CSc 233 Spring DILBERT Scott Adams. Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Transcription

1 DILBERT Scott Adams 1

2 DILBERT Scott Adams 2

3 DILBERT Scott Adams 3

4 Hope is our most important strategy they had never done a project like this before it was bigger, different programming language, new platform, shorter schedule. What to do: Identify risks! Iterate, prototypes, ongoing proof of concepts tasks Hudson Bay tasks Train Iterate everything especially planning & scheduling Get help Milestones (inch-pebbles) with deliverables 4

5 Chapter 6 Recognizing & Avoiding Schedule Games Management Games 1. Bring me a rock 2. Hope is our most important strategy 3. Queen of Denial 4. Sweep under the rug 5. Happy date 6. Pants on fire 7. Split focus 8. Schedule equals commitment 9. We ll know where we are when we get there 10.The schedule tool is always right 11.We gotta have it, we re toast without it 12.We can t say no Team member games: 13. Schedule chicken % done 15. We ll go faster now 16. Schedule trance 5

6 Queen of Denial Inability to face reality. The ostrich effect Advice: Find out why Do risk analysis Make iterations are your friend solution space domain expertise essential 6

7 Sweep under the rug Unable to face and deal with problems Like, what went wrong Avoidance measures: Rank features for each release Implement by feature Develop release criteria at the beginning Make stuff visible for folks to see 7

8 Happy Date Management demands a date, and all agree without any thought! Associated with a culture of not discussing difficult topics Avoidance: Explain schedule ranges Iterate explain what is to be delivered within each range Short timeboxes Use inch-pebbles velocity charts 8

9 Pants on fire Stop working on that, do this! Represents no focus no priorities no Wastes time! What to do: Short timebox iterations, start something new at the end. or implement by feature Communicate costs of context switching Modify your estimation approach or else! 9

10 Split focus 50% on Project A, 30% on Project B, 20% on Project C and your spare time on What to do: Have the team work on the problem Move to one-week iterations with release criteria Communicate the costs Set priorities finish something 10

11 Schedule equals Commitment No it s a guess not a prediction! The prediction is based on caring about: 1. What is delivered 2. How good is the product Don t just commit! If the people involved are not ready to discuss the schedule, the feature set and the defect levels, then any discussion of schedule being a commitment is premature. 11

12 We ll know where we are when we get there No! keeping focused on its (the project s) goal(s) is the best way to finish a project Notes: Have a project vision, goals and release criteria If the boss has no vision, you define it! If the project is too long iterations. P.S. If they don t listen, or can t stop their behavior, remember you don t have to stay there. 12

13 The schedule tool is always right Remember, the schedule is a guess about how things might happen! The Gantt Chart lulls people into believing the schedule and not checking on reality. Alternatives: Use Rolling wave scheduling Use low-tech scheduling techniques Give estimates with confidence limits Use timeboxed iterations 13

14 We gotta have it We re toast without it! Without discussing trade-offs? Alternatives: Negotiate for a different feature set Negotiate for more time Negotiate for more money Move to timeboxed iterations to manage the demand GAMES TEAM MEMBERS PLAY 14

15 We can t say no Blind acceptance of just fit one more feature into How to combat the just say yes problem: Have team create plan that includes the new feature Monitor the overtime timebox it and evaluate results versus a non-overtime week We ll just add more people. 15

16 Schedule Chicken Wait for another team member to confess! Options: No serial status meetings! Smaller tasks with daily deliverables so you can see Implement by feature there s something to show Short iterations so you don t need the weekly serial meeting 16

17 90% Done 90% done with 90% of the work yet to do! 90% done happens! What might help have team member: Develop inch-pebble scheduling Make status visible Provide coaching on how to track their estimate 17

18 We ll go faster now Feature implementation stalls Team still remains optimistic Advice: Show the velocity data on features implemented Track changes to your initial estimates Measure everything team is doing to keep team focused on necessary, date-scheduled tasks 18

19 Schedule trance Team is in a trance about the date. Options for inserting reality: Use iterations! The shorter the better The goal Completed work on the feature(s) Development, documentation, testing, etc. Maintain focus within each iteration Daily standup meetings Implement by feature! 19