of 10.0
in course work. Was awarded the Dr. Deepak. K. Merchant Memorial
prize for the best Ph.D. from IIT Bombay, Mumbai, for research
in Software Quality.
|
• |
Title of the Thesis: “
Quantitative Modeling of Software Quality factors for Environments
adopting Contemporary Development Life Cycle”.
|
• |
Post Graduate Diploma in Statistical
Quality Control, from Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta,
India, class of 1989. Secured C.G.P.A. of 9.2 out of 10.0.
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• |
M.Tech in Computer Science
and Engineering, from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India,
class of 1985. Secured a C.G.P.A. of 9.6 out of 10.0.
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• |
B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering,
from J.N.T.U., Hyderabad, India, class of 1980, passed with
distinction obtaining 84%.
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|
Work Experience |
Over 17 years experience in various capacities primarily in the areas
of Software Process Improvement and Institutionalization of best practices.
Roles also entailed IT strategy formulation and prioritization, Information
Technology planning for business adaptability, Systems Design, Project
Management, and Business Reporting. Implementation, Consulting and
Research/Academics in Software Quality spheres dictate the nature
of job.
|
• |
Currently working as Head
of Corporate Quality, with Syntel (India), Mumbai, India, from
March 2004 till date.
|
• |
Worked as Chief Technology
Officer and Head R&D, with APTECH Ltd., in Mumbai, India,
from January 2000 to February 2004.
|
• |
Served as Associate Professor
of Information, Technology Engineering, with National Institute
of Training in Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai from July
1998 to December 1999.
|
• |
Worked for National Informatics
Centre (NIC), Planning Commission, and Government of India,
from October 1988 to July 1998, as Joint Director at Chennai.
This included a deputation assignment to Department of Atomic
Energy, Mumbai and Head Operations with NIC Incorporated, Mumbai.
|
• |
Had a short stint as Lecturer
in Computer Science for Bharath Engineering College, University
of Madras, from October 1987 to October 1988. |
|
| Career
Profile |
Software Development, Quality, Consulting,
Research, and Academics Current Employer: Syntel India Ltd.
Role: Head Corporate Quality and MR |
| Title
|
• |
Head Corporate Quality and Management
Representative |
| Period |
• |
March 2004 onwards |
| Position |
• |
General Manager |
| Responsibility |
• |
Key Responsibility of my current
position is to provide leadership to drive breakthrough change and
process improvement with Global impact. This calls for influencing,
driving change across the organization, mentoring teams for process
discipline and quality standards.The execution domain covers four
offshore sites, two offsite locations and several onsite locations.
|
| Description of the activities |
• |
Building and sustaining the process
culture in the organization through design and delivery of appropriate
process training programs on an ongoing basis, in collaboration with
the Training group and the Delivery groups. |
| |
• |
Ownership of global quality of products
and services. |
| |
• |
Performing the joint role of Head
Corporate Quality and Management Representative (MR). |
| |
• |
Responsible for compliance of QMS
which is aligned with ISO 9001:2000, SE CMM and CMMI frameworks. |
| |
• |
Steered Syntel for ISO 9001:2000
re-certification for existing three centers and certification for
a new ODC. |
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• |
Completed two cycles for SCAMPI
v 1.1 readiness. |
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• |
Ensure integrity of QMS with developmental
activities and interfacing departments. |
| |
• |
Ensuring stringent deployment of
QMS at all development centers and reporting effectiveness to the
top management. |
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• |
Interface with customers for improving
CSI measure. |
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• |
Recommend corrective and preventive
actions as related to work product quality. |
| |
• |
Liaison with certification agencies
for ISO, CMM and CMMI. |
| |
• |
Facilitate conduct of audits (internal,
SQA and external) and follow-up of audit findings for closure. |
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• |
Plan and conduct reviews of projects
and recommend actions for executions. |
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• |
Determine effectiveness of defined
processes and report to Management Steering Committees. |
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• |
Organize QMS and Quality related
organizational training |
| |
• |
Evolve quantitative models for
process monitoring and establish process capabilities. Collecting
and analyzing process metrics applicable for all the processes both
at project and organizational level. |
| |
• |
Conduct process capability studies
for sustaining robust and stable process to extend them to Six Sigma
capabilities. |
| |
• |
Designing and implementing an ongoing
metrics program for the organization and its projects.
