Sunday, August 4, 2013

For Quick Decisions, Depend on Deadlines

In Saturday’s (8/2/2013) Wall Street Journal, Dan Ariely suggests that to reach a decision, and often just to make progress, you need deadlines.  Deadlines ‘force’ people to take action.

And this is what we have known with Scrum for years.  So, we have timeboxes all over the place (and recommend using them more than just where prescribed by the bare framework of Scrum).

Based on research, Ariely says:

Because deadlines allow us to clarify our thoughts and create an action plan. They are good at getting people to perform a particular act, like submitting a grant proposal.

We feel indecisive, uncertain, unsure, and so we ‘lose the name of action’ as Shakespeare said.  And the deadlines force us to act.  The timeboxes force us to act.

The first timebox in Scrum is the Sprint timebox. Say, 2 weeks, in which we must have working (tested) product.  It helps us get things done. Not just decided, but done.

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