In this conversation, Krishna Prasad - aka KP - a coach at PM Power Consulting, shares many of his personal experiences with Chitra.Among other things, he talks of:A mechanical engineer, with Masters and PhD in softwareMercedes, Tata, Terex, DelphiOwn journey of various roles in the Software industry, experiencing and contributing to various aspects of SDLCHis origin story: typical middle class family, aspiring kids to be engineers or doctors; though liked the doctor profession, did not want much of biology and defaulted to engineeringWanted to get into sales [and marketing], appeared glamorous, though at heart i was an R&D personTried sales and did not enjoy it; but realized that even if you are in development, you need to go to customers, to make the customers feel happy Though in automotive, true software started in avionics; i became a true software developer in Aeronautical Development Agency, developing military standard softwareJoining Daimler, was again forced, that I am happy about now, into softwareAha! Moment - developing software from India, that goes into international productsWe need to get empathy to feel like a driver, difficult for a youngster to just imagine thisAlways good to think how someone would actually use the softwareWhile a lot of knowledge has been built about, say, braking systems, today, the systems have grown complex and need to work with multiple other systemsOnly the nature of rigour has changed to more agile ways of workingUsed to get a few thousand pages of document of requirements, we used to take a few months to get back on how it can be implementedEveryone has now realized that we cannot afford to write so much of initial documentationRigour is still there, with incremental development - nature of development has changed; everything now is ‘continuish’Systems getting complex, regulatory requirements are also increasingWe have to bake in compliance; no longer a bolt-onFeels model based development will have a significant impact and many freshers are not prepared for thatCareer advice: develop T shaped skills.. With multiple skills being deep and not just oneQuestion to ask yourself: with your T shaped skills, how can you continuously contributeThe benefit of lateral movement across different roles in an organizationInternalizing the concept of ikigai - balance passion, mission and profession; magic happens when all these intersectSecret for rallying teams around a leader’s vision: People should know that the leaders are making the right choices What worked for him: Have seen a couple of transformation journeys - they were only partly successful; start with high aspiration and expectation; most often - may turn out the aspirations were unrealisticNo matter what, this transformation journey is importantThere cannot be just one end point - it is a journey - with great learning for leaders and teamsProspects in IT: fantastic area to get in; so broad, you can pick up any area and make a positive impact using technologyWe have to be really aware that when we enter this technology area; there is a half life of skills; this is reducing dramaticallyThere is no ways of getting into technology areas that will keep you ahead for 305 yearsConstant need for learning - new skills, honing skills, learn something differentNow we have unlimited access to resources, to learn every dayRobin Sarma - 5 AM club - daily learning; learn anything, every day