Don't knock the ideas scribbled on the back of cigarette
packets, says Colin Beveridge. That's when they're at their
freshest, and start to dull when translated to the flipchart or
Powerpoint presentation.
Anybody got a spare fag packet? I’m collecting them for
a friend who is running a government project planning seminar next
week and we need at least one packet between two so that each
delegate can get the full, hands-on, scribbling
experience.
I suppose we could use split beer mats, but I am more of a
traditionalist when it comes to materials. You just can’t beat the
back of a Capstan Full Strength packet when you are scoping out a
multimillion IT spend.
And, it seems, I am not the only traditionalist, if you look at
the proceedings of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee,
which recently challenged Peter Gershon, former OGC Chief
executive, over his concerns about major projects that seemed to
have been planned on the back of cigarette packets.
Of course, Mr Gershon’s comments in an earlier speech were
probably made for dramatic effect, rather than as a matter of
record. But you never know.
We may well find in another 40 years or so that we see a whole
raft of declassified fag packets made available for public
scrutiny. Future technologists will examine their cryptic
hieroglyphics, desperate for clues and insights into why government
computing in the early 21st century cost so much and took so
long.
Perhaps one day the British Museum will juxtapose a grubby Silk
Cut carton alongside the Rosetta Stone of ancient Egypt and we will
all marvel at the quantum leap in world knowledge derived from
these apparently disparate artefacts.
An amusing prospect indeed. But with a serious undertone because
in my experience some of the best IT management ideas have been
those that were hastily scribbled on fag packets, beer mats and
table napkins.
Very often our most incisive and decisive plans can be scribbled
on ephemeral objects, such as whiteboards and flip-charts, only to
lose their intellectual strength and integrity when transposed to a
more formal medium for presentation to others.
I don’t know any IT director who would feel comfortable laying
out a strategic plan to the board while clutching a crumpled fag
packet or a soggy beer mat. It would be like walking naked down a
crowded street so we instinctively reach for our high-tech comfort
blankets: powerpoint and colour laserprints, to sell our idea
“properly".
And yet the original scribbled notes are probably the most
valuable view of the plan because they were conceived in innocence,
before being translated and traduced for the intended audience. Too
often we will dilute and disguise a concept during translation from
the fag packet to the board pack, in the hope that we will gain
stakeholder acceptance, sometimes at great cost to project
integrity.
Too often, I have seen excellent first-cut project plans that
have been doctored to produce politically acceptable outcomes, at
least in terms of cost and timescale, by injudiciously tweaking
resource estimates until budget and calendar objectives are met,
rather than by de-scoping activities and deliverables.
It’s no wonder then that so many projects subsequently over-run
some or all of the three key measures of cost, time and quality;
because we have compromised our original, and probably most
accurate, vision of the task and the effort to achieve.
Perhaps we should get cigarette manufacturers to put a suitably
large warning message on their packets. Something like: “Cutting
project resource estimates without descoping activities can
seriously damage your project…”
But will anybody take any notice? I doubt it.
Colin Beveridge is an independent consultant and leading
commentator on technology management issues. He can be contacted
atcolin@colin.beveridge.name