Tales of a consultant in decision support and data management (3) - Saying 'I don't know'

In my previous post on this topic I talked about  saying 'I don't know' when you do not know how long it takes to finish (say) a project.

But, when pressured enough, engineers are going to guess - and I completely understand!

STOP PRESSURING US.

When planning, if you don't know the answer, don't guess. Explain in your plan exactly what you are going to do to get the answer. Then, when more information is available, update the plan. 

Now, why isn't senior management keen on this? And this is really bugging me, because I want to understand. We - as engineers - really don't know...really...we don't. Why would you insist on an answer you know is not correct at all??

My take on this: because it's not easy. It means that management have to participate throughout the project to make decisions about each tasks as sufficient information becomes available (Agile manifesto principle 4)¹.

 

¹Integrating CMMI and Agile Development- Paul E. McMahon -2011

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[Hennie]

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