Managing life and projects

Would you manage your life the way you manage a project? Or rather, would you manage your project the way you manage your life?

Is there a difference? Yes and no. Managing requires skill, expertise and thoughtful planning and execution.

When IT projects are managed, there are lots of flexibility and leeway given to the scope, robustness of testing, and disciplined execution. What if the IT project was to create a system that dealt with life and death situations? how different would that perspective be?

With life and death situations, more careful thought, planning, execution, ensuring all requirements are duly met, robustness and fail overs are included. In many non-critical IT systems, this is not the case. So what if there is a bug here, a failure there? Simply restart the system or simply log the error and rectify it later.

Would you walk into a skyscraper that had been built without a firm foundation, where the developer skimped on materials, had shoddy workmanship, and building approvals were lacking? I think not because your life is at stake the minute you walk into that building and the building could collapse.

If we treat each and every IT project with such a mindset, both the users and vendors will be more careful with scope, requirements, development, testing and eventually, have a system that will meet the end-user's needs.

I'd like to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year 2010. Happy Holidays everyone.

Bernard

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