The Hot Air Balloon
Ever work in a company where the upper non-technical management made all the decisions, and the IT team had no team say in making the decisions. Why does that happen?
A man saw a hot air balloon and starts to float. He enjoys the ride. After a while he looks down and realizes
that he does not know how to get down to the ground and also that he is not in a safe place either. He hurriedly looks for civilization and finds a woman strolling.
He yells to get her attention and he gets it. He asks her if she can get him down to the ground? The woman thinks for a little bit scanning the premise, she then replies - "Your balloon is 40 feet from the ground. 20 miles from the city. The air balloon cannot last for more than 1 more hour. ...." and she went on.
The man in the air balloon interrupts her and asks her "You are in IT. Aren't you?"
The woman replies "Yes, Yes I am. How did you know?"
The man says "Well! what you explained to me is probably accurate, but it is not helping me get down!!!"
The woman thinks for a little bit, and asks "You are in upper management. Aren't you?"
The man replies "Yes, Yes I am. How did you know?"
The woman answers "You get your self in a hot air balloon without much prior knowledge about it and just expect others to fix your issues magically!!!"
Now, is this an ideal situation?
Shouldn't the people making the software make the decisions about its dates and features and all?
Well, that would seem like the ideal way to do things, but there is a catch.
Parkinson's first law - Work expands to fill the time allocated for completion. (Developers write enormous code that doesn't add value to the quality of the application.)
Parkinson's second law - Expenditure rises to meet the income. (Employees trying to create work to keep each other occupied rather than really work for the organization.)
Parkinson's third law - Expansion means complexity. (Once the budget is increased, more changes and resources are added to a project irrespective of necessity.)
Parkinson's fourth law - The number of people in any working group tends to increase regardless of the amount of work to be done. (Family junk expands to fill the attic.)
So, is the hot air balloon good for the projects and good for our work prioritization?
A man saw a hot air balloon and starts to float. He enjoys the ride. After a while he looks down and realizesthat he does not know how to get down to the ground and also that he is not in a safe place either. He hurriedly looks for civilization and finds a woman strolling.
He yells to get her attention and he gets it. He asks her if she can get him down to the ground? The woman thinks for a little bit scanning the premise, she then replies - "Your balloon is 40 feet from the ground. 20 miles from the city. The air balloon cannot last for more than 1 more hour. ...." and she went on.
The man in the air balloon interrupts her and asks her "You are in IT. Aren't you?"
The woman replies "Yes, Yes I am. How did you know?"
The man says "Well! what you explained to me is probably accurate, but it is not helping me get down!!!"
The woman thinks for a little bit, and asks "You are in upper management. Aren't you?"
The man replies "Yes, Yes I am. How did you know?"
The woman answers "You get your self in a hot air balloon without much prior knowledge about it and just expect others to fix your issues magically!!!"
Now, is this an ideal situation?
Shouldn't the people making the software make the decisions about its dates and features and all?
Well, that would seem like the ideal way to do things, but there is a catch.
Parkinson's first law - Work expands to fill the time allocated for completion. (Developers write enormous code that doesn't add value to the quality of the application.)Parkinson's second law - Expenditure rises to meet the income. (Employees trying to create work to keep each other occupied rather than really work for the organization.)
Parkinson's third law - Expansion means complexity. (Once the budget is increased, more changes and resources are added to a project irrespective of necessity.)
Parkinson's fourth law - The number of people in any working group tends to increase regardless of the amount of work to be done. (Family junk expands to fill the attic.)
So, is the hot air balloon good for the projects and good for our work prioritization?
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