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<title>Aloka K: notes on delivery, margin and judgement</title>
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<lastBuildDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 19:24:46 GMT</lastBuildDate>
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<title>A year ago I managed projects. Now I manage a P&amp;L. Here is what changed.</title>
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<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>What changes when a delivery manager takes on a practice P&amp;L: the questions, weekly numbers, scope, hiring, client conversations and what to stop.</description>
<category>P&amp;L Management</category><category>Delivery Leadership</category><category>Practice Leadership</category><category>Career</category>
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<title>Delivering for US, UK, Gulf and ANZ clients from Bengaluru: making time zones work</title>
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<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>How a Bengaluru team serves clients from the US to New Zealand: overlap windows, written handoffs, escalation paths and release timing.</description>
<category>Offshore Delivery</category><category>Distributed Teams</category><category>Global Delivery</category><category>Release Management</category>
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<title>Delivery without commercial accountability is project management with extra steps</title>
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<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>Why margin, forecast quality, scope control and client trust belong inside the delivery role, the warning signs when they do not, and how to start owning them.</description>
<category>Delivery Management</category><category>Commercial Ownership</category><category>Gross Margin</category><category>Engagement Management</category>
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<title>Hiring delivery engineers with a scorecard, not a feeling</title>
<link>https://alokakiran.com/writing/hiring-delivery-engineers-scorecard</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>How a delivery leader hires engineers, QA and project managers with a written scorecard, the same questions for every candidate and a cost-aware decision.</description>
<category>Hiring</category><category>People Leadership</category><category>Delivery Teams</category><category>Practice Leadership</category>
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<title>Hypercare needs an end date: closing a go-live without drifting into unpaid support</title>
<link>https://alokakiran.com/writing/hypercare-exit-criteria</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>Why every go-live needs a named acceptor, a fixed hypercare window and written exit criteria, and how a formal handover moves the platform to the client's team.</description>
<category>Go-Live</category><category>Hypercare</category><category>Handover</category><category>Adobe Commerce</category><category>Release Management</category>
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<title>Pimcore and Adobe Commerce integration: delivery lessons from a five-brand programme</title>
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<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>Lessons from integrating Pimcore PIM with Adobe Commerce across five brand storefronts: data ownership, attribute mapping, sync design, testing and rollout.</description>
<category>Pimcore</category><category>Adobe Commerce</category><category>Magento</category><category>PIM</category><category>Product Data</category><category>Integration</category>
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<title>Put AI where a wrong answer costs a forecast miss, not a customer</title>
<link>https://alokakiran.com/writing/ai-wrong-answer-forecast-miss</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>Where enterprise AI earns its keep: price the cost of a wrong answer, keep a human at the point of commitment, and measure the hours saved.</description>
<category>Artificial Intelligence</category><category>Generative AI</category><category>Demand Forecasting</category><category>Digital Commerce</category><category>Delivery Management</category>
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<title>Scope reconciliation: the monthly check that found 230 hours before they reached an invoice</title>
<link>https://alokakiran.com/writing/scope-reconciliation-before-invoicing</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>How a monthly scope-reconciliation workbook compares approved and actual hours, surfaces unapproved work early and turns invoice disputes into prioritisation.</description>
<category>Scope Management</category><category>Change Requests</category><category>Invoicing</category><category>Gross Margin</category><category>Delivery Management</category>
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<title>What to put in a monthly business review with an enterprise client</title>
<link>https://alokakiran.com/writing/monthly-business-review-enterprise-clients</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>A practical structure for monthly and quarterly business reviews with enterprise clients: outcomes, delivery health, money, risks and decisions, in 30 minutes.</description>
<category>Client Governance</category><category>QBR</category><category>MBR</category><category>Account Management</category><category>Delivery Management</category>
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<title>Delivery management, run as a business: the operator's guide</title>
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<pubDate>Thu, 24 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>Delivery management turns signed work into delivered outcomes at a margin. An operator's guide from a leader running a 33-person practice with P&amp;L ownership.</description>
<category>Delivery Management</category><category>P&amp;L Management</category><category>Practice Leadership</category><category>Utilisation</category><category>Gross Margin</category>
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<item>
<title>How to run a delivery practice on a P&amp;L</title>
<link>https://alokakiran.com/writing/run-delivery-practice-as-pnl</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 24 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>An operating model for turning a delivery team into a P&amp;L: the five numbers, the weekly rhythm, pricing, staffing and the leaks that cost margin.</description>
<category>P&amp;L Management</category><category>Delivery Management</category><category>Forecasting</category><category>Pricing</category>
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<title>Program management for digital commerce: a field guide</title>
<link>https://alokakiran.com/program-management</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 24 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>Program management coordinates related projects toward one outcome. A practitioner's guide to replatforms, upgrades and AI programmes across 5 regions.</description>
<category>Program Management</category><category>Digital Commerce</category><category>Adobe Commerce</category><category>Governance</category><category>Dependencies</category>
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<title>Utilisation, bill rate and gross margin: the three numbers a delivery leader owns</title>
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<pubDate>Thu, 24 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>The three numbers that decide whether a services team makes money: formulas, healthy ranges for digital commerce agencies and the trap in each.</description>
<category>Utilisation</category><category>Gross Margin</category><category>Bill Rate</category><category>Services Economics</category>
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<title>Zero-downtime Adobe Commerce upgrade playbook</title>
<link>https://alokakiran.com/writing/adobe-commerce-upgrade-zero-downtime</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 24 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>The runbook behind three consecutive Adobe Commerce production upgrades that protected live trading: audit, rehearsal, cutover, rollback, hypercare.</description>
<category>Adobe Commerce</category><category>Magento</category><category>Upgrades</category><category>Zero Downtime</category><category>Runbook</category>
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