Hal Macomber's blog Reforming Project Management - asked the question "does reliability matter?" Being reliable is necessary but not sufficient for project success.
The defense industry learned to classify those "necessary but not sufficient" attributes into a larger model. The model is:
The Probability of Success has several components formed into a Windshield chart, rather than a Dashboard. Cars are best driven by looking out the windshield, rather than looking at the Dashboard. P(s) has the following variables:
- Requirements
- Resources
- Execution
- Fit with Vision
- Advocacy
These variables can be arranged in a variety of ways to calculate (notionally) the P(s). This arrangement is not important here. These variables have sub-variables, but that too is not the point.
What is important is to understand that the "reliability" of the work effort promises - showing up on time, on schedule, with the agreed upon outcome - lives in the Execution variable of the P(s) calculation, as one of many variables that increase the probability of success. Failing to recognize that, creates the illusion that being reliable is what it's all about.
You can reliably deliver the wrong outcome. You can reliably produce products that don't fit the vision of the customer - the needed capabilities in the example of the DoD.
A good detailed example can be found at https://acc.dau.mil/CommunityBrowser.aspx?id=245260
This link will ask you to proceed in the presence of a certificate error. You can do so, since this is a US DoD site.
