{"id":1814,"date":"2014-11-24T01:26:22","date_gmt":"2014-11-24T06:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/?p=1814"},"modified":"2014-10-28T07:40:45","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T12:40:45","slug":"two-unspoken-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/2014\/11\/two-unspoken-requirements\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Unspoken Requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Dwayne Phillips<\/p>\n

Many projects make no sense. They are driven by two unspoken yet paramount requirements.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have seen many projects that were driven by two unspoken but paramount requirements:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The project must cost a certain amount of money\u2014no more and no less<\/li>\n
  2. You have to look like you are trying to do something<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Allow me to elaborate.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The spoken requirements for a system are published.<\/li>\n
    2. Analysis shows that a system that will meet the requirements will cost $1,000,000.<\/li>\n
    3. The managers of the organization decide to build a system that will cost $100,000.<\/li>\n
    4. Analysis of system #3 shows that it will not meet the requirements, i.e., it won’t work.<\/li>\n
    5. The organization builds system #3 anyways.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      One way to tell if the project is driven by the two unspoken but paramount requirements is to inject a step 3.b. by suggesting:<\/p>\n

      Let’s build a system that costs $1. It won’t work either, but it will cost even less.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      This suggestion is laughed out of the room immediately.<\/p>\n

      Logic argues for system 3.b. in that it won’t work either, but it will cost much less money. Logic, however, fails the paramount requirements in that the $1 system doesn’t appear like you are trying to do something, other than trying to show the silliness of the entire situation, and doesn’t cost the required amount.<\/p>\n

      These silly requirements stem from the concept that people are earnest, well intentioned, and want to do something about a need. Reality, a $1,000,000 is needed, bursts the bubble, but still,<\/p>\n

      there must be something we can do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      by Dwayne Phillips Many projects make no sense. They are driven by two unspoken yet paramount requirements. I have seen many projects that were driven by two unspoken but paramount requirements: The project must cost a certain amount of money\u2014no more and no less You have to look like you are trying to do something […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,63,61,9,59],"tags":[139,183,181,132,179],"class_list":["post-1814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-expectations","category-magic","category-management","category-requirements","tag-culture","tag-expectations","tag-magic","tag-management","tag-requirements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1815,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814\/revisions\/1815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}