Last week I wrote about the value of stopping work to tackle tech debt, and more specifically when we might expect to recover from the temporary stoppage. In the ensuing … Continue reading The cost of delay of technical debt
Category: Project management
The benefits of timeboxing a solution
A colleague pointed me to a nice article by Sue Davis about writing for the public, and among the suggestions was the idea of timeboxing feedback: “If you don’t, the … Continue reading The benefits of timeboxing a solution
Act on priorities, or expect to be late
If you can’t do the most important project work first, expect to overrun. Doing project work generally yields any of three results: either you complete the work in good time, … Continue reading Act on priorities, or expect to be late
Measuring the impact of our activity
When we measure our progress there are—by some perspective—three kinds of things we might be measuring. The most immediate things to measure is our activity: Are we doing what we … Continue reading Measuring the impact of our activity
Balancing strategic guesswork with tactical evidence
I’ve always seen strategic decision-making as consisting of a large element of guesswork. It’s educated guesswork, but it’s very much taking a punt on what we want to achieve based … Continue reading Balancing strategic guesswork with tactical evidence
The map is not the territory
My daughter and I are currently reading Lemony Snicket’s very entertaining “Who Could That Be At This Hour?”, a book in the series of “All The Wrong Questions”. And there … Continue reading The map is not the territory
There’s trouble in MoSCoW
Most project teams I work with prioritise their work in a simple order: most important, second most important, etc. But sometimes people still use the MoSCoW method, and I find … Continue reading There’s trouble in MoSCoW
Separate strategic assumptions from goals
Previously I wrote about the importance of having a clear goal, in the form of a value statement. But in practice it’s tempting to confuse a goal with what I … Continue reading Separate strategic assumptions from goals
Being accountable for delivering value
There are lots of things that make an effective team, but one of the most important, I’ve found, is to make sure they have a clear and meaningful goal. Part … Continue reading Being accountable for delivering value
Frequent delivery is the test of a plan’s quality
There are many ways to measure a plan’s quality. Some of these are: flexibility, how realistic it is, and the number of internal or external dependencies. But in the end … Continue reading Frequent delivery is the test of a plan’s quality
