Great Place to Work 2024

How to Set Up Trello for Scrum

The Scrum process requires, really more than anything, a visual presence of tasks in progress. Non-distributed Scrum teams have the luxury of a central, physical board to keep track of stories and sprints, but distributed teams face a challenge—how do we make our Scrum board visible, but also unified? Our team has tried a number […]

Why are People so Obsessed with Time Management?

People will sell you software to make you more productive, tips to make you more organized. They will sell you on the idea of minimalism to eliminate every possible distraction from your life so that you can simply stay in the present. It’s the obsession over Scandinavian minimalism. It’s trying to become a morning person. […]

Do You Need a Dedicated Scrum Master?

Maybe we should first address what a SM does exactly. Summarized by Scrum Hub, a Scrum Master is responsible for… Facilitating (not participating in) the daily standup Helping the team maintain their burndown chart Setting up retrospectives, sprint reviews or sprint planning sessions Shielding the team from interruptions during the sprint Removing obstacles that affect […]

Hats Off!

Hats off to the EC Group Datasoft CSR organizers and volunteers! This year the team participated in the Asia Pacific HRD Congress Awards, and won for Best Use of CSR Practices. About 350 companies participated, and six awards were given for CSR activities. Arun Isaac, who received the award on behalf of EC Group, stood […]

Medical Camp in the Fishing Villages

One of EC Group Datasoft’s repeating outreach activities is our medical camp. Why do we keep organizing the same event? Because, according to a report by the U.N., 75% of India’s healthcare resources are available to only 27% of the population—those living in urban areas. The challenge for those living in rural areas isn’t merely […]

Bike Drive for the Gypsies

A pattern of no education contributes to a cycle of stagnation from generation to generation. When given the opportunity to learn, people have the agency to make decisions for themselves—decisions which often result in progress.Over money, over shelter, over medical care, education is perhaps the most empowering thing a person can have. Unfortunately for our […]

Are You a Good Leader According to This TED Talk?

The poet Stephen Crane once wrote: A man said the the universe “Sir, I exist!” “However,” replied the universe, “The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation.” So much of life—especially as an employee—is spent wishing for someone in authority over you not only to acknowledge that “I exist!” but also to feel […]

Happy Independence Day!

The 15th of August marked the anniversary of India’s 69th year of independence from the British. We held our celebration the day before (Friday), when everyone was in the office. In addition to the typical speeches and flag raising, we also did some community outreach and even had an “independence day slogan” competition.  Our Slogan […]

What is the Essential Ingredient for Employee Happiness?

A couple weeks ago, Seth Godin wrote a blog post about empathy. (If you don’t subscribe to Godin’s blog, you should. His posts are brief, insightful, and one of the best things I find in my inbox every day.) Since the post is so short, I figured I’d just paste it right here for you: […]