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Projects As Conversations

Projects@Work editorial board member, author and consultant David Schmaltz shares his thoughts on why it helps to inject some disappointment into a new project's brightest ideas ... why most predictions inevitably encounter paradoxes that change them ... and why plans should be expected, even encouraged, to deviate.

Ever since I entered the software business some years ago, I’ve been puzzled by what I’ve seen in projects, big and small. It seems that what we want projects to be and what they almost always are, are two very different things. A lot of people are bothered by this, and try to do something about it. That could be great, were it not for the fact that many of the things we do to improve projects only seem to make things worse. We attempt to go from chaotic to disciplined, only to realize that we’ve created a community of frustrated co-workers, eager to leave our companies in search for something less stressful. We try to use inspect-and-adapt methods, only to discover …


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