Roscoe s Parting Shot


Roscoe's Parting Shot

"By the way," Roscoe finished, "I hope you noticed what happens in my model when we get near the end of the project." I hadn't, but it did strike me as an interesting limiting case.

"When you get to a prediction of one week left, the square root of 1 is still 1. So you are at the limit of the method's precision. Inside of one week, you will always have a week to go because, if you are honest with yourself, you will find things to do as fast as you scratch them off your list. So, even theoretically, projects can go on forever, a week at a time.

"That's why we call it 'getting down to the short strokes.'[7] In the last week, the kinds of decisions you have to make are different, and estimating how much you have to go is beside the point. I can get you to the last week, but finishing is your job."

[7] One of Roscoe's rare golf references. In order to finish a hole in golf, one needs to putt the ball into the cup. These are usually "short strokes." So, getting down to the short strokes means doing the last remaining work to finish the job.

I sure hope Roscoe continues in his new career. We have so much to learn.




The Software Development Edge(c) Essays on Managing Successful Projects
The Software Development Edge(c) Essays on Managing Successful Projects
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 269

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