• The Thread • What Choices
Are You Making? • Does Your Project Fit Its World? • Did the
Project Planning Make Sense? • Can You Make Better Chunks? •
Are You Planning for Perfection? • Can People Tolerate Boring Development?
• Balancing Questions • Lessons
3 How
Big Is It?
• The Thread • Just Like Small
Ones • Size Project in Slices • What Does "Large"
Mean? • Nonlinear Effects • Lessons
4 Estimating
• The Thread • Estimating in Context • Large Project
Estimation Processes • Using the Delphi Method • Are We Oracles?
• Sanity Checks • Calibrate Estimates with Experience •
How We Do It • Lessons
5 What
Will It Cost?
• The Thread • Accounting
Measures and Definitions • What About Other Measures? • Lessons
6 Planning
for Success
• The Thread • Plan on Supporting
the People • Stay in Touch with Reality • Who Is Doing It, and
How? • Check the Exceptions • Count On Steering the Project
• Lessons
7 Management
Focus
• The Thread • What Are You Managing?
• Can You Talk About It? • What Are You Talking About, or Not Talking
About • Managing to Conformity • Is Commitment Being Managed?
• What About Interference? • Bring Me a Rock • Change It
to Requirements Exploration • It's a Scope Negotiation • It's
Really About Scope • Planning and Execution • Lessons
8 Knowing
a Project Is in Trouble: Project Indicators
• The
Thread • Ignoring the Plan • Emphasizing Means, Not Ends
• Routing versus Doing • Reviews Find Zero Defects • Changes
Don't Relate to Problems • Spec Inflation • You Got a Repository?
• Testing Is Confused • We're Too Busy to Review! • There
Is Nothing We Can Do • When Have Indicators Failed You? • Lessons
9 Knowing
a Project Is in Trouble: People Indicators
• The
Thread • I'm Doing the Best I Can! • Ratios and Mismatches
• What Management Says • Nonsense Directives • Won't Admit
Mistakes • The "Force Fitting" • People Disengage
• Leaving Is the Ultimate Disengagement • How Can I Help? •
Stop Helping • Lessons
10 People
and Project Change
• The Thread • Being Ignored
• The Context for Change • People Handle Change Differently
• Planning an Intervention • Bellowing Bovine Pickles •
Lessons
11 Being a Cassandra
• The Thread • Sometimes They Will Hear, Sometimes They Won't
• Sometimes, It's Timing • Don't Depend on One Person •
Use Real Information • Some People Don't Want an Answer • Avoid
Saying "I Told You So" • Be Careful with Unsolicited Advice
• It's About Track Record • The Context Helps People Hear (or Not)
• Lessons
12 Dealing
with Impending Disaster
• The Thread • What
Do You Need to Decide What to Do? • To Whom Do You Listen? •
There Are Different Kinds of Damage • Organizations Break Down Under
Stress • Meet Obstacles Head On • Lessons
13 Doing
Something Different
• The Thread • Veering
Worked in the past • Technology Changed How Things Work • Ship
Size Was Another Change • Exaggerated Assumptions • Doing the
Right Thing • Introducing Unusual Ideas • Can You Really Be
Punished for Doing Something Different? • Core Myths Limit What You Can
Change • Hard Work and Genius Are All That Matter • Rigid Process
Is All That Matters • Lessons
14 Dignified
Project Death
• The Thread • Ending a Software
Project • Change Means Admitting You're Wrong • Sometimes, We
Just Can't Quit • It's Uncomfortable to Just Give Up • Take
the Brakes Yourself • Making Tough Decisions Keeps Me There •
But I Care About How People Feel About Me • Lessons
15 Project
Lessons
• The Thread • Do Not Try to Handle
So Many Changes at Once (That Is, Do Not Violate the Edsel Edict) • Make
a Big Deal About Being Sure Everyone Understood His/Her Part of the Plan •
Don't Let the Project Degenerate into Crunch Mode • Don't Accept Work
That Is Short All Deliverables Except the Code Itself • Do Not Leave
Test Suite Design Until After the Code Is Written • Keep People from
Meddling with the Wrong Things • Assert Yourself as Necessary to Manage
Project Panic • In the End, Did They Get What They Wanted? •
Lessons
16 Personal Lessons
• The Thread • Don't Own More Than You Own • Don't Expect
to Be Omniscient • Learn That Blame and Ownership Are Not the Same Thing
• Manage Your Personal Panic • In the End, If You Learned, You Didn't
Lose • Lessons
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