National CCPP- a case study on Lean Project Management

 

Last month, one of the coordinators at the authorised training centre of C-DAC called me. For those who are not aware of C-DAC, let me tell you that C-DAC is a premier R&D organization set up by the Government of India in 1988 to build Supercomputers in the context of the denial of import of Supercomputers by the USA. The training wing of C-DAC is the Advanced Computing Training school (ACTS) that conducting advanced training programmes in IT since 1993 through its authorised training centres (ATC). So, the coordinator of this ATC and I were talking over the phone after almost a decade. He told me that he is not as active on social media like me, but follows most of my posts. He also mentioned that in his twenty years-long association with C-DAC, he found a couple of C-DAC placement coordinators a pleasure to work with and I was one of them. He clarified that he is not saying it because he wants any favour from me, but because he felt a connection with me. (Moreover, I am separated from C-DAC a decade back, so I couldn’t be of much help to him). I was amazed to hear admiration from a senior person like him and told that placements was a project at C-DAC that we could manage effectively for so many batches with the help of positive stakeholders like him. Before I had any formal training in Project Management I was in charge of this important project and in the hindsight, I feel that the nationwide CCPP is one of the best-case studies of effective Lean Project Management.

Even though we were not using hi-fi project management tools or complex methodologies and frameworks then, we created plans, budgets, and goals to get the specific job of placing maximum students done. We used to organize tasks of company coordination on a daily basis that need to meet deadlines, coordinate with multiple people including HR and students, and oversee work execution as per the plan that helped us to understand a few basic principles of project management and implement them.

As per the definition by PMI, a Project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or service. The National Level Common Campus Placement Programme (CCPP) is still a very important project for C-DAC as it creates a platform where students can showcase their talents which different companies seek to explore and utilize. C-DAC helps students in exploring placement opportunities by inviting companies for CCPP spread over a month, wherein students from all courses across India participate. The final placements at C-DAC are a culmination of systematic and continued interaction with industry and ongoing and enduring career counselling as well as the grooming of the students by mentors and the Career Development Centre.

The Chief Placement officer (CPO) is the in-charge of this project with the help of a small team trying to attract maximum companies to the campus to provide job opportunities to the students. While the entire process is governed by the students' ability and performance, as well as the requirements and norms of the IT Industry, C-DAC catalyse the process and assist the students in their placements. More than 300 companies visit the C-DAC campuses all over the country in each Campus Placement Programme. The companies participating in CCPP are looking for trained resources in IT ready to work in the real world from day one itself. And C-DAC students have passed the test due to which it has been successful in placing more than 2000 students every batch.

However, the process is not a cakewalk, neither for the students nor the CPO. The interview process usually starts in the morning with a company introduction that enlightens the students with company profile followed by a written test(s), group discussion, and personal interview. It may take more than 15 hours for the companies to arrive at the final selection list. So, a large part of a CPO’s time who is the project leader of CCPP is spent dealing with stakeholders i.e. the HR or Talent Acquisition heads of the companies including external parties like vendors and contractors (pertaining to the venue, food, branding etc.). All of these tasks require one to be an expert at effective communication. All typical tasks of a project leader like organizing and prioritizing tasks, monitoring progress, and making decisions based on situations, require a certain level of planning.

The planning used to start a month before the placement season with earmarking the budget for the CCPP during my tenure as a CPO. Every project comes with a monetary constraint and with proper project planning, we could make sure that CCPP doesn’t suffer unnecessary delays and budget shortages. However, we have seen the time of the Global Recession where due to a lack of companies, we had to wind up the programme halfway.

As a project leader, the CPO need to know which tasks can be worked on simultaneously and which tasks depend on one another. Recognizing these small details and coming up with the most efficient system is what distinguishes an effective project leader from the crowd. Scheduling companies is the major sequencing task that the CPO has to manage, as every company wants day one or day zero. Failure to allot the desired slot poses a risk of losing that company for the placement season. The CPO always faces this challenge where s/he has to use the skills to minimize the possibility of risk by having an effective plan in case something goes wrong. Skilful project leaders generally identify potential problems before they occur and come up with a risk mitigation strategy. So, the skill of managing the expectations of all the stakeholders, be it students or companies has paramount importance in CCPP. The focus of CCPP has been to provide opportunities and the best possible offer from industry bigwigs, at the end of six months when the Post Graduate Diploma programmes culminate. To achieve this objective, continuously communicating with the students before and after the Pre-Placement Talk of each company is imperative. The underlying idea of this process is to acquaint the students with the companies, their culture, and the domain, how they differentiated from their competitors, the job roles, growth rate, the expectations from students, the selection process, required skill sets and other aspects needed to build a lasting career.

The task of coordinating with companies and students along with all the logistics was achieved by a lean core team of 4-5 officials supported by one or two representatives from each centre. This project involving around 1500-2000 students from more than 15 centres across India used to be completed within a time span of 20 days. Back then, more than 300 companies across India used to visit for recruitment in the National Level Common Campus Placement Programme (CCPP), every batch.

During those days, the process of maintaining data used to be analogue. Tools like automated software and WhatsApp communication were not prevalent before 2012. Although the placement software was in place in 2010 itself, it wasn’t tried or tested. The centre coordinators were apprehensive about its validation and so the placement data used to be maintained in excel sheets with dependency on one-two expert in excel. However, as a project leader, I convinced the team to use the placement software for maintaining data and communicating with the students, sustaining the resistance from various stakeholders. A parallel system of maintaining the data in an excel sheet was in place for testing the validity. As a project leader, one must understand the difference between managing and leading. Management is following certain established processes and project management methodologies and ensuring others follow them too. Leadership, on the other hand, requires both management skills and emotional intelligence. It is the responsibility of the project leader to empower and inspire team members. Through this one decision, the in-house software engineers of C-DAC got the recognition of developing a placement software and the software with few improvements was being used for the placement of the next batches which is still continued. Everyone wants to understand how his or her part contributes to the larger goals of the team or company. This initiative gave the software team behind the placement software visibility. By giving your teammates visibility on the overall progress and scope of the project, each person can see how his/her task fits in as well as what other team members are relying on him/her to finish before they can complete their part.  

The two control rooms from where the whole project was managed can be termed as an example of the 5S system. All the meetings in which the RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed) or DACI (driver, approver, contributor, informed) matrix was discussed to assign roles to team members used to take place in those rooms. These kick-off/EOD meetings were significant in their own right because they set the tone and vision for the project’s future and determine the relationships that unfold in the coming day. After handling more than eight batches of CCPP, the learning is that open communication is significant in such a critical project. It breaks down silos in interdisciplinary teams and keeps individual team members from working in isolation. The people involved in the project are the biggest factor that impacts the success of any project. In many instances, we used the Just In Time principle to accommodate eight companies in a day for various PG Programmes. Delegation was the key in such instances. Delegation does not mean that you let go of every aspect of the project and start depending on team members. Instead, it means that you empower your team and build their confidence by making them responsible for a small part of the project. It can be a repetitive task or something you feel a particular member is better at. Empowering your team to make decisions serves as a good motivator and makes the team feel valued and their contributions acknowledged. No wonder people still call to acknowledge your contribution and say,

‘It never felt that you were the project leader of CCPP although you had the final say in the direction of the project, we always felt that you were our buddy. I still remember the success parties on the last day where you would listen to each and every member of the placement team and raise the toast for hard work put forth by everyone.’  

Such words from the coordinators really motivate you to do excellent work in whichever field you work. I have always believed that celebrating success by appreciating the folks who were committed to the success of the project goes a long way. It formalises the learnings that set you up for future project success.