So I called him back and had a little chat about it. The idea that the project had succeeded because I designed it that way had not occurred to him, and the idea that I had done it by the way I negotiated the requirements in the first place—as opposed to heroic efforts during the project—was quite an eye opener for him.
The Inside View says, ‘we succeeded because of careful planning of X, Y, and Z, and our own awesomeness.’ The Outside View says, ‘most large software projects fail, but some succeed anyway.’
The Inside View says, ‘we succeeded because of careful planning of X, Y, and Z, and our own awesomeness.’ The Outside View says, ‘most large software projects fail, but some succeed anyway.’
What makes you think it was the only one, or one of a few out of many?
The specific project was only relevant because my bosses prior to that point in time already implicitly understood that there was something my team was doing that got our projects done on time when others under their authority were struggling—but they attributed it to intelligence or skill on my part, rather than our methodology/philosophy.
The newer boss, OTOH, didn’t have any direct familiarity with my track record, and so didn’t attribute the success to me at all, except that obviously I hadn’t screwed it up.
The Inside View says, ‘we succeeded because of careful planning of X, Y, and Z, and our own awesomeness.’ The Outside View says, ‘most large software projects fail, but some succeed anyway.’
What makes you think it was the only one, or one of a few out of many?
The specific project was only relevant because my bosses prior to that point in time already implicitly understood that there was something my team was doing that got our projects done on time when others under their authority were struggling—but they attributed it to intelligence or skill on my part, rather than our methodology/philosophy.
The newer boss, OTOH, didn’t have any direct familiarity with my track record, and so didn’t attribute the success to me at all, except that obviously I hadn’t screwed it up.