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The Problem with Software Measurement and Metrics Many software practices rely on setting target numbers for the team to hit. But when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. People start gaming the system by changing their behavior in such a way to favorably adjust the measure in order to achieve the target. Don't get hung up on metrics. |
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What Not to Do if You Want Satisfied Customers You may think that overperforming would ingratiate you to your customers. But customers don't always want you to go above and beyond—often, they just want what they asked for. Don't fall for this common misconception. The trick to customer satisfaction is delivering just what they want—and good communication. |
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Effective Project Communication: Not Just What, but Why The requirements for communicating project status to executives are often paradoxical: Be brief but thorough; don’t go into the weeds, but make sure I know all the important details. Responding to these constraints can be challenging, but you still need to clearly convey your work's significance and risks. |
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Are You Problem Solving When You Should Try Problem Managing? Usually in our projects, our goal is problem-solving. We find the root cause of a problem and experiment until we eradicate it. But is solving always the right path? Sometimes, our problems are temporary and only require a patch. In those cases, problem managing is probably the better choice. |
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5 Questions to Ask in a Project Review Project managers often dread doing reviews, but they're necessary to make sure the project is on the right track. Progress can be affected by unclear definitions, risk, schedules, and cost, so it's important to evaluate whether the project manager, sponsors, and team members are all on the same page. |
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Know the “Why” behind Your Projects Every project has its own unique reason for existence. We often work on projects to deliver some kind of return for our organizations. When you start a project, do you know what that return is? When we know the reasons behind our work, we can be more successful—knowing why can create success. |
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The Difference between Plans and Planning As former president Dwight Eisenhower said, "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." The fact that plans may have to change does not mean planning is a waste of time. In projects, it's always valuable to consider budgeting, resources, and timelines. |
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Shorten Your Feedback Loops to Build Better Software, Faster When we have short feedback loops, we are still in the moment for that feature. We still have the context. The longer the feedback loop, the less likely we are to still have all the context for the feature because we are on to the next piece of work. How long are your feedback loops? Can you shorten them? |
