Thursday, April 1, 2010

If you wait for perfection, ...

If you wait for perfection, you might wait too long.


There are some similar quotes, but so far as I know, this quote is mine. As the father, I kind of like it. But most parents love their own children. (If I am not the father, tell me now.)

This applies to all of life. And to Scrum and Agile and Lean. As the guy said to Jack Lemmon in that famous movie, "Nobody's perfect." In fact, not a single thing is perfect. So, my advice is: Don't wait for perfection.

Still a big problem out there. Too many people doing it. I usually don't do it more than 3 times per day.

Use this quote to work on 'em. Make life better now, before it gets to 'perfect.'

One of the biggest business problems we have.

2 comments:

Ian Bush, Agile Product Owner and Consultant said...

Hey Joe-

First post of yours I read, and I love it...I hope they are all this concise and on point.

I agree with your observations. The short of things is that when you wait to execute, you don't discover those problems that might exist after you do it and that lengthens the time to reach success.

In my current organization, we waited a while to embrace Agile, and now we are finding issues with our prioritization and strategic planning.

Some folks thought that the day that we embraced Agile would be the day that we were strategically successful. We now know otherwise.

Joe Little said...

Hi Ian,

Thanks.

Umm. Not *always* as concise.

Two reasons I give.

1. "Sorry for the long letter; I didn't have time to write a short one."

2. I like sometimes to take the reader on a journey, with explosions, beautiful and brilliant women, daring men, an adventure. Rather than say: "I came to the Straits and kept walking until I got to the Pacific Ocean." By indirections we find directions out.

I also like to fantasize that my writing has a lower quotient of BS, but that is probably just self-delusion.

I am shocked! shocked! that you found issues with your initial prioritization and strategic planning!!!

Yes! to what you said. The agile journey is not 1,000 miles, but more than 10,000 miles. <10,000 was not picked randomly.> As my Hapkido master says, only when you become a black belt are you ready to learn.

Regards, Joe