El Kahuna

Of late I have been thinking of goal setting.  It’s such a simple and yet powerful idea.  Where do I want to go?  I think I want to go there.  How do I get there?  I think I’ll go that way.  Answering these simple questions provides a framework for tracking progress (when are we going to get “there”) and reacting to change (what do you mean they closed the pass?).  And yet I find in both personal and professional settings that “we” tend to go day to day without making use of this simple concept.

A road trip in the near future got me to thinking about analogy between a road trip and the setting of goals.  And how this analogy applies to life, work, and the software development process (which *is* work - at least for me).  On a road trip how do we know when we are “there”?  Well, likely as not we have a destination (the Grand Canyon, Rome, the mall) and we are “there” when we get there.  We have achieved our goal.  And likely as not we were checking our progress along the way.  Did we reach Albuquerque by noon?  Are we ahead of schedule?  Are we behind?  Are we lost?  And likely as not it allows us to react to change (want to see the world’s largest pistachio?  how about going to Las Vegas instead?).

In application of agile methodologies in the software development there is a similar pattern.  There are many destinations/goals (tasks, stories, sprints, releases, …) to use to guide my progress.  Using Test Driven Development (or Design if you prefer) (TDD) I write my test first.  I know that I am “there” when the test passes.  As I write more tests (and make them pass), I’ll begin to know if I am going to make Albuquerque (or in this case completion of my task/story) by noon.  As my tasks and stories progress I’ll begin to know if I am ahead of schedule or behind.  I will know how I am progressing relative to my goals.  Using this knowledge I am in a better position to react to changes / problems / issues.

I’m not talking about Gantt chart style travel (if its Tuesday it must be Belgium) style travel.  Nor Gantt chart task management (I’m 80% done on that task - what is it again).  That isn’t fluid decision making based on changes in your environment.  That is not reacting to change.  That is not open and honest communication.  Maybe that is why setting quarterly / annual objectives set via the HR process seem so disingenuous.

Set yourself guide posts.  Use them to guide (not dominate) your journey.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 6:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.