Projects Need Slow To Go Fast

If you’ve ever watched a tennis tournament like the US Open or a golf championship like the British Open you’ll notice something very important. Each and every player takes time before they take their swing or serve the ball to think through what they want to accomplish. The tennis player bounces the ball before the serve and the golfer takes a few practice swings. They aren’t focused on the amount of time that passes but are focused on the end result. Projects, like tennis and golf, need that same deliberateness, projects need the appropriate time and thought before the start of activity. Project managers must set project activity up for success before starting, that doesn’t mean once, it means throughout the project. Project managers must be deliberate in the time that they take for project success.

When discussing Agile Project Management it becomes clear that there is a point when the project slows, it doesn’t stop, it slows. At the end of an iteration, which occurs every 1 to 4 weeks, there is a retrospective or, more simply, a review and planning period. The team, in conjunction with the client, reviews the completed work and plans the next iteration. This is the place where the player bounces the ball or takes a few practice swings. There is also a discussion of what went well and what needs to change during the next iteration to improve the process. Having grown up in a traditional project management world it seems strange that this seems new. While the duration of an iteration is fixed and agile adapts easily to such a process, most projects benefit from this type of review and planning. There isn’t anything in any traditional methodology that prevents project managers from using a similar construct, no matter how long the project is. Agile also suggests daily stand-ups, another way to take some time to see how things are going. While traditional project management says little about daily stand-ups, employing daily stand-ups doesn’t go against traditional project management methods.

Project managers are challenged to go beyond checklists, templates and tools to be successful. They must employ techniques to allow the project to recalibrate, rejuvenate and recharge when the project is challenged by difficult stakeholders, unclear objectives, new technologies and changing priorities. These challenges will occur on every project in some way. Creating a moment in time for the project team to pull together and plan the next “point” is one of the most important things a project manager needs to learn how to do effectively. Using an Agile construct like the retrospective or the daily stand-up allows project managers and team members time to breath, time to think through where the project is headed and time to make better decisions. Projects, like tennis and golf, need to slow down just before the activity starts so there is clarity and deliberateness to what they are doing. Delivering a project quickly, requires moments of slowness.

Ride On, Manage On