Ever had one of your buttons pushed?
During a terrific session at the AYE Conference entitled Software by the Numbers, I discovered a new button of mine. Let’s call it the “Planning” button.
The objective of the session was to explore the pitfalls of objectively trying to measure creative work. After giving general instructions to everyone, the session leaders split the participants into two groups — development and measurement. I was a member of the measurement team. Our job was to provide the customer with graphical information about the state of the project and its estimated completion.
The leads sent the development group to one area in the room and the measurement group to another. Both groups were given a few minutes to plan their work. Neither group was ready after the prescribed period so Dave and Jeff, our customers, were asked for a time extension. It was granted.
In a flash, the extension expired and Dave and Jeff ask us to begin development and measurement. I had taken the task to create the graph and plot the data. Before I could finish drawing the graph, the customers began demanding information. Boom. My button was pushed.
I got angry. I thought the demand was unreasonable, especially after I had told Dave that it would take a few minutes before we could provide him the first set of measurements. He made complaints. I got angrier. He asked when the project would be complete. I told him to buzz off, which surprised both me and Dave.
What was happening for me? Cumulative effect. Like a victim of radiation poisoning, I had gradually become contaminated, without knowing it, until I was sick. My contaminant was each and every training class that had asked me to do a group activity and provided me with insufficient time to plan and execute.
You may be saying yourself, “But some projects in the real world run just like that.” I agree with you a 100%: Lots of real-world projects do run just like that. Developers rush into development. Measurers rush into measurement. Little time is spent on planning.
If you, the designer, intentionally made this dynamic visible so that you could process it, I salute you. Otherwise, you may have fallen into what I now see as a common trap. In a rush to get everything done during the time allotted, you may have taught an unintentional lesson.
What lesson does a student take away when too short of a time period is allocated to planning during a simulation? One lesson is that allocating adequate time to plan isn’t that important and isn’t ever done.
It’s the wrong lesson.
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