New Curriculum

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.

• 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!)

Second 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.

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

• 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.