Having It All: Cheaper Projects And A Sustainable Society
25. Dec, 2008 
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Wouldn’t it be great if software projects are done cheaper?
Products and services could be cheaper.
Through some amazing coincidence companies want the same thing. And the current economic climate has made them more eager to do so.
For software projects, it’s easy and obvious on how to become cheaper more cost efficient:
- Reduce labor cost (do I hear “offshoring”?)
- Reduce overhead (do I hear “agile approaches”?)
- Reduce commute time and office spaces (let me hear “virtual teams”!)
To overcome communication problems associated with offshoring we mostly … increase overhead.
The social troubles associated with virtual teams, like lack of trust, are countered by … increase of overhead.
Increasing overhead (tracking progress every minute, extensive reporting, micro-management, adding additional “control” personnel) seems to be our preferred solution.
Our preferred solution is making things worse. It increases cost. Heavily. With no benefit.
SUPPOSE we can overcome the lack of trust and communication problems WITHOUT relying on overhead… WOW we have a winner!
It will be cheaper. We increase flexibility through a global resource pool. We get speedy adaption through faster feedback and cultural diversity.
And if we play our cards right…
We can reduce urbanization and its heavy toll on the environment.
We can create a more healthy (sustainable) distribution of wealth.
We can improve education in general.
Yes we can! (where did I hear that before?)
My Big Bold Statement for 2009 is that we can have it all… WIN WIN.. heck… WIN x 100!
BUT ONLY if we can overcome the major problems in our projects… luckily that are “people problems” … therefor I refuse to believe that they cannot be solved!
Our solution lies in education, leadership, and yes, some technology to support that.
Need to change? Check.
Direction for solution? Check.
Supporting technology? Check.
Let’s get to work then!
Bas,
I like a lot of your writing, but this time, I think you missed the boat. Maybe it’s because it’s Christmas and I’m sitting in a crappie airport hoping my oversold airplane will actually take off, but I’m feeling very crochity right now, forgive me.
I like you’re first question, “Wouldn’t it be great if software projects are done cheaper?”, but my answer would be different. 2/3rds of projects shouldn’t be done at all. I’m not suggesting sending people into a ROI justification exercise, which normally resembles nothing more than a dog eating scrambled eggs. Rather, projects should have two requirements prior to starting.
1. There should be a 1 page (less than 300 words) description of why the project is being done, how people will know if it succeeds and how it will pay all of it’s costs in less than eighteen months.
2. Everyone on the project should be able to describe in less than thirty seconds what the project will achieve and how we will know if it succeeded. (and the descriptions better all be the same…)
The project sponsor should be responsible for the project. If the project succeeds, they succeed and get the credit. If the project fails, i.e. doesn’t meet the criteria laid out in number 1 in less than eighteen months from the project start date, the project sponsor should have their salary cut 10% and return 50% of any bonus money they received. They shouldn’t be fired, but they should learn from their mistakes and personally feel some of the cost of the value destruction they inflicted on the company.
This rule would have a stunningly clarifying effect.
The project scapegoat, I mean manager – position should be renamed so it represents the role it should be playing – journalist. The project journalist should provide the sponsor with an accurate picture of what is happening on the project, so they can make the appropriate decisions, including killing the project if it’s heading into the tar pits.
Offshoring, methodological approaches and virtual teams do not address the real underlying problem of value destruction, which is what 2/3rds of corporate projects are.
Make the project sponsors responsible for their fantasies, sorry I mean projects, and make sure those projects are aligned with the goals of the business.
I realize all this is about as likely to happen as Santa giving me a 57 Chevy convertible with a cute brunette in the passenger seat, but hey, it’s Christmas and I feel much better now.
Have a great holiday season and may all your projects succeed in 2009. And keep up the writing, I really do love your stuff.
Andy
Hi Andy,
Thanks for your long reply … I am not going to ask what you are doing in an airport on Christmas day… Hope you did get out there soon.
I totally get what you are saying. So it’s even worse than I described
I don’t think your argument and mine are mutually exclusive, and I guess that sources of the problems are almost identical. (at least from the same family).
Love your concept of “project journalist”… Renaming the position may be needed indeed.
Have a fabulous year, and thanks for the compliments.
Cheers
Bas
For those interested, CIO article from earlier this year surrounding this topic:
How Better Software Can Save the World
http://www.cio.com/article/454215/How_Better_Software_Can_Save_the_World
Bas, it appears that you have a huge vision to share. I find it very inspiring and can’t wait to follow along in 2009.
Hi Maria, thanks for noticing
Yes, I think I have something worth sharing and proceeding… thank you for the encouragement…
Please amaze me also in 2009 with great blog posts!
Bas,
take care and I hope you had great holidays. I made it home (Wisconsin) for Christmas. Very white and snowy.
You are right, our outlooks are not mutually exclusive. The way projects will be executed over the next few years will change. Being able to articulate what we’re seeing and take advantage of other’s perspectives will be important in making everyone better.
I love your insights and look forward to the journey.
Let's go to work indeed
This is a fantastic, lofty vision. How will we know if we're making progress though? Goals, IMHO, must be concrete, quantified and measurable. How would you quantify a sustainable society?
Thanks Dmitri. I agree with the goals not being SMART.. dunno if that is really that important. But I actually was hoping for someone in the community to help us out in this respect..
Anyone have a suggestion on how to define goals that we can track?