The more you have, the more you should protect it

People care more about things they don’t have enough of.

If you have tons and tons of money, you probably spend it less carefully than somebody who lives paycheck to paycheck. Water is more valued in California than in Florida where it rains all the time. Scarcity makes everyone think twice.

The same happens in software projects.

Teams usually get up in arms near the end, when the budget is running out, and deadlines are rapidly approaching. When both money and time are scarce, everyone starts thinking about them, and bend over backward to fix the problem.

I think we can do better.

Precisely, it is at the beginning of the project where teams waste more; right when budgets are big enough and deadlines not yet in the horizon. Every decision seems inconsequential, so nobody cares.

But this quickly catches up with the team. And just when everything should be coming together for a landing to close the project successfully, is when more and more pressure everyone feels from every angle.

The more you have, the harder you should work to avoid wasting it. You need to start looking at consequences right from the get go, not just when things get tight.