- Have all the facts at hand
- No searching through your notes.
- No making things up
- No trying to convince people your idea is better in the absence of actual field experience and testimony that it is in fact better
- Understand - in depth - the context and domain of any topic of discussion before provided suggested alternatives
- Speak only in actionable outcomes
- What does done look like?
- How will we recognize done when we see it?
- Speak with nouns and verbs about the deliverable and its maturity - "The Preliminary Design of the Transaction Processing System is Complete"
- Speak in units of measure meaningful to the participants
- These units are always time and money
- We'll be done on or before this time with this confidence
- It will cost this much or less with this confidence
- Have tangible evidence of physical progress to plan
- First have a plan that shows when you will have tangible evidence of progress
- This evidence must be a "working" thing that the customer will recognize as something they asked you to build. It can be software, a piece of hardware, or even a document.
- This evidence must be compared against the quality standards agreed to before the work started.
- Again this is one of the "what does done look like" questions
- Use a credible form of measurement for assessing progress to plan
- Earned Value is the best
