Sunday 27th October 2024

Topics:

• As we near the end of the year, like many of you, I have a lot of project deadlines approaching.
• Q4 in a company tends to a be a very busy time, when we are closing projects while opening planning and budgeting for the following year.
• For one of my projects, some topics that contain risk are not closed yet. That always makes me nervous.
• This week I was discussing with the PM that we need to address those topics now, rather than leaving them to the very end.
• The reason for that is simple: if there is undiscovered additional work required for those risky topics, it is better to discover that while there is still enough time to do anything about it.
• If you leave it to the end, it's too late.
• According to the dictionary, to front-load means: ": to assign costs or benefits to the early stages of (such as a contract, project, or time period)", ref: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/front-load
• Here I am talking about risk, which you can certainly consider to be a form of cost if those risks come through.
• I see this anti-pattern in all aspects of life all of the time: people will often delay the difficult topics, instead choosing to concentrate on "low hanging fruit" or easy topics instead.
• A strong leader will always tackle the hard topics first, as they know that is where the risk is, especially when those topics are on the critical path of a project.
• As a leader, you must train your teams to take the same approach.
• They must not be tempted to avoid such topics, and it is your job to remind them to stay on track.
• Hit the hard topics hard and fast, and see what falls out.
• What I am working this week:
  • Adding search suggestions and auto-complete to greppr.org

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techleaderpro-2024-week-43.mp3

File details: 8.7 MB MP3, 6 mins 1 secs duration.

Title music is "Hidden Beyond" by Aiyo, licensed via www.epidemicsound.com

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