Project Management as Pharma: Sometimes the opposite of a good strategy is a better strategy

1. Project Management as Pharma: Sometimes the opposite of a good strategy is a better strategy Dr. Alistair CockburnHumans and Technology http://Alistair.Cockburn.us

2. Inventing People ... Communicating Solving a problem Creating a solution Expressing ideasin a language Deciding … they don’t understand which keeps changing … they don’t understand which keeps changing … they don’t understand which keeps changing To an interpreter unforgiving of error Making decisions Where every decision has economic consequences and resources are limited.

3. Craft Professionsskills in a medium • Cooperative Gamecommunication teamwork strategies • Flow Managementunvalidated decisions= inventory,lean processes • Self-Awareness (Personalities)the people, strategies, techniques actually used • Knowledge Acquisitionpay-to-learntrim-the-tail origami courtesy of Gery Derbier

4. #1: The Cooperative Game idea teaches us about teamwork and strategies in situations that never quite repeat Organization Survival Infinite Career Management King-of-the-hill wrestling Finite & open-ended Jazz music Poker Tennis Theatre Engineering Finite & goal-directed Rock-Climbing Chess Software Development Swamp game Cooperative Competitive

5. “Criticality” L6 L20 L40 L100 L200 L500 L1000 Life X X E6 E20 E40 E100 E200 E500 E1000 Essential moneys X Discretionary moneys X X D6 D20 D40 D100 D200 D500 D1000 Comfort C6 C20 C40 C100 C200 C500 C1000 1 - 6 - 20 - 40 - 100 - 200 - 500 - 1,000 Number of people coordinated Every game run uses different strategies --Set up accordingly or suffer

6. Nourishment from Executive Sponsors decisions, money Incremental development & Reflection People skills, motivation Critical Project Factors Community communication, amicability Focus known priorities, focus time

7. Sponsor(s) Interruptions Decisions$ Visibility X PM Communication Amicability Priorities Focus time Skills development Motivation Reflection developers Role of the Manager: Strengthen the team Pull in support Identify strategies Osmotic Communication Expert in Earshot Cone of Silence Early Victory Early and Regular Delivery Walking Skeleton Incremental Rearchitecture Sacrifice One Person QA-Rotation SWAT-fix team Cross-specialized Team Function / Component Owners

8. Osmotic Communication Expert in Earshot Cone of Silence Early Victory Early and Regular Delivery Walking Skeleton Incremental Rearchitecture Sacrifice One Person QA-Rotation SWAT-fix team Cross-specialized Team Function / Component Owners Pause, Reflect, Change Timeout/Regroup Part-Timers as Advisors Process Miniature Progress & Training Teams Rejoining Streams Short-horizon planning Spare Leader Capacity Spike Gold Rush Project 360° Safe Solutioning Session Learn to avoid(get out of) messes.

9. Strategy: Early Victory • Action: Ensure the team delivers something as early as possible, even if only a Walking Skeleton. • Benefits: Team learns each other, process • Sponsor sees team working together • Side effect: Manage expectations for early delivery • Overdose: Too simple = Not enough process exercised, not real confidence built • Examples: Walking Skeleton

10. Strategy: Walking Skeleton • Action: Connect the architecture with a very simple function as 1st running code. • (Grow infrastructure & function in parallel). • Benefits: Early Victory, • Architecture runs, • Parallel development possible • Side effect: Manage rework of infrastructure • during function development • Overdose: If too simple, rework delays project • Examples: NBO project

11. Strategies can be collected and labeled in various ways

12. Box Shading: (nutrition) (antivenom) ... labeled and sorted At SETUP AVOID TROUBLE REPAIR TROUBLE DIG OUT early & regular delivery gold rush serialized tasks demo chain easy access to expert users sacrifice one person early victory osmotic communication visual progress focus time incremental rearchitecture single assignment walking skeleton spike investigation cone of silence exploratory 360 spare leader capacity

13. ... combined At SETUP AVOID TROUBLE REPAIR TROUBLE DIG OUT gold rush serialized tasks early & regular delivery sacrifice one person easy access to expert users early victory focus time recovery chain osmotic communication visual progress incremental rearchitecture single assignment incremental rearchitecture walking skeleton spike investigation cone of silence spare leader capacity exploratory 360

14. 7“Cone of Silence” Anti-venom / Repair • Counterexample to Osmotic Communiction! • Related to Focus Time • Symptoms: Constant interruptions, can’t manage Focus Time. • Isolate key person/team so no one communicates with them for stretches of time. • Individual version: Move team lead upstairs (for hours each day). • Team version: Move team offsite (e.g. IBM PC development, 1980) • http://alistair.cockburn.us/The+cone+of+silence+and+related+project+management+strategies

15. Project A DBA is bottleneck Programmers have time Business analyst Designer/Programmer maximal Gold Rush Designers do extra rework. Completeness, Stability Designer/Programmer Business analyst Designer/Programmer DBA minimal Gold Rush Business analyst Strategy: BAs write few requirements Programmers guess/ run ahead; rework;get design solid before giving to DBAs Designer/Programmer Designer/Programmer Designer/Programmer DBA Business analyst Project B: Programmers are bottleneck BAs have extra capacity Strategy: BAs write requirements thoroughly to save the programmers time. Completeness, Stability Designer/Programmer Opposite strategies may show up as optimal

16. Read more on all these topics at http://Alistair.Cockburn.us