Leaner project management with barbells!

We have been using various approaches to lean or agile project management for some time now. With each Drupal project, we refine our processes. Or perhaps I should say, we simplify them with each iteration. So we use fewer software tools, we have fewer stages, our sign off lists get shorter. And this is making us much better at project management.

We're lucky in that our project team sizes can be kept fairly small - we generally have about five or six people working on a project at any given time. While we do use remote working, we have face-to-face team meetings every week. This gives us a chance to benefit from some truly effective and low-cost tools - like whiteboards for Kanban. Yes, we've tried software (and we still use our trusted project management system ) but I don't know a single person we work with who doesn't prefer the physicality of shifting post-its from 'In Progress' to 'Done' on a whiteboard! So where do the barbells come in to it? No, we don't lift them. I'm referring to Nassim Taleb barbell theory.

Recently, we've been attempting apply this to project management decisions. We don't hedge or try and sit in the middle when there is a risky decision to be made even though it usually feels right to do this - to attempt to play it safe - but in point of fact hedging generally ends unsatisfactorily or even disastrously as Taleb demonstrates. So we tend to make more extreme decisions. We do not let complex coding tasks drag on, we concentrate on minimum viable product, we work in concentrated bursts rather than spreading effort - so much of Taleb's barbell theory can be applied directly to managing lean or agile software projects. Furthermore, we try to extend these concepts to help our clients make complex decisions.

I think many digital agencies simply forget just how challenging technical decision-making can be for non-technical people. Our clients are experts in what they do not what we do. So of course they are going to be very cautious making decisions in a knowledge domain they are not totally comfortable with. Barbell theory helps us simplify the decision-making process. When faced with a complex choice, we generally don't try and present a middle of the road solution that everyone can easily sign up to and live with. Too often that approach actually leads to fudged and worse than average solutions. Instead, we try and present clearly two sharply contrasting options with a suggestion to follow a specific route. This requires trust. We're definitely not trying to push anyone down the most expensive or complex path. In point of fact, we always try and convince our clients to choose the cheapest, easiest option! Let's get the job done, let's get product out of the door, let's keep things simple so they're cheaper to maintain and easy to extend later on.

I do recommend finding out more about barbell theory through Taleb's books and applying it to your software projects - or in other areas of life too!