HeuristicsForProjectSuccess

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Heuristics for Project Success

Session Leaders: TonyBarrettPowell, KlausMarquardt

Participants:

Heuristics

The heuristics generated by this workshop are listed below; these are listed in order of confidence of their generality. As part of the session confidence and uncertainty scores where recorded for each heuristic; these are noted next to the heuristics.

Confidence: 10

  • Establish synchronization points to support rhythm in team (confidence: 10, uncertainty: 0)

Confidence: 6

  • If you expect all requirements to be there and correct you will fail (confidence: 6, uncertainty: 0)
  • Manager and developers have the same reward scheme (confidence: 6, uncertainty: 4)

Confidence: 5

  • Protective semipermeable shield (confidence: 5, uncertainty: 0)

HeuristicsForProjectSuccess1.jpg

  • Do not hide info from team, e.g. Risks, priorities, quality assessments (confidence: 5, uncertainty: 0)
  • Always ensure you have an informal line of communication (must be bi-directional) (confidence: 5, uncertainty: 0)
  • Make time to fix infrastructure issues (confidence: 5, uncertainty: 0)
  • Encourage verbal conversation not Instant Messaging and headphones (confidence: 5, uncertainty: 4)
  • Every team member must belong to only one project (confidence: 5, uncertainty: 8)

Confidence: 4

  • Don't constrain habits needed to do effective brain-work (confidence: 4, uncertainty: 0)
  • Allow some private space (confidence: 4, uncertainty: 0)
  • Company pays for celebration social (confidence: 4, uncertainty: 0)
  • Non-monetary rewards (days off, task selection, education/training) (confidence: 4, uncertainty: 0)
  • Embrace diverse personality types (confidence: 4, uncertainty: 3)
  • Maintain amicability charts for the project's environment (confidence: 4, uncertainty: 9)

HeuristicsForProjectSuccess2.jpg

Confidence: 3

  • Respect team members personal rhythms, for example early bird/night-owl (confidence: 3, uncertainty: 1)
  • Provide free quality coffee to encourage mini-breaks and show you value team members (confidence: 3, uncertainty: 2)
  • Instantiate the process for the individual (confidence: 3, uncertainty: 3)
  • Define fine granular career steps that relate to technical expertise (confidence: 3, uncertainty: 6)
  • Training has precedence over project schedule (confidence: 3, uncertainty: 7)

Confidence: 2

  • Make available, to all project team members, project information (confidence: 2, uncertainty: 0)
  • Lack of free stationary is expensive and disruptive. Always have stationary freely available (confidence: 2, uncertainty: 0)
  • Cubicles impede communication (e.g. See malorola) (confidence: 2, uncertainty: 0)
  • Provide mechanism (like emotional measurement) to sense how people are feeling (confidence: 2, uncertainty: 0)
  • Always ensure there is a way to obtain an [informal] perspective on your project (confidence: 2, uncertainty: 0)
  • Project plans should allow for personal development to take place (confidence: 2, uncertainty: 2)
  • Specify tasks loose enough for personal creativity (confidence: 2, uncertainty: 2)
  • Provide space for personal expression (confidence: 2, uncertainty: 3)
  • Allow time for team members to spend on personal interests (confidence: 2, uncertainty: 3)
  • Support rituals with props and artifacts to make less serious and more fun (confidence: 2, uncertainty: 4)
  • Nominate a role for Project Politician, i.e. Marketing. Communications. Who coordinates info to/from project (confidence: 2, uncertainty: 6)
  • Provide diversions/toys for really taking a break (confidence: 2, uncertainty: 6)
  • Make regular time for eating and drinking together as a team during the day (confidence: 2, uncertainty: 8)

Confidence: 1

  • A good project manager is a caretaker (confidence: 1, uncertainty: 5)
  • Egoless pride breeds good maintainable code (confidence: 1, uncertainty: 8)
  • In engineering, trade-offs are good, compromises bad (confidence: 1, uncertainty: 9)

Confidence: 0

  • Do not babysit everyone (confidence: 0, uncertainty: 0)
  • Establish rituals for key moments in project and personal life (confidence: 0, uncertainty: 0)
  • Intelligent people always need a good challenge to be highly productive (confidence: 0, uncertainty: 4)

Source Information

The heuristics were derived from the results of a brainstorming exercise and filtering/categorization exercise. The following are the subjects identified during the brainstorming and the categories applied to them.

Categories

  • Rituals
  • Team Bonding
  • Physical Resources
  • Politics
  • Motivation
  • Physical Space - Individual Needs
  • Personal Development
  • Autonomy
  • Organizational Patterns (Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development ISBN: 0131467409)
  • Communication

Brainstorm output

  • Team space (Team Bonding, Communication)
  • Breakfast break (Rituals, Communication)
  • Rhythm, daily ... monthly, independent of the project (Rituals)
  • Reflexion/retrospection time (Team Bonding, Communication)
  • Flexible work times (Autonomy, Personal Space - Individual Needs)
  • Slack (Autonomy, Personal Space - Individual Needs)
  • Adapt the process/bend (Autonomy)
  • Lock your office door (Autonomy)
  • Privacy (Autonomy)
  • Everybody has to move (Team Bonding)
  • Unidentified roles (Organizational Patterns)
  • Technical career path (Personal Development, Motivation)
  • Loose requirements, room to think (Autonomy, Motivation)
  • Allowance to change workplace (Autonomy)
  • Enough physical space (Physical Resources)
  • Lack of meeting space (Physical Resources)
  • Choice of tools (Autonomy)
  • Money for the necessary things (Physical Resources)
  • Phone booth (Personal Space - Individual Needs)
  • Cubicle walls (the low ones) (Physical Resources, Communication)
  • Self Selecting Team (Organizational Patterns)
  • Free Drinks (Rituals, Physical Resources)
  • Good coffee (Rituals)
  • Team meals (lunch regular) (Team Bonding, Rituals)
  • Social events (Rituals, Team Bonding)
  • Kitchen (Communication, Rituals, Physical Resources)
  • Shared company profit (Motivation)
  • Exchange with people outside the project (Personal Development, Communication)
  • Going to conferences (Communication, Personal Development)
  • Availability of training (Personal Development)
  • Mentoring (Motivation, Personal Development)
  • Table football (Team Bonding, Rituals)
  • Headphones (Communication, Personal Space - Individual Needs, Autonomy)
  • Greed (Motivation)
  • Good spec machine (Physical Resources)
  • "Just get this thing out" (Motivation)
  • Challenge (Motivation)
  • Don't compromise (Motivation)
  • Pride (Motivation)
  • Autonomy (Autonomy)
  • Emotional measurement/indication (Team Bonding, Motivation)
  • Whiteboard (Physical Resources, Communication)
  • Index Card (Physical Resources, Communication)
  • Free Stationary (Physical Resources, Motivation)
  • Library (Physical Resources, Personal Development)
  • Open access to information (Politics)
  • Project managers (Autonomy, Motivation, Politics)
  • Stand-up meeting (Organizational Patterns, Team Bonding, Communication)
  • Non-smoking - meeting areas - smokers (Communication, Politics)
  • Well understood hierarchies (Communication, Politics, Motivation)
  • Dotted lines in organizational chart (Communication, Politics, Motivation)
  • In-jokes, jargon (Team Bonding)
  • Gathering weird stuff (Rituals)
  • Rituals (Rituals)
  • Measurements - BMI, body fat, exhibitionism (Rituals, Autonomy)
  • Celebrate success (Rituals)
  • Admin support (Autonomy, Physical Resources)
  • Props (Rituals)
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