(^114) 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know
Favor the Now Over the Soon
Favor the Now Over the Soon
Scott Davis
Broomfield, Colorado, U.S.
onE oF My FAvoRITE SAyIngS IS, “Exaggeration is a million times worse
than understatement.” The project management variation on this is, “Now is a
million times better than soon, and a gazillion times better than later.”
If you’re in the software development industry, you’re familiar with the “vapor-
ware” phenomenon—software that is endlessly talked about but never actually
delivered. We can plan the software. We can discuss the features it will have.
But software that you can touch, run, and interact with is a million times better
than a Word document full of requirements.
This means hurry up and write the software—now! The prototype you put
together will instantly give you feedback about usability. Worried about per-
formance? How can you optimize performance without the software?
Agile software methodologies favor now, over soon, by focusing on quick iter-
ations. Often they span no more than a week or two. The idea is to get software
written and in front of the user as quickly as possible. If users like what they
see, you have an immediate victory. More importantly, if they don’t like what
they see, you have failed fast.
A quick success is only a hundred times better than a late success, but a quick
failure is a million times better than a late failure. It gives you time to rethink,
readjust, and rewrite the software sooner rather than later. A failure one week
before the ship date can be a showstopper. A failure early in the process gets
forgotten by the time the software actually goes live.