My First Boss

I joined Indian Express Newspapers Bombay in July 1994 as part of their EDP department. Joined as a junior developer was assigned to do a listing report. I must admit I had no clue how to construct the code. My reporting boss Mr Murugappan understood my problem and spent some time in making me understand the nuances of software development. We used to have three shifts morning, regular and evening. He saw to it that I was in the morning shift and spend as much time as possible with the team, a key factor to be part of the team.

In those days we had a couple of 286 machines and one 386 machines. We had applications developed using FoxPro2.0, Clipper 5.1and a mainframe. Initially was not assigned any machine, my construction of code was in the paper. He made me do the data flow diagram, main condition with proper 'if..else..endif' or 'do enddo' or 'case endcase'; had to justify why I chose one over the other and how the logic will withstand. 75℅of the code was done in the paper before touching a keyboard. This approach of paper before the keyboard helped me in a long way. The code was tested in a 286 machine and was tested for speed….

Though I stopped active coding in 2000 this approach of ‘paper first’ helped me in my consulting career. Proper planning before execution helps is drawing a solution.

Am quite positive that without Mr.Murugappan my professional life would have taken a different path. Of course, it's subjective. But still...