97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know

Chapter 57. Favor the Now Over the Soon

Scott Davis

ONE OF MY FAVORITE SAYINGS IS, "Exaggeration is a million times worse than understatement." The project management variation on this is, "Now is a million times better than soon, and a gazillion times better than later."

If you're in the software development industry, you're familiar with the "vaporware" phenomenon—software that is endlessly talked about but never actually delivered. We can plan the software. We can discuss the features it will have. But software that you can touch, run, and interact with is a million times better than a Word document full of requirements.

This means hurry up and write the software—now! The prototype you put together will instantly give you feedback about usability. Worried about performance? How can you optimize performance without the software?

Agile software methodologies favor now, over soon, by focusing on quick iterations. Often they span no more than a week or two. The idea is to get software written and in front of the user as quickly as possible. If users like what they see, you have an immediate victory. More importantly, if they don't like what they see, you have failed fast.

A quick success is only a hundred times better than a late success, but a quick failure is a million times better than a late failure. It gives you time to rethink, readjust, and rewrite the software sooner rather than ...