Supporting the automation of engineering and management activities
on projects. |
| |
• |
Help management set project goals
and customer expectations. |
| |
• |
Improve clients engagement quality
and effectiveness through metrics rigor. |
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• |
Benchmark Syntel Ltd against industry
best in process and quality disciplines |
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• |
Providing regular ongoing process
consulting to project teams – including tailoring, dissemination,
definition if required, hand-holding, deviation analysis, and approval. |
| |
• |
Work on client specific standards
(AS9006) and process definitions. |
| |
• |
Worked extensively on Risk management
for BS 7799 initiatives. |
| |
• |
Coordinate activities of reporting
groups like the SEPG, Metrics group, Technology Change Management
and Defect Prevention. |
| |
• |
Establishing and managing an organization-wide
process assets repository – consisting of policies, processes,
guides, templates, tailoring guidelines, data from projects, project
learning, and capability baselines. |
| Work Location |
• |
Mumbai, Chennai & Pune INDIA. |
Aptech Software Limited
Previous Positions held
Role: Vice President
& Chief Technology Officer |
| Title |
• |
Chief Technology Officer |
| Period |
• |
January 2000 – February 2004 |
| Position |
• |
Vice President |
| Responsibility |
• |
The role involved leading and fully
involving in Business and Quality systems. Providing thought leadership
in quality system improvement by just not limiting to ISO 9001. |
| Description of the activities |
• |
Was responsible for process definition
and maintenance of QMS based on ISO 9001:2000. |
| |
• |
Steered Aptech Limited in the ISO9001:2000
certification initiatives. |
| |
• |
Owner for the Implementation of
the Quality Management System across the organization. |
| |
• |
Review of processes to check their
applicability to projects and suggest refinements. |
| |
• |
Responsible for the conduct of
regular internal and external (surveillance & certification) audits |
| |
• |
Conducted periodic operational,
execution and compliance reviews on the projects. |
| |
• |
Installation of a strong metrication
programme through the organization. |
| |
• |
Owned the collection of data for
metrics and their analysis for organization metrics (operational &
project management) |
| |
• |
Established capability baseline
through capability studies for critical process measures. |
| |
• |
Responsible for conduct of quality
related training programmes |
| |
• |
Preparation of the organization
for deploying key practices as per level 3 of the SEI CMM framework |
| |
• |
Completed readiness for CBA IPI
assessment. |
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• |
Established a good process asset
repository for facilitating learning |
| |
• |
Installed a good projects database
with reuse capabilities. |
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• |
Ownership for quantitative culture
in the organization and organized for Six Sigma thinking. |
| |
• |
Was the process owner for implanting
SCORM and AICC standards for content development projects |
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• |
Contributed extensively in process
definitions initiatives for RBNQA certification. |
| |
• |
Handled consulting assignment in
the area of software quality improvement for Deutsche Bank AG, IMTAC
Oman, ICT Yemen and IT Services Mauritius. |
Project Management and Software Development
|
| |
• |
Handled major content development
projects for the Defense (Govt of India), AOL Canada, SCS Singapore
and Malaysian Law Books Agency (ILBS). |
| |
• |
Handled Engineering related application
development for Indian Air force, TCHQ, CME, INS Hamla, and INS Shivaji. |
| |
• |
Developed POC for web based learning
in operations management for IIM Bangalore, India and Applied Mechanics
for Government of Andhra Pradesh (DOT). |
| |
• |
Carried out assignments on web
based learning systems for IATA, IBM (Project Management), Union Bank
and Andhra Bank. |
| |
• |
Designed and developed assessment
