Normal people bore me!

Task, schedule e rischi

Come ogni primo del mese, Eric Brechner (uno dei miei blogger preferiti) ci delizia con un’altra chicca, questa volta sulla differenza tra “gestire i rischi” e “rispettare un commitment”…

…CUT… Software engineers do this all the time. They come up with a development schedule, unexpected issues come up, and they end up being late. Instead of informing their managers of the delay, they avoid facing conflict, rush the work, sacrifice quality, and slip the schedule, all with little control or visibility. It's the opposite of what managers should want, yet those same managers insist on following the schedule precisely. Why? Because most managers and engineers don't distinguish between the two types of scheduling—meeting a commitment and managing risk.

Those who understand binary and those who don't

Yes, that's right. There are two types of scheduling and project management.

§ Meet a commitment. You made a commitment to customers or partners and you must meet it at the quality and time period promised. Period.

§ Manage risk. There is a mix of critical and desirable work. People can make bad choices. Issues can arise. You must manage risk to ensure critical work gets done.

…CUT…

Just don't confuse the high-level schedule with the low-level tasks. If you treat the low-level tasks like your high-level commitments, your engineers will take shortcuts and drive too fast. Instead of managing risk, you might cause them to crash one of your critical tasks, which in turn breaks your high-level commitments. Use the right tool for the right level. You'll sleep better at night.