October 1, 2007 – Mediocrity: Caring Enough to Give Your 2nd Best

On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful powered airplane flight. It was quite an amazing accomplishment, but I don’t believe it would have been possible if they were working in today’s business world. The problem would have been the drive for perfection. It would have started something like this…

Orville: “Yes, sir, this is the design. The scope statement says you want us to build a self propelled machine that flies.”

Sponsor: “I see. But it only has two of those wing things. I was thinking it should have three. You know, one for a backup.”

Wilbur: “I suppose we could put a change request in for the third one.”

Finance Director: “We could actually save 25% by reducing it to one wing. With the cost overruns in the bike department it would really help increase our profits for the year.”

Orville: “The Functional Design clearly calls for two wings. All of the use case scenarios specify two.”

Marketing: “We could sell this easier if it was enclosed and had wider seats.”

Sponsor: “Yes! We should also place a phonograph on the back of each seat so people could listen to whatever they wanted to in flight. I saw it in a magazine once.”

Wilbur: “This was supposed to be the prototype.”

Upper Management: “Do whatever you have to do, but we told the stockholders it would be ready by the end of the year.”

The stakeholders have a grand vision of what the end product could be, but they need to get the thing off the ground first. Sometimes, aiming for great is overkill. But how do you know when it is ok to deliver something that isn’t perfect?

Meeting the Grade
There is a definite difference between grade and quality. Quality is a measure of how well a product meets its requirements. Grade is a category assigned to a product that has the same functionality but a different level of ability or requirement. Grade is the difference between a luxury vehicle and an economy car. Both are expected to get you from point A to point B and both will be tested for quality to ensure they meet their design specifications. A luxury car, however, is expected to be built better and have more features.

Anyone can snap a photograph but you wouldn’t turn your wedding memories over to your 13 year old nephew. By determining the expected grade of your product you can adjust the level of effort expended to meet that goal.

Setting the Priority
Along with any other critical success factors a choice must be made between three possibilities. Which one of the following is the most important to your project?

1. Schedule
2. Cost
3. Scope

Don’t let anyone say all three or even pick two. One of them must be the most critical. If it was promised by the end of the year, you will be willing to pay more and limit the size. If certain features are key, then the schedule may have to slip and it may cost more. All the development decisions can then be made based on what is most important.

Consider the Cost of Perfection
Have you ever worked with someone who places a premium value in perfection? Pulling together a prototype takes as long as creating the full version. In the insurance business, getting a new product line to market ahead of your competitor is huge. Unfortunately you can’t sell it until your systems can handle it. With time to market as your driver, the cost of ergonomically designing the input screen looses value points.

Making it Mediocre
The architecture needs to be sound but not necessarily a work of art. Code doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to work and be maintainable. Produce a quality product, but save the bells and whistles for the next release. It is better to get it out and improve it over time than give up ground to your competitors.

In the final analysis, second best can actually land you in first place.

Sept 24, 2007 – Starting Over

I survived the first week at my new job. Starting over can be exciting and a bit scary. Having survived nearly 15 years in the consulting industry, I am no stranger to rebooting my work experience. Actually, I even wrote an article for Computerworld about the topic (The New Guy's Guide to Building Trust).

Upon reviewing the list of 10 steps in the article, I think I’m off to a good start. I issued meeting minutes, started identifying preconceptions and even created an informative status report. With this new adventure I have discovered a couple of other steps to add to the newbie list.

Don’t Burn Bridges. It truly is a small world. I have run into several people from previous workplaces that have either worked with me or with someone who knows me. Fortunately I can work with almost anyone and know enough not to make enemies. Had I been a jerk to any of these people I would be paying for it now.

Don’t Jump the Gun. Like a runner, you need to be careful to not leave the starting block before the pistol is fired. Within the first day or so at a new client I began introducing myself to the extended team as the project manager. It soon became apparent that there were already two project managers on the effort and neither one of them knew I was coming. That was just a little awkward. Check with your management to make sure the announcement has been made before you step on anyone’s toes.

Know the Currents. On a camping trip to Martha’s Vineyard as a teenager we visited a beach with a riptide, a dangerous current that runs parallel to the beach. As you swim, you may think you are heading straight out from shore when in reality the current has pushed you 100 yards away. The best example of this in business came from an advertisement friend of mine.

While working a deal at a new client, one of the female executives asked if his company had done the ads for product X. In fact they had actually won awards for those ads and proudly said so. The executive said, “Those are the most sexist, degrading ads I have seen and there is no way we will be doing business with the company that created them.”

Deliver Value Quickly. On your first day start thinking about your status report. What are you going to put on it at the end of the week? Whoever hired you took a chance. They will be looking to see how soon you can be productive and contributing to the team. Identify some things you can accomplish during the first week to show an early personal Return on Investment. One of the new PMO objectives is to create project development standards and templates. I was able to report deliver of several draft templates on Friday’s status.

It may seem daunting to start over again, but soon those feelings will disappear as you pick up your new challenge.