models for Attest, India. |
| |
• |
Designed and managed development
of WAP Portal for Asset International |
| |
• |
Conceived, designed and developed
a Knowledge Management System for Asset International, with the support
of Microsoft Technologies. |
| |
• |
Architected and managed development
of the comprehensive on line Education portal “Aptech Online
Varsity”. |
| |
• |
Designed and implemented the Patient
Monitoring System (as a Workflow application) adopting Lotus Notes
and Domino Server |
| |
• |
Designed a Web based sales system
using Net. Commerce, Visual Age for Java, Web sphere and related IBM
technologies. |
| |
• |
Led several applications development
initiatives for evolving rich media applications using assortment
of technologies (Microsoft, Macromedia, Discreet, IBM, SUN & Oracle) |
| Work Location |
• |
Mumbai, INDIA . |
National Institute of Training
in Industrial Engineering (NITIE)
Role: Professor
- Information Technology
|
| Title |
• |
Associate Professor - Information
Technology |
| Period |
• |
July 1998 – January 2000 |
| Position |
• |
Vice President |
| Responsibility |
• |
The role involved teaching M.Tech
students, conducting Management Development Programmes, Industry consulting
in Quality and establishing Industry-Academic relationships.. |
| Description of the activities |
• |
Taught regular Post Graduate level
(M.Tech) courses in Software Quality Management, Software Engineering,
Software Project Management, Database Management systems, Data modeling
and Warehousing, Web and Wireless Technologies and Quantitative modeling. |
| |
• |
Conducted a number of Management
(Executive) Development Programmes, Short Term Courses and Workshops
in Software Engineering, Software Quality Management, SEI-CMM, Software
measurements, Software Project Management, Intranet/Internet technologies,
E-Commerce, Wireless Technologies, Data modeling, RDBMS, Quantitative
modeling, CASE tools, Taguchi methods, Convergent Technologies, Enterprise
Computing and Knowledge Management. |
| |
• |
Designed long term and short-term
on-line courses as a part of education services, in the areas of Electronic
Commerce, Knowledge Management, Wireless Application development,
Convergent Technologies, and Work Flow applications design, Software
Project Management & Estimation, Software Engineering, Enterprise
Application Integration, Process Capability Studies (6 Sigma) and
Software Quality. |
| |
• |
Independently handled several consulting
assignments in the areas of manufacturing and software quality. |
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• |
Chaired several panel discussions
on Software Quality. |
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• |
Guided over Thirty- five Postgraduate
students for their M.Tech and MCA project works. |
| |
• |
Served as visiting professor at
IIITM, Gwalior and Maharishi Institute of Management, Hyderabad. |
| |
• |
Served as External examiner for
IIT Bombay. |
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• |
Involved in the Design of IT curriculum
for several institutions at Post Graduate level. |
| |
• |
Organized and Convened the International
Conference on Multimedia and Design, ICMD-2002. |
| |
• |
Conducted Several Management Development
programmes.in the areas of Software Process improvement, Six Sigma
and Experimental Design. |
| Work Location |
• |
Mumbai, INDIA . |
National Informatics Centre
(Department of Information Technology), Government of India.
Role: Principal Systems Analyst - Systems Development,
Project Management and Operations
|
| Title |
• |
Joint Director |
| Period |
• |
July 1988 – July 1998 |
| Position |
• |
Joint Director |
| Responsibility |
• |
Systems Development, Project Management,
Centre Operations, Training and Quality. |
| Description of the activities |
• |
Designed and developed On line
Government Financial Accounting ‘System for the Department of
Atomic Energy (DAE). The System covers Payment accounting, Receipt
Accounting, Bank Reconciliation, Budgeting and Accounts Compilation. |
| |
• |
Designed and Managed the Postal
Life Insurance (PLI) System for the Department of Post, Govt of India.
