Professional Aspirations of Process Evagelist

My professional goal is to become a torchbearer for process improvement realm in Pakistan. I intend to achieve this goal by becoming Pakistan’s first woman lead appraiser for CMMI and a Leading Process Auditor/Evangelist for Integrated Management Systems in Pakistani Organisations. Process improvement subject area has seen significant focus in recent years in Pakistan’s ICT sector. I have been participating in and leading such initiatives for almost a decade. This has enabled me to develop keen understanding of the domain, the demands of the international standardization bodies, the challenges faced by the local industry and creative solutions to answer those challenges. However, the ultimate goal remains to achieve a lead appraiser accreditation myself and be able to foster local talent.

On a wider scale, I believe that continual process improvement is a practice that can be applied to every walk of life. My goal is to be able to apply the principles of process improvement to personal growth, community welfare and public-private interactions. As a growing economy, there is a dire need of improvement in community organization and streamlining of interactions with government departments. This need can be addressed by applying the principles of process improvement to these areas in cross-industry fashion, by keeping what worked and letting go what didn’t.

I am all for Mentorship!

I am always available and interested when and if any software firm needs process improvement. The only opportunity to have first-hand exposure with multinational work arises when foreign trainers and consultants visit for various assignments; which, again, is very limited due to travel advisories resulting from security challenges here. In this scenario, mentor ship programs are a beacon of hope and prove to be pivotal.

I am already enrolled with SEI’s instructor-led program for lead appraisers. I attended classroom based sessions held in Maryland, Washington, in September 2015. I have put this knowledge to practice by conducting process improvement audits at two Pakistani companies. Through the TechWomen initiative, I may get an opportunity to work first-hand with a leading US-based company. I expect that the process improvement program over there different much more mature than the ones I have experienced. This opportunity, and the associated mentorship, will let me see the principles applied in practice to state-of-the-art level.

Demonstration of Leadership

The leader in me has evolved from a project coordinator (facilitating process implementation) to a Process Lead practically orchestrating all Process Improvement endeavours for my organization.

This persistent involvement in processes has given me confidence for having sufficient insight into outcomes and usually the positive belief in the work done and the confidence leads to great results.

I have consistently lead many successful audits and appraisals for the company. We have undertaken many tasks that are unique to companies in Pakistan. I lead the development and practical implementation of the first integrated management system with three ISO standards and CMMI at the back. As a lead, I have always believed in Process innovation. For example I am leading process automation through tools like Jira and Confluence.

When it comes to leading a team, I prefer empowerment of team members through delegation of important tasks at hand. With the right mix of training and task delegation, I have made many things happen that we thought were impossible.

I usually keep the team environment very light and friendly. I like spending time with my team. We talk and share a lot. There is a relationship of trust and respect in my team.

Impact of my work on my Homeland

I mentioned earlier that one of my goals is to foster local talent. There are many challenges faced by women working in the area of process improvement in Pakistan. One of these is the time it takes to grasp the subject matter and the relevant experience needed to attain lead appraiser level. During this tenure, most Pakistani women get married and are unable to pursue professional goals afterwards. Another challenge is the overwhelming lack of gender equality in this industry segment. As a Pakistan-based female lead appraiser, I will be able in a better position to impart knowledge to fellow countrymen, and country-women, in this industry segment and thus improve the situation of gender equality. Working mothers in leadership positions is a scarce stereotype in technology industry by large, and Pakistan is no exception. As a working mother, I wish to become a role-model for pursuing professional goals and empowering others.

Entrepreneurship

Although working in a full-time employment fashion for most of my 12-year professional life; I have been an eager entrepreneur. I am an active member of Entrepreneurship Development Institute (website: www.edi.com.pk). I have participated in workshops and break-out sessions arranged by EDI. I have attended multiple “Learn.Create.Lead” conferences (website: www.lcl.com.pk). I am a member of Pakistan Agile Development Society (website: www.agile.org.pk). As a society, we work to expand outreach of Agile-based development in local tech companies and share lessons learnt and best practices from recent experiences of the members. I am a member of Islamabad chapter for Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs (website: www.openislamabad.org). I keep my own blog site for process improvement, named Process Evangelist (website: www.processenvagelist.com).

To realize my professional goals, I intend to setup a CMMI audit firms after acquiring lead appraiser accreditation and completing other pre-requisites. The vision is to offer subsidized audit services to local companies and provide a learning platform for future trainees.

Overcoming Obstacles

I faced a grave personal misfortune in 2012, when I suffered from brain haemorrhage and spent three days in unconscious state. I was expecting my second child and was into sixth month of pregnancy at the moment. The root-cause of the calamity was diagnosed to be an arterio-venous malformation which was congenital in nature and had to be excessed surgically. This matter was compounded by the lack of facilities and medical care needed to handle such a complex case at local hospitals. Following this ordeal, I suffered from PTSD-induced depression and other neurological side-effects including relapse of epileptic seizures recently as a side effect of craniotomy. However, thanks to personal and professional support structure, I was once again able to pursue my professional goals after a lapse of roughly two years. Overcoming this misfortune enabled me to emerge stronger, more focused and confident to undertake new challenges.

Volunteering , Special Works

I believe that knowledge shared is knowledge squared. With the consent of my management, I voluntarily delivered consultancy to I-Engineering(an IT firm in our network) to gain better understanding of how the CMMI model can add more value to them.

I held mentoring sessions on CMMI adoption for their practitioners and the SEPG.. I reviewed their process and product. They strengths that I recommended to keep up and improvements to rectify. Now they are approaching the CMMI Class A appraisal in 2017.

I have the honor of being selected as the only female candidate from Pakistan for the CMMI Lead Appraiser Training Program from Pakistan Software Export Board. ( PSEB). This is an intitiative from the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of Pakistan. I have cleared the first two courses, the Introduction and the Intermediate Concepts Course which is about Advancing Organizational Capability.  https://www.pseb.org.pk/pseb-programs-3/training-of-cmmi-auditors

Also, I am trying to build practical appraisal experience as ATM for other companies.. This helps as an aspiring LA like me to gain insight into how many different implementations there can be of a single concept. Also, the experience of learning to add value no matter what the outcome of the appraisal. 

Enterprise Process Improvement

In the Defense Sector of Pakistan, I am a part of a huge digital transformation and enterprise resource planning endeavor that is on a national level.

Enterprise resource planning involves a great deal of Business Process Re-Engineering that serves as a backbone for the enterprise to transform its way of life from manual to the digital ! Participation in this endeavor has led me to learn and master skills like as-is process base-lining, business process re-engineering, improvement planning, process automation, workflow transformation into newer ways of doing things, incorporating newer life cycles into an organisation that works in multiple ways, training on reformed processes, continual improvement and so on.