I started chitchatting with the employees as well as consultants at Canada Post. They told me where to park my car and to pay a few dollars to the church, which was rather convenient for me. At the same time they suggested using the restaurant across the road where most of the folks from Canada Post went for lunch.
The first day I tried a Steak Sandwich which I thought was quite good. It was a Greek restaurant and was being managed by a Greek couple. The husband was the cook and the wife was managing the restaurant with a couple of waitresses. Service was excellent and they had created a very friendly and cheerful atmosphere. I became a regular for lunch and they noticed the size of tips I used to give, which helped me get good service.
From time to time I used to treat folks from Canada Post to lunch simply because I always hated to eat alone.
Gradually other folks started coming to see me in my small office, to talk about technology or other things. I found out that Ron was the guy who kept mentioning my name, encouraging those folks to chat with me.
I was still going home on the weekends but my time at my own office was shrinking by the day. I figured that David and Mike were not going to do anything about finding someone else to mind the office. I promised them I would train somebody to be in the office during the day to do some marketing.
I discussed this with Lynda in detail. She said maybe I should try to get out of the contract as they were not living up to their obligations.
I didn’t rush to finalize anything as I was grateful to them in so many ways. At the same time I wasn’t going to let them use me like this.
I decided to write a marketing plan explaining what needed to be done to get the business going in Ottawa. At the same time I offered to train people before I left the company. It took a while for David and Mike to realize that I meant business before they started acting on the marketing plan that I had written for them. As promised, I trained people for them and then said goodbye.
However, I stayed grateful to both of them for allowing me to work with them.
My work at the Post Office was going well except I didn’t have any responsibility for deliverables. I was enjoying spending time in various departments talking and explaining what our function in the organization was, nothing but marketing exercise.
I had Lynda and Adam come to Ottawa in May and spend some time to see how they would like the city. Then I started looking into renting a house as Lynda was totally against the idea of owning. I knew sometime she might change her mind but right now I had to find a reasonable place with access to a high school, as Adam was going to complete his grade 12.
I looked around almost everywhere before I decided to focus on Barrhaven.
The Barrhaven Community Association (BCA) was formed in the late seventies. There were two members of the community who were very involved. Paul Horne, a local schoolteacher, was the president. George Galbraith, a local businessman, served as the vice president. Some other key members were Jan Harder, Doug Collins, Tom O’Neil, and Gus Este. The BCA was sustained by voluntary household membership fees of $10.00 per year. Its mandate was to be a liaison between the then Township of Nepean under Reeve Andrew Haydon, which shortly thereafter became the City of Nepean, under Mayor Ben Franklin.
Another role was to create activities for youth in the community, including sports, library services and social events for all of Barrhaven. Some of the first events took place in the only school that was available at the time, Barrhaven Public. Others took place in Larkin House which was quite tiny; and some held by the City at the Mowat Barn. Once the Walter Baker Centre and the Barrhaven Mall were built, the BCA and other groups became very active.
When I came along to check out the community, I found farms everywhere except one street called Greenbank Road. Right after passing Fallowfield Road going south, there was a small plaza with a grocery store, Shoppers Drug Mart, and a store with all kinds of East Indian bits and pieces.
Going further south, there was a plaza under construction with CIBC, which was about to be opened. At the end of the mall there was a restaurant called Barrhaven Broadway Restaurant.
In any case, I found a house to rent across from the Walter Baker Centre and not too far from the mall. It was a three-bedroom house located on Atrick Drive.
Lynda and Adam came on the weekend to take a look at the house and they liked it. I went ahead and signed a lease. What we didn’t find out until it was too late was that living in that house, Adam wasn’t allowed to go to the local high school. He was supposed to go to Bell High School to finish his grade 12, which were a few miles from the house. We weren’t located on the school bus route. Therefore, Lynda had to drive Adam to school every day.
We moved at the end of June 1989.
This was our 11th. move (5 Houses that we owned and 6 rented). At the same time it was Adam’s 8th school.
