What practical conclusions do I draw from the Math of the Missed Deadline?
All knowledge workers, that I know, and I know a lot of them, don’t organize their knowledge work by using project planning techniques. And that has a reason. It is too clumsy. Changes are too rapid. It is not worth the effort. So certainly the solution to the Math of the Missed Deadline problem is not to use project planning, neither deterministic nor stochastic project planning.
But the Math of the Missed Deadline shows where the key is. The key is in coordination.
I am sure many of you knew that before already. But it is interesting to see which tools are used for coordination. The mostly used coordination Tool is Microsoft Excel, I propose. Why? It is used, because it is so easy to use.
But I must admit I was not satisfied. An Excel of 3.500 entries does not make sense any more. It is hard to structure them. There are so many Excels. One here, one there – for every project a different one. Don’t miss a deadline assigned to you in any number of Excels distributed on many file shares! That is a challenge.
I want to have it cloud based – accessible from everywhere. I want to calculate the remaining effort. Still, the maintenance must be very easy to use. I want a quick search.
I don’t want to explain the whole functionality here and now, because this is reserved for prospects. If you are interested in considering the system for use send me an email: frank.michael.kraft[at]bpmnforum.net
The only statement I want to make today is: Even if the problem “Math of the Missed Deadline” sounds quite complicated, the solution is very simple and easy to use.
I am not using Excel any more. Not for the purpose of coordinating Workstreams.