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I've described this phenomenon to many-a-manager as "assuming that all progress is linear." It's not; in fact, linear progress is extremely rare in my experienc

I've described this phenomenon to many-a-manager as "assuming that all progress is linear." It's not; in fact, linear progress is extremely rare in my experience. Usually, a "big bang" of progress happens on a project, whether at the beginning or at the end. Recently, I was implementing Pivotal Cloud Foundry for a client. Everyone was assuming PCF would deliver incremental and linear amounts of value during implementation. I had to keep telling folks, "No, it doesn't work that way. PaaS is only valuable at the very end of the implementation, when all the technology is ready and the team has been trained."

wil421 9y ago
Agreed on the linear progress. I’ve been working on implementing various parts of a PaaS/SaaS solution for the past few years. I’d add that the implementation is only as good or mature as your processes. Sometimes the solution and process must mature before you realize the full value.
mgkimsal 9y ago
agreed - there's a network effect to various bits working together, and it's not apparent until they're all there. it may be linear progress from "lines of code" or some other metric, but there's a point (or usually a few) at which peoples' perspectives on the project changes. I've hit this a couple times on recent projects, and it's usually tied to some new UI stuff hitting people. Usually, they've seen all the various pieces, but until they can click-click-click through end to end on a process, they don't care, or get frustrated and mentally tune out of that part of the project.
hinkley 9y ago
I think the XP movement was, fundamentally, an attempt to treat coding as a performance piece, where progress IS close to linear because of the order you tackle problems and the way you attack them. You telegraph and you telegraph and in the end if anyone is surprised then it's because they weren't paying attention or were delusional. It's part of why I maintain that it's much better to be 5-10% over every estimate along the way but maintain your velocity indefinitely. Better for people to be a little disappointed in you now than to drop a giant bombshell on them later. It's not a popular opinion, but it does work if you have a team with the fortitude to stick with it.

wil421 9y ago

Agreed on the linear progress. I’ve been working on implementing various parts of a PaaS/SaaS solution for the past few years. I’d add that the implementation is only as good or mature as your processes. Sometimes the solution and process must mature before you realize the full value.

mgkimsal 9y ago

agreed - there's a network effect to various bits working together, and it's not apparent until they're all there. it may be linear progress from "lines of code" or some other metric, but there's a point (or usually a few) at which peoples' perspectives on the project changes. I've hit this a couple times on recent projects, and it's usually tied to some new UI stuff hitting people. Usually, they've seen all the various pieces, but until they can click-click-click through end to end on a process, they don't care, or get frustrated and mentally tune out of that part of the project.

hinkley 9y ago

I think the XP movement was, fundamentally, an attempt to treat coding as a performance piece, where progress IS close to linear because of the order you tackle problems and the way you attack them. You telegraph and you telegraph and in the end if anyone is surprised then it's because they weren't paying attention or were delusional. It's part of why I maintain that it's much better to be 5-10% over every estimate along the way but maintain your velocity indefinitely. Better for people to be a little disappointed in you now than to drop a giant bombshell on them later. It's not a popular opinion, but it does work if you have a team with the fortitude to stick with it.