This Focused Performance Weblog is a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective. TOC is noted for its applications in Project Management and Multi-Project Management (Critical Chain) and Operations Management (Drum-Buffer-Rope), as well as in Marketing, Strategic Planning and Change Management (TOC Thinking Processes). If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
Monday, February 23, 2004
Promises and Prescriptions Part 6 - Fear of Promising the Unknown -- Between unexpected rework, distractions from other projects or emergencies, and the obvious uncertainties associated with endeavors of discovery, is it any wonder that project promises are made reluctantly or accompanied by a ream of disclaimers? Pressure for faster delivery from those who benefit from the project is met with pressure to assure that enough time is allowed to cover risks—both identified and unidentified. Too often, a relatively rational planning process devolves into negotiation in which no one is truly satisfied, but everyone agrees to do whatever it takes to make it happen.
Making project promises that everyone can live with is hard. Keeping promises that are the result of negotiations is even harder. The fear of promising something with many unknowns leads to all kinds of counter-productive behaviors, like high initial estimates offered with the expectation that they will be cut, and the cutting of reasonable estimates in the name of stretch goals.
Some individual pieces of uncertainty will be significant, especially in aspects of a project associated with problem solving and discovery. Putting together a plan, schedule, and promise for such an effort requires consideration of activities related to something we don't have clear requirements for. The dilemma is to choose between hunkering down over the crystal ball to try to find detailed requirements up front and getting started on the effort and allowing the requirements to emerge over the span of the effort. Neither of these approaches in and of itself is conducive to management's or the customer's need for reasonable predictability on the project outcome.
(Tips for dealing with uncertainty and unknown are next.)
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