What a Team !!!

We have a pretty big team but I will confine this post to 6+1 person. The +1 will be clear as the post goes on. Since I do not know if they would want their names to be published I will use just the initials.
This team has not been together for more than a couple of months but this seems to be a team that knows each other for ages. Everyone is strong in their domains, has sound technical knowledge and with them carry vast experience. And they are all different in their own ways. Everyone, I should say almost everyone, wants to finish their work way before time, are willing to stretch beyond office hours; even work on weekends, but at the same time willing to help whoever needs help - and that too without any complaints. And the best part is that everyone will ask others not to stretch and assure others not to worry and that things will be done; but at the same time stretching themselves to the limit to make sure their work gets done.
Let me give an insight to them now.

MM started as a specialist who was supposed to provide technical help to the team. He was always there to help, and parallely he was going through the ramp up. After his ramp-up was done he got stories (the work items are broken into stories) to work upon. But even then – despite being loaded with work – whenever someone required any help all he had to do was turn around and ask MM, and he was there to help.

RT is the guy who has been in this project for the longest duration and has thorough knowledge of the application. He is someone who always tries to do the things in the best possible way. When someone is stuck somewhere and finds the task a little tricky and calls RT, RT will look at the problem and if he finds it difficult he would definitely spend some time on the problem (where others might just point to google) as he takes it up as a challenge and feels he has something to learn from it. One more thing about RT, rather an incident that happened just a few days back – RT had to go somewhere on Monday morning and felt he might be late for office; so he finished the work he was supposed to do on Monday on Sunday night only.

SS is another brilliant guy. Technically he is excellent and he is also an excellent human being. He stays near the office. So whenever the team has calls with the onsite manager and the manager speaks person to person SS’s turn usually comes last and he has to stay back the longest, but I have never seen him complain. Whenever you go to him for help he is more than willing to help you. And where he feels one has a scope to learn SS doesn’t help directly but points you towards the examples/links which would enable you to not only solve your problem but to learn as well.

KS is someone who keeps the environment enjoyable and makes sure everyone is comfortable. Again technically very strong and has experience working in different sorts of projects. In our team he is responsible for starting celebrating birthday parties in the team, taking the team out for lunch, making sure everyone participates and interacts with each other. With him you don’t have to ask but just the mention of things is enough. He takes up individual’s concern to the proper personnel, doesn’t mind staying back even when he has no work of his own. He even accompanies for tea/coffee breaks when he himself doesn’t drink either. And most importantly he is happy to do these things.

AB is someone who has spent the last 7 years in the US, but when you talk to him he seems one of us. He has his unique style of talking and is the person to listen to when on breaks, especially dinners. He again is technically pretty strong and is always willing to him. One of these days he was stuck somewhere and looking for the solution for quite some time as it was to be delivered that day. KS was struggling with an issue and AB had worked on something similar before. AB left his work and went to KS and helped him with it before returning to his work.

SM is a QA person. He was in our track initially but moved to some other track sometime back. He keeps the area happening with his dialogues; sometimes attempted poetry. And when it comes to work he is a thorough professional. Never afraid to stay late or shy away from working on weekends. I remember one weekend when I was enjoying in a mall with my friends I got a call from him saying that there’s some problem in the build and asking if there is a way to fix it so that he can do the testing. I couldn’t help him then but he spent the next night testing the entire thing once the application was up.

Now moving to the +1 – its none other than PS. PS is the person who was part of this team from the start before deciding to move on. He was the India team lead and a gem of a person. Despite the constant pressure, he always remained cool and made sure that the team remains calm. He also always made sure that there is complete harmony in the team and that no one is feeling the heat. He was brilliant technically and equally good in managing things. I must say he is the person who has laid the foundation for such a good team.

I must admit that I am lucky enough to be part of such a team. I don’t know what else anyone can ask from his/her team. Everyone knowing their work, finishing deliverables on time, always there to help each other and at the same time game for fun. Despite all the pressure the enthusiasm never dies. Probably one of the best teams to work with as everyone is so approachable and helpful and knowledgeable at the same time.