Currently, I’m in chapter 18. Which I believe should have been among the first chapters. Chapter 18 is particularly interesting because the author insists that project estimators should simply capitulate to not having the project done on time.

While it’s true that projects are rarely delivered on time and on budget, the particular methodology that he advocates is, in my mind, doomed to failure and his advice to simply give in to not having the project fully completed by the deadline sort of makes sense in that case.

But the fact is, I’ve only missed a deadline once. And that was due to my unwillingness to walk away when the customer kept monkeying with the specifications. It was my fault. But I no longer allow changes after the fact to specs anymore. And I no longer miss deadlines.

This approach is controversial and I’m often accused of being inflexible. Of course, the discussion usually stops when I offer to renegotiate the cost or deadline. I guess I am somewhat flexible but the customer must also be.

There have been many more features I’ve gone through, but I only have about 15 minutes for this entry (the first in weeks) and so I can’t go through each of those chapters. I do find the overall arrangement of the book (with these last chapters looking a lot like filler) to be odd. But more about that when I can give my final verdict on the experiment and the feasibility of the book’s thesis.