Fixed time, fixed scope projects always end in 1 of 3 ways. None of them good.

Late last month, after a particularly frustrating meeting I posted the following tweet:

It turned out, not surprisingly, that I wasn’t the only one dealing with this failed project management approach. Many people reached out with virtual “high 5’s” and, more importantly, questions about how this could be so obvious to those of us who have been and are currently in the trenches and still such a commonly-used tactic to those in positions of leadership. The answer to the former seems obvious. Fixed time, fixed scope initiatives give managers the perception of predictability and control. With a clear timeline, milestones, dates and scope-based commitments they can provide answers to questions like “When will it be done?” and “When can we start selling it to our customers?”

And so the process begins anew. The features get decided up front. Estimates are given. The gantt charts get written. The launch date is determined. The project manager then works backwards from the launch date to determine the milestones from now until then and the team is off to work. And that’s when the trouble begins.

The team quickly learns that some of their assumptions were wrong. A feature that seemed simple to implement presents problems the team didn’t expect. An integration required…