New Curriculum Tata Consultancy Services
Tata Consultancy Services(TCS)
has introduced a new curriculum for Initial Learning Program(ILP),
an initiative to train the freshers. I am proud to say I belong to the pilot
batch of this curriculum. It is good, and more towards real life simulations,
unlike the old curriculum which fed you theory classes. Our batch commenced on
June 16, 2011, and more details on my experience in TCS
can be found here.
Details mentioned here is based on my experience at ILP Trivandrum in (Java)IT stream.
First phase
What's new?
In the previous curriculum, TCS followed a strategy of intense theory sessions. There were lots of theory sessions, in which every topic was covered. Apart from this, you have tests every now and then, in which you needed to overcome a certain percentage to get through. Also, you would not know your stream till the 30th day of training, and only then stream specific training is done.
Scheduling
The duration of ILP is 60 working days, which would span close to 3 months including the holidays(Sat & Sun). The first two days have only induction sessions, wherein you will be introduced to various policies and processes in TCS. At the end of second day, you will know about your Stream and batch, and the upcoming sessions would be according to these details.
The 60-day ILP training is split into two equal phases.
Details mentioned here is based on my experience at ILP Trivandrum in (Java)IT stream.
First phase
What's new?
In the previous curriculum, TCS followed a strategy of intense theory sessions. There were lots of theory sessions, in which every topic was covered. Apart from this, you have tests every now and then, in which you needed to overcome a certain percentage to get through. Also, you would not know your stream till the 30th day of training, and only then stream specific training is done.
Scheduling
The duration of ILP is 60 working days, which would span close to 3 months including the holidays(Sat & Sun). The first two days have only induction sessions, wherein you will be introduced to various policies and processes in TCS. At the end of second day, you will know about your Stream and batch, and the upcoming sessions would be according to these details.
The 60-day ILP training is split into two equal phases.
- First 30 days called Core Skills. In this
phase, you will be introduced to the basic concepts based on the Project
you will be doing. You will get a Case study at the end of this 30 days,
which will be pursued in the next 30 days. Here, you will ONLY learn
the concepts required for you Case study. And these session are not
completely theoretical, you will have probably one theory session a day,
and the rest would have some exercises based on that learning.
The syllabus is split into several sections, and you will have an
Evaluation Test at the end of each section.
Along with Technical, you have Business Skills(BizS) sessions as well. Here you learn topics which will transform you into the corporate space. It includes communication, several etiquette's, do's and don't in the company etc. - Next 30 days is called Project Delivery. As the
name mentioned, you will get a Case study to be done with deadlines,
reports etc. In short these 30 days is a real life simulation of a
project. You will have status reports(weekly), meetings, deadlines,
documentation, and all such things. BizS sessions would rarely come
through.
In this phase, you will be Analyzing, Designing, Documenting, Coding, Testing and Maintaining different projects(done by different groups within your batch).
In between, people would be randomly called up by senior officials to keep track of the learning(like an interview)
So what difference
does it make?
It makes lot of difference.
Let me split this view into two.
- Computer Science freshers: Includes all freshers who are from computer background, or have a basic knowledge on computer science. In the old curriculum, the theory sessions were just a repetition of whatever they knew, which tend to be boring and monotonous. But its no more, now ILP is very dynamic, and its a chance for every fresher to get more exposure on to the corporate space.
- Non-Computer Science freshers: Earlier, these freshers had a
brilliant opportunity to listen to theory sessions and make up a
concrete base. But now, you have to take an extra effort to keep up. It's
not bad in anyway, its extra good, and you have to take the extra effort
to utilize the exposure you get. This does not mean that Non-CS students
would be in trouble, trust me, I have batch mates who perform even better
than CS students. So no worries!
And here comes the importance of Aspire as well! If you put that effort in, it'll be way better! So please make sure you get through Aspire and follow the courses(if not perfect it, at least get a feel of it!)
What's new?
In the previous curriculum, TCS followed a strategy of intense theory sessions. There were lots of theory sessions, in which every topic was covered. Apart from this, you have tests every now and then, in which you needed to overcome a certain percentage to get through. Also, you would not know your stream till the 30th day of training, and only then stream specific training is done.
Second phase is all about Project
Delivery. After the Core Skills(Phase 1), you get into something which
simulates the real life project scenario. Eventhough the Core Skills would be
relaxed, and fun, when you get to Project Delivery, you will begin to feel the
heat. Status reports, weekly reports, deadlines, document, MoM... it has
everything in it.
It has basically 4 stages
It has basically 4 stages
- Analysis and Design
- Construct
- Testing
- Maintenance and Support
To begin with the project, your
Batch will be divided into groups of 4 to 6 members. As a whole, your batch
would have 2 projects(Same projects, but different products). The project would
be divided into 3 modules(ideally) which would be assigned to each group. The
Group Leader(Module Leader) would be responsible for distributing the jobs
among members and reporting to the Project Leader(your Tech Faculty)
Analysis and Design
In Analysis and Design, you decide
the way your project will be. A few things you will be doing in this stage are
- Analyze the case study and understand the requirements
- Design the classes, use cases, and other functional diagrams required for the project
- Prepare the SRS
- Design the HTML pages(if a web app)
- Design the User Manual
- In short, you Analyze the whole project, and design its structure based on the requirements
Construct
This stage is infamous for its
documentation. Lots of documentation to be done.
In the next stage, i.e., Construct,
you build your application based on Stage 1(Analysis and Design). You start
coding in this phase. At the end of this phase, your Project would be ready to
deploy. Within this stage, you would review your code to check if it meets the
standards.
Testing
After you complete the Construct,
you will hand over your codes to another group who will be testing it for bugs.
In the mean time, you would be testing the project of some other group. Bugs
will be reported, and certain documents are to be maintained. After Cycle 1 of
testing, you will have fix the bugs found in your code and then close it. In
Cycle 2, the testing team makes sure the bugs are fixed.
After testing, you will have the
Final Presentation and Project Demo.
Support and
Maintenance
This is the last stage, in which you
will be maintaining some other code. You would take over the code of some other
group, and certain changes should be made on it(like adding some functionality etc.)
Again certain documents are maintained for the same. After this phase, you will
have one more Project Presentation.
This is a capsule on how the Project
Delivery phase goes on at ILP. If you ask me about my experience, I would say
this phase is the best. You get a real life scenario where you have a chance to
correct your mistakes, and Learn. Our batch went through this phase extremely
well, and I'm proud to be a part of it.
If you have any queries, please
leave a comment.
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