This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz
by Laurent Bossavit.
Original Post: The Buridan Project
Feed Title: Incipient(thoughts)
Feed URL: http://bossavit.com/thoughts/index.rdf
Feed Description: You're in a maze of twisty little decisions, all alike. You're in a maze of twisty little decisions, all different.
Once upon a time a donkey was dozing in a field, growing hungry. "This bunch of thistle shoots over there looks quite nice. I'll wander in that direction and have myself a nice meal." The donkey made to stand up, but a thought struck him.
"From this vantage point, that looks like a meager bunch. I'm liable to be still hungry when I'm done with it. Here's another, a few steps to the left - I'll wander over there first, and take the two in one go." At the thought of this exertion, the donkey's hunger grew, and he was less sure of his plans. "I just need to spot a third small bunch, not too far off; or it could be a bigger bunch, worth taking a few more steps".
By then another thought struck the donkey. "Oh, I remember this story. If I don't move my hind quarters soon, I'll end up be starving from indecision. My donkey brains are just too small for all these concerns anyway." He got up, had a nice meal of thistle, and promptly settled down to sleep again.
I once knew a project which had one person spend six month gathering requirements, by which time the customer had eventually settled on an off-the-shelf package. A colleague of mine recently told me a story of a person tasked with procurement who spent a full-time month trying to cut costs on a vendor proposal by five man-days.
This tale has two morals : the first is that the things we do before we can start a project are part of that project, even when it's not officially started; sometimes the costs accrued to a project have killed it before it starts, maybe even before we know there is a project.
The second is that donkeys have it easy - it must be nice not to be riddled by too large a brain. ;)
Previous Topic
