Take No Small Slips

Problem: How long should the project take?

Context:

The product is under way and progress must be tracked.

Forces:

Too long, and developers become complacent, and you miss market windows.

Too short, and developers become burned out, and you miss market windows.

Projects without schedule motivation tend to go on forever, or spend too much time polishing details that are either irrelevant or don't serve customer needs.

Solution:

"We found a good way to live by `Take no small slips' from... `The Mythical Man Month.' Every week, measure how close the critical path (at least) of the schedule is doing. If it's three d ays beyond schedule, track a `delusion index' of three days. When the delusion index gets too ludicrous, then slip the schedule. This helps avoid churning the schedule." -- Personal discussion with Paul Chisholm, June, 1994.

Resulting Context:

A project with a flexible target date. Dates are always difficult to estimate; DeMarco notes that one of the most serious signs of a problem in trouble is a schedule worked backward from an end date [DeMarco].

Design Rationale:

MIT project management simulation; QPW; [Brooks]. Most sane projects manage this way.

Next: Developing in Pairs