My contract with Canada Post was going reasonably well. Ron, my boss, came to me one day and said – Mike Wallace, Director of Applications Development, is looking for a senior project manager. I thought you would be the right candidate for that position. He said I am not trying to get rid of you but at the same time I believe that this will be an appropriate assignment for you. I said I don’t have a great deal of experience in developing and implementing applications, Ron.
He said if I remember correctly you had done “Requirements Specifications” for the consumer sales tax system for the Government of New Brunswick. He said perhaps you should let Mike decide whether or not you have the right experience for the assignment.
I met with Mike Wallace in his office. He was a huge man, more than six feet tall, with long hair. I was told that he liked to drink Coke all the time. I noticed that he had a can of Coke in his hands. He offered me a chair while he was sipping a Coke and browsing my resumé, which was given to him by Ron.
Once he was done, he said – very impressive background, Mir. You worked in almost all aspects of data processing. He continued – I am very much interested in what you did for the Government of New Brunswick. You had a very complicated assignment: to develop requirements for the Consumer Sales Tax System for the Province of New Brunswick.
I said I only had enough time to finalize the specs before I was promoted to do something else, which had nothing to do with the application development.
He asked if I had the opportunity to validate the requirements for the users of the system.
I said, indeed, I did. I also incorporated the changes that came out of the sessions I conducted with all user groups including the auditors, as they were the major users of the system.
Mike said could you walk me briefly through what you did to define application requirements.
If I remember correctly, I explained to Mike the following:
- Identified the stakeholders as individuals or groups who have a vested interest in the project. I made sure that everybody on my project understood clearly that the input of stakeholders was crucial to defining the application requirements;
- Defined the scope of the project. The scope clearly defined the boundaries of the project and included everything that would be delivered as part of it;
- Drafted functional and non-functional requirements. Functional requirements are those that describe what the software should do. Non-functional requirements are those that describe how the software should work;
- Prioritized the requirements. That helped to ensure that the most important requirements were addressed first in case there were limited resources or time to complete the process; and
- Finally, validated the requirements with stakeholders. This helped to ensure that the requirements accurately reflected the needs of the stakeholders. It also reflected the commitment from the user community.
Mike said perhaps the validation of the requirements is the most critical part of the total development cycle. I said I agreed with him.
Mike said Ron speaks very highly of you, Mir. He also said you are very good with the users.
I said Ron is too kind to me, Mike. I hope you don’t believe everything he said about me.
Mike smiled and said if I made an offer to you right now, would you accept it.
I would be delighted as I have heard only good things about how you manage your department. It would be my pleasure to work with you, but I will not accept any offer until I get to talk to Ron as I am still working for him. I hope you understand that. Mike.
He said he understood it perfectly, and appreciated my loyalty to Ron.
I asked Mike if he would need my references.
He said, no, Ron’s reference is good enough for me.
I asked Mike if he could explain to me what would be the responsibilities associated with the senior project manager assignment.
He said he was looking for somebody like me who could handle more than one project, to initiate and define the functional requirements with the help of the stakeholders.
I remember saying – I think I can handle that. I hope I am not going to disappoint you, Mike.
He said don’t worry about disappointing me. I believe that you have the skills as well as the relevant experience to make things happen.
I said let me go back and have a meeting with Ron. Perhaps I should get Ron to let you know.
He said it makes sense.
As soon as I got back to my office, Ron popped in and asked what the good word was.
I said –Lunch, if you are available.
He said he would meet me at the restaurant in 15 minutes.
I had a nice lunch with Ron and briefed him about my meeting with Mike.
Ron said why you didn’t accept Mike’s offer right on the spot.
I said I wanted to talk to you before saying anything to Mike. I wanted to know if you had any plans for me before I accepted Mike’s offer.
He said once again I am not trying to get rid of you, Mir. I could continue to use you for what you have been doing for me.
He continued – you have been a great “Sounding Board” for me and I would like to continue to meet with you now and then to “chitchat”, if this is okay with you.
I said that would be my pleasure. However, when do you think I should consider moving to Mike’s department?
He said perhaps next Monday would be a good date.
I said would you mind letting Mike know. Ron said he was meeting with Mike right after lunch on something else and he would be delighted to let him know.
