Anitha PC - Getting Software Development on Track
I was among the first group of people who were hired by CT in Bangalore,” says Anitha, whose unusual last name, PC, is actually an abbreviation of a very long surname consisting of the name of her place of birth and her father’s name. “My job interview at Siemens was enough to convince me that the company offered very good development opportunities,” explains Anitha. It also helped that Anitha’s qualifications fit in perfectly with Siemens’ requirements. After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Kuvempu University in 1998, Anitha went on to obtain a Master’s degree in Computer Science at Manipal University. Both of these institutes of higher education are located in the Indian state of Karnataka, which is also home to Bangalore – better known as “India’s Silicon Valley.”
“While I was studying, I began to realize how important software was becoming in all areas of life,” Anitha says. “Embedded software especially became more and more crucial, and today it can be found in everything from electrical engineering equipment to cars and communication systems. That’s why Siemens is the ideal employer for me.” Anitha still enjoys the fact that she is responsible for developing software for a broad range of products and equipment from all Siemens sectors.
One of her first assignments was to develop an automated testing tool for software specifications, structures, and processes. Among other things, she worked with modeling languages that describe software program requirements, structures, and internal processes. Here, Anitha invented a method for automatically translating domain-specific modeling languages (DSM) into a unified modeling language (UML). She eventually obtained a patent for this new technique. “I taught compiler design theory at the university. Now with my new job at Siemens, it was possible for me to put what I knew into practice,” Anitha explains.
In 2009 Anitha took on a management position in a newly-established team for requirements engineering. The team’s job is to develop precise knowledge of customer requirements at a very early stage in the planning process. This is becoming increasingly important as Siemens places more and more emphasis on developing “S.M.A.R.T.” products (see p.26) tailored to the Indian market, Anitha therefore coordinates cooperation between her team and the respective product development engineers at Siemens’ Healthcare, Industry, and Energy sectors. “We have to closely examine new products very quickly and be able to recognize potential development problems before they occur,” she explains.
Anitha immensely enjoys this software development challenge, which she needs to address every day in her work. “Anything else would be too boring for me,” she says. She also likes to do different things in her free time: She likes to watch movies, for example (“especially films with a lot of action”) and is also learning classical Indian music. Still, although she enjoys variation in her routines, she can also appreciate the importance of permanence in life. And that’s particularly the case when it comes to her husband and young daughter.