If the #NoEstimates discussion has shown anything, it is that when making improvements in the processes we use to manage the spending of other peoples money requires discipline. There's a bumper sticker here in Boulder that always puts a smile on my face. We live in a town with huge diversity of culture, from trust fund hippies and DOD contractors all coming together on Pearl Street for an art festival.
Well it turns out wandering around, exploring for dysfunction is itself a dysfunction when spending other peoples money. Spend your own money, no one cares how you do it. Spend the corporatinons money, there are questions.
To assess the credibility of any process improvement process starts with answering the questions asked by Rudyard Kipling in his Six Trusted Friend poem.
- Who - is impacted by this suggested new approach to anything?
- What - changes needed to be made and what information, outcome, process is currenty missing?
- When - is this suggested change in the way we do thing applicable?
- Where - has this suggested new approach been used with success and can that success be transferred to the current domain?
- Why - is this improvement needed? What problem are you trying to solve? Is this problem actually a real problem - meaning - the cost of not solving this problem has substantive impact on the current domain? Or is it just part of doing business? It's not about you, it's always about money, and usually someone else's money.
- How - will this change actually enable improvement in units of measure meaningful to the decision makers?