The project encompasses all aspects of Proposals, Payments, Loans
and Claims. |
| |
• |
Handled Government financial Accounting
System for the Office of the Accountant General, Tamil Nadu. |
| |
• |
Owner of all applications related
under the Department of Medical Services, Govt of Tamil Nadu. The
major application being NMEP project. |
| |
• |
Instrumental in major Govt MIS
projects like the Economic Census, National Sample Survey and Industry
survey projects. |
| |
• |
Installed a detailed system for
project profile generation and maintenance for Small Industry Services. |
| |
• |
Developed applications for the
department of Food & Consumer Protection, department of Agriculture
and department of Statistics, Tamil Nadu as part Government automation
initiatives. |
| |
• |
Responsible for building key infrastructure
for Internet operation of NIC at Maharashtra. This included developing
the architecture, vendor management and customer interactions. Played
a lead role in implementing the EDI project for customs Govt of India. |
| |
• |
Designed several systems for public
administration under the e-governance initiatives. |
| |
• |
Contributed extensively to standardization
procedures in Government administration. |
| |
• |
Led the project on organizational
process definitions aligned with ISO 9001:1994 and evolved the apex
document. |
| |
• |
Prepared for ISO certification
as per ISO 9000-3 1997. |
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• |
Contributed to (Risk Mgt.) IT Security
committee of NIC. |
| |
• |
Monitor Projects on an ongoing
basis for adherence to Quality System |
| Work Location |
• |
Chennai, Mumbai, INDIA |
Specific Contributions to Software Quality
|
| Title |
• |
In all positions and Organizations |
| Period |
• |
July 1984 onwards (through out my
career) |
| Type of Contribution |
• |
Research, Consulting and Innovation
in Software Quality. |
| Description |
• |
Conferred an Award at ICQRIT by
SREQOM for pioneering research in the area of Software Quality, in
December 2003. |
| |
• |
· Received the Best Ph.D
award for my research in the area of Software Quality from IIT Mumbai. |
| |
• |
· Selected as one of the
top 20 CTOs in India by Network Computing. |
| |
• |
· Received Best Paper Award
at the ICQRC 2001 Conference. |
| |
• |
· Developed a number of Quantitative
models for the assessment, prediction and control of Software Size
and Quality from specification product attributes. |
| |
• |
· Developed Frameworks for
software measurement research. These have been applied to several
development projects for determining relative measures of characteristics.
|
| |
• |
· Handled several consulting
assignment in experimental design. |
| |
• |
· Formulated and validated
methodology for constructing models to relate characteristics of different
software delivered products. Developed Quantitative Models relating
i) specification size and software functionality, ii) specification
difficulty and software internal complexity and iii) usability and
maintenance difficulty. |
| |
• |
· Designed and conducted
several laboratory experiments for optimizing the Software development
process. |
| |
• |
· Designed and conducted
laboratory experiments for applying Taguchi methods in Object oriented
development environments. |
| |
• |
· Handled several consulting
assignments for software process improvements and maturity assessments. |
| |
• |
· Developed Quantitative
models for analyzing failures of Computer systems. |
| |
• |
· Developed Quantitative
models for the Analysis of data using Orthogonal Arrays to facilitate
estimation of effects of factors on software processes. |
| Work Location |
• |
INDIA and Overseas |
Development Environments and
Tools
|
| Operating Systems |
• |
VAX/VMS, SINTRAN, SCO-UNIX, XENIX,
Solaris RSX-11M on PDP-11/34 UNIX on Intel and RISC based machines,
