Predictability
Our minds crave structure and predictability. At least that’s true for most of us. I have a cousin who used to live in a van and travel around Europe climbing rocks. I’m convinced she would be an excellent agile manager. Identifying opportunities and responding to change becomes second nature with a lifestyle like hers.
The rest of her family were pig farmers, while she was a vegan living in a van. I guess it would be safe to say they thought of her as somewhat of an oddball.
At the moment the world is being revolutionized by oddballs. Startups around the globe create awesome products at lightning speed, while the corporations of old stare blankly at their Gantt charts.
At the moment the world is being revolutionized by oddballs
Gantt charts are excellent tools for establishing the fact that your project is late. Because if you are using one, you almost certainly are. So with the Gantt charts you’ll get the predictability everyone crave so badly: You’ll be predictably late. But late for what, exactly? Where is it that you need to be, and why do you have to be there at that exact moment?
I’ll just be blunt. Most projects don’t need a hard deadline. They will deliver value regardless of when (within reason) they are done. And if you’re so focused on delivering the project at this supposedly important date, why don’t you deliver it even sooner?
When my cousin is climbing, she is usually bouldering. That means instead of preparing for Mount Everest for months and maybe freeze to death before reaching her goal, she experience the exhilaration of a successful climb several times a day. As I said, she’d be an awesome agile manager.
Instead of preparing for Mount Everest for months, she experience the exhilaration of a successful climb several times a day
Being able to deliver value continuously is almost a little bit magic, and let’s you experience that exhilarating feeling every day. Trust me on this, it’s way better than the bitterness of failure when you miss the deadline at the end.
Related post: Precision
