A philosophy professor gave an unusual test to his class. He lifted his waste paper bin onto his desk and wrote on the board simply: "Prove that this bin does not exist." The class set to work, composing long, complex arguments apart from one student, who took just thirty seconds to complete and hand in her paper, attracting surprised glances from her classmates and the professor. A week later, the class received their grades for the test. The student who took thirty seconds was judged the best. Her answer was, "What bin?"
The story above highlights how businesses and teams can get lost in the fine detail of project work. It's known as project drift, and it happens all too easily. An overly enthusiastic team flooding progress meetings with new ideas or add-ons that were never in the original project objectives.
In this presentation from Joseph Assaf, consultant at our partner KEGON, which he gave at our Tools4AgileTeams conference on December 1 and 2, 2022, we learn how to stay on target, on time, and, perhaps most importantly, on budget. He suggests that before we embark on a project, we should stand back to examine several factors and carve these findings in stone for future reference. So how do we do this? Joseph offers a methodology and some essential discussion points on keeping a project on track. It involves going back to basics, to the original idea, and building a framework that can make course corrections should a project wander.
The video takes an unusual look at project planning and suggests starting from the backend. Joseph suggests If only businesses had a time machine and could look to the future to correct the mistakes of the past. So open your mind and enjoy this time-traveling presentation.