Your insecurity does not matter
In a recent chat with two of my now ex-colleagues (our employer having been brutally, swiftly and completely obliterated about 3 weeks ago), we talked about schedules, project management and milestones, and why they don’t work. I said it is because people don’t like to feel insecure. And they have the false believe that schedules, project management and milestones will redeem them from this feeling.
This insecurity, however, is natural. You are insecure because you don’t know and you think you are supposed to know. But still, my friend, you DO NOT KNOW. And that is just how it is.
Insecurity also does not matter, in that it does not hinder or otherwise impede creativity and productivity. What does hinder and severely impede creativity is your superflous thoughts and interpretations of a small, natural bodily sensation.
So here is a suggestion, the Cyclic 4-Step Model of Creating:
(1) Explore the unknown, feel and accept your insecurity as part of the process
(2) Find a safe harbour
(3) Make sure you can come back to that safe harbour at any point in time easily
(4) Go to (1)
Can you see how tests can help you there? Can you see how agile development facilitates exactly this? Do you think I have forgotten the word “Goal” or do you think it is irrelevant for this process?
June 10th, 2006 at 9:58
Do you think schedules and milestones have no place in a fully functionning team? (Or was it just in this particular situation?)
June 10th, 2006 at 10:11
Ever since listening to the schedule related shows on http://mccarthyshow.net I am pretty much sold on the idea that schedules are completely bogus. I think Milestones are still valid, but not as something that has to be reached at a certain time, but more like the pillars on which the final product will eventually rest.
June 10th, 2006 at 11:10
That was a nice episode! I’d be curious what their take is on big teams, and how to apply their idea of “doing the most important think as soon as possible.”
June 10th, 2006 at 11:27
You can ask them. They are very accessible on their Yahoo Group, TheCoreProtocols@yahoo.com.
June 20th, 2006 at 21:04
Insecurity, eh? I think the main reason why deadlines are missed is simply: inproper work breakdown planning. If project is evaluated in months or even weeks… it’s (almost) impossible to realistically plan & schedule a project. The smaller the tasks, the easier it is to evaluate. Not perhaps practical (makes no sense spent lots of time for evaluating every tiny little task…) but when asked about reasons: that’s definitely an issue.
June 21st, 2006 at 0:18
Hi Juuso,
If you mean to say that I advocated that insecurity keeps teams from reaching deadlines - well no, that is precisely what I mean by “Your insecurity does not matter” - it does not hinder your work and it does not keep you from reaching deadlines.
I am all for breaking down work. But for the right reasons - not to give management or producers a false sense of security - but to inspire the team to greatness by commiting to an outcome that is not too far away and to milestones that are frequently repeated. This requires that the team breaks down the work, and not their management. It also requires that the team has a collective vision of the possible results.
I have reached deadlines most of the time, breaking down work or not, but my relationship with the results have often been shallow, because I could not understand why my producers or managers chose to require this or that feature to be implemented. Yes, maybe that means I was too stupid and therefore just a programmer, and not a producer. I doubt it, though.
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:43
thinking about all the troubles i feel myself in now since i stopped working and started studying fine art, i have to say that your “cyclic 4-step model of creating” of course can be applied to any creational act (which maybe was your intention when stating the four points so generally).
one difference though to me seems that in real life, testing feels to be more of a tightrope walk. you don’t easily get explicit green or red lights, and it seems extremely hard to check in and label your current state
last thing: a colleague from university mentioned that to her, insecurity means freedom. you don’t know the next step or where it might lead you, so you have all the possibilities in the world - like starting a code project from scratch.