four words to stop saying in your tech project

FOUR WORDS TO STOP SAYING IN YOUR TECH PROJECT

BARRETT CONRAD

A TINY PREFACE….

SOFTWARE IS STILL DIFFICULT

CAN DONE TWEAK COMMUNICATE

CAN

“CAN YOU BUILD ME A SITE THAT SAVES MY CUSTOMERS 15% ON THEIR CAR INSURANCE IN JUST 15 MINUTES?”

– Everyone

CUSTOMERINSURANCE UNDERWRITER 15% INSURANCE APP

HOW

CAN TO HOW: ROLES

▸ YOU

▸ Bring expertise

▸ Make decisions

▸ Prioritize

▸ Determine business model

▸ US

▸ Guide technology

▸ Explain tradeoffs

▸ Breakdown features

▸ Build software

HOW: STRATEGIES

▸ Identify Constraints

▸ Test and validate

▸ Fake it till you make it

▸ Build software around existing processes

DONE

WHAT’S WRONG WITH ‘DONE’

▸ Software is never done

▸ It’s a business not a product

▸ Money is not a good measure

CONFIDENCE

DONE TO CONFIDENCE

0

25

50

75

100

1.0

DONE TO CONFIDENCE

0

25

50

75

100

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0

DONE TO CONFIDENCE

0

25

50

75

100

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0

CONFIDENCE STRATEGIES

▸ Identify goals that will drive value.

▸ Divide your project features in half. Do it again. Again.

▸ Earlier versions get earlier validation

▸ Welcome a change of course

TWEAK

“YEAH…IT’S ALMOST RIGHT. WE’LL TWEAK IT LATER.”

– Everybody at a meeting

WHAT’S WRONG WITH ‘TWEAK’

▸ Dismissive

▸ Sneaky

▸ No clear ownership / accountability

▸ Failure to make a decisions (indecisions in the group)

▸ Not data driven

TEXT

BEWARE THE SYNONYMS!

“POLISH” “CLEAN UP” “REFINE” “ADJUST”

PROCESS

USE A PROCESS

1. Identify problem

2. Clearly identify as ‘no decision’

3. Put it in the ‘icebox’ for explicit review later

4. Assign to someone to review

5. Identity how you get the data you need

6. Gather the data

7. Bring request into an iteration backlog for development

Bonus: Allow clear points of addition to project

COMMUNICATE

EmailText

Apps

Phone

Water cooler

PM Tools

MeetingsCasual chat

Paper

Raven

Documents

Notifications

Conference Call

Voicemail

Slack

Last night at the bar

SIGNAL

SIGNAL STRATEGIES

▸ Consistent terms and processes

▸ Stand-up (specific ‘Needs’)

▸ Standard meeting agendas

▸ Define purpose of shared tool’s

▸ Slack vs Trello vs Email vs X

▸ Software Integrations

▸ Post to Slack

▸ Summarize

▸ Burn down chart

▸ Changelog, report

▸ Manage tasks

▸ Process and assign

▸ Roles

▸ Moments

▸ Delivery and demo

CAN HOW DONE CONFIDENCE TWEAK PROCESS COMMUNICATE SIGNAL

THANK YOU

▸ bconrad@cotingasoft.com

▸ @cotingasoft

▸ www.cotingasoft.com