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schedule delays because we have less time to respond with effective mitiga-
tion and fewer options. The DART schedule doubled from six months to
twelve months partly because we allowed work that was beyond the agreed-
to scope to occur early, and because we allowed uncertainty to persist late
into the project.
Te c h n i q u e s s u c h a s b o t t o m - u p e s t i m a t i o n b y t e a m m e m b e r s , w o r k i n g h i g h -
risk areas early, and conducting more analysis of planned future work all
tend to reduce uncertainty, but also tend to raise more issues and risks
sooner in the project. The good side of identifying issues and risks early is
that we have more time to make corrections and get the program on track. By
making frequent corrections to the plan, we minimize the risk of the plan get-
ting too far off track. This leads to an important question:
How is a manager going to respond when he or she sees more issues
and risks raised early?
For Agile to take hold, it requires a culture of trust, but not blind trust. As one
senior manager at BOND put it:
I expect my people to bring me problems early, but not to drop them on my
doorstep. I expect them to bring solutions, too.
I have taken away a few important messages from my experiences watching
Agile organizations grow increasingly CMMI mature, and watching CMMI
mature organizations increase their agility. First, effective Senior Managers
in organizations that succeed with agility let their people know that they
expect to hear about issues and risks early. They also let them know they
expect to hear about the actions that are being taken to address the issues and
risk being raised.
There is an important message here for project leaders preparing for discus-
sions with Senior Management.
LESSON 8
Raise up the issues and risks early, but bring your action plans to address
them.
Yo u d o n ' t n e e d t o h a v e e v e r y a n s w e r, b u t y o u d o n e e d t o s h o w y o u h a v e
thought through the issues and risks you are facing and have mitigation
plans in place as well as contingency plans, if appropriate, in case your
