3 min read
I have spent the last 25 years in tech. Along the way, I have watched many programs fail. A few failed loudly, with cancelled contracts and difficult board meetings. Most failed quietly. Deadlines slipped one sprint at a time. Budgets stretched. Scope was trimmed until what finally shipped was a shadow of what had been promised.
9 min read
Sharks get the movies. Mosquitoes get the body count. Programs rarely die of one dramatic failure, but of a thousand reasonable yeses. Ten faces of the speed trap, and how to hold a direction.
9 min read
Programs rarely sink from one bad idea. They sink from carrying every good one.
12 min read
A plan is a hypothesis, not a promise. Most programs treat it as a promise. Agile thinking helps at team level, but most organizations still struggle to plan at program level.
14 min read
Most programs are planned as if people were interchangeable, and fall into the people trap. Ten faces of the trap and how to build teams that deliver.
8 min read
Programs rarely die of bad decisions. They die of decisions that never quite get made.
9 min read
Engineers want to build great programs, but ego disguised as ambition sinks them. Ten faces of the perfection trap, and how to stay ambitious without gambling.
8 min read
Programs are rarely slow because people work slowly. They are slow because work spends most of its life waiting.