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I take the comment that something that is 99% done in time may or may not not be 99% valuable. Example: marathon race. If you stop at 99% of the way it’s like

I take the comment that something that is 99% done in time may or may not not be 99% valuable. Example: marathon race. If you stop at 99% of the way it’s like not having run at all. Example: washing the dishes. 99% done is pretty useful In software dev it’s often a mix of these. If you need to fix a bug that makes it awful to impossible to use the feature as your last 1% then your current value is 0. The good news is sunk cost aside the last 1% gives you 100-1 value compared to other tasks so definitely finish that off. If you are doing a task that has 10 discrete stages of feature sophistication the 99% done could mean 90% delivered. This is why you should try to chunk projects into small iterative chunks that deliver value and do them one at a time until completion. Reality sometimes gets in the way but its a good goal.

lmilcin 5y ago
When I say redefine the project I mean make an honest decision as to what needs to be completed and what needs not to be completed, and then just finish according to what has been decided. Lingering work, unfinished projects, are damaging to team productivity. It is better to turn a page and focus on a new task rather than have a dozen of them 90% complete and still occupying everybody's attention. I try to set explicit success criteria for any task I create (ie Jira ticket). The task is either done or not done and success criteria are reference. But this is bit more difficult on scale of whole projects.
- quickthrower2 5y ago
  I agree with that. Project with vague names like “improve speed” or “make it look beautiful” can go on forever! It’s better they are broken into incremental projects “use bootstrap theme” which can be considered done and then if there is an opportunity to decide to stop working on this kind of work and switch to something else. With software you are never done so you have to decide to be done!

lmilcin 5y ago

When I say redefine the project I mean make an honest decision as to what needs to be completed and what needs not to be completed, and then just finish according to what has been decided. Lingering work, unfinished projects, are damaging to team productivity. It is better to turn a page and focus on a new task rather than have a dozen of them 90% complete and still occupying everybody's attention. I try to set explicit success criteria for any task I create (ie Jira ticket). The task is either done or not done and success criteria are reference. But this is bit more difficult on scale of whole projects.

quickthrower2 5y ago
I agree with that. Project with vague names like “improve speed” or “make it look beautiful” can go on forever! It’s better they are broken into incremental projects “use bootstrap theme” which can be considered done and then if there is an opportunity to decide to stop working on this kind of work and switch to something else. With software you are never done so you have to decide to be done!