Turning Vision into Reality

Never Try to Teach a Pig to Sing

Never Try to Teach a Pig to Sing

Software development teams never seem to make a release deadline. Things always seem to take longer. They will report that they would be ready to ship March 2nd, but if you showed up that day with bottles of celebratory champagne, you’d find the product isn’t ready. Not ready April 2nd or even May 2nd, or even June 2nd. You will always get a great product when it is finished, but… 

One year I was told we (STSC) would be ready by November, the month of the Fall Las Vegas COMDEX trade show. COMDEX was the biggest computer trade show in the world. I signed our company up for a display space, purchased a booth, and scheduled meetings with the press.

In the seven days before the show, we were able to finish the software and documentation, create a brochure, finish a presentation, etc. It was magic. Basically, everyone involved could internalize that being “only one week late” would have a devastating impact on the company. Deliver on time and we get full press coverage and exposure to over 100,000 show attendees. Deliver one week late and we get zip.

One of my favorite quotes is

Never try to teach a pig to sign. It’s a waste of time and it irritates the pig.

People behave the way people behave. They don’t always make “rational” decisions. They put undue weight on trivial matters and underestimate the importance of major matters. They are driven by fear and greed.

In other words, they are just human no matter what their jobs are.

Don’t get angry about this. Accept the reality and learn how to live with it. In my case, I didn’t lament that development teams needed an external event like COMDEX to deliver on time. I simply began to align product release dates with external events like COMDEX.

Implementing a strategic plan is as important as developing one. A key element of successful implementation is establishing drop-dead dates that the implementers take personal accountability for achieving.

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