Vagabond in ITVille - A business case

The Vagabond and the new manager stood next to each other and stared at the barren landscape in front of them. It was still early on a cold morning in ITVille.

The new manager looked grim and concerned. It was hard to discern what was going on in his mind at that moment though the expression did convey that he was thinking about something sinister that either happened already or was about to happen. The Vagabond started humming.

“What’s that you are humming? The occasion doesn’t really warrant a song” the manager was grimly curious.

“Just an old.. ah…Beatles song, sir” the Vagabond assumed it must be some song written by someone who knew the English language really well.

The manager wasn’t ready to let go. He wanted to dig deeper in the hope that it could lighten up the mood before they get on with the task at hand. “Beatles? How does the song go? I think I can recognize a Beatles song if I hear one”.

“Oh it is not really much sir” the Vagabond replied. “But if you insist, here is how it goes –

The morning cold feels like a Dalmatian dog,

It could bite any moment but not the fog.

I could update all this in my activity log,

after I am done with the mandatory jog”.

The Vagabond stopped at this point as he sensed a change in color in the manager’s face. “and something like that.. I do not really know the actual lyrics” Vagabond finished quickly.

“The Beatles could have never written a song like this. I might not know much about other things but I sure do know my beatles” the manager’s response was sharp and intense. “Assuming it is a song nevertheless, how could the morning feel like a dog man? and where in the world is a JOG MANDATORY? WHERE? I SAY, WHERE?” The manager was hard pressed to control his emotions. Vagabond sensed danger and kept silent though he was very sure that the lyrics of the songs quite suit his life's journey if only one understood the deeper meaning.

The enormity of the project and the business case at hand coupled with the sudden surge of emotions disturbed the manager’s mental balance a little bit. He just had to let go. “BOO HOO HOO…. BOO HOO HOO….sniff.. and all I have is just you here. I am scared man, I am scared”.

The Vagabond was not very sure how to handle the situation but somehow wanted to lighten the manager’s mood a little bit. He tried to help.

“What you have just said sounds even better than the original Beatles song that I was humming sir. You are a great song writer yourself. See what you have just said –

BOO HOO HOO, BOO HOO HOO

all I have is just you,

but you have no clue

of the business case too”.

The manager recovered by this time and was back to being a professional. He liked the Vagabonds song as it was quite apt to the situation they were in. There were some additional cob-webs to clear before they started with the project though.

“You think artistes have business cases too? How can they think creatively when they have a business case to meet?”

The Vagabond was not quite sure of the answer but given the situation they were in, he thought it best to give a safe answer that would setup a positive mood and give a sense of going with the flow. “Of course every task will have a business case sir. I am sure Davinci painting the Casinos or Kalidas writing the poems were driven by the business cases of their respective masters. There is nothing in this world that happens without a business case and so our situation is neither peculiar nor grim for it”.

To the extent the manager taught his middle school children at home, he knew it was Piccasso or someone like that who painted some Cathedrals but he never heard of Davinci painting Casinos. “That could be part of the high school syllabus” he reasoned to himself. “What grade are your children Vaga?” he was just being curious. “I am not married sir” Vagabond could not find a link between his last statement and this question from the manager. The Vagabonds stature went a notch up in the managers’ view immediately. “He has so much knowledge and is not even married. He must be something”.

The two, now at ease with each other, surveyed the swaths of barren land that lay as far as their vision went. It was a daunting task, what they had to do. But the business case said it was possible and highly beneficial to ITVille.

“You need to catch 25% of the hens in this area within a radius of 5 kilometers. We have time till the end of the day today and we are the only team. You are the most skilled hen catcher in ITVille and I am the project manager with the responsibility to report on the progress to the stakeholders after every hour. Got it?” the manager wished that the Vagabond knew his hen-catching. There was no one else in the team and if the Vagabond did not know the job then the project was doomed so was the business case.

“I never caught a hen in my life before, sir” the Vagabond replied respectfully. “Yet if this is what we need to do, then this is what we need to do. I will catch 25% of the hens sir. I just have one question though. Where are the hens?”

The manager was quietly impressed with the determination in Vagabonds tone and sense of purpose that radiated from his body language. However he did not like the question from Vagabond. “We have committed to deliver 25% of the hens no matter where they are. You must look harder and deeper and you will find the hens. Step one is always to get the focus right and have the target firmly in your sights. Step two is to execute the task with precision and step 3, of course, is to report back to me so I can report to the stakeholders”.

The Vagabond did not really understand how, in a literal desert, he could find a hen no matter how harder and deeper he looked. But he did not want to sound negative with the manager either, lest his image takes a beating in ITVille. “One more question, sir. I promise this will be the last. Do the hens know that we are here to catch them? Is that the reason why they have gone hiding? Do you think it will help if we explain the business case to the leader of the hens so they surrender voluntarily instead of we or rather, I catching them?”

“That is about three questions, Vaga. You cannot be the most skilled hen catcher and still ask me questions relating to the domain that is your forte. Use your domain knowledge and past experience. The fact that you have neither is beside the point. What would you do if the hens are indeed hiding? And where would they hide if they really have to? Think Vaga and get your hands dirty instead standing here and asking questions. Get started man we do not have much time to lose or the business case will not make sense anymore”.

The Vagabond, now motivated enough, set out into the desert like landscape in search of the hens. However, he quickly came back to the base camp where the manager was stationed. “How do I report on progress sir? Should I just SMS every time I catch a hen?” The manager, a man who would age doing very little in life, was irritated with this line of questioning. “Of course, Vaga. Don’t you know we have a mobile application that helps reporting project status? Just update that and I shall generate a report just before meeting the stakeholders”. The Vagabond cursed himself for being so naïve and ran back into the project as quickly as he came.

The Vagabond was gone the whole morning and most of the afternoon. The manager checked the mobile app for the status updates but there were none. There was a stakeholder meeting late in the afternoon where it was decided that the business cases needed to be revised and the timeline for the project had to be extended to really get some benefits for ITVille. “Have you staffed the project with the right skilled resources, manager” the stakeholders asked. “Yes sir. Vagabond is on the job and he is by far the best hen catcher in the entire ITVille. And I agree with your decisions sir. The best of the lot need some time to familiarize with the new landscape and ferret out the hens. We absolutely will finish the project as per the revised business case sir”. The manager also wanted to check if there is a possibility of him moving onto some other project as the current one was sufficiently staffed and was on track. “It is in auto pilot mode, more or less” he explained the stakeholders.

“Right after we move out of this, manager” the key stakeholder laughed affectionately. “And please get all the reports on progress for the next meeting. We do not want to hear of any more excuses”.

The manager nodded and went back to the base camp where he waited, agitated, for the Vagabond’s status updates. There were none in the next hour or for the rest of the day.

Days passed. It’s been nearly two months since the Vagabond disappeared in search of the hens. Except for few sporadic messages of “none found” the manager did not knew much of his whereabouts or what he was even doing. The key stakeholders moved out of the project already and the manager’s turn was next.

The business case was gathering dust meanwhile.