Windows 95, 98, NT. |
| RDBMS |
• |
Oracle 5.0, 6.0, 7.x, 8i, SQL RDB/VMS
and DB2/UDB |
| Languages |
• |
COBOL, FORTRAN, BASIC, C, C++, PL/SQL,
PRO*C, Java, SQL, PL/SQL, SQL*FORMS, SQL*REPORTWRITER, and SQL*MENU |
| Web Tools and Technologies |
• |
HTML, DHTML, XML, Servlets, JSP,
EJB, JDBC, WML, WMLScript, WAP Application development tool kit, Web
Application Server, and COM/DCOM. |
| Architectural frameworks |
• |
J2EE and .NET |
| Middleware Technologies |
• |
WebSphere Application Server, Viual
Age for Java and WebSphere Commerce Suite |
| Multimedia and authoring tools |
• |
Flash and Authorware |
| Estimation Methodology |
• |
COCOMO, COCOMO II, Function Point
(FP), Mark II Function Point System, Object Points and GQM. |
| Process Improvement initiatives |
• |
Clean Room Process model, Six Sigma
(DMADV & DMAIC), FMECA, SQFD and Taguchi method |
| Case Tools |
• |
SILVERRUN (SILVERRUN-WRM, SILVERRUN-RDM,
SILVERRUN-DFD, SILVERRUN-ERX and ORACLE Bridge), Designer 2000 and
System Architect |
| Quality Models |
• |
ISO 9000:2000, ISO/IEC 12207, COPC
2000, AS9100, IEEE (730, 1016, 1012), SEI SW CMM v 1.1, CMMI - SE/SW
v 1.1, SCORM 1.3 and AICC. |
| Statistical tools & Quantitative modeling |
• |
SPSS, STATISTICA, Univariate Analysis
and Multivariate Analysis |
| Methodologies |
• |
Entity Relationship modeling, Data
Run, Information Engineering and OOAD (UML). |
| Project Management tools |
• |
HTPM, MS-Project 98 and COSTAR 6.0. |
|
Recent Publications |
1. |
Application of Taguchi Method
for Optimizing the Software Development Process. Proceedings
of the International Conference on Operations Management, IIT
Delhi, India, December 1999. |
2. |
Modeling Relationships between
Size of User Specification and Functionality of the Software
Delivered Product. Communicated to International Journal of
Quality and Reliability Management., December 2001. |
3. |
Analysis of Quality of Training
Process adopting Robust Design Methodology, ASIGURAREA CALITATII,
January – June 2002. Vol VIII.
|
4. |
A Methodology for Risk Assessment
in the Software Quality Framework, Proceedings of ICQRC –
2001, IETE, December 2001. |
5. |
Enhancing Software Quality,
Tutorial, ICQRC – IETE, December 2001. |
6. |
A Scheme to Safeguarding Legitimacy
of New Media Content Data, Proceedings ICMD-2002. |
7. |
An Architectural foundation
for Knowledge Management System, Proceedings CSI April 2000. |
8. |
Managing Content Development
for New Media, Tutorial ICMD-2002, September 2002. |
9. |
Conducted several seminars
on WAP and presented paper at CSI conference in the area of
Knowledge Management. |
10. |
Published a number of technical
articles in IT magazines (Express Computers, Data Quest, Knowledge
and Economic Times). |
11. |
Delivered several lectures
on Software Quality, Convergent Technologies, Enterprise Application
Integration and Knowledge Management in several conferences
and seminars. |
12. |
Leveraging Spatial Data in
Enterprise Knowledge Management, Proceedings ICMD-2002, September
2002. |
13. |
Key Note speaker at several
conferences. |
14. |
Chaired several panel discussions
on software quality. |
15. |
Member of Independent Ethics
Committee on clinical trials as Quantitative modeling expert. |
16. |
Member of ASSOCHAM committee
on Technical Education, IT area. |
|
| Extracurricular
activities: |
Interested in sports and Games. Represented University in the All India
Inter-university Hockey tournaments. |
• |
Holder of NCC “B”
and “C” certificates of the Air Wing. |
• |
Club level player of Tennis,
Table tennis and Badminton. |
|
1.
|
Prof. A. K. Verma,
Interdisciplinary Programme in Reliability Engineering,
I.I.T., Bombay, Powai, Mumbai.
|
2. |
Prof. S. G. Deshmukh,
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
I.I.T., Hauz Khas, New Delhi.
|
|
