Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

We use process on projects. Aargh, process can be irritating and it can be precious.

We are still snowed in here in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. The main roads are clear now, but six to eight inches of snow remain in my yard. Most of us here are sick of the white stuff and sick of talking about it, but then again I am a writer and this is good material.

One of the results of snow on the ground is snow and ice in the parking lots. You can’t see throw dirty snow and ice. Hence, you can’t see lines in the parking lot. You know, those irritating white lines that corral you into tight spaces. Just try driving a van around grocery-store parking lots – a van that has a restricted turning radius, i.e. you can’t turn it sharp enough to squeeze into a parking space without backing up a couple of times.

The  one thing worse than those lines is when those lines disappear under the snow.

A parking lot loses half its capacity when the lines disappear.

That conclusion isn’t from detailed scientific measurement and analysis. It is merely my perception after circling snow-cluttered parking lots in anguish looking for a place to park. Anguish erases irritation; I miss those precious lines.

Those parking lot lines are like procedures, checklists, templates and all other sorts of tools we use on projects. Yes, the dreaded word “process” is related to those sometimes irritating and sometimes precious parking lot lines.

Some processes save half our time and effort on projects. Some processes waste half our time and effort on projects. Reasonable processes are good while unreasonable ones are bad. The trouble is that “reasonable” and “unreasonable” are subjective words. Their meaning varies from person to person. And just like those parking lot lines, the meaning of those words varies with my mood.

Here is a rule of thumb regarding process:

If two people can do everything on a project, just do it. Otherwise use some checklists, templates, procedures, and process.

Of course my rule of thumb regarding process is itself a process. Hmm, can’t seem to break free from those irritating parking lot lines.